"I Failed FAR with a Bad Score, Now What?" CPA Exam Experience Podcast from SuperfastCPA

All right, welcome to episode four of the CPA exam experience with Super Fast CPA

So in this episode, I've got another call with one of our Super Fast CPA customers, Tracy

and she went in, spent a lot of time on FAR studying the first time, went in, took the exam

and then found out that she failed it and had done a lot worse than she thought she did

And that's a pretty common experience. A lot of very smart people that I knew personally when I

started working at the firm had the same thing happen to them. They didn't get, you know

like a 74 or a 72. They got more like a 45 or a 50. And that happens. It's a very common

experience. So my advice on how to restudy when this kind of thing happens is a lot different

you know, than if you got a 73 or a 74. So that's what you'll hear us cover on this call

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the reviews only help. So let's get into this interview. So what, how many sections have you taken

Just far, I've only, I've only sent a far. And I'm just, I think I'm going to tackle first, because I agree with your approach

Yeah. Audit to me would be the easiest, in my opinion. And I, and I did agree that after I tackled and conquered far that I would go to BEC next

because it don't know, not be easy, it was a reg, because it just seems like the next. Most of the whole one, but so you were like, I mean

Of course you're smart and you passed them all right together. Well, I did fail

I failed far once too. I know, but you must be a smart guy because you still did all three within three months

I said you must know what you're talking about. I still think that you're smart, even though you failed far the first time

Yeah. Because you can whip out all those in a space of months

Well, so, yeah, so the thing I can tell you is, I mean, I'm definitely

not a genius or anything, it really comes down to kind of mastering the daily study process. And

once you have, you know, kind of just a repeatable process that you can do each day, that

that is like the big, I mean, that's like the biggest difference maker. And a lot of people just

kind of assume that you just have to, it's a matter of kind of putting in the time. And it is

You know, you have to put in a certain amount of time. But there are a lot of people, you know, you see the pass rates, and the pass rates are like 50%

And so most people that are taking the exams are putting in the time, but you still have 50% of people, you know, failing any given section that they go in and take

And so the difference would be how are those people studying. So the study process is really what matters

That's just what happened with me. I, like you said, it's that first time studying for far

I was trying to learn every single thing I was trying to

I just kind of had this idea that like you need to know the topics front to back

backwards and forwards. You should be able to explain it to somebody else as if you were like a professor yourself

And there's just so much information. It covers so many topics that you just can't do that

That's not the way this works. you really just need to be able to answer the questions that you're going to see on the exams

And so the approach to those two avenues is completely different. If all you need to do is answer the questions on the exams, the way that you'd study most effectively for that is completely differently than if you were trying to literally memorize every single aspect of every single lesson

So that's kind of what, yeah, I mean, that's what the study hacks course is based on

So you've taken far once then, right? Yeah, and I got a 41, as you can see

I put it in the email. I thought it was pretty bad, and I'm like nowhere near a 74, 74 even

But I think that would have killed me more if I got a 74 and was one point away

I just want to jump her back into it so that I can still build on what I did know to sit it and pass it and not wait months and then not have interest anymore

Right. Yeah, and that's definitely the best thing is to, if you fail the section, get back into it immediately because this stuff is very technical

It leaves your memory pretty quickly, is what I'm trying to say. Do you recommend for planning the seeds, are you suggesting to start with doing questions first

and then only if it's something that you don't get, you use the video first approach

Yeah. Yeah, let me explain that better. So you work in these two-hour chunks, right

So any given morning, if it's a work day or whatever and you just have the two hours

then that's just what you would start with is two hours. The first 90 minutes is what you'd use to go through new information with this idea of

planting the seeds. So the way that planting the seeds should work is you're going to go straight into the

questions for that topic. And you want to do them in practice mode so that you can see the answer for any given question right away You not trying to take a quiz or anything And what you trying to do with this is because the idea behind this is for any given lesson

you can watch the lecture or read the whole chapter and it covers everything, right

