[ihorses]

3rd time taking this test. Before the test I felt like I know EVERYTHING. I did literally thousands of MCQs, probably couple hundred of sims, read all chapters twice and watched all the lectures several times. There was not a thing in that book that I didn’t know. After the test I literally wanted to kill myself. 4 out of 6 SIMS were completely out of the left field, 2 about the things I haven’t even heard of. 1 of the 2 that I knew was a research tab!

Most of the MC were about minutia that you normally don’t pay much attention too, or just forget because there is so much of it. There were probably 10 questions that were related to ind. and entity taxation TOTAL. The rest were mostly from ancillary material, or not even in the book at all. Bottom line – I think I failed again. So, looking for answers – what now? Different course, test bank, study method? Sorry for the rant, just frustrated…

AUD: Pass
BEC: Pass
FAR: Pass
REG: Pass - I'm DONE!

[Anonymous]

I thought I totally failed. I seriously feel like my guesses were right b/c in EVERY TESTLEST I actually flagged about half of the questions. It came down to timing and I just gave it my best guessed….and low and behold I passed…barely, but I passed. I even paid for my application again. When I looked at my scored I had to have someone double check because I really couldn't believed I passed…

With FAR, it was weird, b/c I felt confident that I passed and I failed with a 72…expect the worse but hope for the best!

[Anonymous]

And I thought AUD was a mean exam…wrong again!

Time is insufficient for REG. I had less than 1 hour for the sims, because testlets 2&3 took forever.

The first testlet goes fast, although there were some things I didn't know.

There were probably less than 40% calculations, which weren't that bad. The rest was mean and specific. I don't even remember what the majority of it was to look it up.

2 of the sims were completely alien to me and I had no time to research the literature.

1 research + 3 sort-of-taxation sims seemed doable.

[KasiaS]

@CPAMan, I meant no offense in saying “lo and behold, I passed”. I genuinely felt so sure that I failed and a passing score truly was a pleasant surprise for me. You came mighty close. Good luck next time.

FAR 88 (07/15/11)
BEC 83 (08/31/11)
AUD 81 (10/15/11)
REG 83 (11/26/11)

Used NIU Correspondence CPA Review

[jdj017400]

I just got back from REG (2nd attempt) and it was brutal…I'll be one of the surprised ones if I end up passing. A bad omen was the very first question on something I literally had never seen even mentioned in Becker.

-First testlet wasn't “terrible”, but wasn't easy.

-Second testlet was the hardest one I have seen…as bad or worse than Becker final exam questions and much more difficult than anything I remember seeing on my first attempt. Quite a few extremely detailed questions on the ancillary material

-Third testlet was easier…about the same as the first.

I only had 1 hour and 10 minutes when I got to the Simulations:

Sims 1 and 6 were 95% guessing. I got the research question 100%. The other 3 simulations I felt like I knew about 50% and completely guessed on the other 50%.

I feel like I studied nonstop for this one…and actually feel worse than my first attempt (which I took to see if I could get lucky…having not even gotten through the material). If I'm not finished with REG and FAR by the end of May…I lose credit for BEC.

I have no clue what to do at this point…start studying for FAR and hope by some chance I passed, or go with my gut (I failed) and keep going 100mph on REG. I was doing really well on Becker MCQs prior to the exam…and I felt like there were so many that I had to guess on during the actual exam.

Advice anyone?

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)

[Anonymous]

@jdj017400

I marked the first question in the first testlet too 😛

You described my experience better than me.

[Author]

Replies