coops6677
offlineMember
Using Becker and have taken 10 days off work to pass FAR from scratch (take exam on 10/29/11). Day 1 and I've completed F1 and plugging away on F2.
Has this ever been attempted and what were the outcomes?
Feel free to guess my score and mock me as you please!
jenuno01
offlineMember
HA!! Wow! you are one brave soldier! Good luck to you! I wouldn't dare to try that on FAR..but that's just... F1 on Becker goes quick... but OMG F2-F7 take an eternity... for my anyway! I sit for FAR tomorrow though..so I'm doing last minute cramming! Good luck!!
round1
offlineMember
I'll say this: you can do it! Have confidence and give it a try! At least, you'll get a feeling of the FAR's actual test.
I took FAR once without any preparation at all (didn't even have time to open Becker's textbook), no MCQs, nothing. My NTS was expiring and I foolishly put FAR on it, besides two other scheduled exams. I didn't have any time to prepare and I didn't want to waste my money, so I scheduled an appointment at Prometric :-). I've scored 64, which is not that bad considering my total lack of prep. Obviously, I've guessed a lot of questions (especially those related to F3, F5, F6). But, having said that, I need to tell you: FAR is the "beast" for a reason! So, you need to study at least 12-14 hours a day. All chapters are equally important, but some of them require more attention (the middle of the book).
coops6677
offlineMember
round1- hindsight is 20/20 but do you feel like if you had studied 12 hours a day for the 10 days leading up to the exam you would have had a shot at passing?
Everyone else... Should I just take it cold turkey and schedule it with more time or give this a try?
katiekanton
offlineMember
My old boss passed each section on the first try after studying 40 hours a week for two weeks (he was working at some firm that let him do that). So a total of 8 weeks for the entire exam.
He isn't really that smart either. He said the key was watching the Bob Monette lectures (he used Bisk and said the lectures were like magic) and doing MCQs until he could get them all right.
jenuno01
offlineMember
@coops - Unless you are a complete genius and already know most of the stuff in FAR.. I would not risk it... Otherwise, if you are willing to sacrifice 99.99% of your time during 10 days more power to you! I don't think it's impossible though
round1
offlineMember
@coops6677
If you want my final opinion - you can try it (if you have some other job commitments that pressure you to take it so early), but I've never said that 10 days are enough. Not even close.
If you'll sit for the test by the end of October, you won't have any chance to take it in November (one chance per testing window). If I'd be you, then I'll study my (...) during these 10 days, then I'll study from 7-12pm on weekdays, and I'll spend my weekends with the Passmaster. That's the grim reality. You'll have to do all practice sims too.
And don't even ask me about chapters F8 & F9 (Becker course) - that stuff was difficult to remember for some reason. I've never had a governmental or NFP accounting class... It took me 2 days per each chapter.
So, the best answer to this question is: "It depends (what you know so far)." Are you good with pension plan accounting, leases, bonds, deferred tax A/L, consolidations? Maybe you are, who knows? I had to review it all as if I've never seen that stuff in my entire life. And yet, you may have all the theoretical acct knowledge (college coursework), but these actual FAR questions are designed in a very specific, different and tricky way. So you'll have to adapt to this new format of asking things.
FAR and REG have terrible time contraints too. You won't have the time to think (how I would solve this Q) during the actual exam; it should become your second nature. Thus, 10 days are not enough to pass, but you can give it a try...
SoCalCPA
offlineMember
10 days w/o work for FAR is definitely possible with some accounting knowledge.
Sleep 8 hours a day. Study 11 hours a day. That still leaves 5 hours to slack around. 11*10 days = 110 hours =) The only chance is making sure you focus all that time. I probably studied about 70 hours back in the summer and just spent about another 30 hours reviewing last several days to review, and I think I did okay.
Good luck!! Hope you pass!
Herbieherb
offlineMember
10 days is too short. Unless u have a photographic memory or already familiar with FAR topics u may forget half the things you learned. I'm guessing 57 sorry, prove me wrong and pass
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