[jjm1181]

On AUD, BEC & FAR, I didn’t spend much time at all working SIMS for practice. I just made sure I knew the material and had a general idea on what to expect. I have a feeling though that the REG SIMS are going to be something I study for…is this correct? What say you good people of Another71?

B 79
A 75
R 78
F 85

[Anonymous]

The REG sims made me ill.

[Anonymous]

the REG sims made me sick, i only had less than 30 minutes to do them, which was a huge mistake, they were brutal.

[jjm1181]

So the REG sims make people feel sick. Got it. What about preparation for them? 🙂

B 79
A 75
R 78
F 85

[Anonymous]

I did almost all tax sims in the Wiley book. The ones I got today were much different, of course.

For AUD, I didn't do a single sim and still did fine…the second time.

It very much depends on what you're gonna get, as you probably know already 🙂

[Anonymous]

How much time should you spend doing REG SIMS and MCQ's?

a) More.

b) Waaaaaaaay more.

c) Until you want to puke.

d) all of the above

The correct answer is d) 🙂

[jdj017400]

I would say get familiar with the research tool…definitely review a good amount of SIMS, but I would spend the bulk of my time on the MCQs and try to relate everything to the tax forms so you can see the “flow”.

Becker is horrible at teaching the actual forms.

BEC - 80 (11/30/2010), Lost Credit - Retake 11/30/2012, 80 (FINISHED!)
AUD - 71 (05/31/2011), 79 (08/28/2011)
REG - 70 (11/30/2011), 87 (02/09/2012)
FAR - 61 (5/31/2012), 80 (08/31/2012)

[misanthrope87]

Yah, know how to use the research tool. I was able to pass because I left 2 hours for my SIMS and looked up all the answers that I could.

B 2/12 87
A 11/11 90
R 8/11 86
F 5/12 88

[Anonymous]

Try to give yourself one hour and a half to do the Sims. There are 6 sims, one of which is a Research question. I recommend familiarizing yourself very well with the IRC. That way, you can breeze through the Research questions and dedicate as much time as possible to the other 5 sims. And also, familiarizing yourself with the IRC will also help you to search for your answers easily in case you get stuck on a sim.

Be sure you FIRST work on the Sims that you find to be the easiest. In my last exam, 2 out of the 6 sims were on topics I knew well. But because I spent so much time agonizing over the other 4 sims, I had to rush through the other 2 that I knew since I was short on time and that killed me score. Had I started on the 2 easy ones first, I probably would've passed.

[Anonymous]

CPAMan, how do you budget 90 min for sims?

I was able to keep the 30 min per tesllet schedule only for the first tesltlet. The other two teslets had much harder and detailed questions. You definitely need more time per question.

And I had to take a break before the sims. The AICPA doesn't care about our human needs…

[Anonymous]

I never take breaks. I hold it in. After I took my AUD exam, I was bursting inside. Thanks, AICPA!

Finishing the testlets @ 30 min each shouldn't be an issue if you studied well. Minimorty took the REG exam with about 30 mins to spare, I believe, and passed with flying colors.

[Anonymous]

I think I studied well. I did more than 2,500 mcqs, sims, took detailed notes, which I reread along with the focus notes many times.

I was well prepared. But well is not always enough with the CPA exam.

Mini is some kind of a tax genius, so don't think all people can perform at that level 😛

[Minimorty]

50 minutes to spare, thank you very much. 🙂

I think it was Kasias who said she left with an hour left. I'll let her confirm.

[Minimorty]

I would budget for about 72 minutes on the SIMS for REG.

Also, I wouldnt rely on the research. I know people have had success with this. I actually tried it on the exam because I had one SIM that I was a little wishy washy on. I couldnt find anything in the research that helped.

Just keep working the concepts. I liked practicing the sims before the exam. I know a lot of people just focus on multiple choice, but actually doing the sims in practice seemed to help a lot for me.

[Anonymous]

on the exam, i spent 2 hours on the sim, and i still think that is not enough~

[Anonymous]

I left 1.5 hours…Sims killed my first two attempts…both times i scored stronger in MCQ and weaker on sims…its definately the dealbreaker for REG.

[Author]

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