[SecondTaxdeadline100+hoursaweek]

Ladies, Gents.

So I am looking for some advice. I did very well on Regulation but I am pretty sure I am not going to make this one. Overall, the multiple choice were not so bad. I probably got more than 80% of the multiple choice right over higher.

Anyone ON to my Problem 😀

So I felt I did very well on the multiple choice and even the three simulations I did manage to complete I feel like I got 100% right. WELL here is where it goes bad. I allocated 135 minutes to get through the sims a little low. Took me 30 minutes to get through the first sim even though I got it right. The next sim oh brother, you could understand the general concept but trying to under the directions was near impossible. I couldn’t figure out what they want. So it kinda went like this.

First Sim bank:

First Sim – 100% right
Second Sim – Partial completion got some points but overall negative.

Second Bank –

First Sim – 100% right
Research Question – Complete
Third Sim – Moved on for time left blank.

Third Bank –

First Sim – 100% right
Second Sim – Filled in garbage hoping for points with 10 minutes left.
Last Sim – Blank

Here is what pisses me off about the sims. You have monster simulations that take up a ton of time but you can’t go forward or back and look at the simulations once you move to the next section.

You know normally when your taking a test when you first get it, I would always go through it and come up with a plan. I would have went to the end first and completed the easy ones before tackling the hard ones. For all these fees we pay why can’t the testing center set us up with multiple monitors rather than having ten screens open on the same screen?

Anyhow – I am probably thinking I am boned regardless of knowing the material. Do you think I should submit a new ticket and get ready to take it again or wait for my score?

PRO-TIP

I have noticed this on FAR and REG. The hardest sims were in the first and second testlet for the Simulations and the ones at the end were a breeze. Probably the pretest is in the first or second testlet. If you’re running out of time I’d sacrifice one of the hard ones in the first or second testlet. This has just been my observation.

THANKS.

[jeff]

I had a FAR sim where I knew the material – it was my strongest topic, but for the life of me, couldn't figure out what they wanted. It was like I had to read the person's mind who made the sim. I stared at it for 15 minutes in disbelief. I ended up doing fine – and I'm sure you will too – especially with that REG score…you clearly know how to study.

[SecondTaxdeadline100+hoursaweek]

Got a 79 for anyone that was wondering.

Basically left almost 4 simulations blank.

[Road2CPA]

Wow, that is impressive considering almost 4 simulations were left blank! I take FAR tomorrow and the simulations are really concerning me. This at least gives me a glimmer of hope, but I will still make sure to try my best to finish all them.

[Sam]

Good approach, Road2CPA, I finished all the Sims and squeaked by with a 78. Definitely can't take anything for granted. At the same time, we know more than we think we do, so we might end up doing well on Sims that gave us panic attacks. Good luck, bring this CPA home!

[Road2CPA]

@Sam thank you so much for the encouragement! You are so right about knowing more than you think, I experienced that with BEC for sure because I thought the cost accounting and economics sections were going to get the best of me. Surprisingly, I was pretty confident on the questions that I saw on my exam in those areas. It was actually some of the COSO/Governance questions that stumped me because I didn't study that area well enough – guess I was a little overconfident in that area 🙂

And congratulations on your recent licensing!

[Professor Farnsworth]

I took FAR yesterday, it was my first ever CPA exam, people always say it's hard, but that is a huge understatement. FAR IS BRUTAL. However, thanks to Roger I felt ready and confident and the mcqs were fairly easy and I think I did well on those. But if I'm being honest the SIMs were nothing like I have ever seen, literally the stuff that accounting nightmares are made of. The way those SIMs were written was just unbelievably vague and unclear, it felt like they were testing reading comprehension and not accounting concepts. Roger's lectures were great and I knew all the concepts but for the life of me I couldn't understand what I was supposed to do in some of the SIMS on the exam. Those morons at aicpa need to work on their writing.
Regardless I was surprised how well I was prepared for the exam with just using Roger and nothing else, so I'm thankful for that.

[CPA_VT]

Professor Farnsworth wrote:

ed u

In each of the 4 exams, there was at least 1 SIM that I struggled with. There were questions that seemed deliberately vague. I also struggled with navigating back and forth in the documents/memorandum/letters and such that are in the SIM. GLEIM did a good job of preparing you for the SIM. Especially in REG I struggled mightily with SIMs during the study phase but I ended up fine in the exam.

FAR there was one SIM I was unsure about but overall it was not too bad.

I got by doing only the SIMs in the study units. I did not do any additional SIMs from their question bank and glad it ended up being okay.
My experience has been that if you do fairly well in MCQs and kind of sort of okay in the SIM. You get lucky if a really bad one is a pre-test. If it is not, I suppose you will get a few of the individual questions at least correct and still end up with a high 70s or low 80s score.

[Amber]

@SecondTax I felt the same. I took FAR for the second time last week and didn't finish again. I used the last 20 minutes trying to fill in the things I thought I knew and randomly pick a couple from a list that had options. 90% of mine were fill in and had 6-10 attachments. It just seemed impossible. I know I got the authoritative lit right and I think I did well on an EPS one but much like you said, they weren't very specific with what they were looking for which made me second guess myself. If you leave a blank to fill in, but that item doesn't relate, why not say something like “If it is unrelated put X” or “leave blank.” It was very vague.

[Author]

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