[RWCPA]

Has anyone had to do DRS on an exam yet? I just took the sample AUD exam on the AICPA website and it was part of it. That was my first experience with it and I am taking the exam on Saturday.
Also all of the sample SIMS seemed more like far questions than audit (not like CPA excel sims). I am not really sure what to do to prepare for SIMs at this point.

[livealittle]

I'm pretty sure I had one when I took FAR on Sep 8.

there were so many documents that I couldn't easily flip back and forth from the answer screen to the document screens. I left it for last, worked on it by itself for almost an hour and left it unfinished. The kicker was I knew how to do that problem, I could have done it if I could have seen the information more easily.

if I was doing that problem in real life, I would be able to print out the documents, look at them and then fill in the answer sheet, mark off what I had already used, and work the problem. In the SIM, i couldn't see the entire document and had to scroll back and forth to see what value was listed for which line item. It was extremely cumbersome and didn't test if I know how to work the problem.

If I get one like that on my retest, my strategy will be to wrtie down the document pages information on my boards so I can see the information I am supposed to be processing. Then open the answer sheet and start filling it in. I didn't realize that was the way to go until it was too late. I submitted with about 2 minutes left.

BEC - 8/8/16
REG - 66, 77
AUD - 81
FAR - 9/8/16

[Wannafree]

@Livealittle , thank you for sharing a strategy , it would be of great help to me.

[RWCPA]

That sounds like a nightmare!! I appreciate you sharing and will have to remember this if one comes up on my exam. Sometimes I wonder if the exam planners do things like that just to mess with candidates.

[Gary]

Took the exam 5 weeks ago and had one, and I'm pretty confident it wasn't the sim that got thrown out either.

AUD 8/18/16
FAR 11/16
BEC 1/17
REG 2/17

[pharaoh]

I took FAR last month and had one DRS. I think you have the option to split the page vertically or horizontally, so I did that to look at the numbers I needed. In the beginning I was writing down the numbers but then noticed I got one of the numbers wrong, so I used the split page to have them side by side

FAR 8/2016
AUD 1/2017
REG TBD
BEC TBD

[livealittle]

@ThePharaoh I tried that and it was awful. I couldn't see the entire answer sheet row – imagine an excel screen and you can only see columns A-D. You have to fill in on column G. There is information in Column A, so you need to see what row you are on as you scroll over to column G to enter the number you want to input. You can't select the row because as soon as you start to scroll over it unselects it and you can't tell which row you are really on without scrolling back over far enough to see column A.

Then, imagine the other side of the split screen is the information page. you cannot see the entire document as full screen, it's even worse with it split.

This is why if I was in there again, I will try to write down the information on the documents. I would try to put my finger on the row on the computer screen and then scroll over, but WOW was it cumbersome, frustrating and darn near impossible to just see what you needed to in order to answer the questions.

I really don't think that tests my ability or knowledge of the material.

BEC - 8/8/16
REG - 66, 77
AUD - 81
FAR - 9/8/16

[Muhammad]

DRS DRS DRS DRS not included in Ninja software –> AUD

[sulaiman]

The good thing that you have to remember is that everyone that is taking the cpa exam are going through the same process and have similar concerns and level of difficulty, so my advice since your exam is coming up soon is to feel confident of the information that you learned and whatever comes in your exam, you'll do what you can to answer it correctly. Also don't underestimate the multiple choice questions in the new exam.
Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I have heard of them putting FAR-type sims on AUD recently. I don't know what the rationale is for that but that's why it's good to start with FAR, so if they sneak that crap on you, you know how to handle it. I took AUD in May and FAR in January. I had 3 DRS's on AUD but they were not bad, two of them only had one document to review, and actually it was the same on FAR. The ones with 5-6 documents are just ridiculous and they don't test real-world ability. If you don't have time to complete one of those, it's probably OK if you did well on the rest of the exam. Fill in a bunch of zeros. You'll get partial credit.

[Author]

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