[Kodiak]

Less than five hundred. I purchased flashcards and ninja materials to augment Becker regular items. Everything else firm either paid for outright or reimbursed.

I do applaud you for not giving up and making it happen.

AUD - 85
BEC - 86
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Coffee is my favorite coworker.

[Kodiak]

You couldn't make it through to the end of the testlet? Better to have rushed through than to risk getting your exam voided.

AUD - 85
BEC - 86
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Coffee is my favorite coworker.

[Kodiak]

Well I was away for a lot longer than school. I left after I graduated high school and joined the military, met my husband and we spent years moving all over. We got stuck in SC and the heat is not my thing LOL. I prefer having all four seasons. Plus all the family is here so it was kind of a no brainer to come back after our kids finished school. Just timed it to graduate and move back to back. SC has become so hot and humid. I do agree that the cold and snow gets old from Jan-Apr, but my feeling is I love the weather in AK 8 months out of the year. I loved the weather in SC for about 3 months out of the year.

AUD - 85
BEC - 86
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Coffee is my favorite coworker.

[Kodiak]

I went to University of South Carolina and our pass rates were very high for the business school. Over 80% pass rate. I passed all four of mine first time through. I think a strong accounting program combined with tackling the exams right after graduation was a good thing. Funny thing though is I registered through AK since I was moving back home. So my pass rate is lumped in with Alaska. And I'm still waiting for my two years' experience requirement to tick away. *sigh*

AUD - 85
BEC - 86
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Coffee is my favorite coworker.

[Kodiak]

I'm still waiting on mine as well. I'm not in a huge rush, have a 2 yr experience requirement and I'm like a year and 4 months still to go on it.

AUD - 85
BEC - 86
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Coffee is my favorite coworker.

[Kodiak]

I was interviewing with two firms, the only two I was pursuing. The one I thought was going to be amazing and I thought I wanted, I didn't get. Then I went through interviewing for the second firm and realized I fit MUCH better with them and I got an offer (work there now). If I'd gotten the first one I would've taken it and never realized the second firm was much better for me.

Don't let it beat you down. After my first rejection I read an article where someone literally had 100 rejections before getting an offer. I actually made a paper with a hundred Nos and one yes to help keep my mental game on. I didn't need it but it did help!

AUD - 85
BEC - 86
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Coffee is my favorite coworker.

[Kodiak]

Okay so I didn't realize you were doing a bazillion things and trying to do the exam. Bottom line, just because you want to fit it all in doesn't mean you can. Something has to give, you choose which one.

I didn't start working on the cpa until after graduation just because I knew working, school and cpa was not gonna happen. I'd have failed at one of those three if I'd tried.

AUD - 85
BEC - 86
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Coffee is my favorite coworker.

[Kodiak]

There's some common sense in this thread and some not so.

You can take the time to chill when you get home, take care of your pets, take that mental downtime.

My advice, try to shift to getting up earlier and studying in the morning, maybe try to get even 30-60 mins at night and then try to make up some hours on the weekend.

You've got to stay sane. I have pretty much the same schedule and I'd start studying around 9 if I got home around 7, sometimes it'd be 10 and I'd study for just an hour. Some nights I got home at 9 and didn't study at all until morning.

Be real with yourself, which it seems you are, and try to work with your schedule to maximize the benefit out of what study time you fit in.

AUD - 85
BEC - 86
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Coffee is my favorite coworker.

[Kodiak]

You guys can do it! Just remind yourselves how amazing it will feel to be done.

AUD - 85
BEC - 86
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Coffee is my favorite coworker.

[Kodiak]

I will keep reiterating to people – do not worry about your score. The information gained from these is far more important. Use it, identify where you need to focus and do it. You've got plenty of time!

AUD - 85
BEC - 86
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Coffee is my favorite coworker.

[Kodiak]

My advice is to go back and retake it. It's not about winning on a mock exam. The mock is a tool that shows you exactly where your weakness are. I got a horrible FAR mock 1 but I knew it wasn't going to be pretty. I needed to see what areas to focus on and it worked. The only exam you have to win is the actual. Good luck!

AUD - 85
BEC - 86
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Coffee is my favorite coworker.

[Kodiak]

I wanted to take the one I thought would be the most challenging first and then make sure I took FAR before AUD because I had heard it was helpful. In the end I did BEC, REG, FAR and then AUD. I took BEC first just because I was able to get it done before the exam changed which was recommended by the Becker rep when they came to our BAPs meeting.

AUD - 85
BEC - 86
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Coffee is my favorite coworker.

[Kodiak]

REG was the one I feared the most and probably the one I studied the hardest for. For FAR, you don't have to drill down into the topics but I don't think that can be said for REG. Those basis questions will kill you if you don't really dig into it and understand how it works and the same can be said about deductions and taxable income vs. book income. Just felt like you had to do a lot more work for better understanding and I'm sure that's because I didn't have much tax exposure in college and I work in Audit.

I studied 4 hours in the morning and around 4 hours every night for 3-4 weeks leading up to the exam, probably half that for the couple of weeks before that. Looking back, I'm really glad I pushed so hard on that one because it was easily the only one I studied and worked that hard for and I wound up with the same score as the others. If I hadn't put those hours in, I probably wouldn't have passed.

Blaw is the only area of it you can probably get away with the big picture concept because underlying it is the premise of agency and principal. You don't have to really dig into those items but the little detail can trip you up, however in Becker they made the point you can pass knowing tax items alone if you really get them down. You can't pass if you don't get tax down regardless of how amazing you are at the blaw. Know your tax then deal with the blaw.

AUD - 85
BEC - 86
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Coffee is my favorite coworker.

[Kodiak]

Definitely check on this because it is usually experience under a CPA which means a CPA has to sign off on your application.

AUD - 85
BEC - 86
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Coffee is my favorite coworker.

[Kodiak]

I always took mine at the end of the testing window, not really sure why. But might as well maximize your study window, right.

AUD - 85
BEC - 86
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Coffee is my favorite coworker.

[Author]

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