[Anonymous]

Hello Everyone, I was hoping someone on this forum would have suggestions on how to prepare/improve scores for SIMS. So far I’ve taken Audit twice (67,72). I am using WTB, & CPA review for free. I didn’t want to spend to spend a lot of moola on the more expensive study guides out there. I was hoping I’d be able to pass with these two sources.

First go around I received comparable or stronger scores for all but two (weaker in two) section of MCQ and Weaker on SIMS. So I put in additional 80 hours of study time for my second battle. My score for MCQ were much better than I had anticipated but still a failing score. I am posting the results below for MCQ. Of course, weaker score in SIMS again. Can’t stress how dissappointed I was with myself.

Understanding the Engagement : Stronger

Understanding the Entity : Stronger

Procedures and Evidence: Stronger

Evaluation and Reporting: Comparable

Accounting and Review Services: Stronger

I feel really frustrated b/c I literally every spent every ounce free time I had studying, but ended up with same results. I personally felt the WTB doesn’t prepare you well for SIMS. To be honest 80% of my time was spent drilling through MCQ’s. I tried using the AL at the exam to assist with SIMS, but for some reason they don’t seem to work for me or I don’t know how to search in AL.

Is there an alternative review material or study habbit that may benefit me. Thanks in advance for all the help & GL on your study/exams.

Aud: 67,72

Reg: 67

FAR: 2014

BEC: 2014

[Shel_178]

Created with Compare Ninja

REG - 86
FAR - 80
BEC - 79
AUD - 92...I'm done woohoo!

Licensed CPA since Feb. 2014

[Shel_178]

REG - 86
FAR - 80
BEC - 79
AUD - 92...I'm done woohoo!

Licensed CPA since Feb. 2014

[Anonymous]

I'd recommend Roger, which has reasonable price. Audit is my least liked class in school. However, it turned to the only exam that I was confident to know I passed during the test. I finished with 1.5 hours to spare and without any help from AL for SIMS because all judgment based. I got 90 but I guess that I may score higher if I slowed down a little on MQC. I even did not read all the choice for MQC because the right choice seemed jumping from my head just by reading questions. I have to credit Roger for this part because he really helps on UNDERSTANDING. I even did not practice all the WTB questions, did about 700 MCQ. However, during two study months, I listened to his lectures almost anytime I am awake other than work hours.

[Anonymous]

I'd recommend Roger, which has reasonable price. Audit is my least liked class in school. However, it turned to the only exam that I was confident to know I passed during the test. I finished with 1.5 hours to spare and without any help from AL for SIMS because all judgment based. I got 90 but I guess that I may score higher if I slowed down a little on MQC. I even did not read all the choice for MQC because the right choice seemed jumping from my head just by reading questions. I have to credit Roger for this part because he really helps on UNDERSTANDING. I even did not practice all the WTB questions, did about 700 MCQ. However, during two study months, I listened to his lectures almost anytime I am awake other than work hours.

[Anonymous]

Bruce,

You are almost there.

I think you made a huge mistake I used to make in my CPA examinations.

You certainly forgot to tell us that you did not finish your SIMs… Let’s say you did about 3 or 4 of them? Right? (lol) and you also probably botched them!

I spent too much time doing very well in the first two testlets, and running on the third one to save a little more time for SIM. And maybe, you graded only “comparable” in Evaluation and Reporting instead of “stronger” because, you received more questions relating to Evaluation and Reporting in the third testlet when you were harrying up.

But, “comparable” is not bad. So if we can give up all the “Stronger” in MCQs in exchange of “Comparable” in SIMs too, it will be a really advantageous deal.

As you pointed it out yourself (and everybody knows), MCQs are not enough alone to pass the exam where they count only for 60%.

Even if the question are given different weights, we can assume an average of 0.8 point by question in FAR and AUD (60 points / 75 graded questions). There are 15 ungraded questions.

I personally already spent more than 10 minutes trying to solve a MCQ item….. for less than 1 point!

Those 10 mn could have brought me more than 6.5 points if they had been used to do an additional SIM ( 40 or 39 points over 6 graded SIMs) in the fourth testlet.

What I also learned from my experience, is that the time wasted in the first two testlests came from only 5 or 6 questions in each of those testlests…. that seemed complicated to me and where I did not found the courage during the exam to let them down and move forward. Some of these questions could even be… pretested questions with zero point!

So if you found the COURAGE to move on and do not care anymore about these questions you are not sure to have choose right, you may grant yourself an additional hour to the 20% you only had the last time.

