[sabrinaknott]

I went through continuous MCQ’s and scored at least an 80% on all sections but I still have then tendency to panic; whether the question be wordy or if something seems to slip my mind. Can anyone give advice on how to calm myself down? What is the best way to tackle questions I come across and have no clue on during the exam? I’m even in panic mode now and when I sit down and try to do some MCQ’s I start to panic again. Help!

[Anonymous]

Breathe deeply. Take a minute at the start of the exam to calm yourself down before even reading the first question.

And here's my weird one… Try to find something that you can do that is your “focus method” to calm your nerves and use that adrenaline to hone in on what you're doing. For me, this became putting my hand in front of my face, first 2 fingers pointing up and last 2 down, with the fingers up just barely touching my nose. My boyfriend has bad ADD; for him, his focus method is to look at his nose. If you can figure out something that you physically do (and that Prometric allows lol), it can help to focus your mind and body on the task at hand.

That's all I've got for weird, unique advice. Other than that, just the standard things – breathe deeply, remind yourself that you don't have to get every question right, picture a calming situation (my speech professor taught us this – to picture ourselves on a beach or something to calm our nerves), etc.

[Anonymous]

Breathe deeply. Take a minute at the start of the exam to calm yourself down before even reading the first question.

And here's my weird one… Try to find something that you can do that is your “focus method” to calm your nerves and use that adrenaline to hone in on what you're doing. For me, this became putting my hand in front of my face, first 2 fingers pointing up and last 2 down, with the fingers up just barely touching my nose. My boyfriend has bad ADD; for him, his focus method is to look at his nose. If you can figure out something that you physically do (and that Prometric allows lol), it can help to focus your mind and body on the task at hand.

That's all I've got for weird, unique advice. Other than that, just the standard things – breathe deeply, remind yourself that you don't have to get every question right, picture a calming situation (my speech professor taught us this – to picture ourselves on a beach or something to calm our nerves), etc.

[lleon]

I've always been a competitive type, I like to walk-in feeling confident.

Might help to just reflect a second or two on all the studying you did and tell yourself that you're fully prepared. Maybe before leaving the house, look yourself in the mirror, thump your chest couple times and say you're gonna pass or something. It sounds silly, but it gets me going and feeling confident so maybe worth a try lol I literally do that, but in the car before I walk into the test center. Old habit from the good ol' high school basketball days I guess.

As far as getting stumped on a question during the exam, you should go in knowing that you'll see a few questions you have zero clue on. Do not panic because 1) Could be a question that's not getting graded and 2) I guarantee no CPA has ever scored 100%. You don't need EVERY question right. Just read it carefully, and make an educated guess.

Depending on the exam and question, maybe go back to principles and guess off of that. For example, if I'm doing FAR and got a tough question, I would think about matching principle, conservatism etc and guess based on that. For REG, i'd guess whatever is worse for the tax payer. Again those are kinda last effort type things, but the main point is to try and not panic and take a logical approach.

Licensed in Arizona

[lleon]

I've always been a competitive type, I like to walk-in feeling confident.

Might help to just reflect a second or two on all the studying you did and tell yourself that you're fully prepared. Maybe before leaving the house, look yourself in the mirror, thump your chest couple times and say you're gonna pass or something. It sounds silly, but it gets me going and feeling confident so maybe worth a try lol I literally do that, but in the car before I walk into the test center. Old habit from the good ol' high school basketball days I guess.

As far as getting stumped on a question during the exam, you should go in knowing that you'll see a few questions you have zero clue on. Do not panic because 1) Could be a question that's not getting graded and 2) I guarantee no CPA has ever scored 100%. You don't need EVERY question right. Just read it carefully, and make an educated guess.

Depending on the exam and question, maybe go back to principles and guess off of that. For example, if I'm doing FAR and got a tough question, I would think about matching principle, conservatism etc and guess based on that. For REG, i'd guess whatever is worse for the tax payer. Again those are kinda last effort type things, but the main point is to try and not panic and take a logical approach.

Licensed in Arizona

[sabrinaknott]

I took FAR today and took both of your advice. I found myself getting less confident in the second testlet (the first one was pretty easy for the most part) but I took a deep breath, and came back to those questions. I feel like this helped. I feel like the third testlet was give or take, some were strange questions that I just thought to myself “wtf” while others were easy. The simulations were more difficult then the past times I took FAR I think. But there was only one I was unsure of the another one I just didn't have enough time to completely analyze so I guessed on the amounts it asked for and guessed on the drop downs as well. First time I ever took FAR and ran out of time. All the other times I was so close to passing, i'm hoping that this time I was able to achieve that 75! It's going to be a long 3 weeks! Off to study for Audit I go. Thanks for your advice!

[sabrinaknott]

I took FAR today and took both of your advice. I found myself getting less confident in the second testlet (the first one was pretty easy for the most part) but I took a deep breath, and came back to those questions. I feel like this helped. I feel like the third testlet was give or take, some were strange questions that I just thought to myself “wtf” while others were easy. The simulations were more difficult then the past times I took FAR I think. But there was only one I was unsure of the another one I just didn't have enough time to completely analyze so I guessed on the amounts it asked for and guessed on the drop downs as well. First time I ever took FAR and ran out of time. All the other times I was so close to passing, i'm hoping that this time I was able to achieve that 75! It's going to be a long 3 weeks! Off to study for Audit I go. Thanks for your advice!

[Anonymous]

@Sabrina good luck!!! Let us know your results!

[Anonymous]

@Sabrina good luck!!! Let us know your results!

[Anonymous]

Glad to hear it seems to have gone better sabrina! 🙂 Will look forward to seeing your results. Here's hoping it was 75 points worth!

[Anonymous]

Glad to hear it seems to have gone better sabrina! 🙂 Will look forward to seeing your results. Here's hoping it was 75 points worth!

[Author]

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