FAR study thoughts

Quick thoughts on Inventory

by gaap toothed on April 1, 2010 · 0 comments

in FAR,tips for success

Inventory is a deceptively easy module.  Most of it is pretty straight forward in both Gleim and Wiley.

The hardest sections in Inventory for me have been: Gross Profit Method, Dollar Value LIFO (DV-LIFO) and DV-LIFO Retail Method.

Gross Profit Method:
Gross Profit Method is very straight forward, but the terminology is confusing as hell.  In the interest of saving myself time on the exam, I tried to make a shortcut for myself by saying anytime given a percent or number (n), then the variable (x) that follows the words “on” or “of” is equal to margin on (x).  Definitely didn’t work, I kept getting them wrong.

For Gross Margin method, my plan is to go slow and not rush any calculation because I found that I make stupid mistakes when trying to make calculations before reading the problem.  I’m better off spending 45 to 60 seconds reading the question.  Once I understand the question, then the calculation is much easier and faster (usually less than 10 seconds, only a matter of punching in numbers), which is worth the 70 seconds because I can get these right 100% of the time when I understand the question.

Retail Method of DV-LIFO
Retail Method is a bit difficult, because it ties in so many concepts of Inventory.  I am 100% accurate for all the retail method questions I have practiced.  It takes me about 90 seconds with for retail method questions on FIFO, LCM, and Average cost, which is fine.

My problem is with DV-LIFO Retail and my persistence to answer a question I know that I am capable of answering if given time enough time.  I can answer the questions accurately, but it could take me anywhere from 2-to-6 minutes before I finally come up with an answer that I’m 100% positive is correct.  There are so many calculations with DV-LIFO retail that I am prone to forgetting whatever it was that I was trying to calculate.  The worst part is that since I know I can do the problem, my stubbornness takes over and I won’t stop until I answer the problem by double checking my calculation.  Sometimes, I’d answer the problem correctly, but when double checking my calculation, I’d actually calculate incorrectly the second time, which would cause me to do another calculation!!!  Ridiculous, yeah, I know… I can’t believe I’m even writing about it.

If I see a DV-LIFO retail question, I’m going to skip it and guess.  I will not even try to calculate it because then I might be tempted to double check or keep trying calculations till I get it right.  DV-LIFO retail is not worth the time or temptation.

Plus, according to CPA Excel, it is a lightly tested topic on the exam.

Tagged as: FAR, FAR study thoughts

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OOPS, Blog is back again + FAR Study Update

by gaap toothed on March 27, 2010 · 1 comment

in FAR

I got bored today and decided to lurk on CPAnet and realized I forgot to turn back on public permission view.  Sorry friends!  I’m usually logged into my gmail account so the webpage loads automatically for me.  If I didn’t check CPAnet, I probably would have never noticed that public permission was off.

Finally, I just want to say that I’m about 95% done watching Yaeger Lectures and will probably finish today.  Earlier in the week I finished up Module 18 and started on Module 19 on Thursday.

Before watching Module 19 on Government Accounting, I was so worried that GOV would be a difficult lesson.  Although it is 4 hours long, it’s really not that bad because most of the GOV concepts tested are very basic and straightforward.  I plan to study the modified accrual basis more in depth, practice journal entries, and memorize/familiarize myself with unique the financial statements.

My only lectures left are:
Module 18E – (37 mins) – Foreign Currency Translation – (I left disk 12 on my desktop computer when I went to the library, so went ahead to disk 13/module 19)
Module 20p1 – (58 mins) – Not-for-Profit Accounting, Part 1
Module 20p2 – (30 mins) – Not-for-Profit Accounting, Part 2

Tomorrow, I will start compiling/re-writing my lecture notes to cut the fat and highlight the most important topics and concepts that I’ve forgotten.  All of my lecture notes so far have been hand written.  I will probably hand write them again for the compiling/re-write because I feel like I would be able to recall more if I physically write the words, instead of typing.  The only purpose of typing them would be to publish and share my notes here.  Then again, I wrote my lecture notes with lots of detail and definitions, so typing would probably be faster.

The hardest part of compiling my notes will probably be deciding what to keep and what to leave out.  To me, everything is important and worth reading again, especially definitions, but I don’t want to waste time writing out every definition again because a list of definitions won’t really help me with concepts.

I want to finish putting my notes together by the end of the month and the most I can really see myself spending on re-writing is about a week.  After re-writing them, I’ll probably focus on 1 module each day and practice the Wiley MPC’s again.

Now that Yaeger is almost done, I will be using CPA excel and Gleim MPCs more.  So far I’ve only done about 250 Gleim questions because I’ve been using Wiley.  I wanted to run through all 1800+ Gleim questions at least once which means I’d have to do around 80 questions a day for 20 days.  I’ve done 40 questions a day for the past 2 days and it wasn’t that bad, especially with theory type questions involving no math.  Honestly though, I don’t think I could handle 80 questions a day.  Just having a timer ticking down on screen kinda drives me crazy.  I wish there was an option to hide the timer or at least not show the seconds until the 5 minute mark.

