[Anonymous]

Lucky for me, my Prometric center was open today after being closed for 3 days due to the hurricane. At first, I was hoping they’d be open on my test day. While my wish came true, I now wish they were closed. This test was a nightmare. I’ve gone over EVERYTHING in the Wiley book and everything Phil Yaeger highlighted. About 70% of the material I painstakingly studied were not on the freakin’ test!! I had to stop for a moment to wonder if I was even taking the right exam. About half of my multiple choice questions came out of left field. However, my Simulations weren’t so bad, which is something not many people here said. It was the mutiple choice that I found difficult. And I don’t even know if the testlets got harder. All 3 Multiple Choice testlets were extremely hard, IMHO. I’m so screwed. Here I was studying for 300 hours and I’m probably going to end up with a nice big fat 50!!! I’m so depressed. I don’t understand why the CPA exam is like this. It’s supposed to be on material that’s covered in the Wiley book. But it looks like they are testing on material that Wiley and Yaeger didn’t even cover.

In order to pass this, I’d either have to be one heck of a lucky guy or there’s going to be a nice big curve. But I seriously doubt this will happen. So, I’m expecting to have to retake REG. I’m at a loss for words right now. I don’t even know if any additional studying would’ve helped. I’m so annoyed. This is ridiculous!!

Sorry, I just had to vent.

[Anonymous]

Got a 74 on my REG retake. I'm so disgusted. I knew those Sims would come back and haunt me.

Sigh!! Going to have to crack open the books again. I'll probably have to use my Tax textbook from college and try to work some of those extensive problems. There's probably some concepts I'm not fully understanding by just doing MCQs. I have the answer keys that my instructor gave us. I do hope I can find it.

[yankeeaccountant]

@CPAMAN,

So sorry to hear your news. I felt like the sims did me in too. I am going to do the full Roger course for REG and then try and see if I can get a new testbank. I feel like I have done Becker and Wiley a ton, and a change is due. I want to pass on my third try. Best of luck to you—you are going to get this next time!!!!!

[RedRage00]

Sorry to hear that CPAMan. You improved 10 pts from your first attempt. You're bound to knock it out of the park next time. Good luck.

Texas CPA
Licensed, March 2012

[Anonymous]

OMG, I just check my score, I got 74… Geez!! Give me a break please!!

I used Becker review, wrote my notes, re-wrote my notes, redid the MCQs, did all the simulations, did 2 final reviews, studied the final cram review, reviewed the becker flashcards the 8 hours before the exam, took some ethics Gleim MCQs…

what else???

I felt good on the first testlet, okay for the 2nd and 3rd. I could clearly tell the 2nd was harder, and 3rd was the hardest. For the simulations I could understand and answer 80% of them (including the pre-test one); and I found my research answer.

Where did I do wrong!!! Please-please advise…

[KasiaS]

CPA-go, it sounds like you did everything right! The only thing that I can think of is that you possibly fell for a few tricks in the way the questions are worded, otherwise I've got nothing else to offer. Do you have your performance report showing you how you compare to others? Maybe that'll clue you in as to which topic you might not have mastered before taking the exam…

I'm so sorry about your 74. It seems like the AICPA is taunting a lot of people because it seems like there were quite a few 74s handed out this time around.

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

[Anonymous]

Yeah, 74 seems like a pretty common grade. It's very odd. Maybe the AICPA passes a certain # of people to get that 45% pass rate, the rest of the people that could've passed but didn't do as well as those 45% will get a 74. We'll just have to study this until we know this in our sleep so we can beat those smart people. I'm seeing plenty of 90+ REG grades posted on Facebook. So, we probably need to just study a lot harder.

[Anonymous]

I also think that Becker is TERRIBLE!!!!! I thought it was bad after I took and passed BEC, but for Reg it was awful! I would say 70% of my exam was blown over in Becker and then they want $200 for the 2012 book, nice Becker Promise! The lady on the phone told me to print out the updates/corrections for the book, which I guess I should have done before prepping because there are a million errors. Does anybody proof these books before they're actually distributed?

I told everybody I know who is just getting into the exam to steer clear of Becker, what a terrible product, and maybe edit out all of the “AGAIN” “AGAIN” “AGAIN's,” can't even pay attention to Tim's lectures.

