[RoseMarie]

I am a little over 2 weeks out from my first attempt at my CPA exam section (FAR) and I am looking for opinions on mock exams. To date I have gone through the entire lecture series on Roger’s, read the whole Roger’s book, finished about 18% of his Cram Course (just started that yesterday) and done about 900 MCQ (just started my Non stop MCQ phase a few days ago). I know I’m not ready for a mock yet but I am wondering if I should do one at all and if so I how far before my exam should I do it?

The NINJA study planner thing (or one of the NINJA resources at least) suggests not doing mock/practice exams because you might either get discouraged if you dont do as well as you feel like you should or might get overconfident if you get a good score. I also read that the MCQ in most study programs are harder than the actual test and the SIMS are easier than the real ones so its really not a fair gauge of timing, etc..

[YouCanDoIt]

mock exams give me anxiety. The only practice one I will do is the AICPA sample, because they are a very good representation of the actual exam.

FAR: 76
REG: Currently studying
AUD:
BEC:

[RoseMarie]

Thanks for the insight YouCanDoIt. I didn't know there was an AICPA sample, I definitely need to look into that. I am curious about others opinions but at this point I am leaning away from a mock on Roger or NINJA because of the time issue (my studying is very interrupted due to my grad classes, work, husband, and mother who lives with us). I easily study 4 hours many days but never for such a long block without interruptions and I feel like if I hit below a 75 (which I have heard is actually normal since the SIMS don't give partial credit in the practice but do on the exam and the MCQ are harder) that I will psych myself out lol.

[Recked]

I did Mock for FAR, but none of the others as I found it to be a waste of time.
I actually did the Roger FAR mock, I think I got around an 80, but wasn't satisfied with that so I ended up doing one or 2 MCQs mocks in Gleim using 66 MCQ quizzes or sets of 33 quizzes. I can't quite remember exactly now.
I was done with the Roger Mock in about 2 hours? maybe 3 tops. I ran out of time on the actual FAR exam.
Get through the MCQs as fast as possible to leave yourself as much time as possible for the SIMs. You'll thank yourself that you did.

[To0ld2Pass]

I didn't do any mock exams for FAR but thats because I was out of time. I did do the AICPA sample though and I HIGHLY reccomend it. I'll be cutting it close this time on REG too so will probably do the sample and maybe 1 mock exam. Then focus rest of time of MPQ's.

[RoseMarie]

Recked, thanks for the feedback! Roger suggest 45 mins for each MCQ section leaving 2.5 hours for the SIMS. Do you mean try and cut it to less than that? Time is another of my biggest worries. I usually take close to 2 mins per MCQ in Roger because a lot of them are so involved. I feel like the MCQ I've seen as released questions have so much less detail and reading and seem like they would take less time.

[RoseMarie]

To0ld2Pass, thanks for the insight. I'm worried I don't really have the time either tbh. I have another 10 hours I think on my Cram course plus I've only done about 900 total MCQ since I switched mid-way into studying to the NINJA method of no MCQ or SIMS until I had covered all the topics. I also really wanted to go through the NINJA book and notes but I just don't have the time 🙁

[Recked]

Yes, be careful gauging time using Roger IPQs. A lot of them are pretty detailing and involved, almost like a deconstructed SIM.
Also keep in mind that some questions you will answer in 10 seconds. I remember some sections of Roger a 10 question quiz might take me 20-30 minutes because they were so involved.
I held to the 45 minutes on the first testlet, but the second testlet took me an hour. and then the 3rd testlet i ran over time as well. I think I ended up with only 1.5 hours for the last 2 testlets of 6 SIMs.
Don't go down rabbit holes on MCQs. If you do the calculations are get an answer that does not match, try it quickly one more time. If it still doesn't match just make a note and move along. If time allows you can revisit.
If your calculation does not match the correct answer the first two times, you're either misunderstanding something or missing something, or just don't know it.
Better off to guess and move along. Those rabbit holes will get you.
45/45 is a decent target. If you can do it faster, by all means, more power to you.
I have some detailed exam write-ups from back in the day if you check out my old posts.
https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-forum/topic/far-exam-experience-official-thread/page/5/
Found my post from Nov10th. Quite an interesting read in retrospect.

[KJ]

I did not do mock/practice exam for FAR. I felt it would kill my confidence whatever I had. I did do the AICPA sample a day before my exam, at least to get an idea of the format. I would suggestion, if you can, take 4 days off before exam and just do unlimited MCQs until you want to throw up. Last 10 days before my FAR exam I worked on my weak areas. I will be shocked if I pass though. Keep grinding, Good luck!!

FAR - August 2016
AUD - September 2016
REG - October 2016
BEC - November 2016

Remember: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein

[RoseMarie]

Kj, thanks for the response! I am a full time grad student and my job is being a teaching assistant for undergrad accounting courses so I cant really take days off per say but I am scheduled to sit on a Monday (two weeks from today) and I don't have classes Friday, Saturday, Sunday so while I may have an assignment or a bit of grading to do it will be kind of like having the 3 days before mostly off.

[Panders]

I never did a mock exam because I felt like it would be a waste of time. I like to do MCQs in study mode as I feel like that facilitates my learning the best. I didn't like the idea of having to wait until the end of the mock exam to be able to go back through and see what I got wrong. If you're worried about your time management and this is your first exam, then maybe a mock exam would be beneficial. But I think it's a lot more beneficial to just keep doing MCQs.

[Author]

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