[krokofilen]

For some reason I find the debtor/creditor Q’s to be the toughest ones in the NINJA REG MCQ testbank. The questions are just odd, compared with the topics covered by Becker. I trust the NINJA MCQs reflect reality, but how worried do I need to be in terms of importance of debtor/creditor topics on the actual exam? Anyone got any experience on this from taking the exam?

These questions correspond to about 5% of the NINJA MCQ testbank, if they’re also 5% on the actual then that would make me happy.

Also property taxation (incl gift tax & estates) is a nightmare topic, however there corresponding to above 7% of the NINJA MCQ testbank and I have a feeling this is a topic that is relatively heavy tested.

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

[Tax lady]

From my experience all of these are important to know. I wasn't very proficient in Estates/Trusts for my first round but I made sure to brush up on this topic for next Thursday!

REG 8/15/14 (73); 11/13/14 (82)-expired 🙁
AUD 5/30/15 (80)
BEC 11/28/15 (75)
FAR 7/30/16

Studying with CPAexcel and Ninja notes/MCQ's/Flashcards

[krokofilen]

OK. It's just interesting because some people say that BL only corresponds to about 20% of the actual exam (which, of course, is a very rough estimate, based purely on assumptions or the particular tests these people have taken themselves) – if so, then debtor/creditor questions would be a diminishing small portion of the total score. Most BL questions in the NINJA test bank are, after all, on the topics of UCC, contracts and business structures.

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

[Kimboroni]

Within that 20%, they can test you on whatever BL topics they want, so it is hard to tell how the percentage of topics within BL will come out on test day.

AUD 84 (1/9/14-Wiley books/TB + free materials)
FAR 83 (5/21/14-the above + NINJA 10 Pt Combo Lite)
REG 84 (7/9/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC/Notes)
BEC 76 (10/5/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC)

Disclaimer: My ninja avatar is not meant to imply that I have any affiliation with this site other than being a forum member. That's a pic of a T-shirt that my daughter gave me for my birthday. 🙂

[krokofilen]

Hard to tell yes, but are you saying that it is impossible to, in broad terms, try to predict the share of questions within certain topics based on the representation in various test banks? If so, do you have any source supporting that assumption?

I mean, there gotta be a higher likelihood of BL questions on UCC, than on agency transactions.

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

[taxgeek83]

I thought I read somewhere that it was a 40/60 split between business law and tax. Has that changed or am I just making things up?

[Kimboroni]

Tax is 60%. The other 40% is roughly half business law and and half professional responsibilities.

I don't have any documentation, Kroko, but having taken all 4 tests, I have noticed that they stick to the percentages given in the CSOs, but you can't assume that there will be even representation of topics within the broad areas they list. Also, I haven't used Ninja MCQ, but Wiley's question representation is only Wiley's question representation.

AUD 84 (1/9/14-Wiley books/TB + free materials)
FAR 83 (5/21/14-the above + NINJA 10 Pt Combo Lite)
REG 84 (7/9/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC/Notes)
BEC 76 (10/5/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC)

Disclaimer: My ninja avatar is not meant to imply that I have any affiliation with this site other than being a forum member. That's a pic of a T-shirt that my daughter gave me for my birthday. 🙂

[Rocky123]

20% is business law

The tallest oak in the forest was once just a little nut that held its ground.

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Rocky123, CPA

[taxgeek83]

Got it – thanks for the clarification! I assumed the professional responsibilities part was part of business law for some reason.

[krokofilen]

OK, so let's conclude we can be relatively certain that:

– 20% BL

– 20% professional responsibilities

– 40% tax

Makes sense. Still, would be interesting to get an idea of the relative importance of the BL topics. Just looking at NINJA MCQ testbank, they represent:

28% UCC

14% contracts

12% debtor/creditor

5% agency

20% gov regulations

23% business structures

So, 20%x12%=2.5% is a reasonable share of debtor/creditor questions out of the total exam. To use an interval, I would say 0-5%. So, risk wise, not a very important topic. This is what I wanted to ask/analyze with this thread. I am not stupid enough to believe that I will get exactly 2.5% questions on this topic, I know it could also be 10% and also that the questions are weighted differently meaning that the 2.5% could in fact represent 5% out of the 100 points of the exam, but to use reasonable grounds of estimating the risk… it's not one of the more important topics, if the NINJA test bank is somewhat representative of reality (which I like to believe).

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

[Kimboroni]

I don't know, Kroko. I mostly focused on tax law and relied more on intuition and logic for b law and professional responsibilities for exam day, so I didn't analyze how to allocate my emphasis. I can only memorize so much. But I also really struggled with my MCQs and feel like kicking butt on sims is what pulled me through with a pass.

I think that's pretty common, taxgeek, and then professional responsibilities gets under-studied because of it. But it makes a difference– being 1 of 12 total chapters (in Wiley) making up 40% of the test vs. being 1 chapter making up 20% of the test. I think it's an important distinction, so I try to point it out.

AUD 84 (1/9/14-Wiley books/TB + free materials)
FAR 83 (5/21/14-the above + NINJA 10 Pt Combo Lite)
REG 84 (7/9/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC/Notes)
BEC 76 (10/5/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC)

Disclaimer: My ninja avatar is not meant to imply that I have any affiliation with this site other than being a forum member. That's a pic of a T-shirt that my daughter gave me for my birthday. 🙂

[Mamabear]

I have found that if I'm not good at something I usually get a lot of questions on it on exam day. The fact that your second two testlets' level of difficulty is determined by how you do on the testlets before it means that they can pump out the topics that you got wrong previously as you proceed. That's why it is impossible to judge percentages. Everyone gets a different test with different amounts of questions on each topic.

CPA Exam - Finally DONE (November 2014)
BEC (08/10/13) 80
AUD (08/24/13) 65 (11/13/13) 85
FAR (04/12/14) 81
REG (07/19/14) 69 (11/29/14) 87!!

[krokofilen]

Just noted that the BL + Ethics / proffessional / legal responsibilities questions in the NINJA MCQ test bank are exactly 50.00% of the total number of questions in test bank. The other half are tax. Probably not a coincidence, but an assumption made as to the average split on the actual exam.

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

[Kimboroni]

Kroko, I apologize in advance for using my mom voice on you, but I think your resources would be better spent on learning the material instead of all this analysis. Are you avoiding it, maybe?

AUD 84 (1/9/14-Wiley books/TB + free materials)
FAR 83 (5/21/14-the above + NINJA 10 Pt Combo Lite)
REG 84 (7/9/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC/Notes)
BEC 76 (10/5/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC)

Disclaimer: My ninja avatar is not meant to imply that I have any affiliation with this site other than being a forum member. That's a pic of a T-shirt that my daughter gave me for my birthday. 🙂

[Tax lady]

@kim I thought the same thing yesterday!

REG 8/15/14 (73); 11/13/14 (82)-expired 🙁
AUD 5/30/15 (80)
BEC 11/28/15 (75)
FAR 7/30/16

Studying with CPAexcel and Ninja notes/MCQ's/Flashcards

[krokofilen]

Naa spending about 11 hours a day studying, so wouldn't say I'm being lazy.

Focusing on the right things is important for my study plan. I don't have unlimited time as I work full time on Manager level for a Big 4.

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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