[msgaillard03]

Please share some stories about anytime you’ve taken an exam and felt really awful about it. Either didnt finish or simulations were a blur and still PASSED!!!!

FAR-8/28/11

[tumbler]

My FAR exam felt like a disaster and I was pretty sure I failed. I thought I was doing OK on the multiple choice, but on the second testlet I realized I was behind schedule. I rushed through the 3rd testlet, not feeling great about the multiple choice and guessing on anything I couldn't answer in about a minute.

When I got to the sims, I had no idea what half of them were asking. I just pushed through and tried to fill in as many blanks as possible. For sims with journal entries, I was literally selecting random accounts and hoping for the best. When I got to the written communications, the first one was entirely foreign to me. I didn't know anything about the topic, and since I only had 15 minutes left, I left it entirely blank and moved to the next one. The next written communication was familiar so I completed it the best I could in the 15 minutes I had.

Overall, it was pretty painful. I was convinced I would be retaking, but ended up with an 89. Just remember that everyone taking the exams is going through the same thing. If you're sims are ridiculous, so is everyone else's. The main thing is to go into the exam prepared for battle and not to let anything throw you off. If you don't know something, just move on. At the end of the day, the scores are scaled / adjusted / curved or whatever they like to call it and most people end up doing better than expected. I hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Posts like this make me feel so much better….. I just took FAR on Friday and my experience is almost exactly as you just described. Hopefully I get the same result!

[Anonymous]

Well, that makes me feel much better as well. I took FAR on friday, and I have NO idea how it went. First testlet was easy, second was med/hard, third was hard, and the sims were just brutal. Hope it went OK, I don't know if i can take going through all that material again!

[pshustler]

That experience sounds all too familiar. When I walked out of REG, I was like “What the hell just happened?” It was like a big blur

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

[Anonymous]

When I took FAR it was my first exam and although I had been studying for about 2 months (working at same time) I didn't finish reviewing 2 topics in particular that I thought are supposedly not heavily tested on the exam. When I was doing the mcqs I couldn't tell if they were hard or not, especially since quite a few questions were asked on those topics that I didn't have enough time to review well. I didn't feel so good about the mcqs, but knew that I still had a shot at the sims. When I started the sims I think I had a little over an hour for them, and thought that would be enough time since it was enough time when I did practice sims at home. But of course, it wasn't. I think the first couple I spent quite some time on, and then began running out of time for the others. I didn't know what to fill in and needed more time to do calculations. In the end I just filled in as many answers on the remaining sims as possible, guessing wherever I didn't know the answer or didn't have time to complete calculations.

I came out of the place in tears, and felt so frustrated because I had worked so hard and put in so much time and couldn't imagine having to do it all over again. That night I decided to go onto google and see if anyone else ever felt like s/he had ever failed the exam, but had passed. That's when I came across this website and realized that many other people felt this way and that I was fortunate that it was only my first time. Some people, unfortunately, failed a few times and still have the will to study and take the exam again, which is admirable.

When I found out I passed, I was so ecstatic. I had no clue if I had passed or not, and didn't know what to expect. I definitely did not pass with flying colors, but is was a passing grade.

Some people walk out feeling the failed, and they do. Some don't. There's no way to know, so just hope for the best – anything can happen!

[Anonymous]

When I took FAR in Q4 of 2010, there were so many of us on the forum that were like, “wth just happened?” when we left the exam. Weird, crazy, difficult questions and sims. I left one blank and it had over 25 blanks to fill in.

My only hope was that because so many people had such a difficult time, that no one did really great. We clung to the idea that they had to curve the crap out of it. We all passed 😉

Just hope everyone else feels like you do and we make it on the good side of the curve.

[msgaillard03]

@tumbler. thanks for sharing.

FAR-8/28/11

[Anonymous]

I took REG on May 25th. The first two testlets of MCQ seemed pretty decent. On the third testlet, I marked 11 questions to review. I seemed to be able to work through about a third of them confidently after some more time going through them. On to the simulations….I did the research tab first, since it seems like easy points to me. It took me about 10 minutes to do. Of the remaining simulations, ONE of them had stuff I'd seen before. The other was asking about crazy stuff that I'd never even seen in Becker. I walked out SO ANGRY that I had just wasted so much time preparing for an exam and tons of stuff wasn't even familiar to me.

