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I know there’s a million threads like this on the forum, but I just need to ventilate a little…
I just got out of this prison cell thy call prometric center, and I had one hell of an experience in there, taking the FAR exam.
First testlet – I felt incredibly well prepared. Flagged 4 questions but after going back, only 2 of them were critical ones (funny enough, first question was one of the toughest on the entire exam and I spent probably 10 min on that one, still guessing and still not having a clue on how to make that calculation, all though I knew the underlying concept really good). I spent in total 55 min, i.e. too much, on this first simple testlet.
Second testlet – increased level of difficulty, no doubt. I flagged a total of 8, of which I found 4 to be critical. All togeter propbably did pretty well. Wanted to get out and drink some redbull when I was done with this testlet, but realized I had spent 60 minutes so I was way behind schedule and decided to move on immediately.
Third testlet – This was a punch right in the face. It was just ridicilous how odd questions popped up here, and I ended up spending a lot of time on then and flagging 12-13 questions. Not taking that break after the second testlet haunted me throughout this testlet and I felt both disoriented on time and not focused enough. I knew all concepts beig tested, but there was one particular topic coming back over and over and over again (and it was not one of my favorites either), and as I got more and more tired I felt like I was both spending too much time reading the questions, and being super stressed while carrying out the necessary calculations. I was through the testlet after 65 minutes, and realized I had no time at all to review my 12 (!!!!) flagged questions, nor take that much needed break.
So to sum up on the MCQ testlets, I was obviosuly doing well on both first (propably 94%) and second (propably 90%), since the third testlet was a killer beyond this world. Who ever composed that third testlet was pissed off as hell. On the third, I am guessing I got like 70% (assuming I failed 75% of the ones I flagged).
So with one hour left, I started on the sims. I had no problem what so ever on the AUD sims (in fact, I found them really easy and finshed well ahead of time), and while knowing that FAR sims are tougher, I knew I was walking in on this exam very well prepared and that I a reasonable understanding of the format and structure of FAR sims through practising like 50% of the NINJA sims. First thing I realized was that I had underestimated this, and that I had way to little time allocated with 60 min. So I clicked myself through all 7, to make sure I could clear any less extensive ones first. There was only one AL, which i cleared immediately (more likely than not I got it right). All the others were extreme – and by that I mean they were really something completely different from what I have seen in Ninja. All of them. A few of them seemed like it would take me 30 min to finish on its own. Completely stressed out I began on a one-by-one basis. First one was on a concept I have not read one sentence on in Becker, nor seen any Ninja MCQs on, but I did alright I guess, thanks to AL (I hope this was not the pretest one, given that it came across as a odd bird). Second and third one I as completely confident on concept wise, but I was so stressed out due to time running out (and the fact that I was tired from not having that break), that I had do run my way through the calculations and as such increased the risk of misstakes significantly. I am sure I did not get 100% of these. Forth one I guessed my way through as the instructions were not very clear and I didn’t fully understand what to do, so say I got 50% on this. I started with the fifth one but ran out of time, and whatever I put in there was not correct I realized just before exitig, so 0%. Sixth and last sim I did not even start, but from what I could see it was huuuuuge and would take like 30 min to solve with tons of cells to fill out.
So to sum up the sims, I got one AL right, got propbably some right (say 60%) on 3 sims, like 50% on one, and 0% for sure on 2. This was all due to time, and if I would have had another 45 mins, I could have completed all sims with 90% right as I am confident I knew the underlying concepts. I honestly can’t see how anyone could finish these sims in less than 1:45 hours, given the amounts of details and calculations needed.
Questions;
Did anyone here have a similar experience and passed? Right now I feel like I propably won’t, due to some uncertainty in the third testlet and the fact that I got 0 on two full sims.
What do you think about my chances, given the above details?
3 additional short questions:
Also, I realized for one sim that they asked me to fill in the amounts for any debit and credits. As such, I did not put 0’s in, should I? I also noted that “no entry needed” option was present only for one line, i.e I could not fill that in for all lined not needed – this is different from the Ninja sims, so it makes me wonder if I understood that part right? Finally, I wonder if it could possibly be right that no JE is needed at all, when they provide you with a JE box and “no entry needed” alternative is not present – for one of the sims, I left all blank becouse I did not see how any JE would be needed.
Thanks for reading
Big 4 Audit Manager from Europe here to pass the CPA in the U.S. of A in 2014! Niiice!
AUD - 95 / Jul 15 / 130h over 4 weeks
FAR - 86 / Aug 14 / 240h over 4 weeks
(11 week break)REG - 81 / Nov 14 / 200h over 4 weeks
BEC - 87 / Nov 17 / 30 h over 2.5 days
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