[Anonymous]

Okay so I took FAR this morning, and I feel like the exam was a joke. I used Becker for my other 3 sections, which I passed no problem, and even used Ninja MCQ for BEC, and AUD, but on this exam I felt like I was tested on maybe 15% of the material provided. I felt like on the MCQ’s that 70-75% of the questions were Governmental, and not-for-profit, and the other 25-30% were theory or IFRS questions. I spent 3 months and easily over 300 hours studying for this exam, and I feel like based on the test I got, I could of focused on two chapters in Becker, and passed, But instead my mind was full of all the information, and calculations I needed that did not even show up. I had no questions over any type of Financial Statement, or presentation, nothing over depreciation, leases, bonds, pensions, EPS, revenue recognition, income taxes, any major key topic no questions! I thought I was going crazy, but it even followed through to the Sims, which had to do with governmental, and Not-for-profit. I do not think I passed, because yes I studied governmental, and not-for-profit, but I spent most of my time on the big key subjects Becker said were always heavily tested, and I got none of them.

[Allsheneededwassome]

Ouch. I’ve heard NFP and govt is heavily tested ( I had a test where I felt like 40 % was NFP/Govt) but my gosh no questions on any of the other stuff?

R 80(E)75!

F 66,69,70,81!

A 71,66,70,72,83!

B 75(E),82!

Ethics 95

[2bigcpa]

@405CPA

I took FAR on 03/02/18 and posted a comment on the same issue. I study over 200 hours and the exam covered maybe 10 to 15 topics. NFP and governmental were heavily test. Also, the SIMs were different from what Wiley mainly focused on. I over prepared for FAR, but I still don't think I passed. I am studying for AUD and so far, so good. I will take FAR again once I finish AUD, BEC, and REG.

AUD - 81
BEC - 77
FAR - 76
REG - 80

AUD - 81
BEC - 70, 77
FAR - 70, 70, 76
REG - 70, 80
(I used WileyCPA and Ninja-FAR only)

It took almost two years, but I am now finished with my CPA exams.

[Nate]

I had the same experience the first time I took FAR. I know the reason I failed was because of governmental accounting, which same as you I studied but not very much. I remember I had a TBS where I had to prepare a governmental F/S and I just put random numbers in with no clue what I was doing. I got a 73, and if it weren't for that, I probably would've passed. But now you know, they don't mess around with governmental accounting and NFP with FAR. Second time through, I studied both way more, and the irony is I had hardly any governmental accounting questions, but I had a ton of NFP questions including a TBS but the last firm I worked at only had NFP clients so I knew what I was doing luckily. Unfortunately with FAR, there's a little bit of luck involved, sometimes you get tested on subjects you know very well, and sometimes you don't.

AUD: 54 (10/31/15); 83 (12/02/17)
BEC: 70 (01/31/16); 90 (07/02/17)
FAR: 73 (10/03/15); 88 (02/17/18)
REG: 83 (06/09/18)
AICPA Ethics: 91 (06/28/18)
Licensed: 08/16/18

[ds34168]

I took FAR today too! I left the test center with terrible feeling. MCQ was fine with me, but the SIMS killed me, 3 SIMS were done with educated guess and 1 was completely random guess because running out of time (I expect no score from this one). I noticed they test heavily on adjusting entries, which is not a straight forward problem with formula or calculation that we learned from the book!! I had at least 5 SIMS with long paragraphs and other documents and require to do adjusting journal entries, how am I supposed to finish all of them within 2 hours or so??!! This is the 3rd time I take FAR and I am really frustrated now. Anyone has any suggestion on how to finish the test on time?

AUD - 82
BEC - 78
FAR - 84
REG - 76

AUD (Rogers + Ninja MCQ)

BEC (Rogers)

FAR (Rogers + Ninja MCQ + Gleim test bank)

REG (Rogers)

[fwesley]

I am so sorry! I completely agree. I bookmarked the review course I’m using as “CPA Hell” haha. I’m taking FAR tomorrow for the 3rd time. And I’ve been in corporate accounting for 12 years. Doesn’t help much with the real world that I’ve experienced.

I completely agree. First time I did general study. Then I studied for the parts I didn’t do well and NONE of those were on there. I wish government and NP was a separate “additional” license. What CPA wants to work in those fields?! You definitely don’t need a CPA for it. I’d rather not study it and not work in that field.

I also wanted to say – last time I got a really easy simulation but it had WAYYYY TOOO MUCCCCCH itemized information. And I was PISSED! It could have taken an hour to flip back and forth. And for time’s sake I had to move forward. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

FAR is hell.

AUD - 77
BEC - 84
FAR - 81
REG - 78

Ethics 91

 

4 years, $10,000 and counting...

READY TO BE DONE! ... C'mon BEC!

FAR: 65 (still drying my tears) 2nd attempt: 7/2016
BEC: 81 5/2016 (WOO FIRST PASS!)
REG: 5/2016
AUD: 8/2016

[CPWAT]

I think that mean you had a lot of pre-test on NFP/Governmental. But honestly according to the test format, the max they could test you is 25% so I honestly do not get how they can give you 70% of test contents based on NFP/Governmental.

Honestly, though I really don't get why we need to study Governmental /NFP because as you can see our governmental has zero accountability and the whole financial situation is upside down. NFP is like a scam for tax evasion.

[Anonymous]

Please don't take this the wrong way – But I do not believe that it was 75%.

[Mona S.]

I too took FAR (first exam) the same day you took it and I saw a lot of Govt/NFP questions, I mean A LOT. I would say 45-50%. I even got a NFP sims which I hope was a pretest. MCQ were okay; nothing too crazy. I finished the first 2 testlets with 2 hours and 45 minutes left for SIMs. I really took my time with the sims; they were not super hard just tricky. I was pleasantly surprised to see that for the sims with documents attached, all documents were on a single page, all I gotta do was scroll up and down to read them. In the wiley test bank, the documents were on separate tabs. I still don't think I passed though, but overall the exam was not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I guess I was not fully prepared when it comes to the sims.

FAR - 77 ( March 2018)  Wiley

REG - 88 ( May 2018)     Wiley + NINJA Monthly

BEC - 81 (July 2018)      Wiley + NINJA Monthly

AUD - 83 (Sept 2018)     Wiley

[NYSCPA]

I took FAR around the same time but all my questions were pretty much evenly spread out. I said don't stress it because you can't really tell if you pass or not. I thought I did pretty good for a pass but got a 74 and FAR is my last part

FAR- Passed

AUD- Passed

REG- Passed

BEC- Passed

[Anonymous]

I had a good amount of NFP and Goovernment MCQs both times I took the exam and that was my weak area. Apparently I did well on MCQ so I'm thinking that a lot of the NFP and Governmental questions are pre-test questions. Maybe they are trying to add to their pool of MCQs testing that area.

Also I would take MCQs on those topics over SIMs any day. Luckily I passed this last to round.

[Author]

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