[jeff]

FAR Resources:

Free FAR Notes & Audio – https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-study-plan

FAR 10 Point Combo: https://www.another71.com/products-page/ten-point-combo

FAR Score Release: https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-scores-results-release

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) | Another71 | NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE

[Anonymous]

NYC – I don't think there is any bright line answer, but here is the explanation from the AICPA's release:

The difficulty levels of the test questions (and other statistics that are used to describe each test question) are determined through statistical analysis of candidate responses. At the question level, difficulty is not quantified as a category (e.g. moderate or difficult), but as a numeric value along a scale. Testlets are classified as either medium or difficult based on the average difficulty of the questions within that testlet.

And here is the link to the whole document (the paragraph above is #10). https://www.aicpa.org/BecomeACPA/CPAExam/PsychometricsandScoring/ScoringInformation/DownloadableDocuments/How_the_CPA_Exam_is_Scored.pdf

So you could have hard questions that are only a sentence or two long, and easy questions that are much longer.

[Anonymous]

NYC – I don't think there is any bright line answer, but here is the explanation from the AICPA's release:

The difficulty levels of the test questions (and other statistics that are used to describe each test question) are determined through statistical analysis of candidate responses. At the question level, difficulty is not quantified as a category (e.g. moderate or difficult), but as a numeric value along a scale. Testlets are classified as either medium or difficult based on the average difficulty of the questions within that testlet.

And here is the link to the whole document (the paragraph above is #10). https://www.aicpa.org/BecomeACPA/CPAExam/PsychometricsandScoring/ScoringInformation/DownloadableDocuments/How_the_CPA_Exam_is_Scored.pdf

So you could have hard questions that are only a sentence or two long, and easy questions that are much longer.

[NYCaccountant]

……so how do people know when the questions get harder? Or are they just guessing?

FAR - 93
REG - 87
BEC - 84!!!!
AUD - 99!!!!!! CPA exam complete.

[NYCaccountant]

……so how do people know when the questions get harder? Or are they just guessing?

FAR - 93
REG - 87
BEC - 84!!!!
AUD - 99!!!!!! CPA exam complete.

[Anonymous]

NYC, Some people say they can tell when the questions get harder, and others can't. I think in some cases it *may* be obvious and not in others. It may also have to do with how proficient you are in a topic; i.e., if you are really good at FAR the second (and third) sets of questions may not seem harder to you because they are all “easy” within your mindset.

I would have to go back and look at the thread where I posted on my audit exam becuase for that one presumably the questions did get harder from the first testlet to the second based on my score, but I honestly don't remember if I noticed or not.

Another component of assessing this is the “first exam phenomenon.” What I mean is, in my opinion, the first exam is a bit of a learning experience in and of itself about the process. There is so much else going on there that maybe the questions did indeed get harder and you simply didn't notice.

Also, I have done the AICPA released questions for the other three sectionsr (I haven't done FAR yet so I can't speak to those) and frankly their medium vs. hard designation even with those is baffling to me.

Sorry for the nebulous statements but after much debate on this board we still don't have a good answer…

[Anonymous]

NYC, Some people say they can tell when the questions get harder, and others can't. I think in some cases it *may* be obvious and not in others. It may also have to do with how proficient you are in a topic; i.e., if you are really good at FAR the second (and third) sets of questions may not seem harder to you because they are all “easy” within your mindset.

I would have to go back and look at the thread where I posted on my audit exam becuase for that one presumably the questions did get harder from the first testlet to the second based on my score, but I honestly don't remember if I noticed or not.

Another component of assessing this is the “first exam phenomenon.” What I mean is, in my opinion, the first exam is a bit of a learning experience in and of itself about the process. There is so much else going on there that maybe the questions did indeed get harder and you simply didn't notice.

Also, I have done the AICPA released questions for the other three sectionsr (I haven't done FAR yet so I can't speak to those) and frankly their medium vs. hard designation even with those is baffling to me.

Sorry for the nebulous statements but after much debate on this board we still don't have a good answer…

[NYCaccountant]

Thank you DJN. I really appreciate the input.

FAR - 93
REG - 87
BEC - 84!!!!
AUD - 99!!!!!! CPA exam complete.

[NYCaccountant]

Thank you DJN. I really appreciate the input.

