[Dlerojo]

Hey guys,

I took REG this weekend which happened to be my first ever exam section. Just in case any of you are curious I’ll tell you about my experience. I was kind of nervous since it was my first section and felt like I didn’t have all the material down. I was at a 71% average and 86% trending with over 3200 questions done.

I was reading everyone’s comments on here about how crazy hard the test is which why I was nervous going in. Hopefully this isn’t a sign I bombed it but overall the test didn’t feel that hard. Nothing crazy or way out of left field in the MCQ or Sims. One MCQ covered a subject I don’t remember seeing in Ninja everything else were concepts I’ve seen.

I finished both MCQ testlets in about an hour and 15 min leaving about 2 hours and 45 mins for sims. I had been doing 100 MCQ bunches in Ninja and was finishing those in about 1.5 hours. I felt the MCQ difficulty was on par with Ninja although my second testlet the questions were more detailed and took a little longer than the first batch. The sims were a lot harder but only because I had to try and apply what I knew in a different way than just MCQs and I only had one DRS Sim. I spent a lot of time reviewing my answers in last sim testlet and I finished with 30 min left.

I’ll have to wait till I get my score in September but overall I feel 50/50 on it. If I fail it was because I wasn’t able to retain or apply the concepts I learned not because they were testing ridiculous stuff. If you’re taking the test soon relax, you’ve worked hard studying and I’m sure you will be fine.

[Dman1]

@Dlerojo,

I totally agree with you. The exams are fair. If someone tells you otherwise, it's because they are unprepared.

[CPAIN2K17]

@dlerojo sounds like you passed pretty comfortably to me. After reading all these posts on this website it's easy for people to get in your head because they tell you that you should feel like you failed… I think those people are just unprepared 🙂 I have walked out of all of my tests feeling good about my performance.

[HoosierCPA]

I'll play the other side of the fence as the other posters. Not everyone is good at exams. Me for example, I get a ton of anxiety…I always said I needed to come into an exam being able to score an 85+ knowing my anxiety and brain block would cause me to lose points that I would not normally in a comfortable environment. So to just label everyone as “unprepared” because they thought a test was hard or they saw material they didn't feel like they had seen I feel like is unfair.

Having said that, I had a couple exams I felt like I failed immediately when I finished- I never felt like I bombed any 1 exam, just didn't do enough to pass. For the most part none of the material on my exams was foreign, some tricky wording and sims that I felt like were ambiguous but nothing crazy. The difference between a 65 and a 85 I think is smaller then people realize. I have walked out of AUD twice both feeling confident, got a 64 on one and an 80 on another. I have walked out of REG 5 times all feeling similar…71,74,72,71,89…so what was the difference? Maybe I scored slightly better on a few sims or a few MCQ's that were weighted more then others.

Your experience is promising though, and looks like you were well prepared based on the amount of mcq's. Good luck on your results!

FAR - 78
REG - 72,74,71...please just go away REG nobody likes you!
BEC - 82
AUD - Aug 16

[ageis0101]

I agree completely with the OP. I'm naturally a researcher and a very anxious person so I read about the exam a lot when I needed a break from studying, and 3/3 times I have psyched myself out way more than I should have prior to going in because of reading other people's experiences. Everyone has their own experience, and if ~50% of the people who walk in there pass, it's not an impossible exam. (cue the crooked grading practices debate)

For me, I could recall at least seeing 90% of the material from the test in my review materials. It wasn't always committed to memory, but it wasn't out of left field (for AUD and FAR). I do feel like REG had more curveballs and stuff I couldn't remember covering – but it's also my least familiar and most uncomfortable subject. That said, at this level I think ruling 2 choices out and making an educated guess based on the goals of a CPA makes the unknown more attainable for those who were diligent in studying.

To those researching taking the exam: it's possible to have a positive experience with the CPA exam if you're prepared. I don't think that means you have to walk in there 100% prepared or leave 100% sure you passed; but that you can go in there feeling prepared and leave knowing you couldn't have done much more.

Good post OP, thanks for sharing!

[Anonymous]

I finished my last exam almost 18 months ago. The wisdom I gained was that if you think you bombed it when you walked out, then you probably passed. This unconventional thought is shared with others I know who got their CPA license. It sounds dumb but for some reason it does seem true.

[Author]

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