[Anonymous]

Just took REG and all I have to say is wow lol.

MCQ testlet definitely got harder but there were many questions I wasn’t sure with. At least 10-15 had me spinning wheels a bit.

Had 1.5 hours left for SIMs (recommend 2 hours after 15 minute break) and they were absolutely brutal. I know for certain I got the research question correct and did well on 2-3 SIMs out of 8, but much of the rest were best guesses.

This is coming from passing BEC and AUD within 2 months, missing REG by only a few points on first attempt, and restudying REG nonstop for 2 months (2-3 hours a day minimum, completed all the practice MCQs).

It was more difficult and detailed than the first time around (could be a good sign) but if I have to retake this portion again, I will plan on studying the actual IRC and other authoritative publications directly, especially because the SIMs were that detailed.

Now the wait until August for score release and onto FAR in the meantime.

[Michael_Scarn]

Just got done taking REG today and had to come here just to see if anyone had the same experience I had with this new format. Glad to see I'm not alone.

Just to throw in my two cents and vent. It's quite frustrating when you feel like you've studied as hard as you can and you did everything you could to prepare and you still might not pass because of the stupid SIMS. I was feeling so good going through the MCQs. I felt like I knew most of them, flagged very few questions in each testlet. I went into the sims with almost 2.5 hours to spare. And it was a race against the clock from there.

The frustrating part for me wasn't the material tested. It's not that it was necessarily difficult subjects. The hardest and most time consuming was going through 5-6 “documents”, “attachments”, and other items you had to gather information from. What am I being tested on? The material? Or how well I can sort through 6 documents at a time? If they want to give me that much information to sort through, then give me a second monitor. It's just ridiculous the amount of information that you have to look over. Made even worse by the fact that all they give you is a dull sharpie to write notes down with. When you write down a “7” and it looks like a “9” cause the marker bleeds, it's hard to trust your own notes.

Anyway just needed to vent. Glad I wasn't the only one that was frustrated with this.

[Holly]

second monitor!!!!!! that would be awesome

BEC - 79
REG - 85
AUD - 5/27/16

[Vyhunter]

Hilarious. About the marks and combing through the documents on time…lol.

[iamstrong]

I took REG on 5/25 and I agree about the SIMS. I wish they would give us a pencil and paper and STOP will all the tabs! It's impossible to set up your equations with all the stupid tabs.
I used BECKER, NINJA audio and notes. There were no SIMS in Becker (in the HW and practice exams) that came close to the SIMS on the exam. Very upsetting.

[runegoblet3xx]

Took REG today and completely agree with everything said above.

Out of 8 SIMS, 6 of them had at least 5-10 tabs I had to sort through. It was a nightmare and the frustration of dealing with that definitely made me do worse. It's bad enough to have all those tabs, let alone when I was trying to scroll through one doc, the other tab tended to jump around.

I left a comment at the end about it. I also felt as if some of the questions weren't that descriptive as to what they wanted.

Becker had NO SIMS that were that in-depth. If I have to retake, I may have to look at other study materials. Though…I'm not sure if it'll help.

[Anonymous]

Glad to know I'm not alone in my exam experience. I have heard stories in the past where people felt crushed on the SIMs, but still ended up passing, so a few more weeks til score release and we shall see.

I do want to mention I totally get why the SIMs are formatted the way they are. It is very close to real-world experience of what you can expect on-the-job. Often you will be given a bunch of documents and e-mails to sort through and complete a tax return or task and it can be confusing to get it done. The difference in the real-world is that you usually have a Senior or Manager that you can ask questions and get help from. Also you will usually have prior year's file/workpaper that you can follow.

It just sucks none of the study material really prepares you for it. I've heard that Becker SIMs do a good job at preparing you for the SIMs, but others mention that they do not. So if anyone has any idea which course will help prepare you best for the SIMs (both REG and FAR would be helpful) please let me know 🙂

[Anonymous]

I would recommend Gleim to anyone. The review material is very thorough and the MCQs are very challenging. The sims are also really close to what you see on the exam (in addition to having a ton of them).

I studied REALLY hard for REG because I felt there was just so much to learn and the Gleim questions were really hard so I wasn't trending as high as I wanted. I went into my REG test on Monday and felt it was actually much easier than what I had been practicing with with Gleim.

The only thing Gleim didn't have that the actual exam had was the super in-depth DRS that aren't in the letter format. But the letter format DRS felt sufficient enough to prepare me for the actual exam. We'll have to wait until score release to see what my score was, but I really felt like i went into the exam prepared (same with FAR and BEC).

If you're looking to switch review systems or add on to what you have, I would highly recommend Gleim!

[Anthony]

Took it today and just wow. MCQ were alright, but damn…got hit hard with Blaw. Sims were on another planet or something because like 80% of my sims had supporting documents. I knew I was up shit creek without a paddle when my first sims testlets were 2 DRS. Tried my best to abuse the AL as much as I can and definitely can say it saved my ass a few times. Got research question 100% correct and last sims testlet felt like I got like 80-90% of it correct or at least I hope I did. With 3 hrs left after I finished the MCQ part, I can say time was not the issue. Not very confident in this one..wouldn't be surprised if I failed. Just so much you need to know and the complexity of REG is a headache for me. Just hope to god that I've done enough to pass or else the nightmare continues.

[Author]

Replies