I got a 91 (expired later) in AUD where I allocated 2 hours (50% of the time) to SIMs.

Because I am from an African Francophone country (I came in US 14 days to take the exam), there are some questions I was not even sure of the sense due to my English that is far from perfect. I just guess for those questions and go ahed… and I got 91 at the end.

You could read somewhere on your Score Notice:

“The score represents your overall performance on the identified examination section. Scores are reported on a numeric scale of 0-99, with 75 as the passing score. This scale does NOT represent “percent correct.” A score of 75 indicates examination performance reflecting a level of knowledge and skills that is sufficient for the protection of the public.”

I received (among many other fails) the total of 64 twice in FAR and find below the related statistics. There are self explanatory!

1) Score 64

Framework and Standards : Weaker

Financial Statement Accounts: Weaker

Specific Transactions/Events: Weaker

Governmental: Weaker

Not-for-Profit: Weaker

Simulations : Comparable

2) Score 64

Framework and Standards: Stronger

Financial Statement Accounts: Stronger

Specific Transactions/Events: Comparable

Governmental: Stronger

Not-for-Profit: Stronger

Simulations : Weaker

I use CPAEXCEL.

[Anonymous]

Bruce,

You are almost there.

I think you made a huge mistake I used to make in my CPA examinations.

You certainly forgot to tell us that you did not finish your SIMs… Let’s say you did about 3 or 4 of them? Right? (lol) and you also probably botched them!

I spent too much time doing very well in the first two testlets, and running on the third one to save a little more time for SIM. And maybe, you graded only “comparable” in Evaluation and Reporting instead of “stronger” because, you received more questions relating to Evaluation and Reporting in the third testlet when you were harrying up.

But, “comparable” is not bad. So if we can give up all the “Stronger” in MCQs in exchange of “Comparable” in SIMs too, it will be a really advantageous deal.

As you pointed it out yourself (and everybody knows), MCQs are not enough alone to pass the exam where they count only for 60%.

Even if the question are given different weights, we can assume an average of 0.8 point by question in FAR and AUD (60 points / 75 graded questions). There are 15 ungraded questions.

I personally already spent more than 10 minutes trying to solve a MCQ item….. for less than 1 point!

Those 10 mn could have brought me more than 6.5 points if they had been used to do an additional SIM ( 40 or 39 points over 6 graded SIMs) in the fourth testlet.

What I also learned from my experience, is that the time wasted in the first two testlests came from only 5 or 6 questions in each of those testlests…. that seemed complicated to me and where I did not found the courage during the exam to let them down and move forward. Some of these questions could even be… pretested questions with zero point!

So if you found the COURAGE to move on and do not care anymore about these questions you are not sure to have choose right, you may grant yourself an additional hour to the 20% you only had the last time.

I got a 91 (expired later) in AUD where I allocated 2 hours (50% of the time) to SIMs.

Because I am from an African Francophone country (I came in US 14 days to take the exam), there are some questions I was not even sure of the sense due to my English that is far from perfect. I just guess for those questions and go ahed… and I got 91 at the end.

You could read somewhere on your Score Notice:

“The score represents your overall performance on the identified examination section. Scores are reported on a numeric scale of 0-99, with 75 as the passing score. This scale does NOT represent “percent correct.” A score of 75 indicates examination performance reflecting a level of knowledge and skills that is sufficient for the protection of the public.”

I received (among many other fails) the total of 64 twice in FAR and find below the related statistics. There are self explanatory!

1) Score 64

Framework and Standards : Weaker

Financial Statement Accounts: Weaker

Specific Transactions/Events: Weaker

Governmental: Weaker

Not-for-Profit: Weaker

Simulations : Comparable

2) Score 64

Framework and Standards: Stronger

Financial Statement Accounts: Stronger

Specific Transactions/Events: Comparable

Governmental: Stronger

Not-for-Profit: Stronger

Simulations : Weaker

I use CPAEXCEL.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply everyone. I think I'll probably consider rogers. I like the idea of lectures. With WTB I didn't have that option. I wish it was all MCQ though lol. It makes life easier. I always felt SIMS responses were ambiguous.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply everyone. I think I'll probably consider rogers. I like the idea of lectures. With WTB I didn't have that option. I wish it was all MCQ though lol. It makes life easier. I always felt SIMS responses were ambiguous.

