jayelcee85
offlineMember
I just ordered Yeager for FAR. I will sit for the exam November 12 and I hope to start stuyding as soon as the materials come in. Any suggestions on studying techniques using Yeager? I noticed it gives me lectures and Wiley test bank, etc... Do they all just fall one behind the other? Meaning, will I have a lecture then I easily follow up with the study materials for that section?
Does that make sense? I'm frazzled just thinking about it! Lol
phatzguy
offlineMember
I used Yaeger and I just took FAR today. Here's what I did:
Watch the lectures. When the instructor is about to do MCQ, I paused the video and solved them on my own. If I didn't understand, I would watch the explanation. If you understand and answer them all correctly, I would skip forward in the video (saves a little time, but it adds up). You will also have MCQ they assign that you will complete after the lecture is over.
There's a lot of material in the Wiley books, so highlight the sections they tell you to go over and make sure you have no doubt in your mind what it was they wanted you to review. There's nothing like looking at something and not remembering if you were supposed to study that part or not.
I didn't find the Wiley SIMs comparable to what I saw today. The majority of the Wiley SIMs seemed much more straightforward.
Hope this helps.
ledgermaven
onlineMember
I have just started studying FAR with Yeager, my first test to take because it's the hardest and if I don't pass the clock does not start ticking for the year and a half period.
I bought the Gleim test study exams for about $50 and take their multiple choice often over the material I covered, then do the yeager mc and sims.
So I first watch the video and really try to just listen. I watch one or two sections on the video at a time this way.
Then I do the Wiley multiple choice. Then I watch the videos again and this time write down notes of everything I have to learn, and do the Wiley multiple choice again. Then I go to the Gleim test bank and select as much as possible just that section and do it over and over until I reliably get around 80% or over.
Then I go on to the next few video sections. I hope that helps, I'm not taking the test until January. Cheers!
Zanderman
offlineMember
Just started studying for FAR with yaeger today. I am taking FAR 11/29 and this will be my first section. Right now I am watching the videos and taking notes. My plan is to keep doing this while going back and reviewing notes after each module until I am done with all of the video lectures. After that I plan on doing the minimum MCQs and SIMs for all the modules a few times. I also purchased the NINJA notes so I plan on reviewing those as I work on the MCQs ans SIMs. I would appreciate any feedback from anyone who has used Yaeger and/or NINJA notes to pas FAR.
hilaryh_88
offlineMember
One thing I found very helpful which I saw from another poster on here was to speed up the videos. I love Cindy and Phil, but they talk so slow! You can set your video to play at 1.5x speed or so to make it go a little faster while still hearing everything. I also recommend the Yaeger CRAM.
jayelcee85
offlineMember
Speed up the videos?? Maybe with Phil and the other dude, but not Cindy! Is it just me, or does she rattle things off way fast? Lol
Thanks for tips, ya'll! Someone also highly recommended the Wiley disc that came with the book, to use the 'study' part of it a lot.
Alfrealphi
offlineMember
I just started 3 days ago to study for the FAR portion of the exam with the Yeager material. While I like the classroom feeling of the program, the first few days I felt overwhelmed by the amount of information and worried the program was not well organized due to the few first update videos.
Now I am starting to understand more how the program works. I am not sure if anyone else has had the same situation as me, but did anyone else find the first few Basic Concepts sections overwhelming? I am still trying to memorize/ learn? the IFRS portion and learn the SFAC 8 concepts.
I am trying more or less the same viewing/ studying techniques as posted in the reply's above. Even though I have the next questions:
After viewing videos, how many hours do you actually spend studying each Yaegar FAR DVD? I just spent three days (8 hours per day) on the first Yaegar FAR dvd and still do not feel confident that I know the material 100% well.
For those of you that have been out of college for 5 years or more like me, did you struggle with getting the hang of the problems explained by Phil? I just finished the accrual section with Phil and some of the problems I knew how to do, but at least 50% I did not know how to do. Anyone else has had the same experience?
P.S. Thank you Jeff for providing this website, it has truly calmed down my nerves, and it has already helped me decide which program I had to buy to study for the exam.
Zanderman
offlineMember
@Alfrealphi
The first few basic concepts sections definitively did overwhelm me. It took me a while to get through those videos while pausing to take notes. At this pace its going to take me a while to get through all of the lectures. I think my new strategy is do watch the videos while taking brief notes that are not in the handout so I do not have to keep pausing. Right now I am planning on saving the minimum MCQs and SIMs until im done watching all of the lectures.
cah2c
offlineMember
I used Yeager to study for FAR and took it last quarter. It was my first try at a part of the CPA exam and I passed with an 89. I think how much you need to study depends on how much of the material you still remember from school. For me, much of the material was not at all fresh.
