74 on FAR… Advice for retake

when did you take it? how fresh is it in your mind? I took FAR on the 25th of Feb and just got a 69. I kept reviewing all week so its like I havent taken the exam yet. I am going to hit my weak spots even more, and destroy the sims because they kept me from passing. I think if you are still fresh you should just keep studying and take it again soon. If you are a few weeks out I would say rewatch the lectures, it wouldnt hurt.

I used Becker for my FAR 69 grade. I probably wouldn't have found myself in the position of losing grades if I didn't spend so much time watching those Becker lectures (it takes me forever to get through them!). So, for the retake the first thing I did was order the full 10 point combo.

I started out by glancing through my Becker chapters and doing WTB MCQ's… I told myself I'd go back to redoing Becker homework but I liked the conceptual, concise nature of the WTB's. I kept hammering MCQ's and going back to my Becker chapters (printed textbook with highlights) to reference and learn. WTB's show textbook button helped too.

In the weeks leading up to the exam I put my full chapter Becker notes in the corner and started reading their final review outline and hammered MCQ.

I ‘spose since I only posted a seventy five, my experience could have gone either way.

Had I failed, my plan was to retake 4/15 or so and just pick up where I left off last Tuesday. If I'm taking MCQ's section by section and scoring 80's in WTB on say…. 37 bond questions in a row.. I know I don't have to dive back into that chapter.

What do you define as starting from scratch? videos and all?

I hear you on that front, if not for my expired AUD, I would have been 4/4ths a CPA today. I have to do AUD before 5/31 else BEC expires. Since I only have one window, one shot, I'm scheduling that sucker for as far back as I can.

What I like about WTB is its ability to give you reports on each of the 18 FAR sections. You can then hammer one topic at a time, or test yourself on multiple topics and anything in between.

If you don't have it yet, I believe there's a free 24 hour trial. You can use these 24 hours to test yourself and see which sections are your weakest.

I really wouldn't re-watch the lectures. It's a personal choice, but IMO, they do nothing for me. Five hours of highlighting, to hell with that. In five hours I can do 125 MCQ questions on my weak topics, and read the explanation for each one. I'm seeing topics approached in ten different ways across those 125 MCQ's. Besides, a 74 means you don't need someone telling you to highlight the paragraph which talks about never accruing gain contingencies. You need to immerse yourself in the subject on a deeper level.

Book the date you want now, while it's available… you can always move it up for $35 if things are going good. If you're paying $85 to move it… you know you getting cold feet.

I had back to back 74's on FAR, both would have licensed me and one caused me to lose REG. Third time was a charm, and I got and 80, re-passed REG, and now I'm done.

In terms of studying, on my first retake, I started from scratch and did the same routine as I did the first time. You may think it didn't help, since I got another 74, but my second 74 was due to time … I ran out of time on the SIMS and didn't complete two of them. I did “greater” on all areas of multiple choice, and weaker on SIMS.

Third time, I jumped around on my weaker areas, but still did homework problems on each chapter. You can only study the same thing a certain amount of times before your brain starts to melt. Best of luck.