@Liz317
Good luck with REG and a quick note. From Kindergarten through grad school I've never struggled to finish a test in the allotted time. That all ended when I took REG. I completed the 72 m/c and left approximately an hour and 15 min to complete the simulations. I understand the format has completely changed, but the 1.25 hours wasn't nearly enough. My first simulation was an absolute beast. It wasn't that the subject matter and questions were difficult, but endless. I had to hard-key no less than 75 numbers after struggling with the awful copy/paste feature. Thankfully I'm quick on the 10-key, but as we know the exam's spreadsheet ergonomics are atrocious. I completed the first simulation and felt I'd written an excellent response for the essay portion (NA for 2011) and correctly answered 90% of the other tabs.
On to the second simulation…
It was longer and more beastly; I couldn't believe it. I remember looking up at my time, “0:14 Remaining”, and down at the 7 tabs that needed to be completed. I flew through the written response, skipped the research tab (good? bad?), and started plugging away at the first tab. I'd estimate the second simulation had 300 empty cells to complete. I got through about 10% of the 300 and my time expired.
I don't feel I did exceptionally well on the 72 m/c questions, and I never felt like the questions were getting ‘harder'. With that said, I think the test was intentionally set up to create panic toward the end. Is this true? Why would they do this? We'll never know. I was so confident I'd failed I didn't even bother checking my score; I forgot all about it (and that is NOT at all like me). On a whim, I check NASBA at work and couldn't believe I'd passed with a 79.
Sorry for being so verbose. Summary: I'd leave more time for the task-based simulations and really try to keep your pace up.
Good luck!
-- Formerly known as 'PeterOlinto' --
AUD - 82 (Expires 1/31/11); REG - 79 (Expires 5/31/12)
BEC - 85 (Expires 5/31/12); FAR - 85 (Sat 1/4/11) DONE!!!!