Please help…what am I doing wrong?

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  • #1707984
    naunie
    Participant

    Hello friends,

    Can you help me figure out how to pass REG and FAR? I have until the October testing window to pass both. Just heard back on FAR with a 71 and it’s my third failure. As a non-traditional candidate (work at Big 4 in a super stressful job), I don’t know if I can pass FAR or REG at this point. I figured before throwing in the towel I would come post on here and see if anyone could tell me what I am doing wrong.

    Study materials – using Gleim, used Becker in the past. Have Ninja, have not used it yet. I get a lot of “reading fatigue” when going through the Gleim books – I can spend whole hours reading chapters, and at the end of every chapter I do one MCQ session of 20 questions and 1 SIM. I can barely get through the 20 chapters with reading, 1 set of questions, and 1 SIM before the exam happens – I have been taking two a window b/c I’m worried about passing all of them, and now I’m in a situation where I end up not being able to really study well for either of the remaining two exams I have b/c I’m cramming two into a window. I have three windows left to take. I’m doing no flashcards b/c I’m focusing only on reading, MCQs, and SIMS but I can never seem to get through enough chapters. I try to study a couple nights a week and on the weekends.

    What am I doing wrong? Anything you tell me to try, I will follow to the letter. I am so sick of not being good enough, it’s been too much of this, and it’s really taking a toll on my happiness and sanity.

    AUD – 73, 78
    BEC – 87
    FAR – 74, 69, 71
    REG – 66

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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  • #1707987
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    First – if you can spare a week – just take a few days off from studying and freshen up a bit. Take a mini vacation or do something fun after work for a few days to get your mind off of everything. It might be hard, but you need to make sure your brain is happy too. Also, make sure (if you aren’t already) that you are engaged in some sort of physical activity daily (or almost daily) basis. Even if it is just for a half an hour. Seriously, the whole working out frequently thing was the key to me being able to study effectively and consistently. Its a proven thing.

    Anyways, here is my story. I use Becker. I have only taken FAR so far and I did pass thankfully. My game plan was as follows:

    READ through the text material (don’t watch lectures unless you are really really stuck on a concept). Seriously, no lectures.

    Don’t do the skills practice. Don’t waste time with it. Just don’t.

    Do the multiple choice. Once all of the reading for that entire section is done, do the multiple choice.

    Don’t do the simulations till you get done with all of the reading and multiple choice for ALL of the sections.

    To illustrate: READ each of the F1 modules and then and only then attempt all of the multiple choice in F1. Then move onto F2. You should be able to get through each section within 2-3 days.

    Once you get through all of the reading and multiple choice for F1-F10, go back and do the simulations starting from F1. If you start running out of time, don’t do the sims for governmental. They are pretty much multiple choice type questions on the exam (at least on my exam and from what I have heard from others).

    I find this method to be effective for really engraving the material into memory. Some people do the reading/lectures and multiple choice + skills practice for each module before moving onto the next module. I tried it for a few sections, it didn’t work for me. I kept forgeting the material. Try what I suggest and see how it works for you.

    I prefer Becker over Gleim, primarily because of the reason you essentially pointed out in your post – gliem is just really hard to read. Its a visual thing, they didn’t do a good job making it easy on the eyes. Becker does a phenomenol job with how they lay out their text and I find it much easier to read. I have both Becker and Gleim texts so I can easily compare the two. Don't get me wrong, Gleim may be better than Becker but what is the point of using it if you can’t get through the material because it is too tiring to read?

    #1708006
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Totally agree with above. For Skills Practice-in the interest of time skip at first, but during review you might want to go back to some as it provides good mini exercises especially when it comes to journal entries.

    #1708017
    Tim
    Participant

    As a user of Gleim I know reading each chapter once and doing 1 set of MCQ and 1 set of sims is definitely not going to prepare you. I understand you have a high stress job but the fact is you need to devote more time. I understand you're probably in the predicament where scores will start falling off and stuff but you really need to give yourself 2 months to study for each section when you can't study 40 hours a week. I'd shoot for 120 hours of study per section.

    It's so much better to over-prepare than to do the bare minimum hoping for that magic 75. That's what I didn't like about Becker. They came into my school and the guy basically said if you get higher than a 75 then you wasted your time. That's BS, because if you prepare just enough to where you think you'll pass you're going to end up getting 74's and stuff and that's going to waste far more of your time and really mess with your psyche. I'd rather spend the extra 20-30 hours preparing and be almost guaranteed to pass on the first try than to live that nightmare.


