[potassiumboy]

I’ve followed this site for the duration of my CPA exam efforts. I’ve previously passed REG and BEC but took FAR today and felt frustrated enough to post my thoughts.

Testlet 1 – covered in about 35 minutes and felt comfortable that I did well as the questions seemed simple & straight-forward: as in, you either knew it or you didnt.

Testlet 2 – I feel as if I was rewarded for hopefully doing well testlet 1 with more difficult, lengthy theory questions and a handful of computational questions that would likely be considered difficult. i took me about 50 minutes. if it turns out that testlet was not actually a “difficult” testlet, i’d be very upset.

Testlet 3 – similar to #2. Took about 45 minutes.

So I gave myself plenty of time for the simulations and felt I really need it because each simulation was more like the “mini-simulations” that are I’ve heard about. I had 4 unrelated topics on Sim #1. I felt a did respectable on 2. below average on 1. and completely bombed 1 – this was incredibly frustrating because I actually knew this material but the wording on the situation really caused problems for me. I also felt 99% confident that i got the Research tab correct.

Now, the WC for #1 also had made me nervous because it was an issue that could be addressed with only 2 sentences. Even if you gave me the Becker book, i could not have written more than 1 intro sentence, 2 explanation sentences and 1 closing sentence. Is this normal? My WC in REG required 2-3 small paragraphs.

Sim #2 was also a mini-sim. I feel I had similar results but I did poorly on WC and Research tab.

In the end, I’m very frustrated that I bombed sections of the simulations but I’m guessing if there were about 8 mini-sims covered 20% of the grade, that losing 2.5 for bombing a mini-sim is better than having a large sim on a tough topic.

Also, I felt the test was very heavy on just a few areas – I wish I could tell you which ones! – and extremely light on other areas deemed ‘important’. The test was more theory heavy than I ever anticipated – which was a bummer because i feel very comfortable with computational questions – and I honestly felt that for a few questions or even 1-2 mini-sims that the material was so oversimplified that I was left asking “can this really be all they want?” For instance, I was asked for journal entries numerous times and I had studied for entries requiring multiple debits & credits (and multiple calculation) – meanwhile I only left with a 2-line entry basically based on A+B=C. I felt as if I was doing something wrong because it was so short and not complicated

I used Becker and felt it covered the material well but make sure you are understanding even the simply stuff. I felt I had spent much more time of material that became meaningless on test day. If anyone has questions that I’m allowed to answer I will.

But honestly, I’m just looking for someone here to tell me that it sounds like I passed because I felt horrible coming out of REG and passed with a 88 – but it feels different, bad different this time (maybe because it’s my 3rd experience rather than the 1st) but now when I tell my family that I do not feel as though the test went well, everyone always says “well, you said the same thing last time.” and I keep getting ” was the test really that hard?” and I just want to hit them back with a “i love you but **** you” because no one outside the profession knows how this test is.

thanks everyone. good luck.

[whitesoxfancpa]

Sounds like you did very well.

I am yet to speak to or read about a single person who feels they did even decent on simulations. I'm convinced I bombed all six of mine between the three tests. That is a common feeling among CPA exam takers.

As for the written communication, where did you get the idea that 2-3 paragraphs is necessary? Being concise is perfectly fine, in my opinion. It depends on the topic, but I think if you can get your point across in 3-4 sentences, go for it. This isn't a high school essay where there's a minimum three pages and you have to fill in with B.S. This is a professional exam, in a profession where being concise is important.

We all study information that is meaningless on test day. They can't test you on everything, or even most things. We study hundreds of pages and work hundreds, maybe even thousands of practice questions for a 90 question test with a couple random simulations that no one knows how the hell to do sprinkled in.

Settle down. You passed.

AUD 96 FAR 95 REG 94 BEC 88

[potassiumboy]

thanks dude.

[Need CPA Already]

Just walked out of FAR. Pretty similar experience with my testlets. 30 mins on first, the others were like 40 to 45 mins. Trust me, not having more long wordy questions doesn't mean they are getting harder. I learned hard Qs can be like 10-20 words long, it doesn't take much (words) for a Q to be hard. My first sim was like a mini sim from one of the 9 chapters of becker each. The 2nd sim was similar. I thought some were easy and some were very hard. I finished with 15 minutes left and all in all I feel like I passed. (FYI took two weeks off straight before exam, studied a good 6-8 hrs a day & been in public accounting since '05). I don't know about REG, I really did not feel good, Qs felt like they came out of nowhere, sims were so hard, either ways I feel worse case scenario I take REG in early January.

Anyways what I really wanted to comment on is the WC. WTF! Sometimes it felt like you could not write more than 2 sentences. I don't like the fact that I do not know how good I have been doing on the WC. I was hoping I would get scores for my WC to see if I am getting 9/10 or something like 6 or 7/10.

One of my WC was to a client. I'm like why would I write a memo??? I would pick up the phone (maybe try to setup a time first) and talk about this sensitive issue. Why would I send a memo that is only a couple of sentences long. I don't understand, they want the answer to be concise but in order to get at least 5 sentences you have to add fluff.

8/20 AUD: 90
8/31 BEC: 82
10/6 REG: 83
10/25 FAR: 93

[gcaulfie]

Yeah, I had a similar experience with my WC. I only wrote like 3 or 4 sentences because it just didn't take much explanation. I actually citied the appropriate FAS because I had some time to look in the research tab. But you're right if you only have to get the point across with the client on an issue that is black and white, it doesn't take award winning writing.

[Author]

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