[nturner508]

I just took Reg this morning. I studied with Becker starting April 26th (I was out of school starting May 1st) but I didn’t think it was so bad… I felt it was reasonably hard for a CPA exam. I am a fast test taker (just about an hour for both of my practice exams) and I scored a top of 79-80 on those practices. I went quickly on the MC and left over 1.5 hours for the MC. I finished up with a little bit of time remaining but I definitely needed all of that time for it. That’s the only part I agreed on the other posters.

There was a lot of points that I was questioning (about 10 per MC part) but all of it seemed 100% fair. I’d seen 95% of it on Becker/Ninja SG. The one questions I thought was out of nowhere I remember seeing on Ninja, I just didn’t bother to memorize it. :/ Oh well. There are some screaming posts about how hard it is but I think if you study, you should do fine. I thought it was going to be “impossible” and just despairing but I left feeling awesome about it. Sitting through it, I kept seeing stuff from my studies and that felt awesome. I just wanted to share my experience so people don’t get too scared like I did! It wasn’t impossible, just hard. I feel like I hopefully passed and even if I failed, it will be pretty close.

[kandisjoy]

I thought that the REG multiple choice questions weren't that bad. I recognized almost everything that I saw. It's the tasked based simulations that I'm worried about… I got some that were just crazy off-the-wall. I'm glad to hear that you feel good about your exam. :o)

FAR: 71, 77
BEC: 70, 82
AUD: 62, 78
REG: 71, 68, 85

CA Licensed 11/2011

[yankeeaccountant]

@nturner508,

Glad to hear that. REG is next for me. I have Becker too. But I was going to buy the Yaeger cram as I read many posts that Becker didn't prepare people well enough. But I guess that is subjective.

Best of luck.

[HazeEastwood]

nturner508, not trying to rain on your parade but I'd be careful how I look at that. I took BEC at the same time a co-worker of mine took it. She came back saying she didn't see the big deal and she had seen all of it. I came back saying BEC was a pretty difficult test. I passed and she failed miserably. Remember, these test are different across the board. What I get on a test may not be what you get. I am also a believer that my test could be easier than yours but I'd have to get more right to get the same score as you. REG had a lot of stuff I had seen but with a twist to it. That's what made it difficult, twist that I hadn't seen before.

FAR-81
BEC-84
AUD-91
REG-89

[kb24]

rturner 508, I'm glad you feel that you did well on REG. However, your experience is not necessarily representative of what most people will see. There's a quote on this forum somewhere that how well you do on the exam is 1/3 preparation, 1/3 attitude during exam, and 1/3 luck as far as what questions you get. I felt well prepared for all my exams, but I have no idea how I did on REG which was the third one I took.

I thought FAR was challenging but not unreasonable. There were 2 or 3 questions completely out of left field but the rest were over material I'd studied, and I felt that I got most of those right. The SIMS were difficult but not impossible. To me, the biggest issue with this exam was time management.

Next was AUD which I found to be fairly easy. I again had 2 questions that weren't covered in anything I studied, but the rest of them just weren't that hard. Also, I didn't need 4 hours. I finished in less than 3, and that was after reviewing every question and taking a bathroom break. I originally thought it was so much easier than FAR because there was less material that could be tested. However, after reading other people's comments about AUD I now believe that I got an easier than average exam. I still think most people would find it easier than FAR but probably wouldn't see as big a contrast as I did.

Like FAR, REG is going to be difficult no matter what because there's so much material. However, the wording of the questions is an added difficulty factor. I'd read several comments about this before I took the exam and thought people were exaggerating because I hadn't experienced anything like that on my other 2011 exams. I discovered what they meant when I took the exam, though, and I didn't have nearly as bad an experience as what others have described. Usually, if you're trying to decided between two answers, it's because you don't know the material well enough or the difference between the two is very subtle and takes extra time to evaluate. With REG, there were more than a few questions where the problem was poor or ambiguous wording which made it unclear what was being asked. In these cases, I was torn between two answers even though I knew the material because the correct answer depended on how I interpreted the question.

I felt less prepared for BEC, which I took next, than any of the others due to the study materials I used (Wiley and Becker) not doing a great job of covering the information. However, I think I did OK and found that exam to be more difficult than AUD but easier than FAR or REG.

I took all 4 exams this window so I can't correlate how well I felt I did to my score. Like I said, I'm glad that your exam went well, but your experience wasn't necessarily typical.

FAR 4/1/11 - 89
AUD 4/15/11 - 85
REG 4/29/11 - 80
BEC 5/13/11 - 85

[herbert7890]

@ nturner508 – I would take that as a warning , as REG changes difficulty based on your performance on the previous testlet. Most that pass find the exam extremely difficult and unfair…………… just be cautious. I never left an exam being 100% sure I passed, but the opposite. I thought I had a 50 on REG when I left the exam and like 40 on FAR!! The only text I felt somewhat confident was BEC (2010), probably because in 2010 BEC was not adaptive and I got lucky there. Having said that, I hope you passed and I'm just being overly cautious : )

FAR 88 - BEC 86 - AUD 90 - REG 85

[JamaicaBro]

@ nturner508 , I agree with herbert7890, not to get you worried , but I did not think the MCQ's were terribly difficult , but I got a lot on topics that were flagged as ancillary material in Becker , I was prepared as I went through the all the Reg material including all the ancillary material. If I did not get that comfortable with ALL the material i do not think I would have found the MCQ's manageable. Again every exam is different so again preparation is key so I agree with you on that point. However the SIMS were tricky, there was one that I had to use the research feature as it was not covered at all in Becker. The others were familiar topics but all had twists that made them tricky as it could be interpreted in many ways. The only preparation for the SIMS is to leave enough time to really think them through. I did not think I passed as the MCQ' represents 60% , so you need to do well on the SIMS to pass. Because so most of my SIMS were ambiguous I wasnt sure what I got correct lol as I had to take a position and run with it. I ended with a 92 , but I was worried. I think Becker does a reasonable job , but would advise that you do cover the ancillary material.

