Review tips – first time

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    Topic
  • #191898
    want2passCPA
    Member

    Hey – I start reviewing for FAR on Monday. It my first time taking the test so I was wondering if anyone has suggestions/tips on what to do? I gave myself 2 weeks of review time. Thanks in advance!

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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  • #653638
    hunter32
    Member

    Everyone is different. Have you done all of the MCQ? I'd spend the first week going over what you're bad at and then pound away at MCQ the second.

    BEC - 80 (Becker)
    AUD - 92 (Becker+NINJA MCQ)
    FAR - 87 (Becker+NINJA MCQ)
    REG - 90 (Becker+NINJA MCQ and Audio)

    #653639
    Zuly
    Participant

    @want2passCPA What review course are you studying with? I highly recommend the NINJA products so you should check those out, if you haven't already. Also, flash cards are a great tool especially in FAR since there are many different concepts, formulas and calculations. As you progress make sure to constantly go back and do at least one 30 MCQ session on all the sections you have reviewed so you keep the material fresh in your mind. I'd do this at least every 2-3 days, if you can. Oh, something else that I did differently on my second go on the FAR exam review was to not move ahead until I really understood a section and had at least a 70% in the MCQs. Yes, you are going to have weak areas but you should constantly be working on them and not leave them until the end to “figure out” because you'll notice those two weeks will fly by. Good luck with everything!

    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

    #653640
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I would like some advise from anyone out there :). I had purchased all four sections of Wiley Testbank in 2013 but could not use it as I was too busy and now since it has long expired, I need to know what i should buy?

    Also, I need to know how to prepare for this Monster as I have been out of school for a long time now.

    Please could someone, suggest what I should do/ Like study materials, schedule etc.

    Thank you so much for your time and thanks for reading this post.

    #653641
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    @want2Pass. I highly recommend getting Ninja Notes and Audio. Although I used those for the duration of my exam prep, not just in the final weeks. On my recent test, I grabbed a dozen Ninja Notes to read in the waiting room at Prometric. I was so glad that I had read what I did immediately before the exam!!

    @Dell – I used Wiley Test Bank for my first passing test – BEC. After that I used Ninja MCQ to pass REG and used it to study for AUD , which I will get the scores for in a few weeks. I like Ninja MCQ far better than Wiley, and it is much cheaper too. I also was out of school for a long time , and I have young children, married, full time job at a CPA firm. I study 2-3 hours per day and 4 hours on Saturday and Sunday. It seems like the sweet spot is 5 weeks prep time for me. I do 95% of my studying a coffee shop or library. On the weekends I would go to the coffee shop at 5am until 9am so I didn't miss too much time with the kids. As it got closer to the exams though, I would be gone all day and night. One last important note. I pop in my set of Bose noise cancelling ear buds; they help to tune the world out so I can get really focused.

    #653642
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    @6silvermoonbeams

    Thank you for answering. I think, I too will aim to study for 3 hours every day.

    And Good luck for the remaining sections.

    Take care

    #653643
    ChristieF
    Participant

    @Dell786, I would definitely buy the Ninja MCQs. I had the WTB last year when I was starting out and I supplemented on AUD with the NINJA when they first came out and I felt that NINJA prepared me much more than the Wiley TB did. Now that I'm back at it, I'm only using Ninja MCQs because of that. Good luck!

    FAR - 61, retake 1/22

    AUD - 2022

    REG - 2022

    BEC - 2022

    #653644
    juuustin
    Member

    I also gave myself two weeks to review (both FAR and REG) and my plan was to just do NINJA MCQ the entire time. Up until that review period, I didn't touch the NINJA MCQs and instead did all of the Becker material. Once I hit the review period, I just did NINJA MCQ for about an hour a day. It was more than enough time, imo.

    MD Candidate: 10/1/14

    FAR - 87 (11/23/14)
    REG - 87 (1/30/15)
    BEC - 89 (4/19/15)
    AUD - 98 (5/30/15)

    Ethics - 100

    Experience - In Progress!

    #653645
    zoctoman
    Member

    Dedicate at least 1 session entirely to Journal entries. Now I'm not saying just try to memorize the entries in a vacuum. I mean go through all of the journal entries in your review course, and while you are studying them, actively think about why the entries are the way they are.

    This is most helpful in my opinion when dealing with bonds and notes. Those entries can seem so illogical at times and if you are shaky on those entries it really means you don't understand exactly what is going on. By mastering the journal entries(by mastering, I mean you can explain in your own mind why each debit is a debit and each credit is a credit), you will become much more adept at the material.

    Furthermore, during my FAR exam i remember actually moving my hands to the left(Debit) and right(Credit) to reason out a few of the questions.

    Don't view “Journal Entries” as a daunting task, view it as an opportunity to truly understand the material and have a concrete way to prove that you know it!!!!

    Audit(11/5/13) - 89
    Reg(5/16/14) - 86
    FAR(7/18/14) - 82
    BEC(11/14) - 85

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