[Anonymous]

I took REG yesterday and want to get my thoughts down before I forget …

I got a sinking feeling on the first testlet. There was a great deal of emphasis on a few less-than-obvious areas of taxation and not much at all on some pretty critical areas throughout my entire exam. I only remember flagging 3 or 4 questions in each MCQ set (I typically only flag questions that, at first glance, I have no idea about), but several of the ones I didn’t flag were questions on which I knew the basic theory and made an educated guess.

One of the SIMS was pretty tough. The others were not bad, and one I thought I nailed, but the more I think about the wording of the question, the more I feel like I may have interpreted the requirements incorrectly and got every single answer wrong. I won’t go into detail about it (because obviously), but basically, some deductions have more than just an AGI threshold limitation, and the instructions were very nonspecific as to what should be disregarded in calculating the deductible amount. It was not done in the same manner at all as the Becker/NINJA practice questions that tell you to disregard certain limits, phaseouts, etc. It really pisses me off because I had that topic down cold, and I don’t want to miss every point from that SIM over not understanding the directions. Makes me hope it was a pretest question and that they are just gauging how candidates will interpret their instructions (AICPA, if you’re reading this, your instructions sucked. Try harder.).

Anyway, aside from that, just a lot of very nitpicky questions, as in very obscure details and terms, some of which I could not even find in the Becker textbook afterwards and had to google. And I was shocked by how few questions I got on some incredibly obvious and important areas that I intentionally studied backward, forward, and sideways, due to the content specification weights on those areas. The worst score I got on any of the progress tests I took was a 75, so I’m hoping it was just test day anxiety that had me thinking this was worse than it was. Then again, all of my progress tests combined didn’t have as much BS on them as my actual exam. I definitely walked out feeling like I blew it, and I am mentally preparing myself to take this one again in the next window.

[Anonymous]

dont worry about it. you did great on FAR and like you said you prepared the best you could. you also did well on the progress tests. its totally normal to feel like you did terrible leaving the exam. thats how everyone feels.

any advice on studying for me? im also using becker and i just started 3 days ago and got through R1 and R2. both are pretty fine, except for AMT. I plan on taking it the 30th of January

btw totally respect how you plan on finishing all those 3 sections by feb. thats crazy haha

[Gabe]

@Casey thanks for the report! And I second CPAsucks, I have NEVER felt like I passed when I left the testing center. Hopefully some of those more nitpicky ones were pre-test. Do you feel Ninja or Becker was more representative of the SIMS/MCQs?

CPA, CFE
CISA- Experience will be completed by August 2016

[olliepantsIL]

I felt like the sims were wayyyy harder this window than last. I took reg in October and failed but when I failed i thought the sims were much more manageable. 🙁

AUD- 72, 87!
FAR- 77!
BEC- 65, 79!
REG- 68, 84! Done!!!

[Mika]

@olliepantsIL, are you serious? I thought Q4 Sims (from previous posts) said it is insanely hard and this Quarter even harder than the last one?OMG

REG - 80 (02/13/2015) Roger + Ninja Flash Card + Ninja MCQ + Becker's Note
FAR - 84 (05/29/2015) Roger + Ninja MCQ + Some Wiley book questions
BEC - 77 (08/27/2015) Roger + Ninja MCQ + Half Wiley book questions
AUD - 87 (08/28/2015) Roger + Ninja MCQ + Half Wiley book questions

[Anonymous]

@CaseyTX wow interesting, I felt the same exact way that you felt. I did really well during my review and I usually scored in the mid 80s with a couple of 90s here and there. I thought I was as prepared as I could be, but I didn't see any of the tough material that I expected the AICPA would deem to be important enough to test on.

I also felt the same exact way about the Sims. Sure they were topics that I had spent numerous hours on reviewing but the questions were so vague….like you said there are several ways to define a question, and you can't just say don't pay attention to some of the rules and not be specific about which ones you want us to ignore and which ones you want us to use.

Overall, I thought all the testlets were the same level of difficulty because the MCQs were not concentrated on the topics that I expected that they would be on. I usually do pretty well on exams, but I don't entirely feel confident about this one. I am really hoping that everyone felt the same way about it! Good luck!

[Author]

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