[FindYourBeach]

So I have been lurking for the past month and a half and decided to finally register and post! I just took FAR this morning. It is my first exam and I began studying mid-September. This is a somewhat redundant topic, but I wanted to get recent opinions on how people felt leaving FAR vs. how they scored.

I went all out with the studying for this exam and, upon completion, I felt pretty good about it. The first two testlets were pretty easy (marking 2-4 per testlet) but the third testlet was a beast. I didn’t think the sims were as horrible as people describe them. I did have two challenging ones but left time to check the codification to at least get a portion of them right. Maybe I got lucky.

Problem: there seems to be a consensus on this forum that people who felt pretty confident leaving the exam end up failing. Obviously I won’t know for sure until scores come out, I just wanted to hear some of your thoughts/ opinions.

[Anonymous]

I thought the first testlet was super easy, marked 2-3, second testlet was a little bit harder, marked 5-6. The last one was beyond horrible, I must have marked half the questions. And the SIMS were horrible. I left thinking I was going to take it again next summer. But I somehow got an 89. The consensus here is if you left feeling horrible, you probably did good! Don't restudy, just take a couple days off than pick up studying with the next section.

[Anonymous]

I thought the first testlet was super easy, marked 2-3, second testlet was a little bit harder, marked 5-6. The last one was beyond horrible, I must have marked half the questions. And the SIMS were horrible. I left thinking I was going to take it again next summer. But I somehow got an 89. The consensus here is if you left feeling horrible, you probably did good! Don't restudy, just take a couple days off than pick up studying with the next section.

[Study Monk]

Hey FindYourBeach,

How did you prepare for the SIMS and what was your review course? I am taking it December 5th and need some pointers?

I spoke to an ancient wise man who sent me on a mushroom induced journey through an ancient forest to find the key to passing the CPA exam. A talking spider monkey told me to throw the last of my drinking water in the dirt to find what I was looking for. So I followed his instructions and the following message appeared in the soil:

"Do 5000 multiple choice questions for each section"

[Study Monk]

Hey FindYourBeach,

How did you prepare for the SIMS and what was your review course? I am taking it December 5th and need some pointers?

I spoke to an ancient wise man who sent me on a mushroom induced journey through an ancient forest to find the key to passing the CPA exam. A talking spider monkey told me to throw the last of my drinking water in the dirt to find what I was looking for. So I followed his instructions and the following message appeared in the soil:

"Do 5000 multiple choice questions for each section"

[FindYourBeach]

Honestly (and this is only my opinion) I think the best way to prepare for the sims is to just keep studying the material and drilling MCQs. I used Becker and the sims really only allowed me to see the format come test day.

People say leave an hour for the sims, but my goal was to leave an hour and a half so that I could go through the codification and check answers if need be, and that was definitely helpful.

[FindYourBeach]

Honestly (and this is only my opinion) I think the best way to prepare for the sims is to just keep studying the material and drilling MCQs. I used Becker and the sims really only allowed me to see the format come test day.

People say leave an hour for the sims, but my goal was to leave an hour and a half so that I could go through the codification and check answers if need be, and that was definitely helpful.

[Jasper]

When I took FAR late January 2013, I left the test thinking I definitely failed it. As a matter of fact, I was so convinced I failed FAR that I continued studying the material into February. I got my test results late February with a passing grade of 82.

I was amazed an inspired, and here I am at the end of the year with only one more part to pass.

FAR 82
BEC 82
AUD 93
REG 87

[Jasper]

When I took FAR late January 2013, I left the test thinking I definitely failed it. As a matter of fact, I was so convinced I failed FAR that I continued studying the material into February. I got my test results late February with a passing grade of 82.

I was amazed an inspired, and here I am at the end of the year with only one more part to pass.

FAR 82
BEC 82
AUD 93
REG 87

[Play_It_By_Ear]

I sympathise completely. I got home about 3 hours ago from the Prometrics center after taking FAR this afternoon. 1st testlet = deceivingly easy… 2nd testlet = absurdly difficult… 3rd testlet = easy again (bummer)… Sims = iffy at best. I was confident on 2 of the sims and the research question, but the other 4 I just took a stab at. Anyone else get that feeling when you type an answer you just know is wrong?

