[jqh1989]

I want to get a clear view of how I can pass the toughest CPA part which is the FAR in my first try and for my first exam. I have the books from a friend but I won’t start the software until July and now it’s the month of May since the materials expire and my company reimburses the material. Each FAR chapter is about 70- pages long including the appendixes, I am splitting the reading for the chapters half and half Saturday and Sunday and then on Monday through Friday go through the same chapter by reading a little at a time 15-20 pages a day and highlighting points, Then the next weekend I will be moving on to the next chapter. Do you think this will help prepare me by the time I do use the Becker software in July with the mcq”s and reading the book again chapter by chapter. Any advice will be greatly appreciated thanks!

[Mika]

FAR is not that hard once you know the JEsssss…sss. BEC is harder.

REG - 80 (02/13/2015) Roger + Ninja Flash Card + Ninja MCQ + Becker's Note
FAR - 84 (05/29/2015) Roger + Ninja MCQ + Some Wiley book questions
BEC - 77 (08/27/2015) Roger + Ninja MCQ + Half Wiley book questions
AUD - 87 (08/28/2015) Roger + Ninja MCQ + Half Wiley book questions

[jessica8926]

Agree with Mika, know journal entries like your life depended on it! Specifically correcting journal entries, there were a lot of SIMS for me where correcting/reversing journal entries came in handy.

AUD - 77
BEC - 82
FAR - 75
REG - 81

Illinois Certified Public Accountant 2016

AUD - 69, 77
REG - 74, 81
FAR - 75!
BEC - 71, 82

IL candidate!

Finally done (5/24/16)!! Yahooooooo!

[jqh1989]

https://www.principlesofaccounting.com/illustrative%20entries/entrieslist.htm

Would this be a comprehensive overview of all journal entries necessary to know? Also, How is BEC harder I thought FAR was the hardest section due to the length of the material and the rumors of taking it first before everything expires

[wombataholic]

It's a good list and covers a lot of the journal entries. I would say that if you're having difficulty understanding a type of entry, it could help. But I wouldn't just memorize the entries themselves without understanding the context in which they'd be used.

I could see how someone would say BEC is tougher than FAR. BEC is a grab bag in which none of the individual topics cross over. FAR has a lot more material, but a lot of the topics are interrelated.

AUD - 91
BEC - 85
FAR - 91
REG - 92

CPA, CFE
Passed all 4 CPA exam sections with Ninja Notes/MCQ/Audio

Licensed CPA
Passed each section on the first try with Ninja Notes/MCQ/Audio

[Anonymous]

Not studying those journal entries hard enough the first time around was essentially the reason I failed my first time by 3 points. My 2nd time around I drove those journal entries home and practiced any type of journal entry I came across when studying and passed the 2nd time around. They will always ask journal entries on the sims and learn the governmental ones too.

[kaydun]

REPETITION IS KEY. Do MCQs (especially the ones you have trouble with) over and over, and understand why you got them wrong and why the correct answer is the correct answer. Do it first by topic, so you're not overwhelmed, then do progress tests to get yourself used to the variety of topics. Repetition may seem pointless after a while, but it is a confidence builder which can help during test time. Also try to connect chapters. It makes it a lot easier to remember because it creates a logical map for yourself.

FAR - 76 Oct 2015 (Becker)
REG - 87 Apr 2016 (Becker + Ninja MCQ) - 3rd time's the charm!
AUD - 82 Feb 2016 (Becker)
BEC - 85 May 2016 (Becker)

[Anonymous]

Hey guys! Just started studying – I'm only on F2 and I've already seen a lot of pages about GAAP / IFRS differences. I know I have a long way to go, and the # of sections talking about that will grow, but I was wondering if it is indeed something heavily tested on.

This is directed more towards people who recently passed. Any advice would be great! Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Oh, and forgot to say @jqh1989 – I passed BEC on my first try, for me FAR is WAY harder. So if you're scared about BEC, don't be! I studied about 2 months for it, but I passed. Just put the time in 🙂

Whereas for FAR, it's so daunting, I don't think even putting in the effort will help me pass. Oy. >.<

[Sang]

@B4turnedregional

I use Roger CPA Review, and I think he mentioned that IFRS makes up 10% of the questions.

