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June 24, 2011 at 6:43 am #160552maisycpaMember
hardly saw anybody who passed the 2011 FAR. already partying?
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June 24, 2011 at 7:18 am #286707
Hi I did pass FAR with 88 this past window but cant party yet because I still have AUD to do 😉
What review course are you using for FAR? i used Becker 2011 materials
From becker I found the chapters to go
Easiest
F1 (GAAP&IFRS) & F4 (inventory&deprec)
Most difficult
F2 (misc topics incl nonmonetary exc, R&D, installment sales, forex transactions), F3 (consolidations, equity method/acqusition method)
F5 (leases!-capital v operating….Bonds! & knowing how to calc the carrying value of them given limited info)
F6 (pensions!)
& F7 (Cash flows – knowing how to calc CF from operations under direct & indirect methods given a set of info……EPS basic v diluted & calcs for that)
Most Awkward
F8 & F9 – Govt (GRASPP) SI PAPI & NFP stuff
done
June 24, 2011 at 8:31 am #286708kb24ParticipantMaisycpa
Two questions. First, are you just starting FAR, or did you fail and are looking for suggestions as to how to improve score? Second, have you decided what study materials you're going to use? People might be able to give more specific advice with this info.
General advice i'd give for any exam, but particulary FAR–
–don't focus on practice test scores. They may or may not correlate as to how well you'll do on the exam. They're simply based on percentage right whereas aicpa uses weights based on difficulty and doesn't count 20% of questions. A better gauge is how confident you feel about your knowledge level on any topic.
–don't worry about understanding every single thing the first time thru. You'll get frustrated at your slow pace, forget the stuff from the beginning by the time you're reviewing,
and/or end up with too little review time. Put a reasonable time of study into each section and move on. It's amazing how many things become clearer as you progress thru the material. Even if they don't, you'll work on your weak areas during review.
–there's really no good way to practice sims. There are just too many potential questions Do a few to make sure you understand formats and general types of problems you'll see, but focus on really understanding material by doing lots of MCQ.
–use a test bank. I liked Wiley especially for FAR. Gives you lots of tough practice and helps you increase your speed. You can get it at discount thru another71 and it's worth every penny.
–if you're still weak on certain areas even during review, write notes out by hand or do extra problems e.g. I wrote out bond JE because I kept getting mixed up. Go back to your old accounting books if necessary.
covers a huge amount of material and you have to know it all. I got at least one question for almost every possible topic I studied.
FAR 4/1/11 - 89
AUD 4/15/11 - 85
REG 4/29/11 - 80
BEC 5/13/11 - 85June 24, 2011 at 8:43 am #286709kb24ParticipantSorry -.using my phone to post and couldn't get to bottom to edit messed up part at end of previous post. Good time management is important for all exams, but essential for FAR. Set yourself a time for sims and work back to see how much time you allow yourself for each MCQ testlet and stick to this. I recommend a minimum of 1 1/4 hours. As I partially said above, don't minimize stuff you think is less important. My exam covered EVERYTHING!!
Good luck.
FAR 4/1/11 - 89
AUD 4/15/11 - 85
REG 4/29/11 - 80
BEC 5/13/11 - 85June 24, 2011 at 2:03 pm #286710thaskin84ParticipantI used becker….JUST DO A BUNCH OF MCQ. My schedule…I would go over 2 chapters at a time and then do MCQ. The reason for this was to actually see how well I retained the information. If I went through one chapter at a time the MCQ would seem a little easy. So when I finished watching the lectures for the 2 chapters I would review the chapters then do ALL of the MCQ. All I did the last 3 weeks were MCQ. The way people retain information is a case by case basis so I would just do what you did in college (except to the extreme). Hope this helps.
FAR 4/12/11 - 82
AUD 8/22/11 - 95
REG 11/21/11 - 79
BEC 2/28/12 - 80June 24, 2011 at 3:54 pm #286711IwannaBaCPAParticipantI agree with most of what others have said here…I also used Becker and passed this window!
I cut it close though with a 78 and am shocked I passed, so I had already developed a plan for retaking it. I think that I focused way to much on the notes and not enough on practicing…I suggest doing tons and tons and tons of MCQ!! I certainly did not do enough and although I passed, I may have just gotten lucky…don't make the mistake I did by not practicing enough…it is the most important part of studying IMO and makes the difference between passing and failing!
In the end, make a plan and stick to it! This means both your study plan (whatever that may be) and your time budget during the actual exam. I gave myself 1.5 hours for the TBS and needed every single second of it! They were tough!