I am retaking Audit (2nd attempt) on 11/27, so I will just concentrate on that until the FAR score release (11/21). I will probably postpone any potential retake of FAR until after tax season 2014. Can't wait for the holiday break from studying!

Looking forward to seeing all the passing scores in a few weeks!

AUD (7/31/13) 66... Retake (11/27/13) 90 & DONE!
BEC (8/28/13) 85
REG (10/4/13) 86
FAR (11/6/13) 79

Yeah... We're putting new cover letters on all our TPS reports ...Did you get that memo?

[Play_It_By_Ear]

I sympathise completely. I got home about 3 hours ago from the Prometrics center after taking FAR this afternoon. 1st testlet = deceivingly easy… 2nd testlet = absurdly difficult… 3rd testlet = easy again (bummer)… Sims = iffy at best. I was confident on 2 of the sims and the research question, but the other 4 I just took a stab at. Anyone else get that feeling when you type an answer you just know is wrong?

I am retaking Audit (2nd attempt) on 11/27, so I will just concentrate on that until the FAR score release (11/21). I will probably postpone any potential retake of FAR until after tax season 2014. Can't wait for the holiday break from studying!

Looking forward to seeing all the passing scores in a few weeks!

AUD (7/31/13) 66... Retake (11/27/13) 90 & DONE!
BEC (8/28/13) 85
REG (10/4/13) 86
FAR (11/6/13) 79

Yeah... We're putting new cover letters on all our TPS reports ...Did you get that memo?

[rvcpa]

I took FAR this week and also left feeling ok. It's kind of scary since you never really how you did until the scores are released.

[rvcpa]

I took FAR this week and also left feeling ok. It's kind of scary since you never really how you did until the scores are released.

[G3]

@Play_It_By_Ear

I felt the same way about the SIMs on my FAR retake (10/29). The MCQs were all also all over the board 🙁

Hopefully I passed (won't look until I have AUD retake completed on 11/26)

@FindYourBeach

The FAR retake is because of credit loss 🙁 and when I took it the first time I walked out feeling like I bombed it and ended up passing. If you have another exam in the window, focus on that one and take your mind off of FAR until score release day (I know easier said than done!) Good Luck!

Regardless of passing or failing scores, I am taking December off to be with my family. It's been a diffult year personally and we all could something positive to look forward to.

3XBEC:75 * 4XREG:82 * 4XFAR:76 * 7XAUD:77

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” Theodore Roosevelt

[G3]

@Play_It_By_Ear

I felt the same way about the SIMs on my FAR retake (10/29). The MCQs were all also all over the board 🙁

Hopefully I passed (won't look until I have AUD retake completed on 11/26)

@FindYourBeach

The FAR retake is because of credit loss 🙁 and when I took it the first time I walked out feeling like I bombed it and ended up passing. If you have another exam in the window, focus on that one and take your mind off of FAR until score release day (I know easier said than done!) Good Luck!

Regardless of passing or failing scores, I am taking December off to be with my family. It's been a diffult year personally and we all could something positive to look forward to.

3XBEC:75 * 4XREG:82 * 4XFAR:76 * 7XAUD:77

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” Theodore Roosevelt

[jlough]

When I took FAR, I definitely found Testlets 2 and 3 more difficult (which was a good sign). Unfortunately I allocated my time poorly and had less than an hour for the SIMS (bad idea). Of the simulations, three of them were on topics that I struggled with. I tried my best to get SOMETHING entered for all the sims, but I walked out of the testing center and starting crying!

Fast forward two months, I got an 84. I was shocked. I honestly thought I had some kind of temporary blindness that caused a 6 to look like an 8.

I agree with the other posters– get started on the next section. It'll get your mind off waiting for the score and if you passed FAR, you'll be on your way towards the next test.

F- 7/13- 84
R- 10/13- 79
A- 11/13- 99
B- 1/14- 86

Licensed in PA- 3/20/2014

This exam ALMOST defeated me back in 2006-2008, but I came back and WON!

[Author]

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