FAR: (5/24/16) | (7/16/16)

AUD: (9/07/16)

BEC: TBA

REG: TBA

FAR: (05/24/16) | (07/15/16) | (10/22/16)
AUD: (09/07/16) | (11/29/16) |
BEC: TBD
REG: TBD
Using Roger CPA Review + Ninja (MCQs, Notes, Audio)

[Jdn9201]

That stinks you don't have access to your software until July. FAR is a beast and I think it's the one to become the most overwhelmed about, because of the amount of material. I'm not sure you can do much more besides read the book until July, but I wanted to give some tips that helped me when studying for FAR:

1. Don't give yourself too long of a period to study. It's not to be rushed, but realize that the longer window you give yourself to study, the more effort you are going to have to spend reviewing material to make sure you don't forget the earlier chapters. For the other sections, I took rolling cummulative quizzes to make sure I was remembering the earlier stuff. For FAR, I studied in 3 weeks so the good part was it wasn't long enough time for me to forget stuff that much.
2. Ditto above – do MCQ's, but remember the why about each answer – both right and wrong. Quality matters over quantity – you can do thousands of MCQs but without understanding why an answer is right/wrong, all you are doing is memorizing answers.
3. Look at the Content Specific Outline the AICPA issues, and use that as a guide for how much time to spend on what. I found it very useful – especially when I got bogged down on certain topics. It helps you to prioritize your time on the topics that are the most likely to be tested heavily on.
4. Towards the end – take the AICPA practice test. It doesn't have that many questions, but it's useful because you get to see the same exact software you will see at Prometric.
5. Look at the questions from prior exams issued by the AICPA. It's helpful in teaching you the differences between moderate vs. difficult questions.
6. AL, AL, and AL! Do not forget about it. There are so many points buried in the AL on SIMS, but you have to know how to navigate it in order to find what you need. Not only will it help you understand the concepts (it's the rules behind the calculations/entries) but it can bail you out if you get an off the wall SIM on a topic that's weak for you.
7. Take a big picture approach when studying. I'm not saying to cut corners/skip chapters, but one blessing about FAR is there is so much material that 90 questions isn't nearly enough time for them to ask you about everything. Being a perfectionist is a disadvantage when studying for this exam. My baseline before moving on was to make a 70 on my MCQ's and be able to narrow down a question about anything to 2 best possible answers.

BEC - 88 8/29/15
REG - 82 11/14/15
AUD - 83 1/8/16
FAR - 80 2/29/16

[WVUCPAHopeful]

I passed FAR on my first try last November. I know everyone is different, but highlighting didn't work for me. I found myself spacing out and just highlighting everything. I need to write my own notes. It is super time consuming, but once I read the information and the write it, it stays with me. After I would read the material and take detailed notes, I went back and listened to the lectures if I wasn't feeling confident about the material.

Hopefully that helps!!!

FAR: 82 (11/30/15)
AUD: 73 (02/21/16), 86 (4/18/16)
BEC: 06/10/16 Got to love the extended testing windows!
REG: TBD

AUD - 86
BEC - 76
FAR - 82
REG - 79

These exams make me want to switch professions! 😊

[KSOZE]

@B4turnedregional – study IFRS and GAAP differences. This is coming from someone who just got a 70 on FAR. I will say that the MCQs I felt prepared for utilizing NINJA and the proper weightings.

However, SIMS were a different story. I think the weightings go out the window for SIMS and let's just say I got VERY unlucky there with the draw of questions. Wish I would have hammered IFRS harder.

CRAM this exam!

FAR - 59, 70, 81
BEC - 80
AUD - 81
REG - 79

BEC - 80
FAR - 81 (third attempt)
AUD - waiting for score 8/23
REG - 09/08/2016 - going to cram and wing it

OH Ethics - Completed

[Matt Douglass]

Passed first time with an 83.

