First exam: testing speed?

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    Topic
  • #2213848
    baylor.bear95
    Participant

    I will be taking my first exam this march (BEC) and was curious what the time constraint is like. I know this is fairly relative to each person, but just curious about experiences. I would probably call myself a fast test taker, because I’m consistently the first or second one finished on a test during class. So how do yall rate yourselves on speed and what were your exam time experiences?

    AUD - NINJA in Training
    BEC - 96
    FAR - 92
    REG - 89
    2 to go
Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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  • #2213920
    ahugemistake
    Participant

    Do the practice tests and go into the exam with a rough estimate of how long you want to spend on each testlet. The sims are a time hog so on FAR I allowed myself 1.5 hours out of the 4 hours to just do Sims. The first time I took BEC it definitely was the fastest I've taken an exam. I always the take the entire time window, because that's what I'm paying for lol.

    FAR: 78*, 75
    REG: 76*, 85
    BEC: 79*, 76
    AUD: 79*, 93

    All scores expired, let's try this again.

    FAR - 78*
    AUD - 66, 79
    REG - 73, 76
    BEC - 79

    #2213980
    animalwithin
    Participant

    Everyone is different. I've never had time issues with exams, I just go with the pace. If I know something is more time consuming, such as SIMS, I'll be sure to allocate more time to that section and maintain a good pace through MCQ's.

    #2214982
    RoseMarie
    Participant

    I'm a grad student and usually near the first to be done with tests in subjects I like and know well (FAR classes, Audit, etc..) and middle to end in classes I struggle with (Tax mainly). For CPA I have taken 2 sections so far. On FAR I was the most comfortable and finished with an hour and 5 minutes left even having got stuck on one SIM for 20-30 minutes. On BEC I was much less confident, especially with the WC and still finished 31 minutes early despite spending over an hour of the 3 WC.

    Just an observation, on here and cpa facebook pages I see a lot of people talk about being close on time or running out of time but my classmates all seem to finish early. I think it might have to do with still being in school and in the habit of studying and test taking but thats just a guess based on what I've seen/heard.

    FAR - 11/05/18 - 92

    BEC - 12/04/18 - 95

    AUD - 2/27/19 - 96

    REG - 4/17/19 - 93

    I’m done!!

     

    #2215588
    Steven K
    Participant

    Honestly it depends on the person. A good rule of thumb is to spend the first hour of the exam on MCQ and leave the remaining 3 for SIMS. I'd say you can extend your time for MCQ to an 1.5hrs but anything past that is pushing it.
    When I took my FAR and AUD exam, I finished both testlets withing the first hour. However, when I took BEC yesterday, I spent almost 1 hr on the first testlet (and finished the second one in like 25minutes). This was because the first testlet was computation heavy while the second wasn't. Most of the time I use almost all the time but I think the earliest I ever got out was 45 minutes when I took the AUD exam.

    "If you put in the extra effort at the beginning, the process won't take as long."

    FAR - 81 (11/10/18)
    AUD - 79 (12/8/18)
    REG - 84 (1/22/19)
    BEC - 84 (2/13/2019)

    #2215603
    cpa1234
    Participant

    I am typically a fast test-taker cause I do not like overthinking questions. Sometimes I will just wrap up a section just to move on cause I never know how hard the next section will be. This is my timing for the exams I passed:

    – BEC: 2 hours
    – Audit: 3 hours & 30 minutes
    – REG: 3 hours & 45 minutes
    – FAR: I had 3 minutes left on the clock

    AUD - 83
    BEC - 78
    FAR - 76
    REG - 79
    BEC: 78 (May 2017)

    FAR: 76 (Oct 2017)

    AUD: 83 (April 2018)

    REG: 79 (June 2018)

    #2215984
    Recked
    Participant

    45 minutes per MCQ bank, 15-20 minutes per WC is probably a lot, the rest goes to SIMs.
    I ran out of time on FAR and I think I used all the time in all the other exams.
    Some I was done earlier, but I paid for that 4 hours so you best believe I used AL to confirm all my answers, or whatever I could to verify everything in that last testlet.

    Memento Mori - Kingston NY CPA & EA (SUNY Albany 2002)

    FAR-93 11/9/17 (10wks, 250 hrs, Roger 1800+ MCQs, Gleim TB 600+MCQs, SIMs)
    AUD-88 12/7/17 (3 wks, 85 hrs, Roger 1000 MCQs no SIMs hail mary)
    REG-96 1/18/18 (6 wks, 110 hrs, 1400 MCQs, no SIMs)
    BEC-91 2/16/18 (4wks, 90 hrs, 1240 MCQs)

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