FAR in the Books + Plan Tweaked for AUD Retake

Tori is a NINJA CPA Blogger.

Hey NINJAs,

I hope everyone has had a great week. I know I have made some amazing leaps and bounds in progress this week.

As of Monday the tenth, I took FAR for the third time. Nothing special happened I just took the exam and then went with my husband for an early Valentine’s day dinner. That was nice, but first thing Tuesday at 5 AM I was back to the grind.

I have scheduled AUD for 2/28/2014. AUD is the section which expired when I didn’t pass FAR in November. It is almost like I have an advantage as I get ready for the exam.

This doesn’t mean I am cutting any corners though.

I am however changing my strategy a little to ensure I get through all of the materials. The first thing I did was re-download the NINJA study planner and made a few tweaks. I added a couple of columns so that I could analyze based upon the number of questions in the Wiley test bank, the amount of effort/time it will take to get through the materials.

Since I am not new to AUD, I have decided to tackle the sections by area with the highest number of MCQ and work my way to the less intense sections. As of tonight, I have answered 72% of the multiple choice questions one time and made notes on questions I have missed.

Things are not going too bad for me. Most of the missed questions were due to fatigue, I think. After I have gone through all the questions once, I plan to focus on the missed questions and really drill them until I have all green columns in the progress report screen.

Coming out of FAR, I really felt overwhelmed by the amount of work that needed to be done. This approach, where I start with the bigger pieces and work my way to the smaller portions seems more manageable and motivating. I expect to be through all the topics by the end of this week with NINJA Note retype, and of course non stop NINJA audio.

Then I will have a full week for final review and constant MCQ on weaker areas.

I know that I am changing things up from the normal NINJA framework. However, I am short on time, so I tweaked the plan in a way that I feel will benefit me the most. For those of you out there who have made multiple attempts at a section, how have you changed your methodology to avoid the insanity of repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?

I am grateful for the support I am receiving at work. I know I would not be able to be this productive on such a short amount of time, if I had not been permitted this temporary alternative work schedule. I just hope my efforts pay off.

Have a super productive study week NINJAs.

Tori