Guess what? I got an 87. Who knows how they score that thing….

[Anonymous]

I took REG back in Nov under the old format…MCQs started off reasonably, then got a lot tougher in the second testlet. The third testlet wasn't as bad, but still tougher than the first. I know that I completely bombed one of the sims…the only thing that could've saved me was the written communication. I walked out thinking I failed, and if by some miracle I did pass it would be by the skin of my teeth with a 75. Well obviously they threw out the sim I bombed and I wound up with an 82. The scoring works in mysterious ways…just do your best and have faith, you never know what might happen! 😀

[mooky9]

Tumbler, there are no written communications in FAR now, when did you take it?

I took it today and had out-of-body experience ! There are 90 MCQs and 7 TBSs (not 2) and still same 4 hours to do all.

And 3 out of 7 I got were from Super Mario planet, just reading all data on first one took me 10 minutes. This new 40% TBS format is more brutal and not even remotely comparable to pre 2011 levels of 2 sims.

BEC 77 (2010)exp. 79 (2012)done!
FAR 71, 69, 73, 76 (2012)
REG 63, 72, 82 (2012)
AUD 66, 60?, 91 (2012)?!!

Ethics 90% (2012)

[Anonymous]

@mooky9

Pre 2011 FAR had 5 testlets: 3 mcq and 2 TBS. Within each TBS were 5 unrelated tabs, much like what we have now. The only difference is that the TBS is one testlet now with 7 tabs.

I don't think the questions are new, just presented in a different format.

[mooky9]

@Allyson

Sorry, but I have Wiley 2010 test bank cd and tabs are related within the old sims. The new 2011 test bank cd is a joke, not even close to new TBS format.

As far as “Those who felt horrible but still passed” – it is not possible to pass now without finishing minimum of 5 ( 4 counted) TBSs , yet so many who are licensed today didn't even spent time on old sims and still passed with just good MCQs (70%) and written communications free 10%.

And last, the questions are different, there was no IFRS before.

BEC 77 (2010)exp. 79 (2012)done!
FAR 71, 69, 73, 76 (2012)
REG 63, 72, 82 (2012)
AUD 66, 60?, 91 (2012)?!!

Ethics 90% (2012)

[Anonymous]

@mooky9,

I took FAR 4 times and never did I have a TBS with all related tabs. Each one was an independent horror story.

The AICPA would not invent a whole new set of questions for 2011. They have been integrating them in for years to get adequate comparative data. There are some new questions but not all of them.

I'm not saying it was harder then, because I have not taken FAR in 2011.

I can say REG is harder in 2011 than it was in 2009. I miss the written communications and straightforward sims.

[Anonymous]

I am so glad I found this thread because I feel the same way as everyone else who had taken their exams. I took FAR last Monday and I must say it was probably the hardest test that I have taken by far compared to all other exams/tests that I have taken! 1st and 2nd testlets were hard off the bat! In both testlets, the first 3 MCQs were pretty easy, then after that I got pelted with lengthy word problems one after the other after the other. 3rd testlet was medium hard. My head was spinning already and I didnt even get to the SIMS yet. The SIMS blew me away! I had 7 tabs, but only finished 6. The research part was ridiculously difficult. I was like is this for real? I left that test center feeling defeated but there's nothing else I can do. I studied so hard for that test like everyone else and I know I did my best. My other friend who also took FAR the day before I did said the same thing: that it was hard as hell compared to other exams she had taken. Keeping my fingers crossed that we all passed.

[kettik]

Hi all, just wanted to share my FAR experience.

I took FAR in August and was 99% sure I didn't pass. My teslets didn't get harder at all, they were all supposedly easy questions (1-2 sentence theoretical questions), veeery few calculation questions.

But they were all on topics that Becker barely covered.

Someone here said “certain parts heavily tested my a$$!” – totally agree.

Sims were just crazy. I spent more time trying to figure out what exactly it was they were asking than actually doing something.

So I left completely sure that I would have to do all this crap again, crying on my bf's shoulder. I even got a Wiley textbook hoping there'll be some more details that Becker didn't cover.

Imagine my surprise when I got 95!

So all of you guys that are about to take the test – don't waste your nerve cells untill you know the result.

Good luck!

[Author]

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