FAR 2017 RETAKE

  • This topic has 20 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 7 years ago by Anonymous.
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  • #1513969
    hwasup7
    Participant

    Heya!

    So I failed my FAR in Feb by 2 points…(yes, got a 73) and I am retaking it on 10th of April, which is 26 days from today! I studied with 2016 Becker book (a hardcopy book that I got from eBay) for my first attempt, and got Ninja Notes and MCQ for the retake. For the retake, I re-read the Becker book once, and have been going through Ninja Note as often as I can. I just got Ninja MCQ yesterday. I have done about 6 sets of 30 questions, and I keep getting 63~66! I am honestly getting frustrated and worried. I feel like I know the stuff but I keep getting low scores, and I am in this state when you know you have a lot of work to be done but so worried/annoyed that you don’t even know what/where to start with. Any suggestion on how to study for the retake? PLEASE HELP ME

    AUD - 76
    BEC - 91
    FAR - 85
    REG - 86
    There is no talent; only obsession and strong work ethic
Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 20 total)
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  • #1513977
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I'm retaking it this year too, after taking AUD and BEC. My plan was to take REG this year too but I decided that doing more than 4 exams in one year was not something I wanted to do.
    I used Roger for FAR and am using it for all of the sections. However, I now sorta wish I'd bought Gleim, which has Access-til-you-pass and was only $999 for all 4 parts. I like Gleim's outline format, versus the endless pages of laborious explanation of Roger. The one good thing about Roger is the MCQ – the ones he had were pretty much the same as the ones I had on my FAR exam. Ditto for the TBS's, but Roger doesn't have as many TBS's as Gleim does (I have Gleim's textbooks only, from 2015.)

    You did “good” with your 73. It means that next time, you'll probably pass. All I would suggest is just going back over the things that you personally felt you were weakest on.
    And, don't forget to spend time re-studying Govt/Nonprofit/IFRS. Those are going to probably show up more in future exams as TBSs because they have cut back the MCQs. According my score report I did well on the Govt/NPO questions. But, it wasn't enough to pass. If you had gotten a 53 instead of a 73, my advice would be different. And, I would not worry about your Ninja scores. There is way too much talk on here about trending scores on practice exams and homework. Many people who say “I'm so worried” usually end up passing the exam because they found the questions on the exam easier than the ones they practiced on. Actually that's one good thing about Gleim – their MCQ are tougher than the ones on the actual exam. With the new version of the exam starting next month though, what I'm saying here might not even be completely accurate. It could all be just way different, with these new question formats and testing on higher-order thinking skills…..it's gonna thrash the crap out of me I'm sure. My seatbelt is securely fastened. Best of wishes to you for your retake!

    #1513983
    Cjsr
    Participant

    @hwasup7 Your plan is very similar to mine. I can't say until next Tuesday if it worked. I scored 74 the first time. This time, I reread the Becker book 3 times, got the Ninja notes, Ninja book, and Ninja MCQs. I did sets of 30 in adaptive mode and scored about 70% overall. I did feel better leaving the test this time, and I had breakthrough understanding on consolidations. I think our chances are good.

    BEC Jan 2016 83 Becker FastPass
    REG Jan 2016 83
    AUD May 2016 92
    FAR Jul 2016 74
    FAR Mar 2017. 91 Becker book + NINJA 10-point combo

    BEC. 83. 9 Jan 2016
    REG. 83. 30 Jan 2016
    AUD. 92. 27 May 2016

    Becker FastPass with in-class videos

    #1513986
    hwasup7
    Participant

    @Cjsr Thanks for the post. I'm sure you will pass this time! Since you are extremely close to getting it all done, can you give me some tips on how to study for simulations? I got Comparable MCQ and Weaker Simulation:(

    AUD - 76
    BEC - 91
    FAR - 85
    REG - 86
    There is no talent; only obsession and strong work ethic
    #1513992
    hwasup7
    Participant

    Thanks for the tips, @crazyleon.

