[cpaMD86]

I am testing in a couple of days, and am doing fairly well on MCQs. I’ve completed all of the Ninja MCQs and am now going doing additional questions from Rogers IPQ. For those that have tested, would you recommend investing a large amount of time on the SIMs? I have done some SIMs, but I just don’t know if I should invest the time to them all or not…Any additional advice and/or focus points is greatly appreciated.

FAR: 9/3

[Trele6]

To me I wouldn't bother. The SIMs are basically wordy MCQ and if you are lucky you can use the AL to answer 2-3 of them besides just the research question.

As long as you are familiar with they types of SIMs (layout, dropdowns, etc) I think you would be better off focusing on MCQ.

First go at the CPA! Only using Becker
Reg / Nov 2015 - 87
Far / Apr 2016 - 79
Bec / May 2016 - 80
Aud / Aug 2016

[cpaMD86]

thanks for your comment, @trele6.

That was my thought as well, and is what I did for FAR. I am still covering some to be sure, but just didn't know if there was a cost/benefit constraint on reviewing all or the majority.

FAR: 9/3

[bhunt815]

Sometimes if I was having trouble grasping a concept, working a few SIM's would allow me to see the concept in practice and it would make more sense to me. That was the value of SIM's for me.

FAR 04/11/2016 - 84
AUD 05/12/2016 - 79
BEC 07/06/2016 - 81
REG 08/29/2016

[Gary]

I would say definitely practice some DRS.

AUD 8/18/16
FAR 11/16
BEC 1/17
REG 2/17

[hasy]

Yeah, second on DRS. Unless you've worked in auditing and have seen work papers.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved - Helen Keller

-

BEC 80 (10/23/15)
FAR 72 (4/2/15); 83 (7/11/16)
REG 52 (4/28/15)
AUD (9/9/16)

Roger + NINJA MCQ + WTB

[Hank Scorpio]

I have to practice the SIMS because it gives me a different look at the concepts and helps me to fully understand some areas I'm weak in. I don't like to skip them completely.

FAR - 10/3/16
BEC - 69 - 10/31/16
AUD - November 2016
REG - December 2016

[Anonymous]

I look at the sims once and only on the last week leading to the exam. Hit the mcqs hard until you have a good grasp of majority of the concepts and the sim will come naturally.

[ZombieMouse]

If you were asking about REG, then I would say yes, absolutely — practice the SIMS to solidify the concepts and familiarize yourself with the different ways that your knowledge can tested. But I don't feel like practicing AUD sims prepared me AT ALL for the actual exam. Maybe I just had an unlucky draw, but the majority of my AUD sims incorporated FAR concepts, and none of them looked like the practice sims I had worked through Becker. I had to reach back four or five years to my financial accounting classes in order to muddle through them. No amount of studying would have prepared me for them. I did okay (I must have gotten really lucky with throwaway questions) but I still walked away from the exam feeling like I taken the wrong test.

[acctonehunnit]

Don't mean to hijack the thread but zombie can you give me a general idea of how you felt after taking the exam? I see you got a 99 which is awesome so I'm just curious how you felt the difficulty was. Did you use ninja mcq to prep?

I took it yesterday and the second and third testlets were crazy difficult. 2 or 3 of the sims were really tough too.

[ZombieMouse]

@acctonehunnit – Sorry for the delayed response; I just now saw your question. I walked away from AUD feeling very… uncertain, I guess, would be the word. I thought I had probably passed, but I didn't feel super confident about my performance, especially on the sims, which I felt dipped heavily into FAR material.

My second and third MCQ's testlets were obviously hard, and there were maybe a half dozen or so questions that I didn't know for certain but could use process of elimination to narrow down to a 50/50 guess, and one question that was straight-up eenie meenie meinie mo. I must have gotten really lucky on the throwaways to earn the score I did.

I used the Becker book and homework questions to study, and skipped almost all of the lectures unless there was something I really didn't understand. I didn't use Ninja MCQ at all but am considering them for FAR, which is my next (and hopefully last) exam.

Good luck with your AUD score! We can count down the days until Nov 4th together (I'm waiting for BEC). 🙂

[Author]

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