[Anonymous]

I sat for a FAR exam recently and busted my tail. (way harder than any other part which I have passed) I felt prepared and feel like I have a shot of knocking this out. I ran into a SIM that was a roll-forward type question with a graph of roughly 60 cells. Not all cells required an entry as the impact was nothing. I feel like I read here after I sat for my exam that you need to put zeros.

I left these cells blank, probably half of the graph. Should I have put zeros? I’m afraid that I’m gonna score a 74 and it’s because I didn’t put zero’s. I know my answers were solid, just no zeros.

Does anyone have any definitive information about the use of zeros vs. blank cells?

[F15hy]

Pretty sure on the exam it states to enter zeroes (0) in the empty cells. I'm 99% sure…

CA Candidate

B-79 (4th Attempt, finally killed you Nov 2013)
A-81 (3rd Attempt, Feb 2014) AND I AM DONE!!!!!
R-80 (1st Attempt, Feb 2013)
F-77 (2nd attempt, Jan 2014)

Becker, Becker Final Review, NINJA 10-Point Combo
($M.O.B$)

CA Ethics-92%

[Anonymous]

Yeah, well that's a dumb way to not get a passing grade. I will find out soon.

It still summed everything up at the bottom. So the computer was smart enough to know my blank cells are the same as a zero.

[CPA soon]

Yes you need to put zeros but real people will review the sims after the computer grades them so they might cut you some slack or penalize you lightly.

FAR - 71, 68, 74, (8/31/14) 78 ✔
REG - 67, 71, 71, (10/18/14) 78 ✔
BEC - (11/29/14) 86 ✔
AUD - 73, (4/4/15) 86 ✔

I can't believe this is over! 2 years and 3 months..

[Study Monk]

Sht I left them all blank on my FAR exam. Close call.

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"

[Reflektor]

Wow. I actually was wondering this when I took FAR last week, but I read the instructions thoroughly and it said nothing about putting zeroes so I just left them blank. I probably should have done it just to be safe…

BEC - 69, 70, 82 - DONE
FAR - 59, 77 - DONE
REG - 53, 70, 85 - DONE
AUD - 66, 68, 70, 85 - DONE

[Anonymous]

On practice SIMs for CPAExcel if you leave blank and don't physically enter a -0- it marks it as incorrect.

[musicamor]

ZEROES – DO NOT LEAVE ANYTHING BLANK!! I don't care what anyone else on this post has said – the fact is that leaving blanks is the worst thing a tester can do.

Texas CPA - licensed in 2012!!!

[Anonymous]

I really don't know what to think about this, I don't think we will know.. some people did it and some didn't and they passed.. is a mystery.. I personally read many times to write zeros, and is what I did before my time was ending.. but again, I really don't know if this is true..

[Study Monk]

more to consider..

https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-forum/topic/using-0-or-leaving-blank-on-sims

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"

[Anonymous]

I just passed FAR after a couple attempts with near passes. This last time, I entered zeros even where there was no number required, regardless of the instructions, even if I chose “no entry required” as one of the options.

Not sure if that was the reason I passed or not – I won't ever know, but I do feel like I performed better overall on the MCQs as well. So my advice is, pound practice MCQs, try to do as well as possible on those. Then, if there are parts of the SIMS that confuse you, or you just can't answer, or you run out of time, enter zeros in all numeric blank cells.

[kpb]

In the directions, it told you to put zero's for the cells that didn't need any entry. Did you read the instructions? I had that same sims, that's why I know.

BEC - 81 4/08/14
FAR - 80 8/25/14 Thank you Jesus!
REG - 69 (Nov 14),80 1/08/15 Thank God!
AUD - 70 (May 14), xx 5/1/15

Becker Online & Becker Flashcards
I definitely wish I was one of those people who got all 4 exams done in 4 months, but unfortunately LIFE (being a newlywed, stress, adjusting to newlywed life and cpa exam study life, as well as starting a job with a Big4 which I am very happy about) got in the way, just happy that I am passing period!!

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!

[kpb]

Some of the sims tell you to put zeros, some of them don't. I don't see why you should enter 0 for everything EVEN IF THEY say you don't need to! Does that make sense? I think you should follow the instructions, if they say put zeros, do it. If not, it shouldn't hurt you. That's what I think anyways.

BEC - 81 4/08/14
FAR - 80 8/25/14 Thank you Jesus!
REG - 69 (Nov 14),80 1/08/15 Thank God!
AUD - 70 (May 14), xx 5/1/15

Becker Online & Becker Flashcards
I definitely wish I was one of those people who got all 4 exams done in 4 months, but unfortunately LIFE (being a newlywed, stress, adjusting to newlywed life and cpa exam study life, as well as starting a job with a Big4 which I am very happy about) got in the way, just happy that I am passing period!!

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!

[Lucky11189]

I took FAR on the 19th and I read the instructions for my JE questions thoroughly…no where in my instructions did it say to put a zero in the non-used cells…the only specific instruction it said was “If no JE is needed, put no JE needed in the space.”

FAR- 84 (August 2014)
REG- 85 (November 2013)
AUD- 85 (January 2014)
BEC- 83 (May 2014)

[Author]

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