[Cold Water]

So I just took my Far today. I am using Becker, went through all MCQ on Becker twice, Becker Final Exam MCQ average 67%, I didn’t find the Becker final exam too hard.

So about today’s exam, I was under the impression that the MCQ is much easier than Becker, and heavily focused on Government and NFP, based on what others said. However, I found my first testlet difficult, almost 60-70% requires calculation, and I felt very unsure about most of them. Then I found out my second testlet has more 1-2 lines question, and I know I probably did badly in the first one. Then questions on my 3rd testlet is probably same difficulty as the first one.

And then comes to the simulation, after hearing so much scary stories here, I found mine pretty manageable, I didn’t get one that I don’t know what to do. I was usually a slow exam taker, but I finished all under 1.3 hours, and feel pretty good about them.

Does that mean that I did so bad in the mcq and get easy sims? I passed BEC and AUD with little studies, and FAR is destroying me…

BEC - 86 (12/12/15)
AUD -81 (01/08/16)
Busy Season Everybody!
FAR - 79 (05/21/16)
REG - 77 (06/08/16)
Going to fill in the bonus paperwork now.

[mvol5]

Who knows how the exam is graded, you have all kinds of unknown factors such as how much weight is on any given problem, and the pretest questions. But sim difficulty is independent of your performance of MCQ.

[Excel14]

@cold water,

So are you saying the exam content and difficulty level were as people stated, or are you saying you found both to be different? I read your post over a few times, and while I think I know what you meant, I'm not 100%.

BEC (2/28/16) ----- 78
FAR (09/10/16)-----
AUD
REG

CIA, CGAP, CFE

[Cold Water]

@Excel14

Sorry for being unclear, for my exam today, I feel the mcq are probably the same difficulty level or even harder than the Becker final exam mcq, it's just the questions are asked in a very weird way. When I did the Becker final exams, I feel pretty confident about probably 40% of my answers, but for my exam today, I have very few questions that I was 100% comfortable with. I scored 67% on the Becker final exam on the mcq sections, I am surprised that lots of people think that the real exam is MUCH easier than the Becker final exams, to me, they are the same difficulty level.

BEC - 86 (12/12/15)
AUD -81 (01/08/16)
Busy Season Everybody!
FAR - 79 (05/21/16)
REG - 77 (06/08/16)
Going to fill in the bonus paperwork now.

[Excel14]

@cold water,

Wow, that is rough. So you didn't experience what everyone said in terms of content either?

BEC (2/28/16) ----- 78
FAR (09/10/16)-----
AUD
REG

CIA, CGAP, CFE

[MaLoTu]

sims are not related to mcq performance.

[PharmBoy]

https://www.aicpa.org/BecomeACPA/CPAExam/PsychometricsandScoring/ScoringInformation/DownloadableDocuments/How_the_CPA_Exam_is_Scored.pdf
“Every candidate receives a medium testlet first. Succeeding testlets can be either medium or difficult, depending on a candidate’s performance”

If somebody thinks the first testlet is very hard, or very easy, I think that's probably a better indication of their preparedness than a sudden unannounced change in the CPA exam. Especially with the announced changes we know are coming 2017.

[Author]

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