Here's what worked for me:

I used Wiley CPAexcel, bought it in November. My original plan was to take my tablet to the gym, watch the videos while I biked/walked and then do the questions. This was a terrible strategy and I quickly learned I needed to give my study 100% attention.

For December and January I did lessons in spurts (very busy times for me) I refined my approach of taking about 1 page of handwritten notes per lesson. I would then do all the questions for the lesson and write down the answers and explanations for each question whether I got it right or wrong. Some say to only write down what you get wrong, but how do I know that something I know today I'm still going to know 6-10 weeks from now?

At the beginning of February I was at 30% completion in Wiley. For 9 weeks straight I studied 2-6 hours every day. I would come home from work, spend some time with my wife and boys, and then head to my dungeon downstairs around 9 p.m. I drank a lot of energy drinks and 5 hour energy's. I gained 15 lbs. I ran 4 pens out of ink in the process of taking 185 pages of hand-written notes. I dreamed about the equity method and hedge accounting. I did nearly nothing but CPA exam for 2 straight months.

I finished Wiley with 2.5 weeks to go and took a sim exam where I scored 74. At this point I switched over to Ninja MCQs. I would answer the question and then write a one line explanation of the question/answer in my own words. I only did new questions and I got through just over 800 Ninja MCQs. I rewrote (actually typed) the first 1/4 of my notes because they had been from Dec/Jan to refresh myself.

Test day I took the day off, was in the parking lot of prometric 4 hours early, and sat in my car and re-read notes…oh and prayed…lots of praying.

That's how it went down, it worked for me.

Licensed CPA in Missouri

FAR 4/16 - 83 Wiley CPAExcel/Ninja MCQ
AUD 5/16 - 87 Wiley CPAExcel/Ninja MCQ
REG 10/16 - 76 Wiley CPAExcel/Ninja MCQ
BEC 12/16 - 88 Wiley CPAExcel/Ninja MCQ

MS, Accounting - Done!

FAR - 83 (CPAexcel/Ninja MCQ)
AUD - 87 (CPAexcel/Ninja MCQ)
REG - 10/16
BEC - 11/16

[Anonymous]

Wow, thanks everyone. These are great tips. After reading this I was really motivated to study, not gonna lie. Thanks a lot!

[viewofdawn]

Passed first time with a 95, and FAR was my first exam as well. I wish I had done audit first, it would've made life easier.

I studied for about a month at ~ 20 hours a week full focus, and the other times more or less distracted. I used Becker but found their lectures extremely boring and not useful. Reading the book was more helpful than listening to the lecture. My problem with it was that I had just finished my degree, and the lectures seem to be focused on someone who's been out of school awhile.

I know I probably studied significantly less than most people here. Here is my strategy:

1. Listen to the lecture first without using the textbook. I usually do this while at the gym or doing other labor-intensive but mindless tasks.
2. Do all the multiple choice questions except the optional ones at least once. Don't repeat them or do the wrong ones right away – otherwise you end up memorizing the answers.
3. Do the sims, but check your answer after every individual simulation as a “learning” tool.
4. Give it a day or two break before going back and trying the “wrong” multiple choices again.
5. After doing every lecture F1-F10, I printed the “outlines”. I read the textbook with the outline in front of me, highlighting the outlines as appropriate. If there are anything in the outlines I did not understand, I took down notes from the textbook.
6. Redo EVERY multiple choice question and every sim. At this point do not use the textbook or lectures anymore, use your outline if you don't understand a concept. Write down more notes as necessary.
7. 2-3 days before the exam I took the final exams from Becker, and averaged around 80% on both of them.
8. Once you're done all the multiple choice questions/simulations/final, do the comprehensive ones, but only 30 at a time to give yourself a break.

I find that if I just try to pour more hours into this I get more frustrated and efficiency drops. I did the same strategy for audit and spent about a total of 40 hours studying. I took the exam yesterday and finished it in less than an hour, multiple choice and simulation. Hopefully that means I did well.

Good luck!

CA Candidate.

FAR - 04/04/2016 - 95!
AUD - 05/05/2016 - 95!
REG - 07/01/2016
BEC - 08/03/2016

[Author]

Replies