[Sandy]

I just finished my FAR test.
I would say definitely spent time reviewing
NFP (especially recent change of rules)
government F/S
Revenue Recognition
and subsequent event recognition
right before the exam.

Overall, it’s easier than Wiley CPA practice exam.
The difficulty of SIM is similar to Roger CPA SIMs.

[Anonymous]

More likely another 95 for FAR?

[NYSCPA]

@sophie- how are the new testing equipments? are they any major differences like excel?

[Accounting123]

@sophie I bet you did amazing. Would you say focus on the JEs a lot. Or mainly the overall concepts?

[TerriSilva]

I'm taking it on Friday…was feeling good until Wiley practice exam 🙁 The sims in Wiley are crazy and making me feel like I don't know anything all of a sudden which I know is not true…I am going to do SIMS until I can't do them anymore! UGH.

[DoubleBogey]

@TerriSilva I don't think Wiley sims are representative of the exam from what I remember. They're great review because they usually test at deeper or more complex levels than the actual exam

[TerriSilva]

@jsdailey thanks for that! I remember the ones from my first FAR experience…my only issue that happened was that I ran out of time because I let the mcqs freak me out and I spent too much time on them. I was just doing a couple Wiley sims and they were ridiculous…but I think maybe just to get a deeper understanding of the material. Still I don't like the way a lot of it is worded. You hit the nail on the head – complex is right!

[Troys22]

This is interesting. I have been using both Wiley and Ninja and I feel like the Wiley questions are so much more complex than Ninja. June 9th will be my first time sitting for FAR, but in my experience with the other sections, the SIMS on the actual exam were easier than Wiley. I have also taken the AICPA practice exam to get a good feeling for the SIMS and did pretty well on them. @TerriSilva you should take the AICPA practice and see how you do. I think you will find that the SIMS on that AICPA practice exam are not overly challenging. Good luck to you this Friday!

[Anonymous]

@troys22 I took far in April and felt the AICPA Practice exam was a very fair representation of the SIMs.

[Sandy]

Getting familiar with JE (memorize it and understand it) will be very helpful in answering a lot of questions fast! Especially SIMs.
Governmental and NFP MCQs focus mostly on concepts, I didn't see any JE related to those topics.

Wiley MCQs is pretty crazy.
I think the real exam is more doable than Wiley practice exam MCQs.
But practice exam definitely helps with practicing time management.

AICPA sample tests SIMs are very close to real exams.
The Excel function in the exam is very well designed.
You can use excel for both MCQs and SIMs.
Also, you can move the excel where ever you want and adjust the size so it doesn't block the documents.

[Accounting123]

Thank you! I will be sure to focus on the topics you mentioned while I am studying. I appreciate it.

[TerriSilva]

@troys22 I did the mcqs on the AICPA website, but not the SIMS – I'll do them now on my lunch hour! I think last time I did SIMS for a section on AICPA's site the answers were not available so I didn't find it helpful and didn't do them for FAR.

[Troys22]

@TerriSilva So, without going into too much detail, what did you think of the exam today? Comparable to Wiley Practice exam? Comparable to Ninja MCQs? AICPA practice SIMs a fair representation of what is on the actual test in terms of difficulty? Overall feeling?

[TerriSilva]

@Troys22 sorry this is late! Wiley practice exam is actually close on the mcqs in my opinion…they were a little harder than Ninja on the one I took. I can't even call how I did. With AUD, I knew I nailed the MCQs and when I got my score it showed I was stronger in mcqs than the other candidates who passed. I did not feel that way with FAR! The TBS were were 50/50…there were 3 I know I did really well on and I also found the research question answer, but the other 4 I am not sure how that went. They were odd in my opinion. I just can't call it on this one.

I was about 90% sure I passed AUD after I took it…I really don't know on this one. *sigh* I did end up with 2 hours at the break for the TBS.

[Troys22]

@TerriSilva Sounds like you were able to finish the exam though. I'm sure you did well enough to pass. Hopefully the pretest TBS was one that you weren't too sure about. Would you say that the AICPA blueprints were representative of the TBS questions (the analysis column is what was tested as TBS)? I have been going over those topics exclusively to prepare for the TBS and feel pretty good about most of them. How did you end up allocating your time for each testlet?

[ChiliChil]

@Sophie

Is “Excel” on the exam really Excel? Same featured to drag and drop and formulas? Can you drag formulas? Can you copy from the question and paste, say a table, into excel (and vice versa)?

Thanks,
Luke

[Author]

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