[isoceles]

I’ve got a NTS that’s about to expire for FAR. Given some work and family stuff, I’ve been unable to study much at all. So, I took 2 days off of work, and plus the two days this weekend, giving me 4 days with nothing but studying in an attempt to give myself a chance. Much of the material is somewhat new to me. I’m 2/2 on CPA exams so far, but I’ve never tried something like this.

Has anyone had any experience with cramming like this? Any success stories???

Looking for some hope!

[Anonymous]

For every topic, you should be able to at least recall some basic fundamental fact. Kinda like a CPA in real life.

Example: Inventory: periodic, perpetual, weighted-average, LIFO (and how to calculate them).
Example: Investments: held-to-maturity (amortized cost), available-for-sale (FV), trading (FV) (and how gains/losses are reported).

My FAR notes, condensed from Wiley notes and MCQs, were 28 pages – still way too much to be memorized. I highlighted what I could remember, and it gave me something solid to lean on during the chaos of the exam.

[Sunni]

I got a 76 on BEC with two weeks of cramming but that was under the old format.

If you are still interested all I did was 6 hours of multiple choice a day. Yes I had work so I was doing nothing but working, eating, sleeping, commuting, and studying.

[isoceles]

I should probably write a “how-to” on my experience with the exams in the event that it helps someone. After doing all of them, I'm convinced that an abbreviated schedule is the way to go, especially for AUD/BEC, IF you're OK with just getting by and not 90+ scores. What I did was get those giant 25″ x 30″ post-it notes, and write general topics down with some elaboration on them. I would then hammer MCQs on each topic and note small things on what I missed in a spiral notebook. I used Ninja Notes and then the MCQs and that's it for materials mostly. I did have a Wiley book for FAR but didn't end up referencing it much.

I would really encourage people to try to break down each exam to the “big topics”. For example, using AUD, I think the big topics are: 1) Stages/flow of an audit 2) Types of engagements (attestation vs compilation vs…) 3) AR = IR x CR x DR 4) Audit opinions 5) “Gimme stuff”

To use #1 as an example, you should be able to list the stages of an audit. Within each of these stages, write a few important things that take place. For example, When do analytical procedures always take place? When do they sometimes take place? Second, start doing MCQs, and as you identify things in your “big topics”, write it down in an orderly fashion. Third, I include “Gimme stuff”, because I've found that sometimes there are a few gems here and there that are easy to remember and you'll see on the test occasionally. For example in audit, how many days after the balance sheet date do you have to subtract anything from the report? How is this different if it has SEC implications? Under which type(s) of engagements do we NOT test internal controls?

[Author]

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