[mikiluv]

Hey all!

I’ve failed REG with 23, 60, 61, and a 58. I have both Becker and NINJA MCQ. My last report showed that I scored Weaker in ALL the sections except for the Taxation of Entities MCQ which I scored “Stronger” in.

From what I’ve gleaned in the numerous posts I’ve read here, the NINJA MCQ score seems to be reflective of one’s actual test score. As such, I would like to mention that I was trending/averaging at 55% upon receiving my 58%.

However, I honestly do not know to study for this exam anymore. Everyone says to just drill MCQ’s like crazy but what does that mean? How are you learning when you just solve MCQ’s? Are you supposed to just “learn” and “memorize” the answers when you get something wrong? I am seriously at a loss for how to study. I am so sorry if this is such a stupid question to ask but I would love to hear anyone’s advice. I’m taking REG one more time in the 2nd week of January but I feel a bit pessimistic if I do not change my current study habits.

I’d be so so so grateful to know how I can get out of this rut! I really hope I’m not a lost cause…I’m so lost and confused…

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

[Determined CPA]

I don't think you can really tackle the MCQ's like crazy until you have at least the fundamentals and basic concepts down. If you are using Becker, my advice is to READ THE BOOK section by section and then do the Becker MCQ's immediately after. Then any questions you get wrong, you can go back and look up what you're getting wrong. Take notes on your own and make flashcards and go through them every night. Then, once you have a good understanding of what is in the Becker book, tackle the questions. This is when NINJA is amazing! They are different questions and will really reinforce the concepts for you.

If you don't have any other parts passed yet, my advice is to take this exam slow. Take the time to study. Maybe a Feb 28th exam? Give yourself enough time to get through everything.

A - 75
B - 78 God is good.
F - 77 Answered prayers.
R - 84! Done!!

Paperwork sent - waiting for license!!
Still on a cloud and in shock. Through God, all things will happen.

[wr8280]

Most of the test is taxation and professional responsibility, so study the hardest for this part, I think I heard it constitutes 80% of the exam.

Focus on the individual tax formula, then know where in the formula a transaction would fall, e.g. moving expense would be a deduction to arrive at AGI

Remember everything is taxable unless it is specifically excluded by law

Know that most tax law was created to beat tax cheats… at some point in the tax code there was a loophole that people took advantage of and Congress closed the loop. e.g. people transferred their investment income to their children who had lower tax rates, therefore the “Kiddie Tax” laws were created.

Fill out an actual tax return so you can see how things work (preferably with tax software) and pay close attention at the lines the tax software calculates automatically for you.

Know the due dates of the returns

Never give up.

FAR- 82
REG- 93
AUD- 89
BEC- 88

You are smarter, more focused, and more brilliant than you give yourself credit for. Believe in yourself and truly know in your heart that you can do it.

[Texan_Stuck_In_OK]

Also, when you do get to pounding MCQs, look at each answer to make sure you know why the correct answer is correct, and the incorrect answers are incorrect. When using Ninja MCQ, click on the extra links at the bottom to review definitions and associated literature. Take your time and make sure you are understanding, rather than trying to get through just to hit a certain percentage. After I got to adaptive learning, I was seeing some of the same questions over and over. So I started tackling my weakest area first (the top one on your graph), working 5 or 10 question sets and understanding until that area was no longer the weakest. Then I would tackle the current weakest. Every now and then I would get so tired of those questions, I would do a normal set to mix it up.

Hope that helps!

A 88, B 76, F 84, R 76 Passed 2014

Licensed in OK

[Herbieherb]

You need a teaching course like yaeger or roger. Working mcqs when you don't know the concepts behind it isn't working

NEW YORK- DONE

[soyanks]

Wait a second. Are you only concentrating on MCQs for REG?

That's only 60% of the exam. 40% = SIMs.

Based on your score report, where you've scored “Weaker in ALL the sections except for the Taxation of Entities”, it tells me that you have to do the following.

1) Start over. Stop doing MCQs. It's not helping you. You have to read the material. If Becker is too dry, try something else. But bottomline, you have to understand the material.

2) Separate your study plans as tax vs. non-tax topics. For tax, you have to understand how to do a full tax return for individual, corporate, partnership, S-Corp, etc. This will be tested as multiple choice question and in the SIM. Knowing how to do these returns should boost your score significantly (compared to where you are right now)

3) A lot of non-tax questions are topics related to business laws & regulations. A lot of these questions tend to be common sense for people who have taken a law class or two while in school. If not, you will have to memorize them for the exam.

FAR - 86
REG - 85
BEC - 90
AUD - 84

[Martin]

mikiluv,Herbieherb is absolutely right! your scores are very low and this means that you are not understanding the concept. I dont think you will benefit from doing more MC questions or simulations. Becker is just a review course for someone who has a very good grasp of the material before hitting ch1. You need to have a foundation to be successful with Becker or be one of those students that understand better by working questions. You need a course that actually teaches you the concepts. The only courses I know that are more than a review are CPAexcel (for reading) or Roger CPA (great lectures). I would go with Roger but you might need to supplement it with Ninja MC since his test bank sucks.

Through God all things can happen!

“You never fail until you stop trying.”
― Albert Einstein
When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people;as I grow older, I admire kind people.
“Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”

FAR= 72-84
Audit= 73-82
BEC= 74-75
Reg=77

[Anonymous]

Generally speaking you should review the source material in its entirety. Mix in the MCQ's as you go and really drill into them before the exam. Your target practice exam scores should be 85 going into the exam. Here is a specific drill sequence I perform to narrow down my trouble questions:

1. Do a batch of 30 questions at night. (this works in both Wiley and Ninja MCQ)

2. Write down the questions and answers of the ones I got wrong.

3. The next day, pull the same batch of 30 questions, or at a minimum the 30 most recent incorrectly answers questions.

4. This time, if you get the same answers wrong again, then you know those questions are serious issues because you couldn't even guess the correct answer even after you took the time to write it down from the previous attempt.