[Anonymous]

My Performance Report…

Ethics & Legal Responsibilities (15-19%)- Comparable

Business Law (17-21%)- Weaker

Federal Tax Process (11-15%)- Weaker

Taxation on Property Transactions(12-16%)- Stronger

Taxation on Individuals (13-19%)- Weaker

Taxation on Entities (18-24%)- Stronger

Multiple Choice (60%)- Comparable

Simulations (40%)- Weaker

I guess I didn't do as well on the MCQs as I thought. I'd expected it to be Stronger. But nevertheless, the Sims definitely got me. Just as I predicted. I take full responsibility for this failure. I don't blame anyone. Perhaps giving myself only less than 4 weeks to study for this retake wasn't enough time. Since I only have 4 chances to pass this test before I lose credit, I'll need to make sure I give myself enough time to absorb all of this. I'm thinking of taking this at the end of January of beginning of February. That should be more than enough time.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the support. I guess I need to move on. Reviewing 2x is not enough, then my little brain needs to review back 4x next time 😀

Ethics & Legal Responsibilities (15-19%)- Comparable

Business Law (17-21%)- Stronger

Federal Tax Process (11-15%)- Stronger

Taxation on Property Transactions(12-16%)- Stronger

Taxation on Individuals (13-19%)- Comparable

Taxation on Entities (18-24%)- Weaker

Multiple Choice (60%)- Stronger

Simulations (40%)- Weaker

My simulation was weak apparently… haha, well2, overconfidence is really bad!!

NAsBanta didn't want to give me REG gift this year. Maybe he knew I still had a little fun. omg!

[Anonymous]

@CPA-Go- Well, it looks like the Sims have killed us. No doubt about that. Apparently a lot of people are able to make good use of the Research Tab and look up all their answers. So, our competitors are kicking butt on the Sims. Therefore, they're not curved as much. So, we need to do well on them next time.

[Anonymous]

@CPAMan

Absolutely. I will lose my BEC credit if I did not finish my REG by Feb'12.

I thought this would not be too bad, but… I guess we need to eat more sushi to compete worldwide; esp the NASBA unfairly limit the passing score to 45%. I guess if I got 84 but the rest 56% got 94, I will still get 74 😀 !!!

[Anonymous]

Unbelievable!! I was trying to schedule my next retake and the only weekend available is Feb 25th. My goodness!! I hate to schedule at the end of the window because look at that Hurricane Irene situation we had before. It's too risky. Whatever!! I have no choice. I'm so sick of this.

[Anonymous]

Came back from my REG exam. Another nightmare!! Not as nightmarish as the first time I took it, but it was worse than my 2nd attempt. On my second attempt, I literally breezed through the multiple choice. I was pretty sure I got at least 18-20 questions right per testlet out of the 24. Yet, I still failed because of the Sims. And mind you, I only ended up Comparable on the MCQs despite getting 18-20 correct. Weird!! Just shows what competition I'm facing. Now, today, the multiple choice questions were a mix bag. Some I knew, some I didn't. Most of the ones I wasn't sure of, I was able to narrow down to 2 choices. But knowing my luck, I always pick the wrong one. However, the Simulations were A LOT better than last time. There was 1 Simulation I was unsure of (hopefully that's pretest) and another 1, I knew about half of it. The rest, I'm sure I got 90-100% correct because they were my strong topics. Even the research, I found. It scared me at first, but after 5 mins of research, I found it!

I really don't know what to think. There could be the slightest possibility that I passed in the high 70s, but I'm not counting on it. Starting tomorrow, I will crack open the books again and continue studying because I'm not going to hold my breath about this. Last window, I was almost positive that I made it, yet failed by 1 point. The curve on this exam is not as generous as the other 3 sections. So, I'm expecting a bad grade. So, I will continue studying. I've reached a dead end and really don't know what else to do. They've literally hit me with TONS of MCQs that were not in my review book. Any additional studying is just not going to work, but I can only try. Sigh!!!

[jokami]

I am SO scared right now!!!!! I take this test on Tuesday and the material doesn't look hard nor bad… But I hear everyone complaining about Becker and that where I am studying from!!!!!

B - 62, 70, 72, 79!!!
A - 68, 81
R - 70, 82
F - 84

"The limit to your abilities is where you place them" - Fortune Cookies

[jjm1181]

CPAMan…any advice for us taking REG in the next few days?

B 79
A 75
R 78
F 85

[Author]

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