[tmuell33]

Hey 71er’s,

I’m well aware there is no “easy” section on the CPA exams but I’m curious if anyone has had the same experience within the last year and has gotten their score back. I know there are several similar posts years ago on here where most of the people never came back and said what their score was.

Anyways— the first testlet was an obvious “medium” section to me. The testlet didn’t take me too long, and I had to flag a few questions. The second testlet, however, took me twice as long as both testlet #1 and #3. I easily had double the amount of questions flagged. I know there is no “easy” section, and I don’t know if I was disillusioned after a difficult testlet, but by the time I got to my 3rd testlet, I flew through it. I thought it was almost insulting with how hard the second testlet was. I’d be shocked if I even spent 15 minutes on it. The questions were short, direct, and EASY compared to the second one.

I understand its difficulty is subjective based on who’s taking the test, but I’m telling you that it wasn’t even REMOTELY close between testlets 2 and 3.

The AICPA says they only have “medium” and “difficult” testlets obviously, but I’m pretty curious about their ranges of difficulty within each level. Like— is there some kind scale from 1-10, where questions at 1 are extremely easy and questions at 10 are extremely hard, but a question scaled at 5-6 could still be “difficult” but way easier. I’m rambling, but after taking this test, it just makes me wonder if the scaling can actually get way more complicated than how they just label them “medium” or “difficult”.

Anyways, I get my score back on 08/04/2016 and will surely post for others to see. Has anyone else in the last year or two had a similar type of experience on the BEC exam? What were your scores? I honestly wouldn’t be surprised with a 50 or a 90 at this point.

REG - 06/09/2016 (extended window) - 75 First Try
BEC - 07/01/2016 - ? (posted about exam experience)
AUD - will be taken on 07/20/2016 - ?
FAR -

[golfball7773]

I hate speculating because we can be way off on what we think our testlets were due to stress. I thought I had M-M-E and got the lovely 74…..I was so happy that I yelled at my wife when she asked me if I would pick up more cat litter 5 minutes after I saw my score at 6 in the morning….

FAR: 63, 55, 62
REG: 65, 77*
AUD: Fail, 64, 71
BEC: 72, 74, 81

*expired

[tmuell33]

@golfball7773. I can't imagine the feeling of the 74. That's brutal. =(

REG - 06/09/2016 (extended window) - 75 First Try
BEC - 07/01/2016 - ? (posted about exam experience)
AUD - will be taken on 07/20/2016 - ?
FAR -

[jdhcoca]

I felt the same way when I took BEC. First section was a breeze with two flagged questions. Second section went really difficult with 8-10 flagged questions. The third section was easier than the first.

I got a 90 on BEC so the second section obviously didn't kill me. I battle REG on the 24th.

BEC - 90
REG - July 24th
AUD - Sept 5th
FAR - ???

[tmuell33]

@jdhcoca Shit that makes me feel a lot better.

Good luck on REG! Kill it!

REG - 06/09/2016 (extended window) - 75 First Try
BEC - 07/01/2016 - ? (posted about exam experience)
AUD - will be taken on 07/20/2016 - ?
FAR -

[aatoural]

@jdhcoca that sounds kinda of my experience. But I keep waking up some mornings feeling I totally failed it. Hope it happens like you!

BEC - PASSED
AUD - 8/29/16
FAR - TBS
REG - TBS

[a BEC too FAR]

The flaw in worrying about this is the level is based on a sample, such as the pretest population. Our own level of difficulty is based on what we studied, how hard we studied individual topics, and past experience.

So a tax rule we don't remember from our studying is hard for us, even if candidates who work in tax see that on half the returns they prepare, so they think it's easy, and candidates in general think it's medium because they remember some of it from their prep course. The same is true for auditing, financial statements, or cost accounting questions.

Look at all the subjects on this forum asking “do I really have to know ABC?” Maybe not but there's a risk. As a general rule, the ones who studied it will get easy questions about ABC, and the ones who skipped studying it will get hard questions about ABC.

Whats the best way to take a bridge?
Both ends at once...

[Accountingbeans]

@tmuell33 Hey, what'd you end up getting? Took BEC yesterday and also felt like the third was by far the easiest and first two were definitely Medium, Hard.

Newbie
BEC- August 31

[Author]

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