[Anonymous]

Bruce, if money is tight, I would strongly recommend getting the Wiley book. AUD is probably Wiley's best subject. I have seen many people on here who have failed many times using all the lecture programs pick up the book instead, deal with the dry boringness of it, and pass AUD with flying colors. The struggle with SIMs is that you have to deeply understand topics, rather than have data memorized, and that is Wiley's strong point, but it seems like most lecture-based curriculums hit the high points rather than force you to understand all the points. Note I've only used Wiley, but these statements about lecture-curriculums are based on the comments I've seen around this forum. But if you get lectures, I like Roger's best of the ones I sampled. 🙂

To directly answer the question about SIMs…they're killers because they require a totally different understanding of the material than the MCQs. For MCQs, it's more about memory than understanding. Or rather, you can ace MCQs with memory or do fine with understanding, but for SIMs, memory is not very useful…cause they usually require you to do more than one thing which requires understanding the process of how you get from Point A to point G, instead of just A to B. So, if you're struggling with SIMs, I would focus less on the MCQs and more on whatever material you have – books, lectures, etc. And after striving to understand from that, I would switch to MCQs but make the focus with the MCQs be understanding why you got hte answer right or wrong, not just what is right or wrong. Of course practice SIMs are good too, but honestly, I didn't do a lot of practice SIMs because it seemed to me like hte best prep for SIMs was a deep understanding of the material, rather than doing them on random topics (with the exception of hte research SIMs – I should've prepared for those more than I did, just to have some clue of my way around the material).

[Anonymous]

Bruce, if money is tight, I would strongly recommend getting the Wiley book. AUD is probably Wiley's best subject. I have seen many people on here who have failed many times using all the lecture programs pick up the book instead, deal with the dry boringness of it, and pass AUD with flying colors. The struggle with SIMs is that you have to deeply understand topics, rather than have data memorized, and that is Wiley's strong point, but it seems like most lecture-based curriculums hit the high points rather than force you to understand all the points. Note I've only used Wiley, but these statements about lecture-curriculums are based on the comments I've seen around this forum. But if you get lectures, I like Roger's best of the ones I sampled. 🙂

To directly answer the question about SIMs…they're killers because they require a totally different understanding of the material than the MCQs. For MCQs, it's more about memory than understanding. Or rather, you can ace MCQs with memory or do fine with understanding, but for SIMs, memory is not very useful…cause they usually require you to do more than one thing which requires understanding the process of how you get from Point A to point G, instead of just A to B. So, if you're struggling with SIMs, I would focus less on the MCQs and more on whatever material you have – books, lectures, etc. And after striving to understand from that, I would switch to MCQs but make the focus with the MCQs be understanding why you got hte answer right or wrong, not just what is right or wrong. Of course practice SIMs are good too, but honestly, I didn't do a lot of practice SIMs because it seemed to me like hte best prep for SIMs was a deep understanding of the material, rather than doing them on random topics (with the exception of hte research SIMs – I should've prepared for those more than I did, just to have some clue of my way around the material).

[Texas CPA]

There have been a lot of threads lately on this topic. And the consistent advice is, learn to use the AL, especially for AUD. I know I was able to answer 1 SIM word for word using the AL that I could not have possibly have taken the time to memorize even if I had known the topic was on the test. I was able to utilize the AL to answer parts of the other SIMS in AUD as well. It seems the AICPA is testing your ability to use the AL in all the SIMS.

If you are testing stronger in the MCQ, you have a good understanding of the material. Practice using the search and then narrow your results with the search within feature.

Reg - Passed 82 Nov 2012 - Becker
Aud - Passed 86 May 2013 - Becker
BEC - Passed 88 Aug 2013 - Becker
FAR - Passed 88 Nov 2013 - Becker

https://www.becker.com/cpa-review

Texas CPA

[Texas CPA]

There have been a lot of threads lately on this topic. And the consistent advice is, learn to use the AL, especially for AUD. I know I was able to answer 1 SIM word for word using the AL that I could not have possibly have taken the time to memorize even if I had known the topic was on the test. I was able to utilize the AL to answer parts of the other SIMS in AUD as well. It seems the AICPA is testing your ability to use the AL in all the SIMS.

If you are testing stronger in the MCQ, you have a good understanding of the material. Practice using the search and then narrow your results with the search within feature.

Reg - Passed 82 Nov 2012 - Becker
Aud - Passed 86 May 2013 - Becker
BEC - Passed 88 Aug 2013 - Becker
FAR - Passed 88 Nov 2013 - Becker

https://www.becker.com/cpa-review

Texas CPA

[Author]

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