[Anonymous]

Having taken both FAR and AUD in the month of February, I figured I would share my thoughts. My first section of the CPA exam was BEC, which I took and passed back in November. It was what I would call “appropriately challenging”, which is to say it wasn’t so difficult as to make me seriously doubt myself leaving the exam, but it wasn’t so easy that a monkey could do it. So going into my second section, FAR earlier this month, I was expecting an “appropriately challenging” exam, even though this time it would be adaptive. Now I usually start out slow and doubt myself at the beginning, so I “flagged” a decent number of questions in the first half of the first testlet, but when I got done with it, I went back through and gave the best possible answers I could, and so I felt good going into the second testlet. That’s when things got worse. The second and third testlets contained a good bit of long, somewhat confusingly-written questions. I don’t know about anyone else, but when I flip to the next question and I see that it takes the examiners five lines or more to ask it, I get a bit nervous. Topics ranged from the obscure to the obvious and everything in between. Anyways, I charged on through the murky swamp and gave the best answers I could in spite of the somewhat unexpected level of difficulty. These were not what I would call basic questions testing the basic knowledge of an accountant just entering the profession, but that’s just me. Flash forward three weeks, and I’m sitting for AUD. I’ll put it this way, if on a difficulty scale, FAR was a 10 (on a scale of 1 to 9), AUD was more like a 5 or 6. I’ve read several posts of some reporting having had an “easy” AUD exam with just basic questions and a stable level of difficulty across testlets, and some reporting having had essentially the same problem I had with FAR, but with AUD. I felt AUD was rather basic and tested very little that was outside of the range of the Becker materials I used to study for it. The simulations were also pretty fair and clearly written (unlike FAR which were more confusing), and the authoritative literature came in handy as well. (On a side note, make sure you keep scrolling to find the absolute right paragraph for your research tab. The wording in the question might match word-for-word the wording in the authoritative literature!) All in all, I have almost no doubts about passing AUD, but of course, I’m a lil nervous about FAR. I live in NC, so unfortunately, I’ll have to add about two weeks to the regular release dates to find out my scores. Good luck everybody, and sorry for the long read.

[pshustler]

Just took AUD today. I was kind of concerned the MC were pretty easy. Id read that they should get harder if you are doing well, but I thought all three testlets were pretty easy. The third one had a couple ones that were obviously not going to count, but it was only a little harder.

I did think the simulations were harder than the practice ones I had done. Not going to say what was on there exactly, but I found them much harder than the MC

BEC - 86
AUD - 94
REG - 88
FAR - 89

[smrichard]

I took AUD today and found the MCQ's to be medium, hard, then medium again. There was one topic that I overlooked in my studies that kept coming back to haunt me so hopefully I still was able to pass. The simulations were different than I had expected but I had plenty of time at the end to go through and review them a second time and even look some things up in the literature (not just for the research question). Overall I felt pretty good leaving there, but I hate to get my hopes up. Good luck to everybody!!!

FAR 82
AUD 81 (2007), 73, 80
REG 68 (2010), 76
BEC 58 (2007), 75 DONE!!!!

[Anonymous]

I took FAR this morning. I saved 1 hr for the TBS but I don't think it was enough time to complete all 7. I don't like this feeling of knowing that I've failed the exam. Does anyone know when they will release the score for this test window?

[smrichard]

Don't get too worked up about it just yet, anotherday. You may have passed even if you don't feel good about it. Here is what Jeff is predicting:

BEC: Monday March 14, 2011

REG: Wednesday March 16, 2011

FAR: Thursday March 17, 2011

AUD: Monday March 21, 2011

FAR 82
AUD 81 (2007), 73, 80
REG 68 (2010), 76
BEC 58 (2007), 75 DONE!!!!

[HazeEastwood]

I think for the first time I may disagree with Jeff's prediction. WIth more test than every to release at 1 time, why would they wait til the middle of the month to do so. The NASBA website will be over-loaded with people trying to get scores. It makes no sense to do it like that.

