u/BrewsterBash

Hey everyone, I’m looking for experiences of anyone who has made the switch from other modelers to the tone master pro - specifically fractal and quad cortex.

I’m wanting to jump into modeling for the first time (sort of, I do have a Tonex plug - sounds good but prefer modelers to captures and can’t stand scrolling through endless bad captures. I also have a Yamaha THR 10. Love it but want to dive into the newest technology.)

Mostly I just play my telecaster through my 67 super reverb at house appropriate levels. However I’ve been wanting to get more effects. Just classic rock and blues stuff mostly but recently have been into learning the screaming yet melodic 80’s solos, so when I started adding up just a handful of pedals I figured I might as well just get a modeler. Then I can do anything I need.

I was set on fractal but then I started watching videos of people actually setting up rigs and knew I was not going to go through all that. Anything you need a computer for I end up never using. I tried the whole audio interface into the computer and I just don’t like using a computer to play guitar.

Then I started looking into the quad cortex and the new John Mayer stuff. People say it sounds really good, and looks easier to use. Also found headrush and like the price but I don’t really get the hype over NAM2 and I’m always a buy the best quality I can afford, spend a little more up front but have something I’m happy with still years later and that lasts.

Sorry for the long explanation, but I came across the TMP and the UI looks like just what I need. I want to be up and playing with a sound as fast as possible and I want it to make sense and I want the best sound possible. I just play at home along with songs and sometimes go to my buddy’s basement with bass and drums. Oh and the nearest guitar center is about an hour away, so maybe in a few weeks I can make the trip and try one.

EDIT: to add, I obviously love Fender stuff in spite of everything but my biggest fear is that Fender will let the support for this product fall to the wayside. Just from initial impressions it seems other modeling companies have really strong, proven support, and also strong communities around their products.

I have a dilemma and a timing issue with the disciplines - hoping for some insight.

Passed FAR, my first exam and now taking AUD next weekend, that gives me approximately 6 weeks to try to squeeze in a discipline by Oct 31. I'm going to take it whether I'm ready or not due to the timing.

My plan originally was to take ISC as a natural follow up to AUD but then I was searching in the CPA reddit for ISC experiences and a lot of people were saying the test was super hard and not like the review material at all. In fact some people said it was the hardest exam for them and that it really doesn't tag on to AUD as much as TCP and REG do, except for COSO and SOX a little bit.

But then the other option would put me in the backwards situation of taking TCP before REG. I did a tax internship at a (at the time) top 25 firm but that was 20 years ago. I passed all the Intuit Tax courses 3 years ago, to work for them for experience but then ended up getting a staff accountant job so never did. That is the extent of my tax experience.

Does anyone have any advice or was in a similar conundrum and what you recommend?

I visualize my “why’s” a lot to keep motivated, but I also imagine all the things I will get to do again once I pass in order to get myself to buckle down.

What are the activities you are looking forward to doing again that you don’t have time for while studying?

(Besides sleep and binging movies all day on a Saturday…unless that’s really all you do 😂)

I’m looking forward to:

1. Going to the gym again - I put my membership on hold and just do quick 20 minute workouts at home. No time to commute to the gym, get dressed, AND workout.
2. Turning on songs/backing tracks and jamming along on my guitar for hours.
3. My wife and I used to go to farmers markets and local farms early on weekend mornings. Morning weekends being my prime study time, that hasn’t happened in nearly a half a year.

What are yours?

I just sat for FAR on 7/18, my first CPA exam and my first exam in general in over 20 years. Wanted to share some thoughts from someone who was very nervous, borderline scared in the days leading up to the test.

First of all...it's not that bad, like at all. Yes, it's 20x harder than any college final in that you can't cram a day or two before and get an A. It takes months of daily, hard work. But if you put in the work, it's very achievable. I'm saying this to myself - no reason to rile yourself up into near anxiety attacks over this test.

I came out feeling pretty good, which kind of worried me. I hear it so often "when I thought I did great, I failed. When I thought I failed, I passed". I'd say my score could be anywhere from a 70 to an 88, and that's based mostly on TBS.

MCQ were super fair.

The TBS though. Whoa. Not that the material covered was super hard or anything (well one of them was, I hope this is the pretest), but just the sheer volume and length of the TBS. All but one, maybe two were waaaaayy longer, with more and longer exhibits, and just longer questions in general than anything I had seen in my review material. (I used Gleim and some supplements).

A couple of the TBS felt almost like they pasted two TBS together. Mock exams I finished with plenty of time left. On the actual exam I finished the MCQ with 2:35 left on the clock. Thought I had plenty of time. But the TBS took me down to the last second, no time to double check my work, and the last two I had to rush through.

Just a word to the wise - study EVERYTHING. This exam covered very very little (I mean like 3 or 4 MCQ only) of what everyone says the big, must know topics are. In fact I bought a course that covered these topics specifically. But you gotta know them, your test will be different than mine. So study everything, and every topic is fair game.

It's really almost comical, but the stuff that I personally was worried about and spent a lot of time in the days leading up to the exam cramming on - 1 MCQ. One. lol.

If it helps anyone, study hard and know it's not this big huge scary thing.

I hope everyone who has recently taken an exam passes and that the score release date comes quickly. Keep on pushing, you got this!

Hey guys I’m gearing up for my first ever CPA exam - FAR - this Saturday.

In *Gleim* I just took my first mock exam and scored an 81. Is there a Gleim bump? Do you think this score is a good place to be going into the real thing?