It covers all the background information. But if you then go into the questions for any given lesson

what you'll see is that 90% of the questions are going to be from the same like three or four

main ideas from that lesson. And so that is what you're trying to figure out up front is

okay, from this lesson, this is what I'm really going to be seeing questions on. And then

so you're looking through the questions, you know, at this point, you haven't, you don't know

anything about the lesson, hypothetically, whatever lesson it is. You don't know anything about it

So you're not trying to get the answer right. And there's also not really any value in spending time

like trying to figure out the question from the beginning. You're basically reading the question

to just see what it's asking and then submitting it to see what the answer is. And you just kind of go

through 10 or 20 questions. And sometimes the topic, it's a bigger topic. And so it'll have like

50 or more questions from just one lesson. So you'll need to go through more on those kind of lessons

And then other lessons are smaller. So there might only be 10 questions total. You just go through

the questions pretty quickly and you read what it's asking. And you're just trying to get an idea of

okay, this is what these questions are going to be about from this lesson. And then you do read the

explanation and you're just trying to piece together, okay, this is the question and then this is

the solution. And you look through the other options and you read those explanations as well as to why

they were not correct. Okay. Okay. And just to classify lesson difficulties, you know, some

lessons, we could say they're relatively simple. Like the example I use is the lesson on how

FASB sets new accounting standards. All that is is a series of steps that you

essentially need to memorize, right? There's not a whole lot of figuring out or hard things to

understand about that. It's pretty cut and dry. Those are the steps that they take to create a new

accounting standard. So you can go through just a few questions on that topic and read the explanations

and the explanations will more or less have, you know, list out the steps. And you could make a

flash card for that and you essentially move on. So that lesson, if it's an easy lesson like that

you know, you go through the questions, you get the main idea by reading some of the explanations

and you can kind of just move on. Then a medium, you know, a medium difficulty lesson might have

some calculation aspect and some conceptual stuff, but you basically do the same process. You read

through the questions. If there's a calculation type question, you re-perform it several times

so that you can get back to that same answer. And you, you know, if you go through multiple questions

that are calculation type questions and re-perform the calculations. Make some notes on some flashcards about the formulas you need to know

or just the framework for using or for performing those kind of calculations

And then on like a harder lesson, it might be referring back to some kind of framework

or some maybe multiple formulas. It's clearly harder for you to understand

You still want to go through the practice questions and kind of get a good idea of

what specific things you're seeing questions on. And at that point, if you're just not getting it from

reading the questions and the explanations, on those ones, you would go back and you would watch the

full lecture. And when you do it that way, you already are starting the lecture with an idea of

what you're trying to learn from that lecture. So it will make a lot more sense the first time

After you've kind of gone through the questions and you have an idea now of what you're

trying to learn from that video lecture. Does that make sense? Yeah, it's like, because what you're saying

is the more difficult ones are the ones that you're going to have to use the videos more, but

than the ones that you get, but you have to, but you should still start off using the question

doing the questions approach so you can. So that you have context of what, of what you're trying to

learn from that video. Yeah. Yep. So the approach is the same starting from the beginning. And

you know, you won't really know up front which lessons are easy, medium, or hard. I mean

it kind of depends on your personal background and, you know, whatever, wherever you're at

with these topics, you'll start each lesson the same way. You start each lesson by going

through the questions. And some of the lessons, just to you, will be more simple and you'll

you'll pick up on it faster. And for those ones, you're just kind of getting an idea, you're kind of trying to

get a base understanding of, okay, for this lesson, these are the types of questions I'm seeing

I more or less know how to answer these, make a few notes on some flashcards, and you can move on

Now, if the lesson is a little bit harder than that, and you're not really getting it even after

you know, reading the question, reperforming some of the calculations, then you would go back

and you would find, or you would go back to the video lecture and watch the whole lecture

and the lecture will make a lot more sense doing it that way

And seeing that a mistake that I made yesterday because when I started doing the questions the statements of cashals and I did the questions I went through the questions and I answered them Like I went through the study mode for CPA Excel

but, I mean, I wasn't sure until I spoke to you that I should

if I should just looking at the question and trying to look at the answers, because if I get it wrong, then I have to go through each one until I get it right