FAR 86

BEC 92

AUD 98

REG 92 Done

[Last_First_MI]

I didn't find REG as hard as others have said it was in my experience but I think my test was just different and I lucked out. It was the only 2011 exam I have had to take and the only issues I really ran into was the slowness between tabs in the TBS. I was lucky enough to pass with an 88, but I think it was just luck that the TBS that I got were all pretty familiar in what I saw in Becker and the ones that were kinda oddball I was able to at least make an effort to figure out what they wanted or at least make a good guess. I do prefer the new TBS over the old 2 large sims from the 2010 era, but that is just judging on the REG exam I took and it was the only 2011 exam I had to take and I didn't take a 2010 REG so I am comparing FAR, BEC, and AUD 2010 to REG 2011 so might not even be that relevant. 🙂

[Peanut]

Lets just say…. I took REG in February… I walked out of the test saying the same thing “Hmm I don't see the big deal, I've seen all of those questions in my Becker Review material.” Everyone had said “I got crazy questions.” I felt pretty good. FAILED MISERABLY. My score reflected a score of someone who did not study, and I study my tail off. Retook REG in April, I literally walked out cussing, pulling my hair out, wanted to cry and throw up at the same time. Lets hope that's better sign this time around.. REG is definitely the new beast.

AUD 81 (X4) Previous scores 59, 72, 72
REG 80 (X3) Previous scores 59, 60
FAR 75 (X2) Previous score 67
BEC 79 (X2) Previous score 58

[herbert7890]

You have a good chance, Peanut

FAR 88 - BEC 86 - AUD 90 - REG 85

[nturner508]

Oh, I didn't think it was easy, I just felt like I had seen most of it, like the other posters have said. I spent a lot of time going through Becker and I did all the ancillary material. I felt like people were saying it was beyond impossible and I felt like it was more challenging. I think if you prepare and chill out, it will be easy. Then again, I saw a ton of people on my internships go into exams without even finishing their Becker materials. Those people would be freaking out!

[HazeEastwood]

Peanut, you are describing what I mentioned in my post above. I think some test are easier than others even if your testlet gets harder. Lets say 2 candidates do well on the first testlet. Candidate A 2nd testlet maybe harder than Candidate B 2nd testlet although they both did well on the first testlet. I believe that Candidate B will have to get more questions right to get the same score because the questions are worth less points. So seeing a testlet that you didn't think was all that difficult you may have had to get more right than someone who thought the test was totally unfair.

FAR-81
BEC-84
AUD-91
REG-89

[kb24]

nturner508 – I'm glad that Becker did a good job preparing for you for the exam. However, your experience isn't necessarily the norm. I also studied Becker including all the ancillary material and supplemental questions. In addition, I studied the Ninja notes, Wiley, and did all the Wiley test bank questions. I thought I was well prepared, but I had questions on topics not even mentioned in any of these sources. There's always going to be a couple of these especially on a subject like tax, but there were more on REG than any of my other exams. What was worse in my opinion were the number of poorly worded unclear questions. I'd dismiss this as just me overreacting to the exam if I hadn't seen so many complaints about the same things on this forum, and it wasn't as bad for me as it was for several others. I found FAR challenging, but REG was borderline unfair. I'd count my blessings if I were you.

FAR 4/1/11 - 89
AUD 4/15/11 - 85
REG 4/29/11 - 80
BEC 5/13/11 - 85

[Anonymous]

Good to hear from everyone on this. I take Reg on Tuesday and will be sure to review the ancillary material a little more on this one.

[HazeEastwood]

count_712, you should review everything. Honestly, there is no telling what you might get. I got a ton of questions on a topic that I swore I may get 1 or 2 questions on. I got like 10 questions on. Its a stab in the dark man.

FAR-81
BEC-84
AUD-91
REG-89

[Ahmad]

I took REG on 5/24 and I have to say several questions were on extremely remote topics that were probably a paragraph or two in the Wiley book.Really hoping they where pre test Q's. Vaguely worded questions were everywhere especially the SIMS, but most of all time management is your biggest enemy here. I think 3 hours is not enough to answer questions and review before moving on. In addition…

My prometric test completely crashed after my 3 testlets and right before the SIMS. I had 3 minutes of white screen then a popup that said “critical error” see administrator. Completly messed up my concentration. I had to call the proctor they rebooted the exam whole thing took 20 minutes. I hope I didnt lose the 72 MCQ's. So I really had 2:45 minutes to do the exam. I recall seeing 1 hour 25 minutes to go for SIMS before the crash when it came back it said 1 hour 12 minutes. My assumption is the clock was ticking until the lady rebooted the computer. So I lost 5-10 minutes ( time I could have used researching a SIM Question I suppose. I was to focused to argue so I kept going. All they could tell me was this happens a lot and to write them a letter.. I wanted to knock the lady out but dang it they have ur finger prints aahhhh. In a weird way, I was amazed at how calm I was at that moment.

The SIMS were tougher than the MCQ's because its unclear what is expected of you. I really think I will be sitting for this thing again. Feel like I studied for REG but I took something else. I passed BEC with 3 weeks of study and I spent the good part of 3 Months for REG and it was probably for nothing except to get a beating. 3 hours is not enough time. I think they took a half hour away from REG and gave it to AUD. That extra half hour would have helped me use the research tab to get thru a SIM. Oh well enough complaining … good luck to those yet to take it. BUDGET ur TIME!!

[Author]

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