[seminology]

I took FAR on 9/9/2017. Honestly, i developed headache with those simulations. One document review and others had accompanied resources that i almost lost count. In fact, i was confused at a point that i wanted to terminate the exam and walk out of the examination hall. No single principle was tested, such as select from list of choices etc that we are used to. I have to enter my own generated figures in all the cells, except for Journal Entries where i need to select the ledger type but generate the figures myself. I have never sat for an exam like this before. My MCQ was perfect. In fact, i can boost of 60 correct answers in the MCQ out the 66 for sure. I over prepared and i knew it! But for the simulation, am afraid, aside the research, i may not get any score from the remaining 7. It is that bad! Subject that i knew very well, but unfortunately, i do not know where to start and what to do despite reading the requirement over and over again. All the resource materials disorganized my chain of thought and the fear that some information may be related to a particular transaction may require one to review (read) almost all the resources to ensure nothing escapes. At the same time, time is ticking in an unfriendly manner. This increased my tension and created more confusion. I was so prepared that I would have blasted the exam if it were like the simulation we used have before now, as contained in most study materials. All the study materials i have reviewed from 4 good different providers, in my opinion, are not effective in treating this kind of recent simulation. Ironically, It was a sad day for me because i was so confused. It has really crashed my morale to proceed with REG. Those simulations, i repeat, are extremely crazy.

AUD – 80
BEC – 84
FAR – Sat for the exam today, remote chance of passing.
REG – Confused as to whether or not to proceed. This is because my AUD and BEC credits will terminates by February 2018. The FAR disrupted the study flow.

[QueenCPA]

I certainly agree. My experience was quite similar. MCQs were ok but sims were not!

I guess we have to wait till the 19th. You never know, you might be surprised.

But I don't think the exam will get easier, If anything, they will make it harder than this.

Good luck

[Anonymous]

You might be pleasantly surprised. Keep studying and get through REG. The 18-month window is an obstacle for all candidates.

If you can pass 2/4, then you can pass 4/4.

Keep it up, tiger.

[LawGuy]

You did fine, the questions are weighted. As long as you're slightly more prepared than average, you usually get a passing grade.

[CPAcandidate3]

Never understand the hate for the SIMs. I didn't think the far sims were bad at all.

[Radez]

I think the sims are just intimidating because they throw so much crap at you all at once. What has helped me get more comfortable with them is recognizing that in most of the cases, if its a DRS, each question in the sim relates to only one or two documents. Once I adopt the approach of taking them piecemeal, it became easier to manage.

What I mean by this is, say you have a sim that covers year end accruals. The first question might have to do with A/R, so out of the 7 or 8 documents, you find the ones that have to do with AR, either receivables memos or agings and use those to answer the question. If another one's about accruals, then look for something by A/P. Contingencies, look for emails from the legal department or legal memos. Etc. Each piece of the sim becomes like a tiny self-contained problem with only a couple of pieces of information needed to solve it.

N.B. this is all based on what I remember from the practice I've done. I honestly can't remember what was on my exam anymore.

[rhayder]

I agree that the best approach to the SIMS appears to be scan the question, go straight to the source document and try to plug the information to the form. After you've hit the source documents then you can go back to the question and check to see if you have more to complete.

[seminology]

@ CPAcandidate3:

I don't hate FAR Simulation. I have just detailed my Exam experience. If you experience a cheaper version of the FAR Simulation, so be it and best of luck. Understand that i am not a dumb but very sound as well. Have always been a first class graduate material all my life and never failed any professional exams before, ranging from ACCA, CIA, CISA, CISM, CFE. This is a testimony for a fact! Both the AUD-80 and BEC-84 that i passed was also at the very first trial. If you actually read through my initial write up, i repeated the statement that “i over prepared” but never understood or experienced/practice such a simulation style before, hence it was a different format and time consuming questions, different from the format contained in practice questions of most tuition providers.

@Radez:

I totally agree with you. The approach you suggested, if implemented, could land anyone a pass! I will commit that to memory for REG Exam. Thank you.

“QueenCPA, Almond and LawGuy:

You guys are, indeed, very great! All you have just done was to activate my courage to push further and earn the CPA designation. I sincerely appreciate you with my whole heart! Thank you.

[CPAcandidate3]

@seminology

Maybe your approach really did just make the questions harder than they needed to be. I assumed everyone approached DRS SIMs the way @radez pointed out.

[seminology]

@ CPAcandidate3:

Yes, DSR Simulation is okay since we are used to that during practice. That was my last SIM question and the only problem i had was no spare time anymore. I regretted this and am still regretting why i lost quality time to other questions that were meaningless. The Research Based question was also okay as we were used to that also. The other six SIM questions had lots of resources (appendices like) and the requirement were not clear. Reading through the examiners request over and over again, i don't understand what it really wanted from me. If the requirement had been like say, “use the resources to redraft….. or review and correct….. or prepare…… e.t.c.”, that would have redirected my focus to what the examiner wanted and hit the exam hard. In this case, God bear me witness, i read the requirement 6 to 7 times, i still do not figure out what the examiner wanted. Too painful that no one could see what i saw in the exam. It is not good at all. One of the ever simplest topic was tested and the examiners requirement was not clear as to what he wanted. At a point, i was answering some questions assuming for the examiner what it actually wanted with the layout presented sort of, which ordinarily should not supposed to be. If the examiner had stated what it wanted, i would have nailed it once and for all. What i saw is that bad……..bad emphasised!

I think clear requirements in case based exams is an aspect AICPA really need to work on. Also, all questions should not be case based with resources and calculations all through. In my case, i was so unfortunate that no SIM question tested in-depth understanding of principles, rather tested application of principles all in a case based scenario, without considering the effect of time allocated to pretested questions and the overall time allocated for the exam.

I had never complained in my entire life for any exam before until now. I belief something is fundamentally wrong in the exam that was spooled in my case. It could be a system problem or something, i don't know and do not want to guess for them. If such questions are spooled for all candidates, i will be surprise if we can have as much as 3% pass rate (in my opinion). It is also important for all candidates to know that tuition providers does not have the resources to treat those SIM, hence we need to work harder beyond the questions we used to practice during our study.

I wish these SIM questions could be seen by other candidates for them to understand my complaint, and see how brutal and unfair they were to me!

If the exam result comes out and the result is adverse, to register for the exam is not a problem, in fact i do not need to repeat any study because am very much loaded, locked and ready. But my fear is these SIM without clear requirement, it could hunt again. However, i will have to start assuming what the examiner wanted and think for them what they may ask of me. That is the only thing that can make me do anything. But, if they make the requirement clear, i will put FAR in the coffin and bury it right there!

[Yahmon]

@seminology I totally agree with what you're saying about some of these questions being very vague. I can say even in my review program (Gleim) I came across situations where I know the topic really well then I complete the SIM and get a low grade only to review the explanation and be shocked at what they were asking. I work as a controller and there are times when you have to figure out very ambiguous stuff but at least you get to take your time and think about it. If there's one thing I would say that's unfair about the CPA exam is the time allotted for the exam is too short in my opinion. If candidates were given ample time to really think then maybe there would be a higher pass rate but then the CPA designation wouldn't be that “prestigious” LOL.

FAR 8/20/15 - Passed 77
AUD 10/10/15 -
BEC TBD
REG TBD

[Author]

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