So am I just looking at it anyway just to see why it's wrong, and then why the answer is right, which you explained already

Yes, I should do that. And then, and then so, and I was taking it from a mindset of me trying to question

and then if I don't get it right, seeing why it was wrong, but that takes a, it took a lot of, it took a lot of time

So I say, I don't think this is what Nate is trying to say that I should do, so I should ask him that

And then I wanted to know if, should I go in sequence from the beginning of book

or their syllabus and go through it like that? because I was looking at, I was picking out areas that were topics that were harder for me

versus ones that I could, because like conceptual framework, it's not as difficult as something like

earnings for share or bonds or, or statement as cash for less what I said

But I kind of think that you don't, you don't really think it matters what is difficult or easy

You should just. Yes, yeah, yeah, I know what you're saying. Yes, and that was, again, that was one of my big mistakes the first time when I took far is I also, I kind of skipped over the lessons that seemed kind of simple and easy

I kind of skipped over those because I just assumed that the test would be full of those hard calculations like you just mentioned, like diluted earnings per share and stock option calculations

But then you get into the exam and it's not really like that. they, you know, the questions are asked evenly from all topics

And if you just kind of skip over the seemingly easy conceptual questions, in the exam

I mean, the questions are tricky. Like, even if it's simple and it's just one sentence and there's no calculation

it's still, you'll see like two or three of the responses that seem like they're right

And it's asking things in such a specific way that unless you really spent time on that lesson

you know, it'll be confusing. And that was, that was exactly what I realized my, when I took

far the first time. And that's why I changed how I studied completely after that. So based

on what you were saying, yeah, that is my recommendation is to, you want, you want to spend the

well, you don't want to spend equal time on every lesson, like I said, but you want to give each

lesson equal consideration. And again, if it's more simple, you still want to put in the time to

make sure you you kind of get it and you go through the questions and you understand the types

of questions you're going to be seeing and make a few notes on it. But you won't have to spend as

much time on those simple lessons, but you do need to cover them adequately. Because the exam is

not just going to be the hardest questions on, you know, earnings per share or business consolidations

and combinations. It's not, it's spread equally among all these different topics. Yeah, you

you want to give each lesson equal consideration, even though you won't spend equal time

because some lessons are easier than others. So start from the beginning of the syllabus and don't

just start from the beginning, go to the end, use that order and then, but use your approach with

just doing questions and looking at the answer. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so the summed-up approach is go through the question

get an idea of what questions you're actually seeing or what stuff you're being asked

and then read those explanations, just get kind of comfortable with, okay, these are the questions I'm going to see

These are the answers to these types of questions. Make notes on a few, you know, make some of your own flashcards in your own words

so that you understand what you're actually writing down. You want to end each study session with that 30, that set of 30

multiple choice questions and you're you're generating those now what you're doing right now is

you'll be doing a far retake so you could still generate just 30 total random questions from the

whole section because essentially you've been through the topics once I do think though

where you know where you got a 41 you probably need more base you need you need more base coverage

So I would actually, in your circumstance, I would go through it as if you were starting over

I would just start from the top, go through each lessons in the way that we just, you know, covered

And you want to end each session, each two-hour block, the last 30 minutes being those 30 multiple choice questions that you generate

Okay. Using the quiz builder or whatever. I think, I can't remember what CPA Excel calls that, but every review course can do that

you create a custom quiz and you just, you choose the topics that it's pulling from

Okay. Okay, so that's good advice, thanks. The men is saying, so when

when I'm listening to the audios, should I, should I go in order as well then

Just go from the first, from the first, from conceptual through, like

doesn't, yeah. Yes, yeah. Now, yeah, with our products, so what we just went through is

you know, it like your main study session when you sitting in front of your review course and then the rest of your day with our products on the app just start from the top and move through those over and over and over from

start to finish because they're more simplified, they're easier to understand, you know? And so you're

just kind of building on your understanding of all the topics little by little as you go through

the notes, read through the review notes from start to finish, listen to the audios from start to

finish. You don't need to try to keep your mini sessions in line with what you studied just that

day. With the mini sessions, you just, that's what, that's your other part of the whole, the re-review