I’m going to try and do the entire CPA excel course with the time that I have left, but probably won’t be able to get through it.  There’s just way too much FAR material.  On April 1, I will take the Diagnostic Practice Exam and limit my studying to the identified weak areas.  I love the performance tracking on CPA excel, it’s freaking awesome that I can pinpoint my weak areas by topic and then subtopic.

I have a finalized list of topics, but I left it at home.  So off the top of my head, here is a list of topics that I will be reviewing (again) and plan to have mastered before the exam:

  • Bonds – 95%
  • Deferred Taxes – 95%
  • Leases – 50%
  • Pensions – 0% (worst damn lecture module)
  • Statement of Cash Flows – 75% – (I want to practice simulations and setting up my own Financial Statement)
  • Inventory – 75% – mostly just need to re-learn Dollar Value LIFO and refresh concepts
  • Derivatives – 50%

Percentages = Confidence level for answering MPCs by topic

I will post my CPA excel and Gleim stats later.  It’s really hard to guess average MPC score for CPA excel because I’ve done around 40 out of 200+ study units.  For Gleim, my 20 question test scores are about 70%.  Although, I would only do MPCs over recently finished Yaeger lectures.

Tagged as: 2010 FAR, FAR study thoughts, FAR updates

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Easy Stuff I Always Forget and/or MPC Topics that trick me – My “DUH!” List

by gaap toothed on March 25, 2010 · 0 comments

in FAR,Featured,tips for success

This is a list of topics and some comments about details that I forget or easily confuse.  I’d like to think that most of the confusion is caused by the wording of those tricky Multiple Choice Questions, but I know some of it’s due to me not having the topics down.  Many of these are inspired by MPCs that I have highlighted and some are just stuff I don’t want to forget.  The “DUH!” comes into play for those easy concepts that I might even have memorized, but still fall for incorrect answers by those tricky MPCs.  Feel free to leave a comment if you recognize any MPC due to similar experience.

Selling, General & Administrative Expenses (SG&A) vs General & Administrative Expenses (G&A)

  • Sometimes when I see G&A, I throw in the “S”
  • I forget to see the significance of “50% of the building space is occupied by the sales department”
  • I forget that Freight-In = Cost of Inventory and Freight-Out = Cost of Sales or Selling Expense

Intra-Period Tax Allocation vs Inter-Period Tax Allocation

  • The prefix “Intra” means “within” a period – applies to Discontinued Operations, Extraordinary Items, Prior Period Adjustments, Changes in Accounting Principle
  • The prefix “Inter” means “between” periods – Current Tax Payables/DTA/DTL Accounts

Gains and Losses

  • Increases or Decreases in Equity or Net Assets from peripheral or incidental transactions (transactions not from primary operations, ie Sale of Assets, Interest Income/Expense)

Revenues

  • I forget how revenues can also be the settlements of liabilities (example – Unearned Revenue is a liability, d.r. Unearned Revenue; c.r. Revenue)

Other Comprehensive Income (OCI)

  • I am easily tripped up by MPCs that contain both OCI and CI
  • Sometimes I calculate CI instead of OCI and vice versa
  • I forget that OCI must be separately displayed
  • I forget the 4 components of OCI – 1) Unreal Gain/Loss from AFS, 2) Unrecognized Gain/Loss from Pension Costs, 3) Foreign Currency Translation Adjustments, 4) Certain Unrealized Gain/Loss from Derivative Instruments

Comprehensive Income (CI)

  • Even though I know that CI = NI + OCI, I still get tricked by MPCs into adding Discontinued Operations (DOPs) into the CI calculation (I think it’s because of the way the information is displayed with DOPs first, and then NI, so I assume DOPs hasn’t been added to NI… even though it has because otherwise it wouldn’t be called NI)

Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (AOCI)

  • I forget that AOCI is the running total of OCI shown in the Equity Section of the B.S.

Treasury Stock (TS)

  • Even though it is obvious to me that TS is not an asset,  I forget to remove it from the asset section and put it in its rightful place as a contra-equity account

Prepaid Expenses

  • I forget whether the entire balance is considered current or if part of it can be considered non-current (I still don’t know the answer to this one)

Will update more as I go

Tagged as: 2010 FAR, FAR study thoughts

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It’s all starting to make sense to me now….

by gaap toothed March 25, 2010 FAR

Although I’ve taken 3 financial accounting classes, Intro to Financial Accounting, Intermediate I, and Intermediate II, only now am I finally starting to feel like I fully understand financial accounting and reporting (Of course without those classes I wouldn’t be where I am right now). I still remember my professors would put extra emphasis on [...]

Tagged as: 2010 FAR, FAR study thoughts, see the forest

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