I found that I needed about one week per DVD to thoroughly cover and absorb the material. I would:
*Listen to all the DVD sections for one module.
*Read through the module in the Wiley book and turn my notes from the DVD into flashcards.
*Work the MC and SIMS at the end of the module.
It's best to review a couple of modules each week with the flashcards and MC before moving onto the next section. FAR covers a TON of material and you will forget a lot if you don't continually refresh your memory. I spent the last two weeks before my exam working questions from the Wiley Test Bank and studying my flashcards. All in all, each DVD translated to about 20 hours of studying for me.
One final note, I did not feel prepared for the SIMS on either FAR or AUD (which I took yesterday). Maybe there's some better prep materials out there for the SIMS. Not sure. Also, I walked out of the testing center crushed, absolutely sure that I failed. Ok, I actually went home and bawled like a baby. So, I was completely shocked to find out that I had actually passed and with a decent score. You can't really judge your ultimate score by how confident you feel leaving the testing center. Good luck to you all!!
ledgermaven
onlineMember
@cah2c - I also spend one week per video. I'm thinking of doing a few hour review of prior video materials each time before starting a new video to keep it in my head. Thanks for sharing, it's good to know that Yeager has the right material for the test.
mike_terror
offlineMember
This is a great thread and is very helpful.
I just started studying with Yaeger last week, but unfortunately I've been on and off. I can definitely tell you that you are not alone with feeling overwhelmed in the beginning. I have barely finished the 1st Disc (each disc has 4 videos), and I too wonder what would be the best method or what is everyone else doing to study the material with Yaeger.
For myself, what I did so far was watch Cindy Simpson's Update 1 and Update 2 video on FAR. I clicked play/pause every few minutes so I could write down all the changes, book corrections, and notes onto a few pieces of paper. I must admit when I started with the "update" videos, I had no clue what the heck was going on since she did go into detail a bit and the lectures havent even started yet! But luckily things started to make sense afterward when I popped in DISC1. I used the notes that I made from the update videos as a little "update guideline" as Cindy went through Module 9a, knowing when to replace the old information with the new updated info.
As far as watching DISC1, I've been hitting play/pause many many times throughout those 4 videos to take notes and do the MCQ that Cindy & Phil goes over with us. I will then review the notes, and go back and actually read Module 9A + some of the pages that Cindy mentioned in the Wiley Book (especially the hierarchy chart from SFAC 8 ch 3). After doing all this, THEN I will proceed to do the assigned MCQ for the Module 9A before I proceed forward to the next disc / module.
What do you guys think of this plan?
CPAMan
onlineMember
One thing I really don't like about Yaeger is that their lectures are extremely long. It's 50 hours for FAR and 40 hours for REG. I mean, is it necessary to make the lectures THAT long??? They need to reduce the length time by 50% because not everyone has the time to watch these videos for that long. IMHO, watching these Yaeger videos is the most tedious part of the studying process. I like the AUD lectures because they were only 19 hours and Gary takes his time explaining things to you without rushing. So, his lectures are short, sweet and to the point.
RedRage00
offlineMember
Yeah, I'm studying for REG right now using Yaeger, and I got through the individual taxes lectures (all 11 hours!), and a few of the other lectures before I just cut it off. To me, Phil isn't as great of an instructor as Cindy. I didn't feel like I was getting anything out of it since he is constantly correcting himself and erasing the white board for all his errors. He jumps all over the place and isn't as organized as Cindy. He doesn't explain the material as well as Cindy either. I figure I'm better off just saving the time and working the problems myself instead of watching him screw up. The Wiley book does a great job of explaining the answers for each question.
apbandj
offlineMember
Just an FYI... make sure you watch the July updates BEFORE starting the DVD lectures. Even though Yaeger recommended this, I did not listen. The entire framework changed and I had already spent about 6 hours doing problems and taking notes that turned out to be irrelevant!
bomfmo
offlineMember
Hey Guys I have a quick question. I just received my FAR yeager homestudy and I noticed that Phil basically just jumped into doing the MCQs. Does he not go over the material first before doing the MCQs? Or does he come back to it later? I'm just concerned that he basically skipped the basic theory and concepts like the conceptual framework for example. Any clarification would be great. Thanks.
R. Baker
offlineMember
For some topics it is more efficient/helpful to do MCQ and listen to an explanation of why a certain choice is correct than it is to read pages and pages of information. (Gary does this a lot for AUD as well).
In other areas where this technique doesn't work as well, he will go over the material first.
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