Struggling using Becker Self-Study for FAR

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  • #187593
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hey everyone. Relatively new poster here. I could really use some advice on how to best spend my last weeks of studying.

    Up to now I’ve been using Becker Self-Study. So far I’ve watched all the lectures and I’m now going back and doing the HW & Sims for each section. I’m currently halfway through F5. My scores have been ranging in the 40-60% range and I don’t feel like I’m retaining any information. The HW questions seem so long and intricate and take me forever to get through. At this rate it’s going to take me until the end of next week to get through all the HW & Sims before I can even start reviewing for week and a half leading up to my exam on Aug 28th.

    I’ve purchased the NINJA Notes & Audio but am not really sure how to utilize them. I’m considering buying the NINJA MCQs as well. Are the NINJA MCQs more along the style that will be asked on the exam? For instance when I studied for BEC the long computational Becker questions were nothing like the ones I saw on my exam.

    For the week leading up to my exam, would a strategy of rewriting the NINJA Notes during the day followed by NINJA MCQs pertaining to the section and then listening to the NINJA Audio at night seem to be beneficial?

    Thanks

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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  • #585423
    jstay
    Participant

    did you do the lecture then mcq? or lectures for f1-f5 and now going back and doing mcq?

    Try watching the lecture and then doing the mcq for that part of the lecture…in other words break down the lecture and do the mcq right after watching it.

    also if its your first time going through don't worry as much as scores..try and retain the info (i know its hard) but take notes and write the journal entries.

    i started studying FAR as soon as school let out in May and taking it on 8/31 so my problem is i did it over a longer period. but i have been doing the becker and WTB, also i have 3 weeks off before exam so hopefully i get a solid review in and that would be enough

    #585424
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I am in F2 right now and some of the questions take forever! I don't know how I am going to finish FAR. I thought REG questions could be wordy, but now I realize that FAR being a beast is true.

    I would say your best bet is focusing on MCQ and reviewing the NINJA Notes. I found that writing them down was too time consuming, and I still remembered a lot just from reviewing them.

    #585425
    JamesBJames
    Participant

    FAR's insane, but 40-60% is a little on the low side. Are you doing the homework contemporaneously with the lectures, or are you trying to do 200-250 questions all at once after you completely finish the lectures? I think the latter results in lower scores.

    Also, I thought Becker's FAR questions were very similar to what was asked on the exam. You're right about BEC, though– the exam questions were much easier than the homework.

    FAR: May 1st, 2014 - 91
    AUD: May 29th, 2014 - 97!
    BEC: July 16th, 2014 - 91
    REG: August 29th, 2014 - 88

    Licensed December 2015

    Feel free to add me on LinkedIn by clicking my username!

    #585426
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    The Ninja MCQ is decent but my advice is to wait until you're done with the Becker program first and then use the Ninja MCQ as a comprehensive set of questions. The Becker Progress Tests are nice, but I don't like waiting until I'm done with the test to see what I missed. If I miss a question, I want to know right away what I did wrong or what concept I was missing. With that being said, there is overlap on the Becker and Ninja MCQ (questions that are 100% identical) but I like having a second pool of questions to practice on.

    Other than that, the best advice is to just stick with it. Keep track of the areas you're struggling with the most so you know what needs more attention. But it is true that you know more than you think you do. You just need to keep practicing.

    #585427
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    @JamesBJames..

    Don't you think that doing all the questions after the lectures is more realistic though? It is a lot easier to score high on the questions right after the lecture is still fresh in your mind. I know in NINJA Notes Jeff recommends that you do the questions after viewing all the lectures.

    But judging by your scores I might just start doing questions right after the lectures. It would also be less frustrating than trying to do 200+ questions all at once.

    #585428
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    @JamesBJames

    For BEC I did the watch the lecture and then do corresponding MCQs approach. When I first started for FAR I continued this approach but I felt like this method was inefficient for the amount of material there is. I started trying the watch all the lectures and then going back to doing all the MCQs. I figured since FAR is basically double the material of BEC that it would benefit me more to do the MCQs closer to my exam date (basically for the benefits laid out by the NINJA approach).

    For now I think I'm planning on just powering through the rest of this Homework for F6-F10 this week and next, hoping I retain some information from writing out the problems. The week before the exam I'll write out notes chapter by chapter while also doing the Becker Progress Tests and reviewing the Flashcards to build up and reinforce the material. Then use the Becker Final Review the last few days before during the week of to reinforce it all.

    #585429
    JamesBJames
    Participant

    @Austin_109: I imagine people have had success with both methods, but I personally hate waiting too long to do MCQs. When I'm trying to learn something new or get better at anything, feedback is important, and the faster I can correct my mistakes or gaps in my understanding, the better.

    FAR: May 1st, 2014 - 91
    AUD: May 29th, 2014 - 97!
    BEC: July 16th, 2014 - 91
    REG: August 29th, 2014 - 88

    Licensed December 2015

    Feel free to add me on LinkedIn by clicking my username!

    #585430
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I sucked too. In fact, I stopped studying FAR a week before assuming I was going to fail and wanted to get a jump on BEC. Took FAR without finishing everything and hadnt even opened the book for a week since and scored an 81. Of the three I've passed it's still my highest score. Go figure. So keep your head up because you never know.

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