[Anonymous]

Upon multiple emails back and forth with the AICPA, they stated the following when I asked them:

EPRESOGNA: “If a simulation asks you to calculate say medical expenses that qualify as itemized deductions in one of the cells provided, and you correctly calculate 4 out of the 5 total deductions in the cell (say $400 and the actual answer is $500), do you miss the entire cell/point, or

do you get partial credit on the cell, say 4/5 points??”

AICPA: “Concerning the example you gave for a simulation problem: in this instance, you would have to have all 5 entries correct to receive credit. Otherwise, your total deduction would be incorrect.

EPRESOGNA: Regarding your simulation response, ouch! That is brutal is it not??? It seems at least for REG that there would be a great deal of grey areas, especially when calculating say business deductions on Sch. C as one CPA may say it is a deduction and the other may say no. Just to clarify, there is NO partial credit within individual cells in the simulation, but rather partial credit as a whole regarding each individual tab, correct?

AICPA: “There are instances where you can receive partial credit, depending on the type of task. However, in your example, if we understood it correctly,you had to have all 5 entries correct in order to come up with the correct final total amount. All we can tell you is to answer all the questions to the best of your ability. You are not penalized for incorrect responses; however, you only receive credit for the correct responses.”

Still somewhat confused, but I thought it was nice that the AICPA took the time to help clarify some of my confusion. Please if anyone has any further explanation of the Sims, please let me know! I retake on August 26 and REG is my last part (71, 70, 74).

[Anonymous]

I guess what the AICPA is saying makes sense…they can't know how you got to the answer, they only know if its correct or not. So if you calculate on scratch paper 5 deductions, and 1 is wrong, then your total amount enterred into the cell will be wrong, and you'll lose credit for that part of the simulation. Considering that its computer graded, and you cant show your work, I cant imagine any other way that they could do the grading.

I just keep my fingers crossed that I can score high enough on the MCQ to help make up for the crazy sims!

[Anonymous]

@Empresogna—Thanks for sharing. Just curious have you taken REG 3 straight times or did you take some other sections in between? Your scores make me very nervous—seems like you've been right there 3 times but couldn't quite get over the hump. Did you re-study everything for several weeks or try and cram for your re-takes? The material in REG is more difficult to me than the other sections plus I don't have the written comms to fall back on so I worry about ending up stuck on this one for multiple exams as well. I have 2 more solid attempts at it before I lose FAR and AUD.

[Author]

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