[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.

[HazeEastwood]

Ahmad, I feel your pain. That exam is just plain miserable. It's given the majority of a good beating

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

[Ahmad]

Thanks Haze…. it looks like you could be done with this whole thing by June… thats Awesome. If I somehow pass REG(doubtful) I will have 2 more to go. Good Luck

[herbert7890]

I will be here waiting for your scores, Haze!!! At least now we know the release date will be very late in June.

FAR 88 - BEC 86 - AUD 90 - REG 85

[Anonymous]

@NTurner

I have a few random questions/comments…

“I felt it was reasonably hard for a CPA exam.”

Did you feel the other sections of the exam were easier? I felt REG sims were by far the hardest.

“There was a lot of points that I was questioning (about 10 per MC part) but all of it seemed 100% fair.”

Are you saying you knew 14 for sure for each testlet and guessed on the other 10? …or you really only had to think about 10 in each testlet but you could still make a pretty good guess? It seems like I'm in the same boat. I easily knew 14-18 of them right for sure in the first and third testlets. Probably knew half for sure on the second testlet. Even if I get half the ones right I made an educated guess on I would end up around 55-60/72 (76-83%). I'll take that in a heartbeat, just hope I'm right…and I hope if I am right it carries me through the sims.

“and even if I failed, it will be pretty close.”

Getting close is such a defeat. I got a 74 on audit and felt that if I took the test again that day I would have got an 80. I hardly studied the second time around and I got an 84. Bad luck, I thought it was the easiest exam to study for, felt most prepared of all my tests. I don't feel like I passed this test, and if that holds true, I don't know how I will study again.

[HazeEastwood]

Thanks Herb, hopefully we'll be celebrating!!

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

[Anonymous]

Just took it a hour ago, here is my experiance:

MCQ #1 – Easy, Flew by it real fast (~15min) probably got 22/24

MCQ #2 – Definitely hard, few lengthy question, a couple nasty trick questions, and some obscure material not covered by Yaeger/Wiley/Gleim

MCQ #3 – I'm not sure if it was hard or standard, mostly because I was pretty familiar with most of the stuff on here but it was wordy and lengthy. I had experienced the same type of questions on Wiley and knew how to answer them so I don't know how to gauge it.

====

Sim #1 – Pretty straightforward, although some trickiness in the wording of what they wanted. Pretty sure I got most of it correct except the part that was worded bad (There was a contextual error in the question).

Sim #2 – Also pretty straightforward premise, but I had no idea what they wanted because the wording was so bad along with the most awkward setup of a answer form I've ever experienced. I don't know where I stand on it. If I answered it how I think they wanted I'm pretty sure I got the majority of it correct. If I misunderstood it I'd probably guess close to no credit.

Sim #3 – Death. I doubt I got any credit for it, the sim was the definition of a curveball question from hell.

Sim #4 – Easiest sim by far, pretty sure I got maximum credit for it.

Sim #5 – Mostly easy up until the curveball modification, which I guessed on. I'm pretty sure I got most of it right.

Sim #6 – Easy research question, if you were awake during a lecture you would have gotten it.

[jwardlsu]

I thought Reg was brutal-took it yesterday (5/28). I took audit in early april and Reg was quite a bit harder than that. I assume it would be as i worked as an auditor for several years, and have never done tax work….but the amount of material covered in the Reg test just killed me.

I flagged 7 or 8 questions in the first testlet, but i flagged in the 13-15 range in the next two. Just brutal- with audit there was usually one “best” question…but with Reg there was nearly always 2 very very good answers that i could talk myself into. And it didn't help that I only had 45 minutes to do the sims, so by the last 10 minutes i was just picking answers that seemed logical and might possibly be right.

I guess I'm just frustrated. It doesn't help that I'm starting to study for Financial this week either.

Best of luck to anyone else taking Reg soon.

[jdubcpa]

I recently took REG for the second time (came close, but failed the February 2011 test). I believe there is quite a bit of variabiality between tests and an element of luck definitely exists. I walked away from the February test knowing that I failed. This time around, I feel a lot more confident. Yes, I had more time to get prepared this time around but I think if I received my 2nd test on my first try, I would have passed for sure.

