[Anonymous]

I can honestly say that I studied my heart out and felt ready to pass my first exam. It was my first exam so I had never gone through the process and I felt anxious, nervous and scared. I opened up my first testlet and knew exactly what to do. I felt like I did well on all the MCQS. I was sure I would pass. The feeling of accomplishment soon left when I got to the simulations. I felt like I answered maybe two simulations correct and the research question, but the rest of the simulations were a complete blur. I left one completely blank and the other two were just complete guesses. I feel so discouraged I honestly spent 8 weeks prepping myself for this day. Words can’t explain how stupid I feel right now. It is the worst feeling in the world when you have your friends and family asking you how you did and you have no words to say. Did anyone else have a similar experience and still managed to pass? I need some encouragement. I was planning to start prepping for BEC next week because I have it scheduled 7 weeks from today, but after today I have no idea what to do. Best of luck to the rest of you. =(

[Mary 2496]

No, no. no …. there is no “stupid” in this. Here's what I think —

Quite honestly, I took reg and scored a 73. The sims sucked. In fact, I felt like they fell directly out of the sky and right from Jupiter, and that they were even in Jupiter's language. Reg sims are hard. Period.

Even if you left one blank, that doesn't really mean anything because one sim is always a fake one (pretest) that they throw out. No way to tell which one but it could be the one you're referring to. You never know.

I felt like I completely bombed every sim and came out with a 73. I also knew that I screwed up a few multiple choice. Had those been right, I would have gotten those two measly points.

Bottom line — you may have passed. There is no way to know since these tests are so freaking hard!

What I would do and have done in the past — keep moving forward. Do. not. stop. Score release is too far away and you don't want to waste all that time where you could be studying for the next section. Let's say you did pass. You will have wasted all of that time waiting for your score. Move forward and prepare for BEC.

What if you didn't pass? Retake Reg. Period.

When family and friends ask you how you did? Answer —

These tests are so complex that I really have no way to know until scores are released. Thanks for your support.

(And keep your chin up. We're all in this together.)

[Anonymous]

If you got the research sim you're in the clear!

[Anonymous]

@mary2496 Thank you for the encouragement. I am going to stick to my original plan and hope for the best. I now know what to expect and how the testing process works so it will be no surprise to me next time. I see you have REG coming up best of luck. Thanks again!! Were all going to make it…..somehow lol

[Mary 2496]

@ CFO – not sure what you mean there. I had research sims in REG and got a 73. What are you referring to?

@ bcarreto – gotta keep movin' on! We will get there, one exam at a time! We will most definitely make it. If you do need to retake any section, now you have an idea of how the exams work and what to expect, so either way, it's all good. :))

[Anonymous]

@bcarreto5 I had almost an identical situation. It was my first exam, studied about 8 weeks or more, was very nervous, felt super confident in MCQs, then I got to the SIMs and literally panicked. I didn't recognize a single concept. A majority of my answers were guesses, and I left an entire SIM blank because I completely ran out of time. The only thing I knew I got right was the research question. I've never felt as low as I did when I left that exam and I seriously contemplated whether or not I was cut out for this. At the very least, I knew I would have to retake REG and was telling everybody I knew that I failed.

I scored an 82.

I know it's hard, but try your best not to dwell on how you THINK that you did. You have to stay focused on your plan and keep moving on, so forget about REG and focus on BEC. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

@erhi80 I felt the same way. The drive home I kept questioning whether I had what it takes to be a CPA. Your response sure put me at ease. I just have to stay positive and hope for the best. Good luck with Audit!!!

[Anonymous]

Ha you can never tell when it comes to the sims. I thought I failed REG, but I ended up passing quite easily. When you leave the test all you can think about is the questions you had no idea or guessed on. I hope you pass!

[Misu243]

Took the exam today and I feel the exact way! I didn't leave any SIM blank but I definitely doubt if I aced them. I had two research SIMS so pretty sure one of them will be pretested. The second time I took the exam I felt like I definitely passed and ended up scoring a 72. In fact I did “stronger” in most areas like individual and corporate tax but “weaker” in the sims. This time around its extremely difficult to say but I definitely think I did slightly better on the sims. It all depends on thos MCQs this time for me. Let's hope for the best.

BEC: 66, 74, 80* (Expired), 73, 76*
FAR: 66, 72, 67, TBA
REG: 68, 72, 74, 70, 79*
AUD: 43, 71, 77* (Expired), 71, TBA

[Anonymous]

I had one SIM in REG that I drew a complete blank on and just started making up calculations as I went along. I checked afterwards and definitely got that entire SIM wrong, plus at least portions of two or three of the other SIMS that were a bit confusing. I still managed an 81, though, and I seemed to have had a similar MCQ experience to you in REG in that I was fairly confident of the majority of my answers.

And while AUD isn't REG, scoring is still the same for both and for my AUD exam, the ONLY SIM I was comfortable with was the research SIM. Fortunately for me, most of the other SIMS had some kind of drop down answering system, so I'm thinking I got some points that way, but I was genuinely amazed that I somehow still got a 75 on my AUD exam. And that was with a MCQ experience that, while not nearly as bad as the SIMS, still wasn't very encouraging.

It sounds like I had a much less pleasant feeling about AUD than you do about REG since you do have those MCQs to fall back on, so try not to be too discouraged just yet. You never know how the scores are going to go with this exam but I think almost everyone struggles with the SIMS on at least one section. I was positive I was going to score in the 50s on my FAR exam because the SIMS were so brutal, but I even managed a 73 on that exam with a report that states I scored “stronger” in the SIMS. I have no clue how, but that's the CPA exam for you!

Good luck with studying for BEC!

[MassiveDynamic]

I took REG again yesterday, and here's my beef with the REG SIMS. Without revealing any subject matter, I can tell you that more than one of my sims threw a bunch of variables at me and asked for calculations. Well, part of getting the right calc was knowing how to handle certain data that didn't state details that would make it go one way or the other. So in absence of said detail, how would one categorize it….

In REG SIM land, that meant I hemmed and hawed about the damn things until time ran out. I feel like I just threw random numbers at the computer. Should've just put 0s.

In actual real-life reality? If that was my client and I needed to make the same calculation? I'd just ask them for more detail about the particular category! SO SIMPLE.

I felt way worse about these SIMS from yesterday than I did about the ones where I got the 74. So I'm not hopeful at all here. It's such a crap shoot.

B 85 Aug 2015
A 81 Jan 2015
R 78 May 2015
F 76 Jul 2015
DONE!!

[Anonymous]

Don't forget, you can always “cheat” and look up stuff on the research tab in the simulations. This saved my neck in Regulation. I got two SIMS that I had no idea how to do, pulled them up on the research, and found what I needed to know, verbatim. Either got lucky, or AICPA was testing me to see if I knew how to research and apply it.

[Anonymous]

Hey everyone I got my score today and I passed!!!! WTF!!!! lmao hahahahha Thanks guys!

[krokofilen]

Congrats. You're not the first and probably not the last to freak out too early (all though you were pretty close, so I suppose it was a legitimate feeling)

Big 4 Audit Manager from Europe here to pass the CPA in the U.S. of A in 2014! Niiice!

AUD - 95 / Jul 15 / 130h over 4 weeks
FAR - 86 / Aug 14 / 240h over 4 weeks
(11 week break)

REG - 81 / Nov 14 / 200h over 4 weeks
BEC - 87 / Nov 17 / 30 h over 2.5 days

[Author]

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