    FAR - 97 (10/12/17)
    BEC - 95 (01/15/18)
    AUD - 88 (04/06/18)
    REG - 89 (11/16/18)
    #1708026
    Katie
    Participant

    @Tim couldn't agree with you more. That “if you get higher than a 75 then you wasted your time” saying irritates me more than anything. I studied my butt off for REG and only got an 80. If I had studied to get a 75, I would've failed.

    AUD - 91

    BEC - 4/21/18

    FAR - 90

    REG - 80

    #1708122
    RTRGARTR
    Participant

    To keep it short and simple… Stop reading the book, hammer the multiple choice questions. Set a goal (100 a day or whatever you like) and do that every single day. Use the book as reinforcement as opposed to a main material. The MC will prepare you much better than reading.

    AUD - 82
    BEC - 84
    FAR - 90
    REG - NINJA in Training
    RTR
    #1708128
    Demha
    Participant

    Tim,

    I am also using Gleim and very impressed with your scores. Could you please share your strategies in detail?

    Thank you in advance.

    Using Gleim w/ Ninja Notes and Another71.com Forum Secrets

    FAR - 58, 65, 70, 65
    AUD - Ninja in Training
    REG - Ninja in Training
    BEC - Ninja in Training

    Gleim baby!
    Grand Valley State University - '15
    Accounting & Finance
    FAR - 2nd Window '16

    #1708165
    alloverit
    Participant

    Naunie,

    This is a long post, but you may find some value in it.

    I used Gleim and you can totally pass with it. However, my experience is that you can't play Gleim “straight up” so to speak.

    Here's what I did to get a minimum of an 81 on all four sections. The below is a strategy based on starting from scratch which does not apply to you, but please hear me out.

    MULTIPLE CHOICE STUDYING

    1. Start with creating custom quizzes that you control (study sessions).

    2. Look at each of the 20 chapters and see how long they are. Try to master about 12% of each section at a time. Start with chapter 1. If it is 100 questions, master 1-12. Then move to chapter 2. If it is 130 questions, master 1-16. Repeat this process for all 20 chapters. Gleim has chapters that have TONS of MCQs. You may need to master up to about 30 questions per chapter for longer sections.

    3. When you master the first 12% of all 20 chapters, go back to chapter 1. Again, assuming chapter 1 has 100 questions, master questions 13-24 AND review about 50% of questions 1-12. Do this for all chapters.

    4. Repeat the above process over and over about 8 times total. However, as you move forward, reduce the percentage of review questions (questions you've already mastered) to between 30-40%. Use your judgment based on if the section is a strength or a weakness for you.

    5. Now, in your PARTICULAR case, you've already done some studying so this process is not completely ideal for you as it is time consuming (though EXTREMELY effective). So….

    6. On the study section page you will notice a black arrow to the left of each chapter, clicking those arrows provides an outline of each chapter (you probably already know this but just in case).

    7. Pay attention to subsections and their relative size. For example, if a subsection has 76 questions of the total of say, 160 for that chapter, that is a KEY subsection that MUST be mastered. Alternately, a subsection in the same chapter with only 9 questions may not be as important.

    8. One caveat about #7. If a subsection is located towards the beginning of the chapter, it may be essential to mastering the next subsection. Just be wary of spending too much time on small subsections toward the end of the chapter.

    * One final thing on MCQs: Gleim (to my knowledge) never mentions to always read the ACTUAL question first. This is a HUGE time saver on the scenario type questions. Becker mentions this, I don't remember Gleim making a note of it.

    SIMULATIONS

    The first thing you should do is go to the AICPA site and look at the sample SIMS. Here's why: You need to know if the Gleim SIMS are too hard or too easy. My personal opinion was that the Gleim SIMS for FAR were representative of what was on the test (I DID get a comprehensive governmental accounting SIM contrary to one of the posts above), Gleim AUD SIMS were too easy, Gleim BEC SIMS were much more difficult than the actual test and Gleim REG SIMS were somewhat more difficult than the actual test.

    However, I do think I got a bad draw on my AUD SIMs and a good draw on my REG SIMs.

    One strategy I used quite effectively to prepare for BEC and REG with Gleim was to go back to the MCQs and isolate some of the more “impossible” ones. Gleim is notorious for providing some MCQs that are just WAYYY overboard. However, if you look at those questions with a different perspective, you should notice that they resemble SIMS! The only difference being that you get four choices to pick from.

