[Anonymous]

Another conundrum.

I’ve never had trouble finishing the actual exams. Every time, I always have 3-15 minutes left on the clock. I’m a good time budgeter, is I guess what that means. I have a good amount of “brain-blankouts” during the test, but I think that’s been more due to being somewhat unprepared/forgetting a lot of what was studied.

At home, while working MCQs, I am slower than a sick snail. Try as I might, I can’t get up to a reasonable pace. I don’t know if there’s a remedy for this but if anyone else has had the same problem and overcome it, I’d love to know how you did it.

Ref: I’m reviewing for FAR right now (2nd attempt upcoming.) My signature says that I’m taking REG this month but I’m not, and I can’t seem to change the signature, it won’t let me!

[Anonymous]

@Crazyleon

If you're taking time to learn and study using the MCQs, then there is nothing wrong with that, but if you're trying to gauge how quickly you can go through the FAR MCQs and it's taking too long, then here is what you can try:

1) Do not second guess your answer. Since this is related to FAR MCQs, there are many calculation-based MCQs so try not to spend too much time on each question. Flag the question (after attempting the calculation twice and you're not getting number that's not listed as one of the answer options) and come back to it.

2) More often that not, lengthy/wordy questions can be deceiving. As Peter Olinto from Becker always says, “utilize the legalized cheating” by reading the last sentence of the question to see what the question is really asking. These long questions can throw you several facts/numbers or whatever the case may be, but you may not even have to any of the numbers.

3) One factor you may be slower than when you're working through MCQs on the actual exam is that the actual exam MCQs are not as lengthy and comprehensive as these review course MCQs are designed. Many Becker (this is the review course I use) FAR MCQs have multiple calculations in order to solve for an answer.

4) Honestly, the best advice I can give you is to work through as many MCQs as you can if you really want to improve your MCQ velocity. The more MCQs you do, the more likely you are to recognize certain patterns as to how these questions are designed. Also, when you spend too much time on one question, try to identify whether you're spending too much time because you don't know the concept or you just simply have no clue on how to approach. Honestly, I wish I could give you some kind of magic answers on how to speed up your MCQs, but I strongly believe it comes with you practicing a lot of MCQs.

I hope this helps, and best luck to your FAR exam.

[Anonymous]

@Big4BeanCounter – thank you for the thoughtful response. What you say makes sense. I took FAR 15 months ago now and haven't touched that material since then.
In a way, I'm starting over, but in another way, I'm not. When I first prepared for it, it took lots of time to get through the MCQ because I was learning a lot of it for the first time, especially govt/nonprofit. Doing a lot of MCQ is about the only remedy for it I think. Once you have the rhythm, it's easier. And yes, the actual exam questions are usually not long. They can't give you a bunch of long MCQ because you'd never finish the test otherwise. Although, on the hard testlets they might do that. But, I know I didn't get any hard ones on my initial attempt.
I probably will this next time since I'll be more prepared. That's right about some questions having lots of numbers that you may not even need to really use (as you said in #2 above)
And yes, if the question has numbers, read the last sentence first!! Rule of thumb!

[Anonymous]

Oh btw, I am not a big fan of flagging. In a single testing session I think I flag one or at most three MCQ's. When doing MCQ the best thing to do is trust your first hunch. That's a statistically proven thing – our first guess is probably correct and it's human nature to underestimate your own strength/knowledge/whatever. One drawback of the new 2017 format is the inability to go back and work on earlier SIM questions, and splitting the SIMs into 3 testlets. A lot of us don't like that. But, to quote the AICPA themselves, “The 2017 format was designed to make the test a harder one to pass.” Okay, whatever, roll with it.

[Defo]

I think the easy (but not always easy!) solution is to learn the concepts. MCQ speed will increase when your understanding of the question increases. If you are spending 10 min on a question you likely just don't understand it as well as you could. Yes, time saving tips are helpful, but put your primary focus on mastering the concept and you won't have to worry about MCQ speed or average click rate.

[Anonymous]

I think the biggest thing for me is reading the last sentence first, so that I know what I'm going to be asked to do and then reading the stem with that goal in mind. It makes it a lot easier to ignore superfluous information. I also agree with the not second guessing. It's a waste of time and usually not effective. Like @defo said, you have to have a mastery of the material when you read what you're being ask for to quickly draw the inofrmation you need, answer the question, then move on. I finished FAR MCQ last Monday in about 1:10 approaching the questions this way.

[Author]

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