[Bnots]

The areas where one is the weakest will be the ones that are tested the most.

It’s like the exam is sentient and knows how to hit you where it hurts. It’s been the same story on every section, but it reached the point of absurdity for me with FAR yesterday. I’m not even sure where the AICPA gets the percentages they publish in the content specifications, because they’re rubbish. That’s besides the fact that I might as well have been testing in a foreign country…

Testlets went medium->nightmare->just kill me already. I’m pretty confident I was mid 20s for the first, but probably 75 percent of the questions on the last two were from the same three topics. The three I struggle with the most, naturally. Midway through the third testlet it was all I could do to not start cussing out loud in the test facility every time I hit the “Next” button. Three of the seven sims were more of the same.

I realize that the scoring results in the harder testlets being more forgiving if you get them, but it’s not just the difficulty of the material. It’s also the time one has to spend making sense of the question and debating between answers. That 20 minutes more I spent on the second and third testlets were 40 minutes less I had to spend on the sims. I guess their methodology produces the results they want, but feeling like you’re being punished for having started well is all kinds of backwards.

At least I know what to study for a potential retake, but I don’t think I’ve ever been so eager to just be done with something.

[Accountant183748]

Is that murphy's law?

I completely agree with you though the exams are so random – that's how I felt for BEC like you are describing. For the other tests, I didn't notice them getting harder or anything. From what you are describing though you probably did well. I've heard if you walk out thinking you had no idea what happened you did well.

Good luck!

[ShutUp]

At the risk of sounding whiney this is how I felt on my BEC exam last week. Now im stuck in the either ‘obsess over score release' or ‘try to passively listen to REG lectures' phase. Im not sure that they didn't use the South Park “Family Guy” method of coming up with the BEC questions, where a manatee chooses the topic then 4 random words as the answer choices…

FAR - May 23rd (24th, Prometric power outage) - 89 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)>⌐■-■
AUD - July 18th - 88 ┴┬┴┤( ͡° ͜ʖ├┬┴┬
BEC - August 29th (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞
REG - TBD ಠ_ಠ

"You better cut the pizza into 4 pieces because im not hungry enough to eat 6!"

[SkiBum1990]

Found this post I made on March 1st after my Feb 29th BEC exam:

“I just took BEC yesterday and it was my first CPA exam ever. I walked out of the test room like “what the heck was that?” So many of the major topics I had prepped hard for were not on the test. I felt the majority of the questions were about things I barely paid attention to and seemed to have little importance for CPA competency purposes (compared to the harder subjects). I couldn’t believe how random the questions were. I felt it was only difficult in a sense of not being prepared to answer such questions.”

Passed with a 79. *utter shock* — When I got home from the exam, I laid on my bed and was so upset..for lack of a better descriptor.

"The mind can only absorb as much as the seat can take"

B - 79
A - 68, __ (got bumped from Aug 4 release to Aug 23-THANKS AICPA)
R - Oct
F - Nov (HA! 1 month to study working full-time; love NTS rules)

[ShutUp]

@SkiBum1990 thats exactly how i felt on my exam. I feel like I wasted a lot of time on things that didn't end up being “key” to the exam.

FAR - May 23rd (24th, Prometric power outage) - 89 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)>⌐■-■
AUD - July 18th - 88 ┴┬┴┤( ͡° ͜ʖ├┬┴┬
BEC - August 29th (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞
REG - TBD ಠ_ಠ

"You better cut the pizza into 4 pieces because im not hungry enough to eat 6!"

[ShutUp]

@Bnots, sorry for the hijack. I agree with you, they set out these “Content specification outlines” then drill you with 45 questions on XBRL or some minute bs.

FAR - May 23rd (24th, Prometric power outage) - 89 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)>⌐■-■
AUD - July 18th - 88 ┴┬┴┤( ͡° ͜ʖ├┬┴┬
BEC - August 29th (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞
REG - TBD ಠ_ಠ

"You better cut the pizza into 4 pieces because im not hungry enough to eat 6!"

[SaveBandit]

Sounds about right.

After 3 exams I was convinced the computer figures out what you suck at the most on the 1st testlet and then tests you heavily on those topics from the 2nd testlet onward.

4 for 4

FAR 85
AUD 94
BEC 86
REG 90

[ShutUp]

i wish they were just a tad more transparent on scoring. I mean we're acccountants… they give us a number… obviously by nature we're going to want to know exactly what drives that number.

FAR - May 23rd (24th, Prometric power outage) - 89 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)>⌐■-■
AUD - July 18th - 88 ┴┬┴┤( ͡° ͜ʖ├┬┴┬
BEC - August 29th (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞
REG - TBD ಠ_ಠ

"You better cut the pizza into 4 pieces because im not hungry enough to eat 6!"

[krstnam]

You and I must have got at least one or two of the same testlets because I had the exact same problem (two days ago).

When I finished the 2nd testlet I was convinced they knew the area I was horrible in and purposefully tested me there. Then getting into the MCQs, it was a continuation of the nightmare. I feel like most of the test was only on a couple of subjects.

It took all of my will power not to pull into the first bar and drown my sorrows away. Imminent failure for me. :'(

[Oedipus Tex]

It's weird for sure. The better prepared I am, the luckier I am.

[MiraMouse]

@bnots,

I'm with you. I have a new CPA exam conspiracy theory: in order to produce the 50% fail rate rather than grade on a curve some test are randomly “fail tests.” These tests use their technology to analyze what questions you consistently got wrong on MCQs and give you ALL SIMS on those topics.

I felt pretty good with my MCQs. Testlets went Ok, Hard, flag-more-than-half-the-questions hard. Still felt pretty good after reviewing testlet 3 that I probably picked up a good amount of points.

Had 1hr 40min going into SIMS and I RAN OUT OF TIME. That's the level at which I didn't know what I was doing. At least 4 SIMS on areas I knew I was weak but did not expect to get 27 thousand questions about. Just too obscure a topic, I thought. I guess not.

AUD - 99!
FAR - 08/2016
REG - 10/2016
BEC - 12/2016

[musiccitycpa]

When I get to heaven, one of my first questions is how did they calculate the scores on the CPA exam.

AUD- 77
BEC- 84
FAR- 69, Sep 16
REG- 71,61,88

[Anonymous]

^ LOL @ 1st question asked in heaven. The scoring is puzzling for sure.

[livealittle]

I totally agree!

BEC - 8/8/16
REG - 66, 77
AUD - 81
FAR - 9/8/16

[Author]

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