[Needs Advice]

I have taken FAR a total of six times now and know matter what I do I can get over a 72. The sadness I have today cannot be articulated in this post accurately. I have been studying for 2.5 years and finally had passed REG, BEC, and AUD only to have REG expire now after this sixth failed attempt at FAR. I felt great leaving the facility thinking there was zero chance I did not pass. I have used Wiley and Ninja, the full sets of both premium programs. I always am trending at 80% or higher before every exam and I read the Ninja Notes so much I begin to be able to quote them. I listen to the audio and study the flash cards from both Wiley and Ninja. I am so defeated right now. I will lose BEC 10/31 next and that’s not enough time to retake FAR and REG anyway. Also I only have 88 days to the proverbial end of the next window. That means in order to get FAR and another test in I would only have 6 weeks to study each again. I don’t know what to do differently. How are people getting such high scores. I use the materials I have purchased, I feel prepared, and yet I’m still failing. I was an excellent student in college. This is so embarrassing and demoralizing. It is effecting my decision making in life and work as I am losing confidence in myself. Maybe I am not as smart as I thought. Maybe I’m an idiot. I’m so frustrated and discouraged. My kids miss me and we thought this would be all over and yet its like I haven’t even started.

BEC: 7/31/16 (Awaiting Results)
AUD: 9/8/16
REG: 10/22/16
FAR: 12/3/16

[Allsheneededwassome]

Idk if anyone commented on this but here is what I would suggest to you—

Take FAR 10/1 or basically ASAP
Take REG 10/31 before BEC expires.

If $$ isn’t an issue – heck even if it is cut off other expenses for a bit and take these two now. I do believe if you’ve passed REG before you will pass on retake. You have a shot. Don’t lose all hope. Just look my signature I have lost two sections to AUD.

[iwantthiscpa]

@demo , the advice that @cheeksmalone gave here:
“Every question you get incorrect during practice is a great candidate for a handwritten flash card (I wrote nearly 100 flashcards). Practice them daily.”
is so true. I do this. i also make flashcards when im reading through the book but i be sure not to make notecards about just general stuff otherwise the notecards will become ineffective. but definitely make notecards when you get a question wrong. i also put the chapter number on there (i'm using roger so everytime i do a problem i know what chapter it goes with) and so i keep my notecards in order by chapter. then i use those to study even when i'm just relaxing, like watching tv or just hanging out with family but we're not doing anything, i keep the notecards with me wherever i go so i can easily take them out and put them away when needed. i keep them clipped by binder clip.

[Allsheneededwassome]

I can also relate to the kids/you missing out etc. it’s not easy on anyone. I had a baby and moved 2x across the l country in the middle of all this madness. Just keep going. DO NOT QUIT. Some days you will have no energy to study and that’s okay. You’re human. We’re in this together.

[Madhav]

Dont lose hope. As someone mentioned above, if you do not have $$$ issue, try to take both exam before any credit expires. CPA exam have the tendency to give you the passing grade when you least expected it. I passed Audit on fifth try which actually happened to be my worst exam experiences of all test i took. So anything is possible. Do not overthink, this is just a damn exam, you can do it. I would recommend you get GLEIM TEST BANK( kill it during practice session) and FOCUS on your weak areas and AICPA weighted topics. GOOD LUCK AND WISHING YOU SUCCESS ON THE CPA EXAM.

[Anonymous]

As Iceman said, please try to understand the why of things. Understanding the why makes you prepared for whatever way the examiners try to trick you. If you know an area where you have some difficulties, supplement your materials with YouTube videos and college notes. CPA review courses are mainly aimed at refreshing your memory and not learning new materials.
Good luck and keep at it if only for your kids to learn to never give up.

[Needs Advice]

Again, I greatly appreciate the motivational comments and posts. I felt I would share a snip-it of good news with you all. I was able to receive an extension for my lost credits and now have until December to pass FAR without losing any! This was nothing short of a miracle. I am still in awe of this. Thank you all. After using the free trial, I have decided to purchase Roger CPA materials and see if this is the added measure of supplement that will help push me into a passing score since I am kind of burnt out on Wiley and to some degree Ninja.

Say a prayer for me please and thank you all again!

BEC: 7/31/16 (Awaiting Results)
AUD: 9/8/16
REG: 10/22/16
FAR: 12/3/16

[haj]

thank you for positive words.

[Anonymous]

Sending you good study vibes-that's amazing news! Hopefully that's motivation enough to put this baby to rest! 🙂 Good luck-you are so close!

[cottonkandi]

I say three days before your test, don't do any MCQ's. Do non-stop simulations. Simulations usually are comprehensive and would cover the harder MCQ's which are on the exam. I did that for FAR this time and passed.

[El]

@DeMo – That's some positive news! Did you call and ask for an extension? I think you will really benefit by changing courses and Roger is entertaining but really fast. I sometimes have to pause the lecture to take a breather and read the notes to figure out what he is talking about.

[livealittle]

don't give up. I failed FAR several times, too. I had parts expire and had to retake them as well. If I can do it, so can you. I work full time at a CPA firm and have a family, so I know about having to squeeze study time in around the rest of your life.

you've already passed the other 3, you can pass FAR too. you may have to retake a part or 2, but you KNOW you can pass those.

BEC - 8/8/16
REG - 66, 77
AUD - 81
FAR - 9/8/16

[Mark]

I think the problem that most people run into with FAR is that there is just too much material to study and memorize. I used Wiley as well, which has a book that is the size of the old Verizon Yellow Pages. The material is comprehensive – which is good – but it is also very wordy and contains a lot of fluff paragraphs. Because of this I decided to take notes each time I would read through a section to cut down on the volume of words that I would later have to read through when doing my final review. By the time I had gotten through the entire book I my notes were VERY long, but still relatively short when compared to the book. When I started to review my notes a week before my exam it had been months since I had studied my fist section (again because of the volume), so I had forgotten a lot of the material. But since I did not have to slog through the huge book during my review I was able to get through the material in a much shorter time frame while still refreshing all of the concepts in my mind. Also, I did the entire AICPA sample exam the day before my actual exam, since the SIMS are great practice.

I hope this helps. Good luck on your upcoming retake.

[traceylynn089]

Hi DeMo, I used Wiley to pass FAR on first attempt and something that helped me out tremendously was actually a suggestion by my boyfriend when he saw me struggling with the practice exams. He suggested I go back and read the section of the book for every question I missed in the practice exams. I had already gone through the material at this point and was just focusing on practice exams and questions. Going back and doing that re-reading on topics I struggled with was very helpful. Even if I thought I knew the topic and just missed the question for a dumb reason, i would go back and re-read. I picked up a lot of information doing that. I will say that this approach was time consuming. Searching through the Wiley book was a little tedious at times but the exercise did prove helpful, plus the breaks between taking questions and then reading before doing more questions broke up the monotony of just practice quiz after practice quiz. Before this, I was doing practice questions but even after reading the little explanations Wiley provided, I wasn't doing any better on questions. It wasn't until I stopped just focusing on taking questions and turned more focus toward the material itself that I started doing better.

[Author]

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