AUD 87
BEC 82
REG - 04/25/2011
FAR 79

[pshustler]

Just took REG and it was by far the hardest of the exams Ive taken so far. SIMS were brutal, but the MCQs werent too bad. I just cant decide how I did. The SIMS were the last thing in my mind and that makes me feel I didnt do well. I cant remember much from the MCQ now I racked my brain so hard on the SIMS

BEC - 86
AUD - 94
REG - 88
FAR - 89

[Anonymous]

Overhyped? Did we take the same test?

This is the second time I've taken REG, and I'd have to agree with @jdubcpa that heavily tested areas will vary with each test. The problem is, I don't think that one exam should focus on X topic while another focuses on Y. How does the computer decide who gets what topic? The topic that was heavily tested the last time I took the exam only had 4 questions in the entire exam this time. Really??? A little consistency would be nice!

Ok, I'm going to stop being a Debbie Downer now.

Good luck to all when scores come out!

[pshustler]

Wasnt overhyped to me. Definitely lived up to the hype. Especially the SIMS

BEC - 86
AUD - 94
REG - 88
FAR - 89

[nturner508]

I flagged a ton of questions for review, then went back through those ones twice. I made sure to really budget my time so I had a lot of time to go over the SIMs. These posts really made me doubt myself but I studied a ton and took it right after taking a tax class. Ended up with a 90! Woohoo! Now, I just need to make sure I get through the rest. It seems like FAR and BEC are the new beasts. 🙁

[Mr.haha]

i flagged only a few questions for review and i know i botched 2 of the 6 sims. after reading the horror stories about reg (i took it in may) i certainly scared the heck out of myself. but the good news is that i passed with an 80!! two more baby!

BEC - 80 11/1/10
AUD - 74 on 11/30/11. retake 87 1/18/12
FAR - 79 8/8/11
REG - 80- 5/9/11

[NDCPA123]

I came out of REG feeling completely defeated. My computer messed up and I barely got to finish the SIMS (freakishly slow, then it crashed). The MCQs were about 80% “you know it or you don't” and about 20 were able to be backed into if you generally knew what you were doing. Seriously, some of these questions were so out of left field that if I didn't have an MST I wouldn't have known what they were even talking about. Becker 2010 wasn't even close to covering the right material for this testing window. There was also one SIM that was over a subject I literally said to myself “there is no way they'd put that on the test, it's too specific and way too hard (we don't even mess with it in the field)”, which is where I pretty much decided that I was going to fail the test.

Luckily, they must've curved this beast like there was no tomorrow. I barely passed, but I'm alright with that. I would have to say REG is the new FAR in terms of difficulty, imo.

There also seems to be no consistent way to feel after a test, or even between candidates taking the same test in the same window. I finished Audit with almost 2 hours left (felt amazing afterward), was down to the wire for REG and FAR (close to tears afterward for both) and felt amazing for BEC and passed all of them with relatively similar scores. I was one of the lucky ones who got them all the first time, but there still isn't any way to really know how you did. Too easy –> probably didn't do that well; Too hard –> could be terrible or normal; Middle –> Who knows. I had a friend who felt the same way I did for Audit that got a 55, so it really is a crapshoot.

Protip — If you can get around it, don't study during busy season… you will go crazy.

AUD - 80
REG - 77
FAR - 78
BEC - 84

[jdiiorio]

hey everyone!

Ok so I'm starting to worry a bit about REG. My exam is coming up and I keep getting low scores on the MCQ (not even mention the fact that I barely have gone over the sims). Most of the time I am struggling with understanding what they are asking. What is the deal with this complicated wording? why can't they just ask what they actually want us to figure out? I'm confused. I am not too worried about the sims bc I feel like I know the format and if I understand the material that could be tested I should be good to go. Besides since everyone keeps saying that the SIMS were so crazy, I figure there's no point in my trying to dominate Becker's not so hard sims. Anyway.. What should I do? How do you guys deal with not understanding the questions and how do I expand my memory? My brain is saturated.

ILLINOIS CANDIDATE
FAR - Passed
BEC - Passed
AUD - Passed

[Author]

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