    I got weaker in simulations and weaker in specific transaction, comparable in financial statement accounts and NFP. Whilst I think I can definitely prepare for f/s accounts and NFP, specific transaction bit is going to be tricky just coz it has a lot of stuff. Also, since you mentioned Government Accounting, do you know if there was a simulation question on coming up with a governmental-wide statement?

    I appreciate your recommendation on Roger and Gleim, however I am trying to get FAR done with my current resources coz I am still a college student and I have already spent $500 just for FAR.

    AUD - 76
    BEC - 91
    FAR - 85
    REG - 86
    There is no talent; only obsession and strong work ethic
    #1513996
    hwasup7
    Participant

    I just realised that you have to put “0” or “no entry required” for journal entries in simulations… I never knew that for my first attempt at FAR so I left them blank when no journal entries were needed… I am so mad…

    AUD - 76
    BEC - 91
    FAR - 85
    REG - 86
    There is no talent; only obsession and strong work ethic
    #1514020
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I suggest to skip all the book reading and videos as it's a waste of a lot of time. What you need to do is literally go through every single MCQ and if there are any areas that you are having trouble understanding after reading the explanations, then that would be a good time to revisit the book.

    If you focus on the MCQs and do every single one and read why or why it is not correct, that is the best way to get the additional points needed to pass.

    #1514151
    Cjsr
    Participant

    @hwasup7 Some other technical things about how you do the answers – I was practicing SIMS in Becker and there was this one time when I couldn't get it to let me type numbers in the boxes. I started to get panicky and then figured out that I had to double-click in the box (not single-click) and then it would let me type in my numbers. That's the kind of thing I was glad to know *before* actually being in the test. Similarly, there was a worksheet where you were typing in numbers in one column (not debits and credits) and I found out that you had to put in the negative signs yourself even for things that were obviously subtracted – glad I found that out in practice also. On the real test, my first time some of the information seemed ambiguous on topics that should have been straightforward, and I let that throw me off. On my retest, all my SIMs were clear about what to do.

    BEC Jan 2016 83 Becker FastPass
    REG Jan 2016 83
    AUD May 2016 92
    FAR Jul 2016 74
    FAR Mar 2017. 91 Becker book + NINJA 10-point combo

    BEC. 83. 9 Jan 2016
    REG. 83. 30 Jan 2016
    AUD. 92. 27 May 2016

    Becker FastPass with in-class videos

    #1514169
    Cjsr
    Participant

    Also, I concur with brickell on doing MCQs and looking things up in the book. Especially if you're doing the MCQs in adaptive mode and you get all the topics in a mix. Like I remember doing a question where I needed to know that your share of the income from an equity method investment doesn't debit to cash. But I also needed to know that it did credit to income, and I had forgotten to think about the credit side. Went back to the book and yes, there it was.

    Also – you must read the posts on the FAR study group, pinned at the top of the page. As valuable as the other NINJA resources, and free. When I started reading those, at first I was discouraged because I couldn't get any of the practice problems they were talking about. But *of course* it's like that – they don't need to discuss the easy ones. I promise you will see things on the test that you will get right only because you saw that issue discussed and hashed out in Study Group.

    BEC Jan 2016 83 Becker FastPass
    REG Jan 2016 83
    AUD May 2016 92
    FAR Jul 2016 74
    FAR Mar 2017. 91 Becker book + NINJA 10-point combo

    BEC. 83. 9 Jan 2016
    REG. 83. 30 Jan 2016
    AUD. 92. 27 May 2016

    Becker FastPass with in-class videos

    #1514179
    Matt
    Participant

    Brickell is right do multiple choice and understand why you get things right or wrong.

    Also, hwasup7 you might end up needing an alternate multiple choice bank and if you find that you can't pass, you'll have to evaluate from there.

    Gleim/NINJA

    FAR 74,81 Pass November 2016
    AUD 71,74,84 Pass January 2017
    BEC 79 Pass March 2017
    REG 71,80 Pass November 2017

    FAR 74

    #1514196
    Cjsr
    Participant

    This would depend on how you're working the rest of your testing schedule, but don't hesitate to reschedule later in the window if you really don't feel prepared yet. I originally scheduled for Feb. 4, but by the middle of January I knew I wouldn't be ready yet. I rescheduled for March 4 and felt way better about it, even though it prolonged that dark cloud over my head for another month. Better that, than ending up needing yet another retake, when there was window time left. But I realize for you this depends on what your plans are for the other tests too.

