[jeff]

I was asked this question, so I reached out to the AICPA examinations team.

This is what they responded with:

Question: In a simulation, if there is a blank with no entry needed, do candidates answer with “0” or leave it blank?

Answer: It depends on the simulation. The instructions will guide the candidates as to whether they will need to enter a ‘0’ – i.e. if they do need to enter a ‘0’ then we make that clear in the question instructions.

Just passing it on …

[BBHYX]

My interpretation:

If instructions say put a 0, and you leave it blank, it will be considered wrong. That box is probably graded, with 0 as a correct answer, so you would miss out on collecting some points.

If instructions don't say anything, you are supposed to leave it blank (thus that box is not graded as part of the total possible points). If you do put a 0, it will not really count against you since it's not graded anyway.

The reason I think that the boxes you are supposed to leave blank are not graded is because if they WERE worth points, you would get points for skipping a sim, running out of time, and leaving the entire thing blank. They have no way to distinguish between purposely left blanks and skipped questions. Seems unlikely you'd get points for not doing a question in my opinion.

Overall, the point is — READ THE INSTRUCTIONS

[Anonymous]

My understanding that if it is zero and they tell you, if the answer is zero then leave it blank. I would leave it blank – I find that they make it clear. Not following the instructions could cost you. that happened to me in FAR Q1 – the instructions said if zero leave blank and I went ahead and put zero – well I missed it by 2 points. I made sure not to make that mistake in Q2 and I scored a 75.

I firmly believe If they say leave blank then leave it. If there is no mention then feel free to put in zero – BUT THEY MAKE IT VERY CLEAR

[Anonymous]

How do you know you missed 2 points because of that SIM? It's not like you get detailed grades back…

[Anonymous]

No 1 knows for sure – but it sure explains it esp after I barely cracked the far book open for Q2 retake. IM SAYING that's my theory behind missing it by 2 points. You can have yours but….. and ALL my MCQs came back stronger – SIM came back weaker.

FYI…I didn't notice any difficulty change from Q1 to Q2 just format change. Just my .02

[QueenCPA]

I agree.

Pay attention to the instructions.

Those small details make the difference sometimes.

[Anonymous]

You have to enter zero for the cells with numbers in almost all cases, I've found. Having taken many online courses with online homework and tests requiring numerical entries, this is a pretty familiar thing for me personally. I had some courses taught on Wiley's academic website (the publishing company, not the CPA review materials) and you always had to put in ‘0' for empty cells or else it was counted as wrong because nothing was entered.

[CPAwannab]

I would read instructions carefully and follow directions. In Becker, I completed one SIM 100% correctly but I put 0 where it wasn't needed and it graded me 57%. Not sure if how the real SIMs are graded but this was an eye opener

[Bourne]

I took an exam recently in which the instructions only said something along the lines of “If an entry is not needed, select “no entry” for one of the lines”. If you took the exam, would you think that this means to complete the journal entry for a given situation and if there are leftover lines you just leave them blank? As an example: You have 4 lines to make a journal entry and you only use two, would you leave the last two lines blank or select “no entry”?

I feel that the least the AICPA could do is to be more specific.

[Anthony]

You would leave the last 2 lines blank. The no journal entry option exist is because there if there is no journal entry needed, you would select that option. Not to mention you can only use the no entry option just once, so you wouldn't even be able to fill it up the last two of the entry table with no entry option.

[Bourne]

I thought the same thing would happen. However, I input “no entry” on one line and went to the next line to check if I could use it again and it let me. I just left them blank as well, just wanted a second opinion

[sacpa]

I took BEC yesterday. For one section of a sim, there were 4 lines. I filled two lines & then chose ‘no entry needed' for the 3rd line. When I tried to choose ‘no entry needed' for the 4th line, that option was not there. So I am assuming that maybe either ‘the no entry needed' option entered in the 3rd line' covered for the 4th line as well or the 3rd & 4th lines needed journal entries. I don't remember the instructions for that sim. Everything is a blur at this point.

A question I always have is do you have to put 0 in the credit column on the 1st line & a zero in the debit column in the 2nd line of the journal entry or do you leave them blank. This is probably another reason for my failures, I guess.

FAR - < than 75, 10/2013, 2/2015
BEC - < than 75, 10/2013
AUD - < than 75, 8/2015, 1/2016

~ Winners fail until they succeed. Losers quit when they fail. - Robert Kiyosaki
~ I survived because the fire inside burned brighter than the fire around me.
~ Something will grow from all you are going through. And it will be YOU.
~ Right now you may not be where you intend to be, but it's where you need to be in order to get where you want to go.

[Author]

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