[Ben]

What a week. Stayed up late Monday to find out I made a 74 on BEC. Water heater stopped working Tuesday afternoon. Woke up sick Thursday and got sicker as the day went. And took FAR Friday afternoon, high on cough medicine and snotting all over myself. Yeah, FML. Apologies to anyone else in the testing center that might be reading this.

Siver lining: FAR wasn’t that bad. Counter-point: It was easy enough I probably made a 74 on it.

The deats: The MCQ were ridiculously easy. Using Ninja MCQ, I had seen everything this exam had to offer. #ThanksJeff. I believe there were ~10 that were tricky and it was due to vague wording or having to pay attention to dates. First testlet was medium as per always, second testlet I think was more difficult, but nothing terrible. Again, literally…wait, figuratively? No. Literally nothing was presented in a way I hadn’t seen on Ninja.

There was a lot of Govt/NFP, and bonds. There was not a lot of IFRS, which was nice because I got murdered by IFRS last time. Also bad because I was prepared for IFRS this time. I know none of us get the same exam, just thought it was interesting.

The sims: I’ve read all of your horror stories from the past quarter. I was prepared for the worst. I was met with a very easy research questions, 4 involved/lengthy but not-difficult simulations, and 2 that were tricky but not impossible.

The last one… the only one thing I can say about it, is that its like it was written in a foreign country and then translated badly. No it wasn’t a foreign transaction type sim. Have you ever bought something from china or india and the instruction book is REALLY badly translated into English? Thats how both the instructions and the available material seemed. I knew what it wanted out of me, but I had a LOT of trouble figuring out how to make 1+2=3 with what it gave me. I wish I could go on, but non-disclosures and all. I did the best I could but I KNOW that one is a partial credit at best.

The best sim advice I can give is 2 things:

A: On the lengthy ones, just treat every little document or event as a single problem. Solve it, then go to the next. Its like eating an elephant.

B: Be prepared to think outside the box. The one I had so much trouble with took a lot of mental gymnastics to get what they gave me turned into what they wanted, and I guess I’ll never even know if I did it right unless I make a 99. Be prepared for schedules or worksheets you may not often see in your studies.

And now I’m off to go cram for BEC in a week. And no, my water heater still isn’t working. And yes, cold showers when your sick is just as miserable as it sounds!

[Wannafree]

@MattLorenz ,it seems you did very well.I know a guy who passed AUD and he had left 1 SIM completely and he got 87.In Q1 I had left 2 SIMs and passed with 79 (AUD ),so you don't need to solve all SIMs to get 75.

[Wannafree]

@mattlorenz ,Equity means equity or Shareholder's equity ? BTW just curious did you get that is it the that equity SIM which Ben was saying had Indian Chinese type English translation question ? LOL

[MattLorenz]

I forgot about the whole confidentiality agreement thing, so I'm going to keep that little detail to myself. What I will say is that it sounds like Ben and I had very similar exams. I probably had 10-12 MC questions I would skip on my first attempt through each MC module due to either not wanting to take the time to solve it or not knowing how to completely solve it, but all in all, I'd say only 8-10 MC were truly in question when it was all said and done. In terms of the sims, if they are going to keep making us go through multiple exhibits, they either need to extend the time 15 mins or give us a 2nd screen. Most times I don't complain because I know we put ourselves through this to separate us from the others, but it's almost to the point where it tests efficiency and not knowledge. Also, having your computer freeze off and on because you're clicking back and forth too quickly doesn't help either.

[Wannafree]

@MattLorenz ,thanks man,I don't want you get trolled or troubled.I agree with you that amount of information is too much for each question and most of the candidates said that they had to rush through.I appeared in Q2 and I believe even if someone would have given me all SIMs ,it would't have made any difference to me as I was trying my best to run as fast as I could and still couldn't complete the SIMs,I knew the answers of those SIMs as those were easier questions in last 2 tetslets but barely I had time.I visit this forum mainly to learn how others are handling the time constraints and piles of information in memos and emails.Someone (don't remember name) has suggested take one memo for 1 question.

[MattLorenz]

@wannafree

I agree that the material isn't necessarily hard for the sims I had, but just the number of exhibits is what takes up the majority of the time on the sims. That is probably why I'll be frustrated if I didn't pass because I feel like I knew the material enough to get a 75, but the time was working against me when I needed it most! So be it, if I pass then I'm done with FAR forever, in theory, unless I can't pass AUD by next November. Taking AUD in October and BEC in December, but I'm expecting to pass BEC if I study the same way I did for FAR and REG.

[Wannafree]

@MattLorenz , I am on same boat , I have studied and know the concept pretty well about FAR but I was staring the last testlet , knew all three but clock stopped.I Felt so frustrated I can't tell you ,I believe I know enough to cross 75 but truth is I am not even attempt all questions.But I think this time I may cross the “memo/email/hump” and ready for those long questions.Rule is simple , divide the long question into multiple small questions.Many people on this forum suggested this approach and it worked for them.

[Author]

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