[Jsmi77y]

I know that it’s formally been stated that the first testlets are of Medium difficulty, and it adjusts down or up (or the same) from there depending on your performance.

But my question is how are you guys judging difficulty? It’s all SOOO subjective I’m not sure there’s really a way to tell. Particularly with BEC. For instance, my first testlet yesterday I would have deemed “hard” simply because there were so many questions I wasn’t expecting.

So are hard questions the ones that are on vague topics you think? Or are they the wordier questions? Can a one line question be considered hard? I think we torture ourselves by guessing tbh. Only 1 test out of 13 I took I was SURE the testlet got harder from the first to second, but I can’t recall specifics as to why I got that feeling.

It’s also not very indicative as to whether or not you passed either. My last BEC I “thought” my testlets got harder, and felt good about them and got a 74. With REG I just didn’t notice change and got an 88. And I’m just one example.

BEC seems like a test where people who come out angry/deflated from the test because of so many random topics and questions end up passing. And I see a lot of confident people come out failing. It’s interesting, and it got me thinking about how we always analyze how testlets get harder and what not. My hardest questions for me personally were some left field calcs and some really short completely random theory questions that I wouldn’t have ever got regardless of study time (the calcs are an easier guess because you can play with the #’s).

Anyways, what do you guys think? I wonder if we can come to a conclusion as to what is deemed a “difficult testlet” or a difficult question.

REG - 68 | 71 | 88 | 86
FAR - 72 | 74 | 79
AUD - 66 | 70 | 77
BEC - 62 | 74 | 80

Guess that means I'm a soon-to-be CPA!

[littlenumberrobot]

For me hard/difficult would be a topic I've heard of, meaning I remembered seeing it, but the question goes way more in detail than I expected. Or ones I can narrow down to two legit answers.

For BEC, I left my retake fairly confident. I knew I got another 74 or higher, I knew I didn't bomb it. Where as when I left the testing center when I got my 74 before… I was confident I passed with flying colors. HA!

CA CPA - All because of the journey listed below
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FAR - 53('10), 8/25/12 79 PASSED!
REG - 66('11), 69('12), 12/06/12 77 PASSED!!
BEC - 58('10), 74('12), 01/05/13 77 PASSED!!!
AUD - 43('11), 66('12), 69('13), 74('13) 7/29/13 85 PASSED!!!!!

(Combinations of Roger, Yaeger, Wiley Book, Wiley TB, & NINJA Notes)

Ethics 90%

[Jsmi77y]

I agree on the “two legit answers” reasoning. I notice it on BEC more than the other tests. Could literally go both ways until you see the explanation and how ridiculous it probably is! lol.

Same thing happened to me with my 74, I was confident I passed. I feel like I could have got a worse score this time around, my first testlet I would have labeled “hard” if I didn't already know they are all considered medium difficulty.

REG - 68 | 71 | 88 | 86
FAR - 72 | 74 | 79
AUD - 66 | 70 | 77
BEC - 62 | 74 | 80

Guess that means I'm a soon-to-be CPA!

[littlenumberrobot]

Funny thing about my passing BEC score… I received weaker in MCQ and stronger in WC. go figure.

CA CPA - All because of the journey listed below
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FAR - 53('10), 8/25/12 79 PASSED!
REG - 66('11), 69('12), 12/06/12 77 PASSED!!
BEC - 58('10), 74('12), 01/05/13 77 PASSED!!!
AUD - 43('11), 66('12), 69('13), 74('13) 7/29/13 85 PASSED!!!!!

(Combinations of Roger, Yaeger, Wiley Book, Wiley TB, & NINJA Notes)

Ethics 90%

[Anonymous]

I took REG the other day and was wondering the same exact thing. A lot of people said their questions got longer and more calculation-based. My second and third testlets stayed mostly conceptual, but they seemed to ask more nit-picky questions that required knowledge of the small details. Couldn't tell if mine got harder or I was just forgetting stuff.

[Jsmi77y]

TBH we're all guessing when it comes to what gets harder or easier imo. There's no way to know for sure, short of NASBA finally letting us in on how these things actually work.

REG - 68 | 71 | 88 | 86
FAR - 72 | 74 | 79
AUD - 66 | 70 | 77
BEC - 62 | 74 | 80

Guess that means I'm a soon-to-be CPA!

[Jennifer241]

The AICPA released questions for 2013 delineate between the moderate and hard difficulty questions.

Page 2 “MODERATE DIFFICULTY”

Page 22 “HARD DIFFICULTY”

Created with Compare Ninja

AUD - Jan 9,13 Pass
REG - Aug 30,13 Pass
BEC - Oct 26,13 Pass
FAR - Dec 4,13 Pass

Licensed CPA in the state of Oregon

[Jsmi77y]

Oh wow, thanks for that Jennifer!!!

According to that, I'd say all my questions were hard though! lol. Wish I had any question even remotely similar to those released questions.

Based on that, even short questions and answers are considered hard. Therefore deeming our guessing games, well, guessing games. This also makes me feel slightly better, because my 2nd testlet seemed overall shorter in terms of question length.

REG - 68 | 71 | 88 | 86
FAR - 72 | 74 | 79
AUD - 66 | 70 | 77
BEC - 62 | 74 | 80

Guess that means I'm a soon-to-be CPA!

[Jennifer241]

I basically have been going over the concept of the harder questions, if I nail down the concepts that they consider harder difficulty, rather than nailing all the moderate then I should get more points.

Not to say I am ignoring the moderate difficulty, but I am definitely spending more time on the harder difficulty concepts.

AUD - Jan 9,13 Pass
REG - Aug 30,13 Pass
BEC - Oct 26,13 Pass
FAR - Dec 4,13 Pass

Licensed CPA in the state of Oregon

[Anonymous]

I hate it when the questions kill you with basic simplicity and you reason yourself out if the correct answer because MAYBE this or what about that. Ugh…

[Author]

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