[hellava]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a large score increase? I went through the Becker twice for Reg and scored a 52, fml. This was over a three month study period. So here I am back at it again hating life and what appears to be the new format. I have Ninja products, notes and audio, and an old Wiley and Gleim book. My current position has nothing to do with anything tax related.

I have passed BEC so I have passed one exam on the journey. Seriously, if anyone has any recommendations or tips for large score increases or personal experiences I would love to see it.

[Missy]

Not the biggest score increase I've seen but I went from a 71 on AUD to an 84 by copying the ninja notes, word for word, three times over (and doing 50-100 mcq per day).

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[maverick87]

I went from a 70 to an 84 on REG. I used Roger. I really just read the book over again and took some more notes. Made some extra flash cards. Did many more MCQ over and over. I studied the tax sections last when I finally passed because those sections make up a really large chunk of the exam. Hard questions entail Corporate tax, AMT, and estate/fiduciary tax returns (calculating DNE) <–get some of those correct and it will boost your score.

[T Rev]

I went from a 60 to an 80 on REG. Took the first test only because it was expiring though….hadn't studied. I used Ninja notes and hammered out Ninja MCQ's til test day.

[krstnam]

I jumped from 54 to 73 on FAR…I think that's a pretty good score increase. I added NINJA notes and audio. I did extra MCQs as well but mostly focused on the notes and audio. For me, I just had to be brutally honest with myself and that was way harder than I would have expected. Each question I had to ask myself, do I really understand this or am I trying to meet an MCQ daily benchmark? I think once I changed my attitude from conquering homework questions to actually understanding the materials, things became much clearer.

I did a lot of MCQs but I put more effort into actually understanding the materials. REG is heavy on memorization so any way to get the info into your brain the better. I made screenshots of my NINJA notes and rotated them through my wallpaper on my computer at work. It was constantly in my face. Say I was on the phone or not doing anything, I'd glance up, and there would be some NINJA notes. I listed to the audios to/from work and if I was at home cooking, sometimes cleaning I would be listening to the audios. For me, that immersion studying seemed to help and Jeffs voice was in my head during the exam and I know I got at least some questions right because of it.

Good luck! You can do it!

[Yolonge]

I went from 74->72->92 in audit (18 point increase).

Unfortunately, I did not do anything different then second around, but somehow scored good.

I am assuming I pretty much got perfect score on simulation (92 with 3 or 4 MCQ topics with comparable, lousy MCQ score; Maryland score report only shows 5 out of 6, so I do not know) which helped with the score.

Only thing I could possibly think was different is maybe I had better sleep and studied less for my third exam, so my brain was not that exhausted.
My advice is hit review phase in Ninja MCQ, and get a good rest before the exam.

BTW, I thought I nailed it on my second exam (72), but did not feel that good for last one (92).

Materials: Wiley book + Ninja MCQ

FAR - 83 (Jan 2016)
Study time: 6 weeks
BEC - 87 (April 2016)
Study time: 2 weeks
AUD - 92 (July 2016), (74 Feb 2016), (72 May 2016)
Study time: 4 (Feb) + 2 (May) + 3 (July) = 9 weeks total
REG - (70 April 2016)
Study time: 3 weeks

[HoosierCPA]

AUD I went from a 64 to an 80. With this exam I spent the majority of my first time around trying to nail the concepts and read a lot of the book. The 2nd go around I just said screw it and did TONS of mcq's…my foundation was there so I knew the key was just getting as many mcq's in as possible.

REG was a journey. 72,74,72,71,89…total 15 point increase over from my prior best score. This one is a little hard to narrow down what I did differently because I literally tried everything. The only real difference I can think of on the last attempt on REG was purchasing the Becker flash cards. I always kept a few in my back pocket and reviewed them as much as possible. I thought they were extremely helpful in keeping concepts straight since REG is a ton of material.

FAR - 78
REG - 72,74,71...please just go away REG nobody likes you!
BEC - 82
AUD - Aug 16

[Birdman]

My increases stemmed from just doing more MCQs. Dig through my post history if you like, I think I posted in all the Ninja MCQ v Actual threads with how many I did.

FAR- 74, 78 (10/15)
BEC- 73
REG- 65, 88 (05/16)
AUD- 7/16

[Meg267]

I had pretty decent score increases for both exams I've passed. I'm looking to do it again for AUD. What I've found that works for me is having two different study materials. Topics are presented in different ways by different professors/programs, so it gives me a different ways to learn the material. I think spreading it out over 3 months is quite a bit. I did that in the beginning, but I've shortened my study time. At the end of three months, do you actually remember everything from the first week?

[Cruzer]

Buy NINJA notes for AUD….Increased my score 10 points from doing so. Got an 81 after getting a 71.

[mtaylo24]

I almost passed FAR with a 72 in March after bombing with a 54 in Dec. Difference? The 54 was a one month cram session (like 4,000 Ninjas and 600 Gleims) vs a 3+ month stretch, 8,000 Gleims and 2,000 Ninjas. I also put more time into reading the book and working the sims. I was juggling BEC though (excuses, excuses LOL), dropped FAR for a few days because I had to take BEC 6 days prior.

AUD - 1st - 60 (12/12), 61 (2/13), 61 (8/13), 78! (11/15)
REG - 55 (2/16) 69 (5/16) Retake(8/16)
BEC - 71(5/16) Retake (9/16)
FAR - (8/16)

[Anonymous]

Mcq, mcq, mcq. I studied far for three months. I took so many freaking notes and wrote so many flash cards that mcqs were put on the back burner. Then during my test, all I could remember was how to do a topic, but very quickly realized I didn't know how to apply the formula, etc. Only mcqs can teach you that. The mcqs I did learn were because I memorized them.
You really got to understand the concepts AND be able to apply it when they ask you one of the several different ways to calculate one topic based on one thing being different.
I bought a new test bank so I do not memorize this time. I was acting like a pro champ at memorizing answers. Too bad they weren't on the test.

[Madhav]

I would say; first understand the concept and try to do as many MCQs. This will not only help you to understand the topic, doing MCQs will let you answer sims. In my first exam(FAR) i failed with 52. Then i realized i was not getting the material, so i went through materials with purpose of learning and understanding the concept and i applied it by doing MCQs and Sims. Eventually i passed with 76( not great score but pass is pass). TRY to understand the concept and if possible doing many MC and Sims(it could take lot of time though).

[Cruzer]

@Madhav Did your score increase from 52 to 76 or were there other retakes in-between? exact same thing for FAR and not worrying about rolling thru so many MCQ's vs understanding the concepts and why I got the answer wrong. My scores have gone up 10% since my initial assessment where I did 10 MCQ from ever single section to determine how weak/strong I was in those areas. Its been a good approach so far and all areas I scored under 60% in I am reading flash cards, books, watching videos on to understand the concept.

[Madhav]

@Cruzer, no there were no retakes in between. It went from 52 to 76 in my second attempt. But i have to mention that during my First FAR exam, i was not familiar with CPA exam format(at all); and didn't touch 4 sims at all. Also i didn't knew that this website existed. It is only after i failed first time, i found this website randomly after frustration. Then after reading several stories here, i bought NINJA and start doing MCQs rather than just using Rogers. I owe a lot to this forum.

[Author]

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