    BEC Jan 2016 83 Becker FastPass
    REG Jan 2016 83
    AUD May 2016 92
    FAR Jul 2016 74
    FAR Mar 2017. 91 Becker book + NINJA 10-point combo

    BEC. 83. 9 Jan 2016
    REG. 83. 30 Jan 2016
    AUD. 92. 27 May 2016

    Becker FastPass with in-class videos

    #1514620
    hwasup7
    Participant

    @cpamatt @brickwellcpa Thanks for the post! Yeah, I have about 300 Becker questions, and I am hoping Becker+Ninja MCQ would be enough! Did you use Ninja MCQ as well? If so, was it helpful? because I have doing Ninja MCQ for a couple of days and I am starting to doubt it's relevance/correspondence with actual CPA exam. I mean MCQ has got a lot of theory/concept memorising stuff that I don't remember seeing much from my previous attempt, and Simulations on Ninja are just way to simple, and some of the answers don't make sense. I just did a simulation on Ninja, and I was meant to come up with adjusting entries for B/S and I/S. I made a few adjustments overall that surely affected net income, so logically I thought equity must have been affected by the change in net income. And guess what, the answer is 0! This just really threw me off, and got me pissed off/worried that I got Ninja MCQ…

    AUD - 76
    BEC - 91
    FAR - 85
    REG - 86
    There is no talent; only obsession and strong work ethic
    #1514623
    hwasup7
    Participant

    @cjsr You are completely right, I would be so furious if I fail FAR/AUD again. But I do have to take both of them before the end of May because I will be getting kicked out of America coz of my VISA (I am a college student graduating in May). That's why I scheduled to have a month of studying for FAR and another month for AUD (currently scheduled for May 11th. Trying to push it to 17th). Do you think it would be enough, considering I was only off by 2 points..?

    AUD - 76
    BEC - 91
    FAR - 85
    REG - 86
    There is no talent; only obsession and strong work ethic
    #1514733
    Cjsr
    Participant

    @hwasup7 It's worth a try if you can spend a lot of time studying. I can only go by what I did. The first time, I studied 130 hours over 5 weeks, and got the 74. Then I didn't study for about 5 months, getting into a new job. Then I studied about 200 hours over 10 weeks, don't know score yet. So for me you'd have to take into consideration the 5 months away from studying. You're much fresher on your studying. Also, I never took the Advanced Accounting college course, so I was learning consolidations/equity method etc *only* via my review materials. The NINJA MCQs were good for me because I had already done the Becker MCQs several times and was starting to memorize them.

    BEC Jan 2016 83 Becker FastPass
    REG Jan 2016 83
    AUD May 2016 92
    FAR Jul 2016 74
    FAR Mar 2017. 91 Becker book + NINJA 10-point combo

    BEC. 83. 9 Jan 2016
    REG. 83. 30 Jan 2016
    AUD. 92. 27 May 2016

    Becker FastPass with in-class videos

    #1514772
    Anthony
    Participant

    Similar boat as you. Failed FAR on my first attempt with 74 stronger on MCQ and weaker on simulations. Right now, I'm schedule to retake on the 12th next month.

    I would personally say that Ninja MCQ are more in line with the real exam in terms of MCQ, but sims aren't even close to the real deal.

    Keep this in mind, you aren't 1-3 points away now. You are now a full 75 points away.

    AUD - 82
    BEC - 80
    FAR - 81
    REG - 82
    FAR - 74 first attempt
    #1514779
    hwasup7
    Participant

    @Anthony Damn, you are so close. I assume I will use Ninja only for MCQ. How are you studying for simulations, if I may ask?

    AUD - 76
    BEC - 91
    FAR - 85
    REG - 86
    There is no talent; only obsession and strong work ethic
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