Okay. You're where you're hitting just everything over and over. Okay. So our review notes, the audios, and the quizzes, that's how they're designed is to be

just kind of aid your understanding and comprehension of everything. And you just filter through those over and over and over through your study window

I mean, that helps a lot. I mean, I was starting to get, you know, I was hopping all over the place

And even yesterday I was like, I was going to just watch the videos, listen to the videos all over again

But the how to study one and the helps a lot. And it really, when I was emailing you, when a time I went through all the videos

you said a lot about what I was thinking anyway. I mean, I'm open to pass the thing

I don't know if I can go from a 41 to 75, but I'm, I'm still, it doesn't mean I won't either

Yeah, you know, you definitely can. And, but like you said, I mean, even if, you know, it's always possible, you go into the

testing center, you're either going to pass or fail the section. And it's, it's definitely possible to go from a 41 to passing

I mean, it's definitely possible. But even if you went from, you know, a 41 to like a 65, that's a huge improvement

And you would do, you know, one more cycle, basically, of what you just did to, you know

go from a 41 to a 65. and then the next time you would for sure go from a 65 to a 75 or an 80

You know, so the actual, you don't need to put a ton of pressure on like, you know

this time has to be the one, especially since you're just, this is your first section

and that 18 months only starts when you pass the first one

It would be nice, but I don't, I mean, I'm just going to

So one more, one more word on the on the study process. process itself, like as you try to implement these, that strategy each day, well, it's a lot like

teaching someone how to ride a bike. You know, the steps to ride a bike are very simple

You, like my five-year-old, she just learned how to ride a bike this year. You can tell the kid

okay, it's, you sit on this bike, you know, see these two pedals, you put your feet on the

pedals, and then you just balance and you pedal. And, you know, that's an accurate description of how

to ride a bike. But for the person that's learning, there's a lot more going on, that they just have to kind of figure it out

just figure out how that feels, you know, what it really feels like to actually balance and ride

the bike. And so doing this approach that I just went through, it's kind of like that where

it might seem confusing at first, or you might think, okay, how is this really, how does this

really apply now that I'm actually trying to study? You have to do it for a few weeks in a row

keep referring back to those how to study videos inside the course

And a lot of times, if you have kind of a rough study session

you can go back and watch that video and you'll hear things that you didn't really

catch the first time as you kind of figure this process out

And again, the end goal is getting to where you're confident in your own daily study process

because once I got to that point, I, yeah, I passed all four in a row

And so that's really what it is about is just getting to where, okay, I know how to do the daily study process, whether this is an easy lesson or a more difficult lesson

Like I know how to kind of dissect this lesson and figure out what I need to figure out and move on to the next one

Okay. Well, I mean, thanks so much. I just, I'm just going to approach it this way, doing this system

and I just wanted to not give up, dust myself off and try again with your approach

And also, I'm not saying your approach is going to give me the thing, but it's to help me

It's not for me, it's not without my work. It's not without my effort, yeah

Yeah, definitely. And then that is what will be so nice about spending a portion of your day

always hitting the stuff you've already covered and doing the constant re-review with our

products is you don't have that pressure at the end of trying to relearn everything

Because when you do this correctly, you will slowly get better at every topic along the way

so that you're kind of at your peak understanding by test day instead of going one lesson one

by one, but you never look at it again until your final review and realizing, like you said

how much you've forgotten. Whereas with this approach, you are building that re-reviewed

in every single day so that you're continually getting better and better and better at all the

all the material so yeah well thank so much nade i mean i don't take a lot of your time and i really

but i mean it was it was it was it was really helpful and i thank you for the time you took out to

chat with me yeah no problem