[Parthamis]

I took far yesterday, and I must say… those sims were insane! First off, I had THREE DOCUMENT REVIEWS. Beyond that were 2 Sims which had 5-6 resources with 25+ entries, each for a different client/business unrelated to each other.

In my opinion, Becker and ninja mcq Sims both are good for helping understand material, but not at all within the range of helping comprehend and practice mastering the ability to attack the actual Sims.

I also feel the document reviews are tedious to get around, but of all the conceptual Sims, these are to some extent easier, they are like multiple choice questions where you can eliminate some of the entries, because each response on the Document review has multiple pieces of information (ex: whether or not there is a disclosure, amount of accrual if any, and timing).

I felt confident about the mcqs.. the second trailer was definitely harder than the first, but without a doubt did not perform well on the Sims. However, I will now know what to look out for and how to tackle the Sims next time around, even though I haven’t gotten my score back yet, I plan to retake this test in December, and retake audit towards end of October.

The Sims with the multiple resources (not document review), in which I must enter a number, are overwhelming at first. But I believe many of them were zeros. I had to skip one at the end and entered zeros down the line… 25-30 cells independent of each other.

If I could give any advice, it would be for the super long Sims with multiple resources that are not the document reviews. Take a skim of all the resources. If there are any resources solely for any one specific client/business cell entry, tackle that one first, so you know that you do not need to go back to that particular resource for the rest of the Simulation.

I hope this post helps someone who wants to know what to expect for the FAR Sims.

[momos94]

@Parthamis do you think the becker DRS are good practice?

[S6]

I had the same exact experience with far yesterday too! But, For the 2 long sims with multiple resource tabs and entries, the instructions I had were to leave them blank if no entry..so I left a good chunk of them blank lol. Hoping for a pass!

[BBHYX]

@S6 my long sims had the same instructions — felt very weird to leave so many blanks

[JCVFUTURECPA]

I took FAR yesterday 9/8/17 in San Francisco. I walked out of the tall skyscraper in the city feeling defeated. The SIMS were crazy and took so much time switching tabs. You can use the split screen bbut then you have to scroll to the right or left read. I wish there was a widescreen like I use at work and home.

Pass or fail I paid for my audit exam this morning and moving onto the next. If I fail FAR I know what I need to work on. I feel Becker prepared me, but it was up to me to perform exam day.

Lets get these exams done!

[Earla Riopel (NYCARE)]

Sounds like you took similar 2017 Q3 FAR exam that I did in Las Vegas (Aug 25th). Glad that you're comfortable with the MCQs, which is the opposite for me. Though I am currently working hard with my MCQS, but I know it's a bit too late for my Q3 FAR. Currently preparing for Q4 or Q1 of 2018.

As to Sims, I am going to use my pre-2015 Becker textbooks. Most of the SIMs are in the Becker's textbook illustrations, including JEs. I do have a pre-2015 hardcopy of full set of Wiley as well. I will use this as supplementary review materials. Last but not the least, I managed to make good notes of Ninja SIMs, and focus notes. That's the only thing I can think of.

Based on my Q1 & Q3 2017 FAR and the other 3 sections exams, my pre-2015 materials are still good enough.

[seminology]

I took FAR today. 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

[Parthamis]

If the instructions for those really long sims with the resources were to leave them blank and not fill zeros… I am 100% failing D:

[Parthamis]

I apologize for bumping an old post. I just once again wanted to state that I passed FAR! Those sims were brutal, and even though I will never know How I officially performed on them, I must admit that with an 80, it could not have been so bad.

[Wannafree]

@Parthamis , do you mind sharing more tips for SIMs.I am failing FAR third time due to SIMs.Any tips would be appreciated.

[Parthamis]

I'll do the best I can:

Too start off, let me mention those super long simulations with a very large # of entries with 4-6 resources to look through. For those particular Sims, you should start by reading the directions, and look at what they want… then skim the resources. For my Sims, the entries to be made are for 25ish different ‘clients'. So each business/person needed one balance or adjustment as an answer. As it turns out, many of these do not have balances or adjustments to be made. For this reason, after you skim all the resources, jump back to the resources that isolate only one client/person. For that one person, go through all the resources to get that answer for his entry. You can pretty much eliminate the task of going back to those resources, and move on to the next one. A big mistake I made was trying to go down the line of entries, to get each answer one by one. DO NOT DO THIS! It is a major waste of time, and because I did it for one of the Sims, I essentially left an entire simulation unanswerable. Once you've gone through all resources and answered for all the information provided, proceed to enter zeros or leave the cells blank, whichever you are instructed to do.

Advice for document review:
In my opinion, document reviews are not that bad, they're just new. They test your FAR knowledge in a manner similar to mcq, but with a more real world sense by providing resources to go through.

Like the super long Sims, Read the introduction to get an idea of the situation (case study), then skim through all the resources. For these though, take each sentence response one by one. As in, answer one, then move on to the next without skipping. Like multiple choice, use process of elimination to get the correct response, but remember, these document reviews require a legitimate understanding of the material as a whole. One question on a document review response may ask about the specific disclosure requirement, and the next response could ask about depreciation.

The other Sims I had required I know about a somewhat larger topic, and went in-depth on it. for 1 if them, I was very prepared for it thanks to Becker.

For numerical responses, when you truly do not know the answer and cannot get one.. and you are on a clock, enter a zero or leave it blank. Whichever you are instructed to do. I do not recommend spending vast amounts of time on the authoritative literature. I did that for a couple Sims in audit, spending a solid 20-25 minutes on 1-2 of them, and failed with a 73.

I hope my input helps, I might repost this as a separate topic if you think it was helpful.

[Wannafree]

Thanks a lot @parthamIS

[IwannabeaCPA2017]

Wannafree, I'm on same boat my friend! 3rd try and score is only dipping. I just wanna be done, its depressing and embarrassing when everyone at work is passing and here I am, Failing.

[Author]

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