[ssaetern]

Hey guys. I was wondering if you could give me some suggestions on preparing for SIMs. All of my test scores are in the high 60s and my performance report shows that I’m always weaker in SIMs. I feel like if I could’ve done a better job on the SIMs I probably would’ve gotten a passing score. Any advice on how to prepare for them other than doing the ones provided in your review course? Thanks in advance.

[SuperAccountingGod]

I'm in the same boat. The popular consensus is to spend the majority of your final studying hammering MCQ. I've often read on here people review the blue prints for the types of SIMs they could ask you and just hammer more MCQ based on those topics.

[animalwithin]

Welcome to the club. I'm in the same boat as you, SIMs are destroying my score. The consensus is that being bad at SIMs is an indication that you're weak in the fundamentals of the material which can be best improved by MCQs, which makes sense. You've just got to get great as all subjects/topics. You can get away with not knowing things in the MCQs but SIMs will definitely reveal your weaknesses.

[GoCart]

So I was in the opposite boat. I was always comparable on the MCQs and stronger on the SIMs. I think the other replies on here are on point. I barely worked SIMS when studying. Not that I recommend doing that, but from my experience, the MCQs are basically snipits of big SIMs.
My addition is that when I would work on the SIMs, I would really try to put on my real world accountant hat. Especially in FAR, AUD, & BEC. I think it helped that I'm a Senior Accountant so I have the experience but it really helps to think big picture on a financial statement level. Why am I debiting this asset account? If I'm debiting that asset account, what am I crediting? I swear those questions in my head were why I was able to pass.
Grasping the topics is super important in order to be able to ask those big picture questions so hammering those MCQs will certainly help!
Good luck!

[CH89]

I kind of agree with Animal. Anytime I practice SIMs and get it wrong is because my understanding of the topic was not fully there, which leads to an “oh yeah, I forgot about that!” I can do well on MCQs, but SIMs are a bit of a struggle. In most cases, I almost seem to get “lost” in what is being asked or I don't understand the question at hand.

[Madhav]

Practicing Sim is key here. I was in similar position like yours. As great a forum this is, I do not agree with people telling not to practice sims. I think if you know how to answer sim, you can easily answer MCqs and I don't this it is true for vice versa. I would recommend you to focus mostly on practicing sims since you are already comfortable with MCQs. Get a toughest TEST BANK like GLEIM and practice their sims. It might be painful while you are practicing but it would be worth it in the end. I did that for AUDIT after struggling with Sims for 4th time.

[Author]

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