[Anonymous]

hello all,

The first time I took FAR I was completely unprepared and the test score showed with a 44. I almost hung it up but I read a few posts where folks were talking about how they overcame low scores and eventually prevailed. So I decided to give it one more shot and got a 63. While I’m not jumping up and down, I do recognize that my score increased 19 points from my first attempt so I may now be on the right track. I work in a completely unrelated profession so I get no practical experience from my job. So why am I doing this? It has always been a professional goal of mine and I’m going to see it through. I work nearly 60 hour weeks with a long commute and have a wife and kids so there isn’t a lot of study time every night and even on weekends. So, needless to say, I’ve been studying FAR for quite some time. Getting to the point, there is so much material that by the time I get to the end I lose a lot of what I learned at the beginning. I listen to the NINJA audio during my commute and do MCQs when I can. I think my issue is that when it comes to the big picture of how to solve complicated SIMS involving journal entries and problems that require multiple steps, I struggle. I’ve read that you get more bang for your buck doing MCQs, but I feel like SIMS were where I struggled in the two FAR exams I’ve taken so far. So I guess my question is whether or not anyone has some advice of what area or even types of SIMS to focus on? I realize that you never know what SIMS the test may include but if I can get down some major topics and complete possibly the same SIMS over and over until I understand them maybe I’d feel more confident. If I had more time to study I could do wide variety of them, but I don’t.

Thanks everyone

[rithzz]

I've only focused my studying on MCQ because the Sims are a crap shoot. If you do as many MCQ as possible, you will see a bunch of word for word that pop up on the test. It makes more sense to do MCQs because they also help you understand the nit picky details.

I never bothered to do the SIMS and usually just guess on them. I'm not sure what book you are using to study but I would definently just do all the example problems in a book as well, those are usually more detailed and resemble the SIMS (coming from reading the becker book).

AUD: 78
BEC: 81
FAR: 73, 85
Reg: 84

[yy612]

hitting as many mc as possible is a must, but it helps me to look at actual financial statements, write out journal entries once in a while or handwrite ninja note. doing mc is tiring sometimes, and it's hard to see the big picture when you cannot spend much time because you keep forgetting. i took my second FAR today, and i dont know if i passed. so im not really in a position to say this, but you can do it. dont give up!

REG - PASSED(75)
FAR - PASSED(85)
AUD - PASSED(83)
BEC - PASSED(82)

[Zuly]

My advice is that when you're going through the MCQs make sure you understand and write out the journal entry that goes along with it. I used Roger CPA and he was constantly using J/Es to teach the material which made it a lot easier to apply later in the MCQs. It may take you longer but I found that a lot of times the answer comes straight out of the journal entry. This is especially true with equity method, stocks, bonds, leases and nonmonetary exchanges. I agree that while you may not get the same SIMS on the exams as the ones you practice I found they help you understand the material in a different way so look at it from that point of view. By the way, which prep course are you using? If you do want more practice with SIMS use either NINJA or Gleim since they are closest in format as the exam…again may not be the same type of questions but at least you’re getting good practice. Also, you’re asking which ones to practice…all of them! In my first go around with FAR I got a SIM on a subject that was lightly touched on so you never know which kinds of SIMS you are going to get.

This guy’s post is pretty famous around here…you should check it out. Good luck with everything! You’ll see that you too will conquer the beast. 

https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-forum/topic/how-i-raised-my-far-score-by-23-points

FAR - (11/01/14) 71 (02/07/15) 79
AUD - (04/30/15) 86
BEC - (07/21/15) 73 (10/01/15) 75
REG - (11/30/15) 55 (05/19/16) 74

[Author]

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