FAR-81
BEC-84
AUD-91
REG-89

[jeff]

Let's see your predictions Haze 🙂

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) | Another71 | NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE

[Anonymous]

I see your point Haze and couldn't agree more.. but when has anything in this process ever made sense? haha 🙂 LOL

[Anonymous]

I also want to say it would make no sense for BEC to come out first.. just because I always thought BEC came out first because of no written communication.

Now it has the written communication, so it should come out last! 🙂

[smrichard]

I personally think they should release AUD first since that's the one I just took and I want my score.

I don't know why it would take so long to release the scores for FAR, AUD, and REG since they should either be right or wrong. Wouldn't it be nice if they would give instant scores for these? Oh we can only dream.

FAR 82
AUD 81 (2007), 73, 80
REG 68 (2010), 76
BEC 58 (2007), 75 DONE!!!!

[pshustler]

By the way, Becker did do a great job for AUD. On the multiple choice at least. I swear I had seen at least 10 of the questions or do

BEC - 86
AUD - 94
REG - 88
FAR - 89

[Grizzly Hammer]

I took FAR on 2/24. I studied very hard for this exam and felt prepared going into it. The first testlet wasn't bad, the second testlet was more difficult, probably because the questions seemed to double in length, and I felt the third testlet was the same as the second and I was unpleasantly suprised at all the government and NFP questions I had. Anyways, the longer questions always take me forever and I'm somewhat slow anyways, so when I got to the Sims, I only had an hour left.

The sims blew me away. It was not only difficulty of the content, but the length of the fact patterns was astounding and they were sometimes confusing. I am ashamed to say that though I feel great about the MCs, I only completed 4/7 sims.

Given the new 60/40 weighting, is there any real chance out there I have of passing? Are they going to be lenient? I find it unreasonable that, seeing how often candidates i've read about on this site had a hard time finishing the sims before in FAR, when at least they got the benefit of knowing 70% was done and they could mess up a bit on the sims. Now we still have the same MC length, but they've decreased its value.

BEC - 88
AUD - November 2011
REG - 86
FAR - 65, 71 67, 79

[shelleydee]

@ Grizzly – I had a similar experience.

First testlet was easy, second was difficult, third was in between. I spent 3 hours on the MCQs, and began the TBS with only an hour left.

Bottom line, an hour wasn't enough. I completed 5 tabs, and barely touched the other 2.

I am hoping that the grading does not adhere to the 60/40 split previously disclosed.

Jeff's 1/11/11 post gave me some comfort. It reminded me that the formula for scoring a 75 really is a mystery – and gave me hope that I might still have a chance of passing.

https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-scores-results-release/

Praying for a speedy and good result!

BEC (05/31/10) 82
AUD (08/31/10) 76
REG (11/29/10) 90
FAR (02/28/11) 82

[HazeEastwood]

shelleydee, how was your REG experience compared to FAR. I see you got a very good score. Did you feel as bad walking out of there as you did for FAR? I felt awful after REG.

FAR-81
BEC-84
AUD-91
REG-89

[shelleydee]

@Haze – I didn't feel too bad when I left REG. But I think I am strange. I actually enjoyed learning the tax rules! However, I had a REALLY tough time with Audit – but that one doesn't seem to be difficult for others.

How did you feel during the test? Did you notice the level of difficulty increasing?

If you passed FAR, you will pass REG. 🙂

BEC (05/31/10) 82
AUD (08/31/10) 76
REG (11/29/10) 90
FAR (02/28/11) 82

[F5 to Refresh]

@ Grizzly & Shelley same thing with my FAR exam, I only had 1-hour to complete the sims and they were very difficult, I only got through 4 or 5 out of 7. I was able to knock out the Becker sims fairly easily and under an hour, so I was definitely caught off guard.

AUD 79 Q4 2010 - NY
BEC 84 Q4 2010
REG 79 Q1 2011
FAR 86 Q2 2011 - Done

[Author]

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