[Anonymous]

I understand the teslets get harder if you are doing well. Has anyone ever gone from medium #1, impossible #2 and then easy #3 and passed?

I know I bombed the simluations, but now I am wondering if because my third testlet was so easy that maybe I failed the MCQs too.

[Anonymous]

I've had a mix of all sorts so far. This doesn't apply to BEC (it's not adaptive), but it does for the others. I felt similar to what you explained when I took FAR, except a bit tweaked. Here's a list of how I felt for some of them:

FAR: 1st was easy, 2nd was a nightmare, 3rd was a relief from the second but harder than the first

AUD: 1st was medium, 2nd was only slightly harder, and the 3rd was about the same as the first

REG: To be honest I noticed no difference in difficulty between the testlets, except some of the questions towards the end of the 2nd and 3rd testlets.

If you have a challenging 2nd testlet you are almost always going to get a relatively easier 3rd testlet, or so it seems.

[Anonymous]

When I took FAR in Nov I have gone from medium #1, impossible #2 and then easy #3 and passed with a 76!!!

[houstoncpa]

That's 1 point more than you need Pomo. Mine was same and I bombed with a 73. Sad

[Anonymous]

houstoncpa – very sad I remember my 73 as well

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the responses. It's been a week since I took The Beast and I am second guessing everything. It keeps me up at night.

February 19 can NOT come soon enough to get my score. If I got a new sim…. oh, the horror!!

[Anonymous]

CPAWannaBe – take a chill pill and start studying for your next part

[Anonymous]

I would OD on chill pills if I could.

Unfortunately I work in tax so I have to devote the next 3 months to that.

[Jaywalk]

Mine was mixed, but keep in mind I used to be an IT nerd and was a 1st year auditor when I took AUD:

BEC was fairly easy throughout, kind of boring and almost anticlimatic. I struggled to stay awake during the exam.

AUD #1 was medium, #2 was easy, #3 was way too easy

REG #1 was medium, #2 was hard, #3 was are you kidding me??? (very difficult)

BEC 78 - 11/27/2008 | AUD 84 - 08/10/2009
REG 82 - 11/23/2009 | FAR 84 - 01/19/2010
-| Passed all sections |-

[strider4216]

CPAwannabe,

I totally know why ur asking this question..I just took FAR too and I'm just pissed at how confused I am…

Don't worry about the questions, because it's all psychological. I'm 100% certain of this, because every test I've gone into I freak out that it's not getting harder, or I feel like I'm confused and the test is messing with me…for FAR I was going crazy while taking it because I was guessing so much and I couldn't tell if the test was getting harder or if I was just going slower…

If it makes you feel any better, I took Audit and the testlets felt like first was WAY easy, second was medium, third was IMPOSSIBLE..and I thought I did really well but I only got a 78 (compared to how I felt I did)…then with Reg the testlets seemed like they weren't getting harder at all, and I literally thought I had a 40 on that test, I was CONVINCED I completely failed, and I got an 85…

Here's another thing to consider, the test works like this:

There's only TWO difficulties for testlets, not three, so it shouldn't get harder for each, if you do well it should stay the same for the latter two..I think all this confusion and lack of transparency by the AICPA really messes with us psychologically, I just wouldn't worry about it because whatever you feel about the test is almost certainly wrong…if the AICPA set out to make people feel confused and insecure after they took the tests, then great success.

[Anonymous]

I can honestly say I can not tell if a testlet get harder. Either I know the answer or do not know the answer. IF I do not know the answer it is hard – if I know it – it is easy. When I was taking a review class they would say that is an easy question and I would be totally confused and then they would say anothe questions was hard and I thought it was simple.

My grade FAR (87) – did not think any section was that hard – but one of the sims was awful and did not finish due to time.

REG (82) – thought the first testlet was the worst – but again it asked many questions on two subjects that I was very weak on.

BEC (80) – no difference

AUD (71) retook 1/9/10 – all felt about the same but sim 2 was confusing (hope this was a test one). Did not understand what they were truly asking.

I noticed a big difference in SIMS across my test – FAR and REG I had SIMS with only about 4 tabs with work with AUD my SIMS has 6 tabs with work

[Anonymous]

All, I have heard that the way to tell if your if your testlets are getting harder is that the questions seem to be more “wordy” or larger fact pattern, might include more distractors, useless data or those dreaded “not this” or “except for” type questions. I felt FAR and AUD, testlet 2 & 3 where more difficult than 1 and of course BEC non-adaptive.

CPAWannabe, You gave it your best shot and now the only thing you can do is wait. I know it is hard to not second guess what happen but you will feel much better if you can keep you mind on other activities, like family.

[Author]

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