Progress Report: Week 4
I’ve been studying for the CPA exam for a month now! It feels like I’ve barely started, but I’ve been picking up the pace.
My big accomplishment for week four was bringing my average hours studied per day (for the total time) up to 1 hour. It was really bad when it was below that! If I study 3 hours a day for the next 28 days, I can bring that average up to 2 hours a day.
Estimating Study Time Needed before CPA Exam
I have watched 6 hours of Roger CPA videos, so I have about 24 hours of video left. So far I’ve spent about 2.5 hours doing homework problems for every hour of “class.”
I estimate I have about 84 hours of “learning” still to get through. This part of the process involves watching the Roger CPA Review videos, plus going through the “homework” problems. In this stage, as I do each problem, I check the answer and read the explanation for how to do it. This is part of “learning” because reading the explanations teaches me how to do the problem properly.
After that stage, I still need to:
- Review all this information, because I definitely don’t have it down very well yet for the parts I’ve already completed the homework problems for.
- Practice the simulation problems
- Drill-go through practice tests and get up to speed.
I’m not sure how long the next parts will take me, but I have about 25 or so days left before I take the exam, so studying for only 2 hours a day from now on will just barely get me through the learning stage. Therefore, I’ll be studying a lot more hours a day from now on.
FAR seems to be the longest section to study for, judging by the fact that Roger has more video hours for this section than any other. At least for the next section I take I’ll know earlier how many hours of study I need to budget for!
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Add value to your progress reports – what does FAR stand for and why does it take up so much time? Do share
Don’t listen to Krupo. We all know you are too busy studying to elaborate. So I’ll be happy to give Mr Krupo a Financial Accounting and Reporting primer if that will float his boat. Ready? Here we go…
Financial Accounting and Reporting is a 4 hour exam that covers the following topics:
* FAR-1: Conceptual Framework, Cash & Cash Equivalents, Cost & Equity Method, Marketable Securities, Financial Instruments & Derivatives
* FAR-2: Inventory, Property, Plant & Equipment, Intangible Assets, R&D Costs & Other Assets
* FAR-3: Bonds, Leases, Liabilities, Receivables
* FAR-4: Pensions & Postemployment Benefits, Stockholders’ Equity, Partnerships
* FAR-5: Reporting the Results of Operations, Accounting for Income Taxes, Interim Financial Reporting, Segment Reporting
* FAR-6: Statement of Cash Flows, Earnings Per Share (EPS), Financial Statement Analysis, Installment Sales & cost Recovery, Long Term Construction Contracts, Personal F/S, Foreign Operations, Inflation Accounting
* FAR-7: Governmental Accounting
* FAR-8: Consolidated Financial Statements, Non-Profit Accounting
Studying for FAR can take a CPA exam candidate between 100 and 250 hours depending on the CPA exam review course they are using and their study strategy.
Many candidates are overwhelmed and intimidated by FAR as it is the largest CPA exam section of the four (FAR, REG, AUD, BEC) but study strategies for this section should not really be altered in any way in comparison to the others. The experts (hello!) say the best plan is to digest FAR in smaller pieces and work up towards the big day, adding larger amounts of information onto the foundation each day.
hahahaha, there you go, Krupo, was that “value” enough for you? Leave Kel alone, she’s STUDYING!!!!
Adrienne
Thanks Adrienne! You are the best person around here to answer that question