[Anonymous]

Hi guys,

I just got done with Chapter 5 in FAR. I never scored anything below 70 and people tell me that this is good. However, the truth is, when I do the homework, I take my time and do the JE and really read and think the question before I solve it (so it takes 2 to 5 or even 8 minutes to do the question-But mostly less than 3 minutes)

I am afraid that this will screw me over on exam day. I am scheduled to take FAR on May 28th and I will appreciate any advice or tips on managing time since I still got time before the exam day.

Also, I am thinking I will watch my timing more when I do the final review and the final two exams.

My final review will be 2 weeks, and I’ll go over all MCQ and sims in the 1st week.. Then take the final..

In the 2nd week, I will re-do all of that and take the other final..

Does that sound good to you?

thanks,

[Oimie]

For me, I prefer to go over the whole review before doing the MCQs. Even if I do the MCQs, after going through so many chapters later on, I will forget everything I done from the beginning. So what I do instead is build a foundation by going through the whole review first. Afterwards I just keep doing MCQs all in one go, learning and refreshing my memories at the same time.

FAR 85 June 2015
AUD 80 Nov 2015
REG 83 Nov 2015
BEC 79 Feb 2016

[Zuly]

I was like you on FAR and really took my time to figure out the answer and work the J/E for most questions so I typically took longer than 1.5 minutes, especially for those calculation heavy MCQs. You'll see as you get closer to review time you'll get faster. When studying for FAR I'd notice that people would come on here and say they do a couple hundred MCQs a day and I freak out because I was doing 30-60 a day if I was lucky but you'll see that your numbers will pick up as you get closer to exam day. I'm studying for AUD now and I see that it is possible to get through a couple of hundred MCQs a day because it's more conceptual, but even then I'm slow because I take a long time reading through the question and writing down a fact nugget so I don't get to 200 a day like I would like, maybe 100 a day or more. I recommend that once you get through all the material do quite a few cumulative MCQ sessions and watch your overall time to make sure you are staying within the 1.5 minutes. With this approach you're getting a mix of conceptual and calculation questions so you can do some in 30 seconds or ones that will take you a few minutes but at the end of the 30 MCQ session you should be taking about 30-45 minutes so you should be fine come exam day. I think your plan is good and I'm sure you'll do great! Good luck!

FAR - (11/01/14) 71 (02/07/15) 79
AUD - (04/30/15) 86
BEC - (07/21/15) 73 (10/01/15) 75
REG - (11/30/15) 55 (05/19/16) 74

[iddyrashy]

I took FAR yesterday just like you I was average 85%, with few below 75%. However, I was taking my time. That cost me big time yesterday. I manage time wrongly I ended to rush on SIMs and never get a time to do a research question. Now am so mad. Timing is important.

AUD 89 (07/06/14)
REG 83 (08/27/2015)
FAR 78 (04/27/2015)
BEC 75 (11/13/2015)

TEXAS 2016

[Anonymous]

That's great that you're taking the time to go through the JE's on each question. It may seem that you're taking a lot of time on MC now, but you will find FAR to be a different beast entirely on exam day.

You will most likely not run into that many calc questions (at least not as much as Becker throws at you) and you'll actually probably see a good amount of theory questions. (NFP and Gov't is perfect for this) That being said, make sure you master the basics and not just the nitty gritty details.

Best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your input. That really helped me. Now that we are at the end of April, I will try to finish a chapter every 2 days. So I'd like to finish 5 chapters in only 10 days (before my graduation day). It will be challenging since I am a full time student, but today I ran into a partner that I previously worked for as an intern and he really scared me about taking the exam while working full time (I have a big4 offer and starting end of July). I really really want to pass FAR, REG, and AUD before I start full time. I am terrified that I might fail, but fear won't stop me.

How do you motivate yourself? I have no one who does accounting in my family or even my friends. I am the only one I know who is preparing for the CPA exam at the moment. I feel down sometimes and demotivated.

Not sure how to approach this problem -lack of motivation- although I think I am doing well in studying and I am a good test taker (I nailed the GMAT test a year ago).

[Author]

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