FAR - 93
REG - 87
BEC - 84!!!!
AUD - 99!!!!!! CPA exam complete.

[iwantmylifeback_]

@mjp44 – That's what I'm referring to. But I've seen marketable securities remeasured at both current rates and historical rates so I was trying to figure out what the difference was.

@NYCaccountant – Don't stress too much about the change in difficulty. I thought for sure I was failing AUD because the 3rd testlet was far too easy. Low and behold… I guess I was just prepared.

BEC 85
AUD 99
REG 88
FAR 93

[iwantmylifeback_]

@mjp44 – That's what I'm referring to. But I've seen marketable securities remeasured at both current rates and historical rates so I was trying to figure out what the difference was.

@NYCaccountant – Don't stress too much about the change in difficulty. I thought for sure I was failing AUD because the 3rd testlet was far too easy. Low and behold… I guess I was just prepared.

BEC 85
AUD 99
REG 88
FAR 93

[nbad311]

@ NYC, the whole increasing difficulty if you're doing good thing per the AICPA grading scheme seems really subjective to me. Like DJN said, you might be really strong in a random topic that the majority of other candidates bomb, hence you'll think that specific question wasn't too bad when in reality it was classified as a “hard” one per the testing standards.

Cliff notes: don't worry about testlet difficulty on this test or future ones. Study hard and come exam time, take one question at a time and you will do fine.

REG - 65, 70, 80!
BEC - 35, 62, 79!
AUD - 73, 75!
FAR - 65, 73, 70, 75! DONE.

[nbad311]

@ NYC, the whole increasing difficulty if you're doing good thing per the AICPA grading scheme seems really subjective to me. Like DJN said, you might be really strong in a random topic that the majority of other candidates bomb, hence you'll think that specific question wasn't too bad when in reality it was classified as a “hard” one per the testing standards.

Cliff notes: don't worry about testlet difficulty on this test or future ones. Study hard and come exam time, take one question at a time and you will do fine.

REG - 65, 70, 80!
BEC - 35, 62, 79!
AUD - 73, 75!
FAR - 65, 73, 70, 75! DONE.

[Monir]

Athens Corporation adopted the dollar-value LIFO method of inventory valuation on December 31, Year 1. Its inventory at that date was $100,000 and the relevant price index was 100. Information regarding inventory for subsequent years is as follows:

Date

Inventory at

Current Prices

Price

Indes

December 31, Year 2

$128,400

107

December 31, Year 3

145,000

125

December 31, Year 4

169,000

130

What is the cost of the ending inventory at December 31, Year 3, under dollar-value LIFO?

a. $117,400

b. $117,120

c. $145,000

d. $116,000

Explanation

Choice “b” is correct.

How do you get get the base year for year ending 2, 3 and 4?

Thx

[Monir]

Athens Corporation adopted the dollar-value LIFO method of inventory valuation on December 31, Year 1. Its inventory at that date was $100,000 and the relevant price index was 100. Information regarding inventory for subsequent years is as follows:

Date

Inventory at

Current Prices

Price

Indes

December 31, Year 2

$128,400

107

December 31, Year 3

145,000

125

December 31, Year 4

169,000

130

What is the cost of the ending inventory at December 31, Year 3, under dollar-value LIFO?

a. $117,400

b. $117,120

c. $145,000

d. $116,000

Explanation

Choice “b” is correct.

How do you get get the base year for year ending 2, 3 and 4?

Thx

[NYCaccountant]

@ Monir divide the current cost by the base + Inflation. You have to deflate the current costs to base year numbers and then you can tell whats old inventory and whats new inventory. So for example, at the end of year two, your current costs is 128,400. We have to deflate that so 128,400/1.07=120,000. Now we know we ended the first year with 100,000, so the extra 20,000 must be a new layer. We have to adjust the 20,000 for inflation and then add it back. 20,000*1.07=21,400

21,400+100,000=121,400 lifo at the end of year 2.

Now we deflate year 3 – 145,000/1.25=116,000. We know that 100,000 is from the first year, 20,000 was from the second year, but we sold some of that inventory (lifo liquidation). So we just add back inflation on the 16,000 left (16,000*1.07=17,120) 100,000+17,120 = 117,120!

FAR - 93
REG - 87
BEC - 84!!!!
AUD - 99!!!!!! CPA exam complete.

[Author]

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