After weeks of doing this process, you will have a notebook loaded with questions and answers that you need to pay the most attention to. You should avoid memorizing the answers and you should strive to hit 80-85 on every batch of questions you do.

[govtec]

First, I would suggest you find out what kind of style works best for you…I wouldn't necessarily follow what others are doing (e.g. pound MCQ's like crazy). Second, understand the concept and theory from the book/lecture material. You must have a concrete understanding of this before you even attempt MCQ's or SIMS.

I can tell you that my style is not pounding MCQ's because I learn best by re-reading the chapters, lectures and reinforcing them with Ninja notes, audios and flashcards. I only do the MCQ's based on the lectures and ignore SIMS altogether.

BEC - 12/13
FAR - 5/14
AUD - 8/14
REG - 2/15
Passed 6 of 6 CLEP Exam

[salring]

I would suggest that you start with focusing on one study material, I found that getting too many study tools may be confusing. Select either Ninja, Becker, Weiley, Gleim or whichever one you feel is easier to understand. Read the concepts and take your own notes on each topic. At the end of each day read your flashcards and understand them. only do the MCQ's after undersatnding the concepts otherwise it will be a complete waste of your time.

I found that having too many resources was more confusing than helpful. You may also need instructors like Yaeger or Roger who offer detailed explanations on topics. I agree with @Determined CPA, hold off on scheduling an exam until you are ready.

[marti1nd]

I would pick one review course and stick to it. I think you could pass the exam using any review course to be honest. I personally used outdated Wiley books for BEC and AUD and then used Becker for REG and FAR once I got my offer.

After you have settled on a review course, I would watch the lecture one time and take really good notes while watching the lecture. For FAR and REG I would stop the lecture constantly to take good notes. After your done with that, I would then move into MCQ's for the rest of your study. When doing the MCQ's, understand why the answer is right and why the wrong answers are wrong. For computation problems, read the problem and then come to the answer independantly from the 4 choices. If you get a question wrong and don't understand why it's wrong, go back into the book and re-read the few paragraphs about that particular topic.

If you do all of that then I have a hard time believing that you would fail the exam. As to your question about “drilling MCQ's” – for me that meant doing all of the MCQ's for each section multiple times. For REG, I did the homework 7 times for each section. I would start to understand the material so well that I would get through an entire module's worth of MCQ's in one night. The only think you have to watch out for is that you may begin to memorize the answers which is why you should try to to solve the MCQ without looking at the choices.

BEC: 10/2013 71
AUD: 12/2013 75
BEC: 02/2014 89
REG: 05/2014 86
FAR: 11/2014 81

[mikiluv]

OMG, INTERNET FRIENDZ. Thank you all for your replies to my sad SOS, seriously. 🙂

Hmm, I have 3 more concerns:

1. I think the biggest flaw in my plan is that I need to TRULY solidify my foundation and definitely go through MCQ's at least 3-4 at the minimum.

2. Honestly, I just feel like I'm not “retaining” much. Is there even a solution for this? I mean, I'm assuming that you all only retained this stuff through constant repetition right? is my brain just failing on me?! Tax is not my forte to begin with. ha!

3. work full time so I wanted to squeeze in 1 last test before busy season starts in mid-Jan. Should I move it closer to mid-Jan?

[M.O.D.]

Don't schedule anything until you can score 75+ on the practice exams (including SIMS). Do you realistically think you can pass with a 55%?

Otherwise you're throwing money to the ACIPA/Prometric duopoly.

BA Mathematics, UC Berkeley
Certificates in CPA and EA preparation, College of San Mateo
CMA I 420, II 470
FAR 91, AUD Feb 2015 (Gleim self-study)

[Anonymous]

I may be harsh here but op, seriously, thats what you got?

I believe that everyone of the candidates here ever experienced 60 or 50 but most of us didn't make such score on the exam-we just did on the review tests. How could you give an attempt when you knew you were not that good enough?

your problem is not the review course/MCQ nor your full-time job excuse; instead, your problem is: are you prepared?

Like I said, most of us experienced the 50-60 level but most of us didn't take the exams until we achieved 75% on the review tests (I personally only scheduled once I had average 90%).

Do one thing and please do that: teach yourself after you finish one chapter. Check the following:

-can you tell whats going on that chapter without looking into the books? For example, what's dividend deduction? In what situations a corporate deducts 70%? what about 80%? what about 100%? What about corporate formation? Liquidation? What's the difference between the tax on corporation and on partnership? You don't have to answer my questions. I just want you to know you only take the exam when you can tell whats gonna be on the exam.

-can you explain why the other 3 options are incorrect in every MCQ?

-can your words actually make sense to some people who don't have accounting knowledge.

if you can check either 1, you will have a big shot to pass the exam.

[fuzyfro89]

When doing multiple choice, make sure that you can do two things:

1) pick the right answer, and understand why it's correct

2) read the 3 wrong answers, and understand why each is incorrect

[Anonymous]

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different result.” I'm glad you started asking question and now open to doing something different. “Learn and memorize” do not work all the time so the key is you need to “understand” the topic. Once you understand the topic then keep practicing MCQs because AICPA always comes up with something different in asking question in one topic. I'm on my third section of the exam and each section I used different approach and the only thing that I'm consistent on is not moving to the next topic until I get AT LEAST 75% average score on the topic. For me, so far, REG is the hardest section and I've been reviewing for 1 1/2 month now and still trying to figure out the best approach to tackle this section.

[Author]

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