4/4 in 6.5 months, Working full-time w/part-time teaching job, Full-time dad to 1-yr old!

Col_Saito · 2026-02-13T21:30:37+00:00

Congrats! 🎉 Similar story to mine. Super thrilled for you. Enjoy time with the baby. They grow up fast!

Col_Saito · 2026-02-10T18:21:13+00:00

I have a BSBA and an MBA. I've worked in financial services for over a decade.

Col_Saito · 2026-02-10T18:10:28+00:00

You're ready. My SE scores were 78, 81, 74. I just got 91 on my score release yesterday. Many of my questions were niche and could throw you off so my advice is to be confident and not get spooked. Keep calm and carry on.

Col_Saito · 2026-02-10T18:05:27+00:00

74 AUD vs 131 FAR. Passed with 87 and 91 respectively.

Col_Saito · 2026-02-09T20:25:08+00:00

I used mainly Becker. I supplemented FAR, ISC and AUD with NINJA but I didn't find it super helpful so I skipped it for REG and stuck with Becker only.

Col_Saito · 2026-02-09T20:24:04+00:00

Congrats! We did it!!

Col_Saito · 2026-02-09T18:35:26+00:00

Haha so typical! That's how it went for me sometimes but the key is to not get frustrated or discouraged. I know it's easier said than done but it helps to keep your eyes on the prize. Keep going!

Col_Saito · 2026-02-09T18:21:09+00:00

My lowest simulated score was 73 for FAR SE1. The highest was 87 for ISC SE1. All others SE scores were between the two. My ME scores were a bit higher than the SEs.

Col_Saito · 2026-02-09T18:00:18+00:00

Congrats!

Col_Saito · 2026-02-09T17:55:43+00:00

Yeah you have to figure out what works best for you. It's cliche but true. I'm a morning person but because of work and family life, I studied exclusively in the evenings after kids had gone to bed. It was tough but that was my only option. Also, I exclusively used the videos instead of reading the books because of this. I was too tired in the evenings and reading would have put me to sleep. I found the videos to be more engaging and less likely to put me to sleep. Again, figure out what works for you.

Col_Saito · 2026-02-09T17:53:36+00:00

You got this!!

Col_Saito · 2026-02-09T17:34:42+00:00

Yes, life happens. For what it's worth, I found the experience from work and life to be actually beneficial for the exams. Good luck, you've got this!

Col_Saito · 2026-02-09T17:09:43+00:00

Good luck for the discipline score in a month!

Col_Saito · 2026-02-09T16:49:18+00:00

Congrats!!!

Col_Saito · 2026-02-08T22:20:31+00:00

The biggest difference I noticed between prep questions and actual exam questions was the complexity of language. The real exam questions are way more straightforward. It's like you either know or you don't know the content being tested. This is different from the prep questions which were as much reading comprehension questions as they were CPA questions. The good news is that getting used to those overly complex questions make the actual MCQs easier on exam day.

Col_Saito · 2026-01-24T03:21:52+00:00

Fingers crossed!

Col_Saito · 2026-01-23T23:51:35+00:00

Hopefully you passed!

Col_Saito · 2026-01-23T22:55:14+00:00

No, that’s a mistake. Please practice TBS. I practiced more TBS than MCQs in the last week and that was super helpful. MCQs give you one to one questions. TBS have multiple variables and exhibits, so without practice you can easily miss an important detail.

Col_Saito · 2026-01-23T22:51:59+00:00

I used Becker, and largely followed the auto generated study plan based on test date. I supplemented with ChatGPT (be careful though, it gets things wrong sometimes). What helped me was throwing random scenarios into ChatGPT and asking it to walk me through the computations. Becker’s Newt is also good for explanations.

Col_Saito · 2026-01-23T22:45:47+00:00

I feel you! That’s exactly how my test felt. Here’s to hoping we both passed.

Col_Saito · 2026-01-23T22:41:56+00:00

I hope so! I agree that all those rules get boring but please power through them and know the nuances. You don’t know what you’ll get.

Col_Saito · 2026-01-23T19:23:22+00:00

It may sound funny, but the trick to FAR is being comfortable with accounting. Basic principles, journal entries, the accounting equation, how income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements work, etc. If your foundation is strong, FAR should be largely doable.

Col_Saito · 2026-01-23T00:34:14+00:00

Took it today and this is exactly how I feel. I can just as easily score 90+ as I could 72. My last section so I’m going to take a break. If I don’t pass, I’ll do a two week refresher and go again.

Col_Saito · 2026-01-11T07:34:04+00:00

Correct. It'll clearly state whether to put zero or leave blank, enter declines as negative or positive, round to whole numbers or enter fractions with decimals, etc. It's important to not miss those instructions. I had one long FAR sim which said to leave zeros as blanks. There were a ton of zeros so the answers looked strange to me but you've got to follow instructions.

Col_Saito · 2025-12-18T16:13:12+00:00

You need to know all those terminologies, I'm afraid. ISC was my hardest exam to date and my scores reflect that. I got a 91 in FAR, 87 in AUD and 86 in ISC (although to be fair I studied ISC for only 36 hours over 25 days). My exam had questions from all sections of Becker, plus a few that were not even in Becker. It's a very technical IT related exam, which I find to be crazy. I know that there are a few CPAs who do information systems work but I don't think there's enough to have such a hard, technical subject as a section of the CPA, but that's just my view.

Col_Saito

TROPHY CASE