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I recently took FAR and I am anxiously awaiting my score. I succumbed to poor time management and as a result I was not able to dedicate any time to completing either research question. Instead, I put in random numbers hoping to strike gold on the second, third and fourth cells. I’m so anxious about my score that I spent most of my day scouring this forum and the AICPA site to get a better sense of the weight of the research question(s). There’s a consensus on this site that the research questions are given equal weight though I have yet to find any AICPA literature that confirms this. In fact, from what I could find, the AICPA doesn’t give any indication as to how any of the simulations are graded. As such, I am starting to wonder if the AICPA’s silence on how points are allotted amongst the simulations led to a common assumption that they must be weighted equally. Unless I completely missed something in my limited understanding of the AICPA’s disclosure of how the simulations are graded, wouldn’t it make more sense that the simulations are weighted based on the number of open cells to answer for each simulation relative to the total number of open cells in the entire TBS section, rather than each simulation having equal weight compared to the others?
If it’s true that the AICPA stated that the research questions are going to be weighted more heavily than they were in the past could it be that previously the research question was worth 1 correct cell (right or wrong) and now it’s weighted more heavily in that it carries the weight of 4 cells (i.e. 310-10-25-1) and one can get partial credit for each correct portion? For example if there was a long simulation with multiple tabs and paragraphs of information and required the candidate to populate 12 cells, wouldn’t it make more sense that such a simulation would carry 3x as much weight as one research question (12 cells of information vs. 4 cells of information)? Additionally, what is the consensus on 2 research questions? Is it wrong to assume that one will be dropped as a pretest question? In this sense, I really hope the AICPA is as “cruel” as everyone suggests, and that they drop the easiest question!
In both of my previous exams for which I had research questions, I am sure I got most of both wrong on AUD, and gave the same uneducated guess on the REG research question as I replicated on the FAR exam. As I passed both exams I never really considered the weight of the research question on my grade. I had always just assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that it was minor compared to the rest of the TBS (due to dated advice from candidates who passed the CPA prior to the restructuring). But seeing as how from what I remember I only had one research question on REG and I had two research questions last week, I am really starting to question my theory and was hoping for some insight from the another71 community.
Some side information that I have been using for my own appeasement is that on the REG exam I completely bombed an entire simulation that I am convinced was not a pretest (as it was nearly word-for-word as a problem from my taxation class in college and in the Becker book – I am pretty sure that my professor took it from Becker, don’t even ask me how I missed that one), I missed the research question (obviously), and felt about 50% on the rest of the simulations. Given all of that, I still passed with an 82. Additionally, I was completely lost on my AUD sims – maybe feeling about 60% when it was over – and I passed with an 85. I am staunch believer that acing the MCQs is critically important to passing the exam, but this is FAR and the second and third testlets were so grueling that I really don’t know how to feel. Given my belief in the importance of MCQs and the fact that I absolutely hate guessing (educated or not) when I know the right answer is right in front of me, I wasted a lot of time on the MCQs and I fear that my dismissive attitude towards the simulations is finally going to catch up to me. It was so bad that on the first testlet I spent 15 minutes trying to prove that the correct answer was not listed despite the fact that I narrowed it down to the only plausible answer. In retrospect that was a terrible mistake and those 15 minutes could have been dedicated to the research questions.
I know this is getting long-winded, so just one piece of advice for those taking FAR that I too will keep in mind if I have to take it again: don’t ever waste 15 friggin’ minutes on one multiple choice question, especially if you narrowed it down to one possibility. If you’re at all stubborn like me, you really have to throw that out the window and move on. I left myself 58 minutes for the simulations and that may be sole reason I do not pass. If you thoroughly know the material the simulations are not that difficult, it really all depends on whether you have enough time to approach them in a calm and well thought out manner. It’s a terrible feeling seeing the time remaining hit single digits and realize you still have 3 simulations to go – your mind scrambles and you stop thinking rationally. With that, I open it up to the forum.
AUD (10/31) - 85
REG (4/03) - 82
BEC (4/23) - 82
FAR (5/29) -
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