[TYJ1977]

Do you advice going through these questions and has it been helpful to anyone? I have read about how one should not waste too much time on the AICPA released questions. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

I found them very helpful. They don't ask the same exact questions, but practicing them gives you a feel for the topics and what to expect on the exam. Sometimes they just change the answer choices or some of the facts. After memorizing the answers in Becker, it is refreshing to see new questions.

[Anonymous]

I totally agree with CPAWannaBe. In my opinion they are very helpful especially to help you understand how they create this questions and how they are trying to trick us into choosing the wrong answer.

Also it is really refreshing. The more diversity of questions you do the better.

[TYJ1977]

Thanks CPAWannaBe and Ed.

[Anonymous]

The AICPA released questions can be helpful, but do the problems in your review materials a few times first. The questions released by the AICPA are old and you will not see them on the exam. Use them for extra practice of the concepts if you feel that you need the extra practice. Personally I used Becker and have been fine through 3 sections so far just doing the Becker practice problems.

[Anonymous]

@ Bobbins…how many times do you do the questions?

Also, I tend to start memorizing the answers…instead of the concepts, do you have this problem?

[Anonymous]

It really depends on the time I have available. I tend to be more of a crammer when it comes to exams, so often I only go through the problems once. Then I might do some practice exams or progress tests (using Becker) to refresh before the exam without doing every question over again. Or I will go back and just hit sections I thought were tough or likely to be heavily tested.

When I say I go through all of the problems once, I mean I go through them until I answer every single one correctly. I will do a section of questions, then redo all the ones I got wrong until I get up to 100% and I know why the correct answers are the correct answers. This is the only way to go.

When I catch myself memorizing questions I force myself to slow down, read carefully, and explain to myself (even out loud sometimes) why the correct answer is correct and why the other answers are incorrect. Don't let yourself get stuck memorizing tons of questions. Sometimes on the exam you will see a question you think you have memorized from your review materials, but there will be one little difference or the answers will be switched around and you will get it wrong. Hit every practice problem at least once, make sure you can answer every problem correctly, and understand the right/wrong answers.

[Magis]

A key thing to remember is the emphasis of why OTHER ANSWERS are incorrect,  particularly on conceptual Q's.  This also works on computational, though, as it teaches you how not to fall into the trap of taking a delicious distractor answer.  I agree with Bobbins on that point.  If you're only analyzing the correct answers, you're coming up short on your studying of the concept and are over emphasizing your studying on that particular question, that you won't see on your exam.

As far as the AICPA released questions…any practice is great.  After doing a Becker final exam (purposely made much harder than the real exam), you will want to do the AICPA released questions to make yourself feel better :).  They are generally easier and more indicative of what you'll see on the exam.

AUD - 94 (08-26-09); FAR - 96 (11-7-09)
REG - 93 (05-04-10); BEC - 86 (05-25-10)

[Author]

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