I felt absolutely horrible on the SIMS. I left myself two hours after the MCQ to do the 8 SIMS. My first testlet had two extremely long SIMS. I looked at the first SIM, said screw this, and then looked at the second. Realized that both were going to be super time consuming and then panicked thinking that the next six were going to be just as long.
At that point, I had to make a decision whether to commit to these intense SIMs or just move on. Given this was my first sitting of any test and the fear of the unknown (are the next six SIMS going to be this bad too?!?!), I completely left the first SIM blank and then headed to the second one. There were a couple of easy components to the second SIM so I answered those, but left the rest of that SIM blank.
So there I was, having left the first of 8 SIMs completely blank and 90% of the second SIM blank. But I really had to manage my time. I had accepted that once I submitted that testlet, if the next testlet was just as bad, that I would just fail this testing of FAR and retake it again.
Fortunately, the next testlet had three reasonable SIMS. They were all DRSs. I know I got two of those completely right, and about 75% on the next one. Submitted that testlet and moved to the third. Again, had two financial application-type SIMs and my research sim (which was last). I did the research SIM first (since I knew I could figure it out if I took a few minutes to do it), and then jumped back to the two financial application SIMs. I estimated I got both of those about 75-85% right.
I ended up with 45 minutes left on the clock when I hit submit. In hindsight, I would have spent more time on testlet 1 and further reviewed testlets 2 and 3. However, the fear of the unknown sitting in the next set of testlets kinda forced me to push ahead and time manage. I felt so defeated from the first two SIMS that I didn't even bother using my last 45 minutes to review testlet 3. I just hit submit, walked to the car, and cried. hah
I also scored ‘weak' compared to my 75-80 scoring peers in the MCQ, so it was definitely the SIMS (and my strong score of nongovt/NFP) that saved it.
In my eyes, at least ensuring yourself enough time to get to all the SIMs was more important that getting too bogged down on one, especially since one SIM is just one of those ‘testing' ones. Of course you don't know which one that is, but I didn't want to commit to the first two SIMS too much, only to end up not even getting a chance to answer any SIMS on the last testlet (like in my case, the research SIM being the very last one).