[emichelle2321]

Using Becker for FAR, have a month until my exam. I haven’t spent time on the SIMs at all because I’ve heard they aren’t that helpful. Does anyone have any advice on the best way to prepare for these if at all? I figure if you go crazy on the material on MCQs you have to know the material and thats better prep?

[hasy]

It's funny how people always ask this question. There are some individuals where studying for SIMs may not be as helpful to them since they have a strong grasp of the material. If you TRULY had a great grasp of the material, I would say yes, spending too much time on SIMs isn't beneficial.

I found studying for SIMs EXTREMELY helpful. I did not do every FAR sim in NINJA but I did practice maybe like 25% of them or at least one sim per chapter. I think people don't feel sims are helpful since the sims on the exam is vastly different. Though I did genuinely find 2 sims similar (almost exactly) to the ones I've practiced.

It's preference, if you're well-prepared, then it's up to you whether or not you think sims are worth the time.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved - Helen Keller

-

BEC 80 (10/23/15)
FAR 72 (4/2/15); 83 (7/11/16)
REG 52 (4/28/15)
AUD (9/9/16)

Roger + NINJA MCQ + WTB

[Spartans92]

I second Hasy.. it depends. I did every single SIMS on Ninja MCQ for REG retake.. I thought it was helpful for me to see whether I understood the concepts. But were they similar?? Nope!! Not even close but they did for sure gave me a good foundation. That said, I was not as unprepared as my first round and I was able to use the AL to help out. All in all, some luck has to be factored in.

If you have extra time during review week I would say go ahead and pound out some SIMS. They are just 2-3 MCQ lumped together. Still have yet to retake FAR. So I cannot attest to that, however, my first time back in May I failed with 65 (I did not do 1 single SIM). That haunt me because there were 2 identical I saw but didnt bothered to even do it on my review course. I ended up leaving a complete blank on 2 of them on the exam.

BEC- PASS

[mtaylo24]

On my last 2 Reg attempts, I did comparable on sims, BEC, I've always done comparable/stronger on the WC. Studied my 2nd attempt at Reg, didn't study my third time. Its a waste of time imho, I have never seen a Gleim sim on the CPA Exam and I've taken 11 of them. There really is no way to prepare for them, other then working a bunch of MCQs, including MCQs for other sections. You see FAR sims on all sections, including Reg, and even BEC WC asks you FAR related questions. The only benefit of practicing sims and the BEC WC is to get comfortable w/ the formats, but that's where it ends. Just my opinion

AUD - 1st - 60 (12/12), 61 (2/13), 61 (8/13), 78! (11/15)
REG - 55 (2/16) 69 (5/16) Retake(8/16)
BEC - 71(5/16) Retake (9/16)
FAR - (8/16)

[sancasuki]

I don't know about the other review courses, but CPA Excel/WTB and Ninja don't provide all that many simulations to practice. And a huge portion of them are research simulations. So it really does not take that much time to do them all. The Ninja ones take 2 full study days to finish. I think doing the Ninja MCQs until the review phase is much more time consuming.

If I had a choice of doing simulations or doing repeats of MCQs that I've already seen once before, I'd do the simulations for sure.

I'd say on each of the exams I took (besides BEC), usually 1 or 2 simulations were similar to something I saw in Ninja or CPA Excel simulation, 2 were reasonable but not something I saw in a practice simulation before, and 1 or 2 were left field/bizarre.

[Ryan]

Think of it like this…
Sim1-research
Sim2-DRS
Sim3-pretest left field sim
Sim4- annoying sim that incorprates 3 random topics that is almost as bad as left field pretest sim

Thats 4 Sims that no amount of practice will help. The other 3 sims will test whether you know more basic concepts/JE, which you dont need to practice sims for.

[Track55]

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

I would never skip them.

AUD - 74, 99 !!
REG - 74, 92
BEC - 83
FAR - 73, 86

Studying for Ethics exam

California candidate
Business and Industry

[LIZZ]

I hate SIMS and I always score weaker. the good news is that you can still pass with weaker SIMs. that will probably not be the case after April 2017.

I decided to flip my study strategy and focus on as much exposure to SIMs as possible. So watch lecture go straight to SIMS for an hour then MCQ. I think the exposure will help my confidence.

FAR - 05/2015
AUD - 75,11/2014
REG - 07/2015
BEC - 09/2015

[Anonymous]

The Becker sims may not be similar to what you get on test day, but that doesn't mean they aren't helpful. I think the sims are useful for improving how well you understand the material, and they provide additional practice along with the MCQs. If you have time don't skip them, they're in the review course for a reason. But, if you are short on time focus on studying the way that's most effective for you.

If this is your first exam I would recommend doing a couple of the research sims if nothing else so you can practice using the advanced search. That takes a little bit of getting used to.

[waffle_house]

SIMs are 40% of your score, I would study them…

[Olintos Apprentice]

Your time is better spent in the material than in a practice SIM. All that is needed is a level of comfort in how the SIMS work regarding the spreadsheets, calculator, literature, etc.

FAR: 89, 2/29/16
AUD: 97, 5/9/16
BEC: 92, 6/10/16
REG: October 2016

[Anonymous]

If you have the time please study the Sims. They are very important because they truly test your understanding about certain topics. However, do Not waste too much time on certain Sims that are very lengthy if you are short on time. Just my 2 cents!

[Author]

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