So tomorrow will be the one week anniversary of when I took the FAR exam. There is a lot to learn between passing the BEC section in the summer and taking the FAR section a week ago. The contrast between the two sections is so great, you may as well obtain two different certifications.
First off, time played a major role. To say I managed my time poorly is a little bit of an understatement. The BEC section is only 2.5 hours long - the shortest of the four exams. Going into it, I was very time-conscious and it paid off. I probably had a good half hour at the end to check over the last testlet. The FAR section, on the other hand, is 4 hours long - only the Auditing exam is longer at 4.5 hours. With three testlets (of 30 multi-choice each) and two simulations, you're asked to do a lot in that amount of time. Whereas I should have been spending maybe 60 to 90 seconds on a multiple choice problem, I was spending up to 5 minutes on a single problem. By the time I was finished with the 3rd testlet, I only had 45 minutes to complete the two simulation problems.
Upon this realization, I was not only fighting the clock, I was fighting myself. I was flustered and panicked. I tried taking a deep breathe and relaxing, so as to fight the anxiety that had set in, but it was a futile effort. I tried guessing the accounts in the debits and credits that should have been the journal entries and skipped on calculating the amounts. For the Communication tab, I fired off two quick sentences summarizing something that vaguely related to what the mock-client wanted to know and left it at that (something I would never do to a real client).
What I learned from the whole thing was not just how important knowing the material is, but how valuable time is during the exam. The CPA exam isn't just testing if you know the material, but how well you know the material.
The only redeeming factor in all this is knowing that the three testlets got progressively more difficult as I took them. This is a good sign since the CPA exams are adaptive. How well you do in the earlier testlets determines how difficult the later testlets are, and the more difficult testlets weigh more for correct answers. Even assuming all of this, I have to expect to take it again 2011. Given my non-calculations of journal entries in the simulations and poor communication in the written section, I am prepared to see a grade of less than 75 when the grades are released in December.
Moving on, I have scheduled the Audit and Attestation (AUD) section for mid-November. This time will be different. For the AUD section, which is 4.5 hours, I will not take time for granted.
Happy studying.
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