[Accountingbeans]

So I took REG yesterday and am scared because I don’t think that my MC got harder. If anything, I felt that the first testlet was the hardest and had the most calculations. However, I’m much better on Business Law which I felt like was more included in testlets 2 and 3. So how can I tell if the testlets got harder? What do you look for? I know it can be subjective, but does harder=more calculations, longer calculations, etc? Or just different topics? IMO, the questions were shorter and more straight forward than Beckers.

Also, can I pass if I had 3 medium testlets?

Newbie
BEC- August 31

[NeedsA75]

Don't worry about it…When I took REG I literally couldn't tell any difference from the 3 testlets…In fact, my first testlet felt like a hard testlet instead of medium. I passed with a 92 so don't stress it. Difficulty is very subjective

[SaveBandit]

You can't really tell. People who claim they know are kidding themselves. All my AUD and REG questions were like 8 words so I thought I was getting easy questions based purely on length. I got a 94 and 90, which means I got at least 1 hard testlet, probably 2. The AUD test felt impossible while the REG test felt relatively easy to me. You really have no idea, at the end of the day.

4 for 4

FAR 85
AUD 94
BEC 86
REG 90

[Anonymous]

I was also worried about this. With BEC and FAR, I could tell because the questions got really lengthy and had a lot of meat to sort through to get to the info you need to answer. On this one, I did notice that some of the B-Law questions got lengthy, but other than that the only noticeable difference was that my 2nd and 3rd testlet had more calculations. I also looked at a lot more AICPA release test questions for FAR and BEC that told me the difficulty level at the bottom, that's probably why they were more recognizable.

[NeedsA75]

where are the AICPA release questions that tell you the difficulty?

[Anonymous]

There is a header on the upper left of each group of questions that says : MULTIPLE CHOICE – DIFFICULT, MULTIPLE CHOICE – MODERATE. This is on the AICPA released test questions that are provided with Roger. Not sure if it looks like this elsewhere.

[Tardis_Wobble]

I can always tell (multiple passes/failures to back it up – unfortunately) and am definitely not kidding myself. I typically practice both the 2015 & 2016 AICPA released moderate and difficult questions before each exam and will mentally compare the formats to my testlets during the exam (don't do this, I have a problem and don't be like me).

You should have access to these if you buy the Ninja MCQ for whatever applicable section. Of course subjectivity does come into play – as in a question won't seem difficult to you if you have studied the content in that specific area hard enough. I typically find that it doesn't have to do with the wordiness, or calculation dependency in a question but more obscurity/ two questions could be correct. Or the general wording could be annoying.

But to echo what everyone else will say, you shouldn't waste time on the exam trying to assess if you think it is moderate or difficult, you should just focus on answering the question (I clearly don't follow this advice lol). At the end of the day all that matters is you study and prepare as best you can – and try and nail the SIMs of course!

General caveat though – if you are scoring in the high 80's/90's on the exam, it would probably be more difficult to assess the difficulty. This is because that is such a master level of understanding of the material you are literally crushing every question on that exam and destroying anything in your path so it probably all seems pretty easy! For someone like me on the other hand, who is providing uh, “reasonable” assurance to the test makers that I know my stuff…well it's a bit easier to assess.

FAR - 76 - [4]
BEC - 71, 73, September 9 2016
AUD - July 28 2016
REG - October 2016

Black coffee, stress, and cottage cheese pancakes!

[NeedsA75]

Where does it show you the AICPA questions and difficulty in the NINJA MCQ?

[Tardis_Wobble]

@Needsa75 on the login page. you click your section, and instead of hitting the “Start studying” scroll down a bit and under “helpful links” you will see the sets of questions to download

FAR - 76 - [4]
BEC - 71, 73, September 9 2016
AUD - July 28 2016
REG - October 2016

Black coffee, stress, and cottage cheese pancakes!

[NeedsA75]

Crap, I never knew that…

[SaveBandit]

Someone who is scoring in the mid 70s vs the 90s is less likely to receive a hard testlet at all, so I would argue that your ability to assess difficulty is probably less accurate. Just my two cents.

4 for 4

FAR 85
AUD 94
BEC 86
REG 90

[Tardis_Wobble]

You need to get at least one hard testlet to pass the exam. If you get all medium testlets, you might have a chance if you absolutely crush the last one. Though it's much more unlikely. So yeah, it is highly probable that if you scored a 75 or above, you got at least one hard testlet.

https://www.aicpa.org/becomeacpa/cpaexam/psychometricsandscoring/scoringinformation/downloadabledocuments/how_the_cpa_exam_is_scored.pdf

At the end of the day the waiting game just sucks! I'm sure you did well enough to pass OP and we will all be there with you holding our breath come 3/21. @Needsa75 – good news is you won't need it come score release 🙂 I can feel it!

FAR - 76 - [4]
BEC - 71, 73, September 9 2016
AUD - July 28 2016
REG - October 2016

Black coffee, stress, and cottage cheese pancakes!

[NeedsA75]

I just looked through some of the “Difficult” audit questions released by the AICPA and honestly, I would have pegged a lot of those as easy questions on the exam. It really is subjective and hard to tell for the most part..

Good luck Tardis! I really couldn't care less if I score a 75 or 99, I just want to know that I'm done!!

[leo_bloom]

When I printed out the 2016 aicpa questions from becker for FAR and for AUD it sure seemed to be obvious (mostly) – especially on AUD. The “hard” ones were wordier and you have to think through them more and had more tendency to have 2 “right” answers if they were less wordy.

[Peasqueezy]

Accountingbeans I'm so glad to stumble across this! I took reg 3/10 too and I didn't think the questions got harder at all. It was a very nerve-wracking feeling not to gauge that the test was getting harder. I think my first testlet was the worst. The third one I only flagged two questions. I'm hoping I was just really prepared and it's not an indication of poor performance. For FAR and AUD I knew they were getting harder. For BEC I just knew I was getting them right because they were calculations. Not too many calculations on the reg mc to give me hope of being on the right track. Fingers crossed for both of us on 3/21!!

[IcecreamF]

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