[Wskirby123]

Hello Another 71 community,

I unfortunately made a 66 on my FAR exam. I feel like I should expect to see about a 5 point bump due to the fact I have seen the exam and the intimidation aspect will be about half as bad. But the only puts me at about a 71… I don’t mind spending a little extra money to get this FAR exam knocked out, but it is eating into what “Santa” will be bringing me.

I currently have the Becker Materials, and I don’t even mess with the video lectures… I can read… and to me it just feels like they read the book, say highlight this and have minimal explanation or ways of making the material stick.

I’m Leaning toward the Roger Cram but I am open to suggestion’s because I could really use that extra $300.

[taxgeek83]

Get the Ninja test bank. It's $47 – I ran through it in about a week, week and a half for my FAR retake and went from a 73 to a 78. If you spend more time with it than I did, it should be more than enough to bump you 10 points.

[SkilletCPA]

@ taxgeek83

Did you get through the whole MC bank? What was your strategy with the retake? Did you have a month break in between finding out your initial result and beginning to restudy?

BEC Pass
AUD Pass
REG Pass
FAR Pass

[taxgeek83]

Skillet – I took a few months actually. I'm a notorious procrastinator, and I found out in February – middle of ski season – that I failed. I took it again in May.

I did get through the whole bank – and was able to review quite a few that I got wrong. I went through it pretty quickly though and didn't take a lot of time to read over the explanations and additional material that come with each question. Had I actually done that I likely would have scored higher.

I couldn't handle my course lectures, so I basically just learned what I needed to learn through the test bank and used my Wiley book for reference. I went through the MCQs section by section, referencing back as necessary. I only did the “unseen questions” until I had seen each question at least once, then started working out the ones that I had missed. After I felt fairly comfortable with the material, I just ran random question sets, about 10 at a time. The test bank is adaptive, so once you get through the assessment phase, you can run random sets all day and it will target your weak spots. It's pretty slick.

[SkilletCPA]

Awesome! Thanks taxgeek83 and congrats on the pass!

BEC Pass
AUD Pass
REG Pass
FAR Pass

[Anonymous]

@taxgeek I have a dilemma that maybe you could weigh in on. I started studying for my retake of FAR on 12/1 and wanted to get another attempt at it before busy season hits. I knew that I really wasn't giving myself enough time from the get go but I didn't want to waste an entire quarter.

I have the NINJA book and the NINJA MCQ and am using those two exclusively for my retake. On my first attempt, I wasn't right on the edge of passing, but I felt decent about all of the material and judging by my score, just need to refine my knowledge a little bit on everything. As of today, I am through the Conceptual Framework and the Financial Statement Accounts parts of the NINJA book. My method thus far has been to go through each part of the book, take thorough notes, and then drill down MCQ based on what I have gone through thus far. The problem with this has been that I don't feel like I'm doing enough MCQ because I have wanted to get through the entire book at least a week before exam date to give myself time for review.

My question then becomes: should I switch my method to a heavy MCQ emphasis and use the NINJA book as a reference if I need help on a topic? I'm at the point where I don't want to feel like I didn't do enough MCQ before the exam because it took me so long to get through the book.

[Anonymous]

CoeHawks3 – I did the second option you listed. I hammered away at the MCQs and made a list of the topics I got wrong. I then used the list to see which areas I needed to study more.

[Anonymous]

@ajones That's a good suggestion! I will start doing that from now on. In your opinion, considering I have taken the exam once and time isn't on my side, would you say to give up my current strategy and start hammering MCQs, even though I am about halfway through the book?

[Anonymous]

I took these exams for a long time – many fails, more than I care to admit too. I finally broke down and invested in Roger's CRAM for the 3 parts that I could not pass, I also invested in the NINJA testbank. I watched the lectures and studied the books, they are very well written and get right at what you need to know. Once I felt comfortable with the material through the lectures and taking notes on the books, I hit the testbank, which is also a very good product.

Using this method, I passed the 3 parts on my first attempt, this is after years of failure. Needless to say, I am a strong proponent of Roger and his teaching methods, I would strongly recommend his lectures.

[taxgeek83]

@Skillet – Thanks! And good luck!

@Coe – I hammered away on MCQs section by section – I learn better that way. However, not everyone learns the same (there's a similar discussion going on in another thread right now). You have an awesome AUD score – what did you do to get yourself there? You might try applying some of the same strategies to your FAR retake. Have you considered maybe reading a chapter of the book, then doing a shorter set of MCQs to see where your understanding is? If you're getting them right – move on. If you're struggling, you might go back and re-read the chapter. Regardless, I would highly recommend leaving enough time for some heavy MCQ training. The Ninja test bank is awesome – and by my understanding, all of the questions and SIMs are AICPA recently released ones, so they should give you a good idea of what you are going to face on exam day. Use the explanations and additional material in there as fully as you possibly can – make sure you are understanding why the correct answer is correct, and why the wrong answers are wrong. It's pretty detailed – maybe someone else can weigh in on how it compares to the material in the book?

You might consider getting the flashcards too – I relied on them pretty heavily (had to bribe a couple of friends, but it worked out!). Or even make your own as you are getting through the material. They helped reinforce my understanding of various topics going into exam day. Good luck! 🙂

[jaycat97]

Wskirby123

Use cpareviewforfree. I went from a 64 on FAR to a 79 by utilizing those questions. I did every single question under the FAR section and drilled down on my weak areas.

You can never beat free!

Hope Santa is good to you….

[Anonymous]

@taxgeek AUD was my first test and I studied for it for two months. I watched lectures, took notes, did the suggested MCQ, and then supplemented with the Wiley Test Bank. I think this worked because Audit has always clicked for me and with the minimal amount of information comparitevly, I was able to do a lot of review.

For FAR, I employed that same strategy with the only difference being that I supplemented NINJA MCQ instead. But because there was so much information and the lectures took what seemed like forever, I felt that I didn't leave myself enough time for MCQ at the end for review. This time around, I felt the lectures were a waste of time because I was just getting read the information in the book that I can read myself at a faster pace. Flashcards are a good idea and I actually created my own for my first attempt. I'm not sure if I'll do them again.

The NINJA book and MCQ complement each other very well and I like it quite a bit. But the issue is how much time I have left. At my current pace, I am leaving myself almost no time for review and heavy MCQ and I already know that leads to probable failure. I guess my dilemma really boils down to if I continue with my current strategy and just pick up the pace or abandon it and go heavy MCQ.

[taxgeek83]

By my understanding, the MCQ/book combo was designed to be a standalone product – and the MCQs if used right are almost standalone themselves. Someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong on this. But I think if you hit the MCQs you should have a good shot at passing. Just don't get lazy about it like I did. 🙂

[Anonymous]

@taxgeek Thanks for all of your input! I think that is what I'm going to start doing now. I wish I had more time to be able to thoroughly go through all of the material again, but it seems like a better use of my limited time to live/die by the MCQ!

[jeff]

You know what beats free?

Real CPA Exam questions licensed from the AICPA 😀

52 cents a day is kind of like free. 🙂

taxgeek is correct – you can pass with NINJA Book + MCQ … it's very comprehensive.

AUD - 79
BEC - 80
FAR - 76
REG - 92

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS)
NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE | Another71

[Author]

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