I’m super nervous and anxious I haven’t done enough. This will be my first real exam in 20+ years since college. But I can say I’ve given it my all for 3.5 months - probably too much time but I bought and moved into a new house, remodeled it, while working full time + had relatives staying with us for a month of this study time).

I wasn’t planning on taking any mock exams, just hammering MCQ and reviewing weak areas, but a crazy twist of fate and I got to go home from work this morning so decided to knock a full practice exam out.

Anyone used Gleim for FAR and can tell me how you scored on the mock exams vs real exam.

Is an 81 sitting ok a couple days out?

I’m in my final review using Gleim for FAR. I also have i75 which I used for foundations / re-learning since I’m 20 years out of school.

I’m wondering though if Gleim is maybe a little inefficient at this point vs say like ninja or Farhat AICPA released questions.

The reason being is I got the AICPA released questions from Farhat. If I do 20 questions in Gleim and 20 questions of the AICPA, it takes me SIGNIFICANTLY longer in Gleim. This is because inevitably in Gleim there will be 1-5 questions in a set of 20 that are literally a long paragraph, plus a portion of a financial statement, you will need to remember 2-3 concepts, know to throw out 2+ irrelevant facts, and at least for me, I have to re-read to make sure I’m not missing something. This can take 3+ minutes even if I know the material cold and get the answer right.

Gleim has helped me a ton with its complexity but at this point with two weeks left I’m wondering if it’s inefficient if I can get through 30-35 AICPA released questions in the time it takes me to do 20 Gleim MCQ? Basically at this point of final review would it benefit more to hit as many different questions as possible on the breadth of topics vs hitting way less, more complex and time consuming questions over these last two weeks of go time?

Thanks! And may everyone pass their upcoming exams with ease!

I’m beginning my review process two weeks before sitting for FAR and wondering if I should be worried.

Using Gleim as my review material and I have done 4 sims for every chapter (of which there are 15 chapters).

I really feel like the sims were not hard at all. Some tricky points lost here and there but was scoring in the 80-100 range on all of them. These are scores for 4 sims combined into one practice test per chapter. I have put a ton of time into understanding the material and actually understanding tons of MCQ.

But I keep hearing how much harder the actual FAR exam TBS are. The Gleim sims did not seem too difficult, some very easy. I don’t know what more I can do to prepare for the exam TBS than this but with how hard everyone is saying they are, I’m worried these simms won’t have prepared me enough. Can anyone who has used Gleim comment?

I got this portion of the sim wrong in my review course because I didn't combine the Accumulated Depreciation into one line (See answer given below). Will this be the case on the actual exam? In my head I considered combining them but it was just easier to quickly double check my work with it laid out like this.

https://preview.redd.it/pyv1t970jo5h1.png?width=827&format=png&auto=webp&s=75cc17e67a2c645c0032dcbe13ed7a784a19d29c

https://preview.redd.it/c4toc6injo5h1.png?width=886&format=png&auto=webp&s=8777a883278710a2501f86cdfc7a80f392790db5

I was getting a minimum of 5 calls and voicemails per day. Usually around 8, and thank goodness for sleep mode on my phone because they would sometimes come after 10pm when I’m sleeping. I have dealt with this for at least 6 months maybe longer.

The voicemails would all be very similar “This is Allan calling about your loan offer. You’ve been approved for $75,000 with payments as low as $400 a month”.

I looked for a solution on Reddit, I read not to answer, not to say anything just block and report spam. If you answer you’ll go on a “good” number list and get more calls. I have over 400 numbers in my blocked list. It did nothing. Still 5-10 calls and voicemails a day every day.

But I found a few people that had success with the counterintuitive approach. I figured I had nothing to lose. Here’s what I did, and since doing this I have received only 3 calls total over the last 2 weeks.

Each number that would call, I would call back and place my phone on mute. Over and over and over again. If it was a menu, I’d select the option for a live representative and then put my phone on mute and leave it on mute until they hung up. It was very satisfying and cathartic to hear the frustration with some of them - hello? Hello? Did you need help with a loan? Hello?

The first few numbers where people would answer I absolutely spammed them with 50-60 times of doing this one after another. Only because I was mad. Then I would do it about 5 times per number. I only did this to the last maybe 8-10 numbers that called and the number of these scam loan offer calls has reduced like 95%+.

We’ll see if this lasts but for two weeks now it’s been such a reduction.

If you’re at your wits end with these calls and have tried ignoring and blocking to no avail, maybe give this a try

I’m about 3 weeks into studying for FAR (which will be the first exam I sit for)

I’m still working through my initial run though of all the material (I’m using Gleim btw, not nearly as many people in this camp but I like it so far). Side note: holy smokes is it a ton of material!!

I incorporate intermittent review sessions of all the previous material I’ve covered as I found I’d literally completely forget something I just studied earlier in the week.

Anyway my question is if I’m wasting too much time on “understanding” topics that I’ve forgotten when I come across them in my review MCQ’s? For instance, today a couple questions popped up on the equity vs Fair Market methods for owning stock in another company. I forgot this knowledge so I spent an hour reviewing the book and asking AI to explain the answers and concepts. I now feel I have an excellent understanding of the topic.

But…The time flew by and I was lost in understanding the concepts when I realized an hour had passed. This was spurred from just two MCQs. I wondered am I wasting too much time on this. Should I get the gist and move on quicker (more of a hammer MCQs mentality) knowing I’ll review it again in the future? Or is this ok to take the time to thoroughly understand?