FAR Preparation so far..

Accounting is like spaghetti , Every thing touches everything else - Cindy Simpson, Yaegar CPA Review

I agree with Cindy over that. And my preparation reminds me of that quote every time.  I got these handed down Yaegar FAR self study material from a friend and a Becker text book . As I won CPAExcel's FAR course it added to my preparation material. So again I have plenty to prepare. But this time I don't want to mess up my preparation going over everything. That is impossible and overwhelming. 


So I decided that I will first listen Yaegar lectures because they are like live lectures. They cover all major topics and they do MCQ's along with us and I think that makes a lot of difference. Some call it spoon feeding but I am ok with that. More over they don't do each and every question so, I don't count it as spoon feeding. 


But CPAExcel's course is really keeping me on track. They got this nice little scheduling software. We need to enter the start date of preparation and the exam date and they neatly lay out a preparation schedule with due dates .We can also prepare our own schedule.


And really preparing according to the schedule leaves me no time for anything else. The questions, problems other than past exam problems are different and making me think and practice them again on paper. And missing a day is bringing me nightmares. I don't want to compare the reviews right now. So far I just completed the basic concepts.. and really a long way to go..

If you want to try CPA Excel's Course you can try it here for free Click Here  (Use the CPAExcel online button and then click the Trial button)

Choosing 'C'

I don't know why I refuse to believe the theories behind choosing 'C'. May be because we read every page , do every problem , revise and practice .... And it feels hard to accept that a simple psychology or a trick can make us pass. I am always a believer of ' Don't learn the tricks to trade only learn to trade' theory. Not that we need to ignore a myth that can make us pass, but some where in this mind there are questions.... Don't the AICPA/NASBA  knew that? They are all CPA's right!! And don't they have some program which can randomize the answer sequences for each and every paper? Are they so outdated in programming? I don't know .. but so many thoughts keep coming to my mind when I am waiting for the REG score.

I spoke to one of my friends and she recently passed REG exam and she was telling me her story. She said, I don't know the answers to many questions on the exam and I selected 'C' for most of the questions and I passed with a 90. I really didn't understand how to react, when I heard that. It almost sounded like a fantasy. A chance can be so lucky as 90? A belief in a myth can be so innocently rewarding? I know that she don't lie to me on that. But I still cant believe this.

Is it an observation that says most of the questions that are correct can be 'C' or is it some kind of theory that says.. It is never 'A' because the exam is designed to penalize the Lazy student for not reading all answer choices.

I am using Yaegar CPA Review and  Prof. Cindy Simpson advises not to choose 'A', she says if you have to choose it, Be very sure. I also watched a video on youtube of Roger CPA review. Prof.Roger also advises similarly. I even heard it from Kaplan Profs. I used Kaplan for BEC.

So the point is almost every review advises, if you don't know the answer at all Choose 'C'. This only works for those questions, you have no clue at all. If you have a slightest gut feeling or some idea on that question, And you have to guess , choose the answer you think/feel right. You are not obligated to choose 'C' but don;t leave blanks. If you have to do that choose 'C'. This is the myth going around in our CPA Exam preparation. This theory is still struck in my throat. But it looks like it is working for many.  Reader discretion is advised .

Update: The right words for this are Item Response Theory (IRT) and  psychometrics. Read this link to read more about these from AICPA website

http://www.aicpa.org/BECOMEACPA/CPAEXAM/PSYCHOMETRICSANDSCORING/Pages/PsychometricsandScoring.aspx

http://www.aicpa.org/BecomeACPA/CPAExam/PsychometricsandScoring/ScoringInformation/DownloadableDocuments/How_the_CPA_Exam_is_Scored.pdf


Insights : Ben Cohen , Mariette Knoblauch , Nano, Roger , Yaegar