CPA Exam Tips

Please note that these methods worked for me, you may need to modify them to
suit your learning style.

Below is a copy/paste of my FAR experience that I wrote on the CPAnet forum:

Mostly everyone on the forum has said that time management is critical in FAR. So I
made sure I track my time. Ideally, I told myself I will take 45 per testlet in MCQ's. This
way, it will leave me a good 1 hour and 45 minutes for the sims. The first testlet was
fairly manageable and I finished it in 40 minutes. The second set of MCQs were horrible
and I took 55 minutes to finish it. Assuming I didn't do so well in the second one, the
third one was moderate, and I took 40 minutes. So I ended up being on track with 1
hour and 45 minutes for sims. The first sim took 1 hour and the second one was 45
minutes. I was able to finish it with 1 minute and 55 seconds remaining.

My advice, manage your time very carefully, because those mcq calculations can easily
eat up all your time. Also, even if you mark your mcqs for review, don't go back and
review them. When answering the mcq, I told myself that this is my only shot, no going
back and correcting the answer. This way, I saved myself some time for the sims. If you
don't know it the first time you see it, chances are you will not know it in the second go
around.

I wouldn't say that there is any one chapter that is more important than the other. I had
all random stuff thrown at me.

So go in there with full confidence and show them that you know your material.

Here are more details and suggestions...While reading it, keep in mind that everyone
has a different learning method. This one worked for me, but you may need to modify it.
For FAR, you need to have a somewhat different approach than for other exams.

The magic here is to know EVERYTHING! The best study tip for FAR is to study
everything!

My personal experience...During the actual exam simulations, I got a tab from almost
every chapter! So don't take anything lightly.

Speed plays an important factor for each and every exam, but it is even more crucial
when it comes to FAR. I finished FAR 1 minute and 55 seconds earlier!

If you don't want to run out of time, make sure you get enough practice ahead of time,
so you know your material very well. Even though I was unsure for a few MCQs, I did
NOT review them because I knew I'd be short on time. I have heard from several people
who successfully passed FAR was that they did not review their MCQs. Taking the time
to review your MCQs just means that you will have less time in simulations. So you
must be so well-versed in the material that you can be confident in majority of the
MCQs.

Also, Becker did not tell me to study the financial formulas (i.e. liquidity ratios). I was
very upset with Becker on that. I suggest that you take the time to review those ratios.
Those ratios are in Becker's BEC book. You may find those ratios handy during the
exam.

And regarding notes, FAR was too much material for me to handle; so I did not make
notes for FAR.

Also, keep in mind that the volume of material in FAR is too much, but nothing in it is
rocket science. The material may be a bit challenging, but if you focus, it is manageable.
So it's the amount of material that is crazy, not the material itself. So keep in mind that
this test is passable and you will prove it the first time around!

Finally, if you’re using Becker, try to do a cumulative review after every 3 chapters. For
example, after completing chapter 3, review chapters 1-3...after chapter 6, review
chapters 1-6, and after chapter 9, do a thorough review. This will help keep your
memory fresh :)

If you’re using Becker, Chapters 3 and 4 are the most important! Do make sure you
understand chapters 1, 2, and 5, but spend longer hours understanding chapters 3 and
4. Becker even says that one or both of your simulations will be either from chapter 3 or
chapter 4! So spend your time wisely and spend the most time in those 2 areas.

When I was doing the actual exam, I felt as if I'm just answering Becker's MCQs. Unlike
REG, the AUD exam was so much similar to the Becker's MCQ. In REG, during
the exam, I felt Becker didn't prepare me right. During AUD, the exam MCQs were very,
very similar. I felt that even the difficulty level was like Becker. So I would highly suggest
that you answer all Becker's MCQs and understand the correct and incorrect answers.

Being completely honest, Audit is very dry and I have no audit experience. My approach
to AUD was very different than REG. For REG, I tried to understand Chapters 1 and 2,
and then I moved on to 3. I made sure I grasp Chapter 3 before moving on to 4. I
completed the tax portion and then moved on to the law sections. AUD, on the other
hand, builds upon one another. I was told that complete the entire book once and then
re-read. I found this very helpful. Even though I was very tempted to re-read chapter 1
before moving on, I decided to follow the advice and just move on to chapter 2. When I
was going through the book the second time, everything made more sense to me. As a
result, there were 2-3 mnemonics that I didn't have to memorize because Tim Gaerty
had repeated them so many times that I had them memorized without even trying. I'm
just sharing my experience with you, but you do what you feel is comfortable.

For REG, the only simulations I practiced were the ones in the final exams. I didn't take
additional time out to practice the simulations and neither did I look into the techniques
for research tabs. For the research tabs, I used it as if I was using Google search – just
typed in the key words.

As I was going through the Audit forum, I wanted to give you a quick recommendation.
Not sure about how good you are in terms of the ratios, but make sure you have the
basic ratios memorized. Becker doesn't go over them in the lecture, but instead, they
placed them in the appendix of either Chapter 3 or Chapter 4. I didn't care for
memorizing the ratios, but a day before my exam in February, someone from the forum
told me to have them memorized. So I studied them the morning of my exam, and I am
really thankful to that person. The ratios came in very handy in MCQs and simulations.
Based on experience, don't spend too much time studying all of them, instead do spend
a few minutes to study the basic ratios. Good luck!

For REG, I felt Becker did a very poor job preparing me. But to my surprise, I passed it
with a 92! So Becker did do its job. I read the chapter twice and did the MCQs a total of
three times. During the exam, I felt the material being tested was very different. The
wording of the questions seemed foreign too. So make sure you have enough practice
with the material. The tax and the law portions are equally as important.