[lr_cpa]

I just took REG today and I’ve read on numerous other posts where people say their testlet has gotten noticeably harder or easier. So my question is what is it that gets more “difficult”? Length of question? Number of steps involved to compute the answer? Having to recall from a list (ex: having to recall which defenses are personal vs real)? I ask bc obviously a persons definition of difficulty will vary based on these factors as well as capacity and perception (which rooted in differing biases). Without being too revealing, I had about 10 questions per testlet that were about 2-3 sentences(50-100 words), but other than that I got several seemingly easy 1-2 liners.

I also ask bc I’m somewhat nervous that I felt pretty good about the mcq (sad i know as this not how it went for me in school). Per this forum, if you feel like you did well you didn’t and vice versa. Thus I’m worried.

REG 5/27/11 86 1st attempt [CPA excel questions, Yaeger Audio, Wiley book]
FAR 8/04/11 90 1st attempt [used CPA excel as primary, Yaeger Audio, and Wiley book]
AUD 10/01/11 90 1st attempt [used CPA excel with Wiley as supplement]
BEC 11/29/11 84 1st attempt [using Wiley with CPA excel as MCQ supplement]

DONE

[kandisjoy]

In my experience, when you get a difficult testlet, you know it. The questions mostly get longer and more complicated. The subject matter gets trickier and there because a lot of those “choose the MOST correct answer” type questions.

For example, I took AUD today and definitely noticed that my second testlet was brutal. I think my third testlet went back down to medium though. :-/ Not sure how to feel about that…

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

CA Licensed 11/2011

[Herbieherb]

When I take exams I go by the number of questions I marked for review or just simply had no clue and guessed. Its hard- because I dont know the answer. Not by how much I had to calculate or read. If I know the process, calculate it, pick the right answer = easy. If I read the question, dont know what they are looking for, reread it, scribble on the scratch paper, come up with an answer that isnt available or I try to reverse look up into the answer and still dont know, mark for review and come back = hard.

So my own scale for Easy, Medium. Hard based on how many I marked for review.

1-4 mark for review = easy

5-9 = medium

10+ mark for review = hard

My reg was like 2, 10, 12 or something easy, hard, hard

FAR was like 4, 16, 0 easy, hard easy

NEW YORK- DONE

[lr_cpa]

Thanks for the response guys. I felt like my testlets were all of equal difficulty so I'm a little concerned..ugh. I'd like to think that it was just bc I knew the material so well but who knows. There were so many topics in Wiley that I reviewed in detail that weren't even broached on my test… I have never taken a tax course but logged a little over 200 hours in the two months prior to the exam, so hopefully that was enough.

Herbieherb, for the ones you had no clue on for REG, what kinds of topics were they on? Obscure ones (mortgages)? Or on familiar topics, just something you didn't review well?

REG 5/27/11 86 1st attempt [CPA excel questions, Yaeger Audio, Wiley book]
FAR 8/04/11 90 1st attempt [used CPA excel as primary, Yaeger Audio, and Wiley book]
AUD 10/01/11 90 1st attempt [used CPA excel with Wiley as supplement]
BEC 11/29/11 84 1st attempt [using Wiley with CPA excel as MCQ supplement]

DONE

[Anonymous]

Don't worry too much about the 1-2 sentences on REG

I was concerned when I took REG last year with of all these short questions on all testlets.

I passed the exam with stronger on mcq, comparable on simulation, and weaker on written communication.

Good luck and enjoy your weekend!

[Herbieherb]

@LR it was a combination. Some things I never seen before, and others I knew how to execute, but the answer I calculated was just not there. The questions like that seem to have a weird twist to them…Also some easy stuff very specific stuff,I kicked myself for not reviewing, those ones haunted me a few days after exam.

NEW YORK- DONE

[kb24]

FAR was the only one where I noticed a significant change in the testlets. The problems in 2 and 3 were wordier, they were on topics that are generally considered more difficult ones, and/or they required more complex calculations. The only change I noticed in AUD between 1 and 2 was the subject of the questions. The focus was on a couple of topics I thought were more difficult, but I didn't know if anyone else did. The questions themselves, though, were no longer or trickier. If I hadn't been confident that I'd done really well on the first testlet I would have been worried. With REG, the questions were all over the place in every testlet. Some of time the difficulty arose from the wording of the question rather than what was being tested; sometimes it was on an obscure topic I hadn't even seen mentioned in Wiley or Becker. For the most part, I didn't notice the questions being noticeably longer or shorter on any testlet. BEC was a little more like FAR but not as noticeable a difference.

In the oh-so-clear AICPA explanation of how the exam is graded, it states that each testlet will be a mix of easy, medium, and hard questions, but the average weight of the questions will be either medium or hard. Like you said though, lr_cpa, different people will have different opinions as to what's hard and what's easy. I wouldn't worry about the length of the questions. It sounds like you did fine on the MCQ so enjoy your weekend.

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

[Author]

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