[mooseonloose]

First of all, prometric center treats everyone like criminals. I understand the fact they are required to check us, but I don’t understand why are they always so nasty and disrespectful.

This was my BEC retake after receiving a 73. I was really calm and confident going in because I studied over 100 hours after receiving a 73,

So, I decide to begin my first testlet after dealing with prometric ladys attitude.

First testlet was hard, majority of the questions were not covered in Becker.

Second testlet was even harder, there was no way I could have prepared myself any better.

I started my third testlet. After staring at the screen for almost 10 minute, unsure about what is even being asked, I wanted to walk out. I couldn’t even guess them. I lost all my confidence. I decided to take the 15 minute break. I went out and the lady started yelling, “GO CLICK THE OPTION TO TAKE THE BREAK.” And then went through the security check once again after using the restroom.

The next testlet was fair, both questions required to know the subject thoroughly. I am sure I got most of the questions wrong. The WC were easy.

I hope someone else will have a better experience than I. I honestly could not prepare myself any better. The questions were so much harder than the last time I took it. The sims were just ridiculous.

AUD - NINJA in Training
BEC - NINJA in Training
FAR - NINJA in Training
REG - NINJA in Training

BEC: April
AUD: April
REG: July
FAR: Sept

[Missy]

Just my humble opinion but if you're seeing things on the exam that were never touched in the review material, your complaint is with the review material provider not the AICPA. You can't honestly expect the AICPA to go out and align their exam with the dozens of independant material providers thats just silly, and you also can't expect the AICPA to give the review courses the heads up that in Q3 we'll be testing x,y and z so align your courses to that (or that Becker, Wiley and Roger would re release the materials quarterly based on what would be on the next exam even if they knew). Bottom line is the review material companies aren't affiliated with the AICPA and give their most reasonable estimation of what you'll need to know to pass the exam and sometimes they're right on the mark and sometimes they will miss good chunks of information. I'm guessing you DON'T want 3-4 books that are 400 pages each for EACH section which is what it would take to cover every possibility that you'd see on each section.

And also, the people who work at Prometric remind me very much of the people who work at the RMV. A few good ones but mostly you're just interrupting their day by existing.

Old timer,  A71'er since 2010.

Finance manager/HR manager

 

 

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[Anonymous]

mla11692, at the end of the content outlines published by the AICPA it also says use current textbooks or something to that effect. They never endorse any review course. And like you said the review courses are not affiliated with the AICPA.

[cpa1982]

mla11692,

I do agree that AICPA is not affiliated with any CPA review providers but their outlines for FAR, REG, and AUD do align with CPA review courses so why differentiate for IT section which is only 25% max. of BEC exam? In blueprint on page 5, only says “Current textbooks on” and suggest Accounting and Management information systems. Reading the entire book of AIS for 25% seems torture. We do not expect them to give us detailed outlines for every quarter exams but at least release guidelines on topics that they expect us to know since IT industry goes thru rapid changes. At least every few years they can update the topics we expect to know for exams instead just throwing random questions on topics that we never saw in our lifetime. If one review course users complain then it's understandable but when multiple review courses failed to cover topics that tested on the exam then it's an issue needs to be addressed. I would not have complained if we have entire section of IT exam (Just like FAR, REG.), then it's understandable to say pick AIS book and study and be ready for exam.

[Missy]

Right cpa1982, but IT is worth 25% of the score on the exam, not 25% of the total questions. Could be 10% of the questions or 50% of the questions because we don't know how each question is weighted. Thats where we get tripped up, we are so ingrained to think % of questions answered correctly is our score but for all we know on the scoring process 48% of questions answered correctly could produce a score of 80 and 90% of questions answered correctly could produce a score of 71. Its THAT messed up (and no its not fair but fair would oversaturate the job market with CPA's and you don't want that either.)

Its like if baking was on the exam and I'm complaining that I got questions about how many eggs to use in a pancake mix when pancakes are technically not baked. I get it but no review will ever give all the nuances that the AICPA will dish out. They're twisted and lets be honest for all any of us knows they throw darts at a dartboard to determine your score LOL.

Old timer,  A71'er since 2010.

Finance manager/HR manager

 

 

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[cpa1982]

mla11692,

You are correct about AICPA being twisted. We don't know how each question is graded. We can have 10% of IT questions in the exam and it could worth 25% of exam score. It seems the whole system set up in a way that some people might get annoyed, discouraged and give up so there is less number of CPAs in the market. I think AICPA aware of the fact the CPA market is already saturated and wants to reduce the number of CPAs.

[Author]

Replies