[satyakatiwal]

Hi
I am just trying to gauge how those who passed FAR did in SIMs. Please tell what percentage of SIMs u did in FAR e.g. 3 SIMs
100% , 2 70% 3 50%.
I am following Blueprint for SIMs.it will
Be great help to me . Lentil , Ana and Anyvtver all please chime in.

[Recked]

I looked at 85 of the 126 that Roger has to offer, working through 58 of them to the point of 100% completion. (In the Roger IPQs if you get even one part wrong on a SIM you get 0% credit for the whole SIM.)
I also looked at some of the GLEIM SIMs but did not really work through them too much.
Any SIM that is drop box or fill in the bubble is a waste of time. Helpful to understand the concepts but not at all like the actual CPA exam SIMs with tons of documents.
The Roger SIMs at least had multiple documents to sort through, but not nearly the same level of distractor information, or back and forth to find all the pieces to answer a question.

At a bare minimum I would suggest you do both the 2017 and 2018 Sample exams. Q1 2018 will look like the 2017 practice exam for format, but the 2018 sample has more MCQs and an additional SIM that you will not see in the 2017 sample. Imagine those SIMs by a factor of 4 up to 10.

[aaronmo]

I've said this before…

The exam SIMs are the mark of whether or not you understand something, not the MCQ. The MCQ is more of a shallow detail test for the most part. The SIMs test whether you actually understand and can do the work. Learning the SIMs will also help with the MCQ that test actual concept.

[Anonymous]

I completely agree with aaronmo-this is especially true for FAR, but true for all sections. If you can't do a journal entry or understand how something is wrong or why it's wrong you don't understand the concept at the level of detail they want you to. When SIMS are difficult and are 50% of the grade, do the SIMS, especially that Becker ones are great, and even though aren't the same but format, look and feel of them is very similar and you get the right stuff out of them. Unfortunately, I didn't find Ninja SIMS for FAR as beneficial.

[satyakatiwal]

@AnyatVer , since you just took the exam and feel Beckers SIM was
Similar to exam , I would go on all cylinders for Beckers SIMs.
Did u get all Analysis SIMs or there were application too ?Thank you for your help .
@Racing ,are u referring to AICPA sample test when mentioned Sample tests 17 n 18 ?


@aaronmo, thanks a lot for your suggestions.

[Recked]

Yes, AICPA Sample tests.
They are overall light and fluffy compared to the real exam. If you can't do the samples then you have some work to do.

[Anonymous]

I am not sure what you mean by analysis vs. application, I can say that subject matter wise, it was pretty accurate to what I was expecting.

[satyakatiwal]

Thanks @racing .
@Ana I meant did you get application level things of BP in your SIMs or u got all Analysis type SIM in actual exam ?
I heard one SIM was from left field and was wondering if that was Analysis or application level of Blueprint?

[Lentilcounter]

Once again, Satya, I encourage you to participate in the AICPA webinar tomorrow. I think it would beneficial to you.

Try not to over think this. If the topic being tested on the blueprint has an analysis box checked next to it, it can be Sim. Think of it as steps 1 through 4.

Remembering and understanding is step 1
Application is step 2
Analysis is step 3
Evaluation is step 4

To get to step 3, you have to overcome steps 1 and 2. So an analysis topic sim is going to have steps 1 to 3 in it.

A mcq is going to touch only step 1 or both.

BEC = 72 (6/08/16)
FAR = ?
REG = ?
AUD = ?

[Lentilcounter]

Given your scores, I would work on doing all MCQ in your study system. Start there. The blueprint is like an evaluation tool. It's a roadmap to your success. Not an answer key.

You can only talk strategy so much. Now get out there and put in the time.

BEC = 72 (6/08/16)
FAR = ?
REG = ?
AUD = ?

[satyakatiwal]

@lentil I am registered for tomorrow webinar. What you explained (steps ) make perfect sense.
Thanks again Lentil, feeling embarrassed as failed 4 times and I consider it as my major and in mCQ mock test get 82+ . Don’t know what to expect when I would take REG which is my weakness.

[Lentilcounter]

@Satya

There is nothing to be embarrassed about. We have all had failures and if not with this exam, with something else in life. Keep working hard. You will pass. Best of luck.

BEC = 72 (6/08/16)
FAR = ?
REG = ?
AUD = ?

[aaronmo]

Anya – agree 100%. It's most true in FAR, but is true throughout. It definitely applies to REG. A little less with audit. I didn't have sims with BEC…unfortunately.

Bottom line…if you can't relate whatever it is you're working on back to the journal entries, the financial statements and the basic equation of accounting, you don't understand it and you aren't ready. Maybe you'll get the “right test”, but do you want to keep doing this until that point? Learn the material. You learn the material at least partially with SIMs.

[Anonymous]

^^Yup, last weekend before my test on Monday, I literally would say-bonds, what are they, what are bonds issued at discount, how do you calculate a bond price? if I had to do a journal entry for an investor who bought a bond at discount, can I do it? leases-what are capital leases? how do you record it? what is the journal entry, etc. I wrote out all the possible journal entries and transactions i could think of and if I couldn't think of it, I did the SIMS, and Skills Practice and listened to my good friend Peter Olinto. LOL

[satyakatiwal]

@Anyatver , those two chapters I get 100% correct MCQ but unfortunately they give 1 or zero mcq . If they give SIM and whatever JE , I will be able to finish 100% LOL , unfortunately I never got it .

[Anonymous]

That was just an example, I did that for all topics covered by Becker🙂 Broadly speaking.

[Author]

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