    MASTER these MCQs. But master them for the SIMS…not for the MCQ section of the actual test. It should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway, this process of mastering a handful of the most difficult MCQs should be done just prior to taking the actual test. Find 5-10 of these questions for all the chapters that are heavy on calculations.

    FINALLY

    You MUST MUST MUST get the research questions correct! The research question is all-or-nothing! No partial credit! So, think of it this way, let's say you totally bomb a SIM that counts and you only get 20% of the points available AND you miss the research question. That means that for two SIMs you've averaged only 10% of the points (20+0/2). You will have a very difficult time passing. However, if the same thing happens, but you get the research question right, you would have roughly 60% of the points over the course of those two SIMS (20+100/2). That can make all the difference in the world. The research question is worth roughly 6-7% of the TOTAL TEST!

    Okay FINALLY for real this time

    Regarding REG, Use the authoritative literature to help you with ALL the SIMS (just watch your time). This is something you likely already know, but just a heads-up if not. BTW, this may also work with FAR under the new format, I took that section just before the changeover so I don't know).

    FAR 81

    AUD 83

    BEC 93

    REG 84

    Ross

    #1708173
    Bluetoothray
    Participant

    Ditto on everything that's been said above. I too started with Gleim, but got bogged down by the complete drudgery of it. Since you have Ninja I'd use it!!!! The only time gleim came in handy was when I studied for FAR for the second time. I supplemented my Ninja MCQ and Sims with the Gleim MCQs. I didn't look at the gleim book once. I also didn't look at the lectures etc. I listened to Ninja Audio while on my commute early in the morning. You have to use whatever time you can when you're B4. That said, I woke up 2 hours early every day before starting work at the client site and pounded MCQs. I went through a ton of diet dr. pepper and Mountain Dew. I did a mixture of Never seen before (Only one section at a time), Missed last time seen, and random. Here's why I liked each one.
    1. “Never seen before.” – Before I did random I actually went through about half of the Ninja questions. I created a test with only questions from a subsection. The reason being is that many questions test the same principle. It was easier for me to remember the principle being taught when I was being asked about it 10 times in 10 different ways.
    2. “Missed last time seen.” – Half way through all the ninja questions for the first time switched every other quiz between Missed last time seen and never seen before. That way I was still being exposed to new stuff, but also getting a chance to test whether I'd “learned my lesson” on the old stuff.
    3. “Random.” Near the end i was doing a half and half mixture of Missed last time seen and random. Since I still had about 15% of total questions never seen before the random selection brought in enough new stuff every quiz.
    5. I also used trouble questions, not necessarily to test myself, but to learn. I spent time writing down in detail why I kept getting the trouble questions wrong and what I needed to change in my thinking. Sometimes you have to sit down and think about why you keep getting something wrong. Most times it's because you think principle x is true, when in reality principle x is only true when principle y is in play. That's why you might get a MCQ that you answer in one way testing principle x and get it right and then you get another mcq testing princicple x with a dash of y. That's why I liked doing “never seen before” for a single subsection at a time. That way I could see in a short period of time all of the different question permutations.
    I hope that all helps. As Jeff says, do MCQs until you're sick of em. I was sooooooooo sick of mcqs. Hammer them out. Do them over and over and over and over and over and over again. For FAR I supplemented and used Gleim for my second go. That helped because I got to see new questions I did a couple hundred of those. I also printed out the questions the AICPA releases. Those questions were the closest to what's on the actual exam. They are super helpful. I saved those questions till the end of my studying phase as kind of “Mini tests.” I printed out both the '15 and '16 questions and put them together in a little Pre-Exam test.

    Sorry for the rambling. Go slay the dragon! You've got this!

    AUD - Passed

    BEC - Passed

    REG - Passed

    FAR - Passed

    CPA - VA

    #1708212
    Missy
    Participant

    Use the Ninja that you have, sometimes seeing the material explained differently helps it to click.

    Study every single day. I know its hard when you're working a lot of hours. I know there are days you don't think you have it in you. I've been there. There were days I couldn't START studying until 11pm and went until 1am just to get something in for a few hours. Its not forever and unless you have a medical condition it won't hurt you. At this point you need to be aiming for 25 hours per week even when you're working 70 hours.

    You can do this.

    Old timer,  A71'er since 2010.

    Finance manager/HR manager

     

     

    Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
    Finance/Admin/HR Manager

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