Best of luck to you!
BEC: 79 - April 2011
FAR: 78 - May 2011
AUD: 81 - May 2012
REG: 79 - October 2012
Ethics: Passed - March 2013
I am finally DONE!June 24, 2011 at 4:02 pm #286712mnCPAwannabeMemberMultiple Choice, Multiple Choice, Multiple Choice.
FAR is extremely heavy on calculations and journal entries (as you would expect). I had 3 simulations asking for journal entries. Do calculations until you can do them without hardly thinking. Especially things like consolidations, pensions, and like-kind exchanges. My exam got extremely heavy on pensions in the second/third testlets which I'm assuming were more difficult.
Good luck!
BTW: Used Becker 2011 as well – was very thorough. If I had known ALL of the Becker book I am confident I would score 95+, just hard to retain that much information. What I'm trying to say is the reason I didn't score even higher was because of me and my study habits, Becker covered EVERYTHING that was on the exam.
FAR: 84
AUD: 95
REG: 78
BEC: 88
ETHICS: 100June 25, 2011 at 3:27 am #286713maisycpaMemberThanks so much. At least now I know there are somebody out there who has passed. I used Yaeger in 2010 and got a 74. I have faith in Cindy and Phil!!! Therefore, I bought Yaeger 2011. However, the level difficulty in 2011 doesn't seem close to what it was taught in Yaeger 2011, especially those topics that were taught by Gary.
I've Wiley book and test bank 2011, complete set of Becker MCs 2010, Gleim's system 2011 and a bunch of information in my head. Very stressful but I hope it's good stress.
I'll take the exam in the beginning of next window. Several days away! any suggestion on how to cram through these materials?
June 25, 2011 at 10:02 pm #286714maisycpaMembera lot of Becker success stories. anybody passed with other study courses?
June 26, 2011 at 4:24 am #286715OLE_WILLBE_CPA2ParticipantLast year in FAR government and non profit were heavily tested in 2010. Are they continuing to test heavy on those two subjects in 2011?
REG 78
AUD WAITING
BEC 74
FAR 65, JULY 2011 TBD
OLE
June 26, 2011 at 4:43 am #286716MinimortyParticipantYes, approximately 20% combined.
June 26, 2011 at 5:06 am #286717retromodParticipantHi! I just recently passed by the grace of god, Cindy, Phil and of course Jeff!! (Thank you!! They'll never know how much they have meant to me over this process). I can now say, I'm finished with my cpa exams other than ethics. In my final days of studying, I rewrote all my notes from my text book, notes from my study course handout including questions I had got wrong, and of course Jeff's notes. (By rewrite, I mean, type them in a word document and read it to myself as I go because I found it quicker) I just really drilled those items. I tried to do the online test banks for 2 of the other exams I took using Yaeger, but there just wasn't enough time. I would do those if you have time, but if not, don't fret! Relax, read the material and trust in yourself! You've studied hard and u are prepared! Best wishes!!!
June 26, 2011 at 5:18 am #286718watswidmeParticipantI just passed too! 🙂 my advice to you is always know Journal Entry for each MCQ, it might take long but FAR is very procedural in that the end answers is usually the accumulation of journal entries. So basically familiarize yourself with journal entries until you go to the point where you can do “shortcuts” in your computation, i assure you everything will stick to your brain as it will require you to know the logic of every addition, subtraction, multiplication division, ratio etc etc. 🙂 Goodluck to you!!!!!
FAR 05/21/2011 - 88
BEC 05/23/2011 - 83
AUD 07/30/2011 - 87
REG 08/30/2011 - 84
CPA 04/24/2014 - DONEJune 27, 2011 at 8:42 am #286719AnonymousInactiveI would agree completely with mnCPAwannabe. I used Becker and never watched any lectures and only read the chapter once. I never made any notes. I focused all my energy on MCQ to prepare for the exam. I would create a flashcard with the concept from the text for every missed question. I did all questions (including supplemental) at least 3 times and did government and NFP 5 times before the exam. By the week of the exam, I tried to score between 95% – 100% on last pass through all questions. On the day of exam, I made sure to leave 1 hour 30 minutes for the SIMS. I ended up needing all that time on the SIMS. I ended up studying around 135 hours over 6 weeks for FAR.
By the way, go light on IFRS. It was hardly tested on my exam. Focus heavy on government and NFP. I knew that and was still surprised how heavily it was tested.
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