[the LAST Coffee]

Been cramming through some Ninja MCQs lately and I find myself incorrectly selecting the wrong answer simply because I didn’t read it carefully.

But more frustrating is I move to the next question and analyze more thoroughly and I think to myself “HEY! Easy question I got it!” and submit answer only to find out it was wrong! I must have misread something because I look back and noticed something I missed that would have changed my answer and I think to myself, “Well that is obvious…”

But this keeps happening over and over again. So annoying, really!

This happen to anyone else? I’m trending 60% but figure it should really be 70% if I stop making these errors…

FAR 84 (AUG '15)
BEC 83 (AUG '15)
AUD 79 (OCT '15)
REG 71, 78! (NOV '15, FEB '16)

[12tang]

Happened to me a lot. I think it's because you're often answering a lot of them and they're often complex. When you get what appears to be an easier one, your confidence gets the best of you. This is good training for you though. It means you need to start watching out for detail. Accountants are expected to catch small details.

Read the question slowly and really think about the answer before you even read the answers. Then read ALL the answers before you select one. Hope this helps..

Using Becker self-study
FAR: (82) 175 hours - 1st attempt
BEC: (XX)
AUD: (69) 45hrs of study - 1st attempt
REG: (XX)

[tuanxn]

I second what 12tang said. If you're doing a marathon of MCQ, it might help if you break up the sets into 15-20 questions and take short breaks in between. Time permitted, once you've found the correct answer, do a quick assessment to make sure the other answers are wrong.

I also noticed that I'm more prone to miss questions like bonds when I fail to notice that a bond was issued in between interest dates.

[Tncincy]

easy questions, wrong answer…that's me. I think this is why I tend to shy a way from the mcq's. I realize I need to keep doing the questions but when I see the dash board and my scores decrease, I begin to worry.

It begins with a 75
Been here too long as a cheerleader....ready to pass

[Anonymous]

I do the same. I tend to miss the words NOT or EXCEPT even if they're in all caps. Just slow down and try your hardest not to make those mistakes so you don't make them on the actual exam.

[JohnWayneIsGod]

Yep. I've been there. It's easy to do when you are trying to do the questions against the clock. But the great thing is that you are aware of the problem, so you know what to fix. When I hit the easy questions, I take about 20 seconds to ask ‘How are they trying to trick me with this one? What small detail did I miss?' Try it out the next time that you hit those easy questions.

FAR - 80

Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.

-John Wayne

[TaxGod]

I actually think it is a positive thing rather than a negative. A lot of times the “easy” answer tells you that it is an incorrect answer which helps with two things, you narrow down one answer choice, and also you know the starting point of where to look. I have used this trick in the exam, and a lot of times it really helps! Only down side is there isn't always a trick, so sometimes it may make you spend to much time on a question.

AUD: 02/28/15 - 89
FAR: 05/29/15 - 80
BEC: 08/03/15 - 81
REG: 08/27/15 - 76

[zoctoman]

Many times I got frustrated making “stupid” mistakes on practice multiple choice questions. But I started to realize that many of my mistakes were due to getting tired after long study sessions. I remember going through a set of 100 questions, getting about 80% throughout the first 75 but then getting like 9 questions wrong in a row. Fatigue set in and I wasn't able to concentrate.

I'd say any stupid mistakes made several hours into a session should be disregarded and not worried about. On test day you will be at your best mentally and will not be making those “doh” errors.

Audit(11/5/13) - 89
Reg(5/16/14) - 86
FAR(7/18/14) - 82
BEC(11/14) - 85

[Author]

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