[jeff]

We have a lot of “I took __ today threads” so to consolidate, here is the official thread.

Please – Not even a hint of exam disclosure per AICPA rules.

AUD

BEC

FAR

AUD - 79
BEC - 80
FAR - 76
REG - 92

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS)
NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE | Another71

[Meg267]

@Go.For.Broke, good luck on your retake tomorrow! I didn’t the sims were as bad compared to the first time I took REG. I’m hoping for good news for the both of us!

BEC - 57, 68, 78
REG - 62, 82
AUD - 61, 76
FAR - 79

Licensed.
No one ever fails the CPA exam, there are only those who give up.

[Tardis_Wobble]

Written diarrhea of my Reg Exam experience in 3..2…1. (there is a TL;DR option at the bottom)

First of all, even though I had been to this Prometric way more times than I would like to admit, but I still somehow got off the wrong exit and frantically couldn't figure out how to get turned around and back on the freeway. So I had hoped to show up 20 minutes early and ended up there about 4 minutes before my test. Then I walk in and there are no joke, 30 people in the waiting room? Like a bunch of anxious sardines. So I still had a good 25 minutes before I Was able to get checked in to review my notes and anxiously obsess.

Test 1 – I could have been done with this booklet in about ten minutes. I knew every answer besides one. Which I got wrong. Stupidly. I had studied tax effects on distributions for each entity for literally 40 hours of my study time I swear. Why did I blank on this?? Ugh. Anyway, still took a half hour cause I triple checked my answers.

Test 2 – Definitely harder than 1. Wasn't it? It was. After obsessing for a few minutes if I thought the questions were more difficult (yeah, yeah, don't do this – I will always do this) I got to it. I Knew some of them, namely the ones having to do with Partnership because I swear I could recite that section to you line by line! Probably guessed on half. The b-law/Ethics questions were all written in a very strange format on this testlet.

Test 3 – I was expecting an easy testlet based on my projected performance on testlet 2. It was not. Didn't spend as much time assessing the difficulty. It was hard. I flagged like 18. I spent a bit too much time on the second testlet, so I zoomed through this one a bit, deciding that if I didn't know the answer, not to try too hard because I wanted to have and hour and a half solid for these infamous SIMs that I had heard so much about.

Overall MCQ takeaway – I believe I got the “tax” exam. Definitely 60% of my MCQ were tax based questions. I got a lot on Partnership (thankfully) and a lot on Property. Next in line was ethics/Treasury Circular. And then a few, and I mean a few “B-law”. Mainly Agency, and one or two contracts. For what it is worth, I didn't get one question on AMT. Well sort of, but it was so obscure knowing that formula wouldn't have helped me. So I'm glad I didn't allocate extra time trying to learn it. But obviously take that with a grain of salt cause as we know my test won't be your test so anything I'm saying might as well just be classified as “alternative facts”.

SIMs – OH BOY was I anxious for these guys. I had 1.25 hours left for them. I clicked through each one and they were all very – short? Like very short. And not really out of left field? Maybe I got lucky. HOWEVER, I don't feel good about them. Took me way too long to find the research. Glad I didn't give up though! There was one that I also felt like was a freebie, and I know I got full credit on that. so 2/5? I was able to use the guidance a lot since I had a lot of time left, but I made a HUGE mistake. There was a SIM that on second glance was way out of left field and nothing I had heard of. I spent about a half hour trying to look it up in the guidance before I realized that, this is most likely the pre-test one, and now you just wasted a half hour…So for the other SIM's I think I may have gotten partial (VERY) partial credit because I was able to fill them all in. DISCLAIMER again – no drop downs. Nada. so, there is also a very good chance I got zero credit on 3 of them. And now I am sitting here stressing, because why were my SIMs so short? Did I somehow not scroll down all the way and leave the majority rows blank? Did it say to put zeros in or something else? Did I make the correct ones negative or did I forget? Dear God I hate these exams!

Conclusion: I have taken these exams too many times…I have always known when I have passed or failed. This one I don't know. I either passed (based on the difficult testlets I think I got) and my sims were – shrug – good enough. Or: More likely, I am kidding myself, my testlets were all easy and I Just got all my pretest questions allocated to the second and third testlets, and the AICPA Gods think my SIM's are the equivalent of a giant Hand Turkey and FAIL. I will choose the side with less optimism because it's easier to see a failing score.

Notes: This was my first try at REG. I have never passed an exam on the first attempt. I wanted to take it last quarter but had to put it off a few times due to Fall Busy season. I started studying in October (ish..very ish) picked it up more in November, hit it harder in December, then went NUTS in January. I used three different test banks and did over 4500 questions, as well as all the ones in the Becker book. I did 25 SIMs. Twice. I probably studied 80 hours over the past two weeks.

TLDR; I took REG today. If you are going to take REG you should study everything very hard. Practice SIMs.

AUD - 79
BEC - 79
FAR - 76
REG - 76

I still can't believe this is real.

FAR - 76 - [4]
BEC - 71, 73, September 9 2016
AUD - July 28 2016
REG - October 2016

Black coffee, stress, and cottage cheese pancakes!

[pharaoh]

Just a bump to this … I prefer to see all the REG experiences in one place instead of chasing them down in the forum 🙂

AUD - 93
BEC - 79
FAR - 84
REG - 83

Roger & Ninja MCQ

DONE

FAR 8/2016
AUD 1/2017
REG TBD
BEC TBD

[Operation_CPA]

Posted this in a different thread but figured I would post here as well:

Just took REG this morning and thought I would add my experience here instead of creating a whole new thread. In a nutshell – my exam was difficult. Like the posters above have explained, every single SIM was either a DRS or enhanced (except for maybe 1?). This alone was very frustrating on the small computer screen. I think the AICPA needs to understand that if this is going to be the case, we simply need MORE time.

Note: I prepared with Becker and actually felt pretty good leading up to the exam. That being said, the MCQ still tripped me up. The AICPA has a way with asking questions. It's like you think you know something inside and out and then they just throw one random thing in there to throw you off. I was honestly shocked how many things I studied that simply did NOT show up. This whole process is mind boggling sometimes and seems more in line with WHAT test you get rather than what you know.

It would be a miracle if I passed with a 75. Come Monday, I am going to start preparing for my retake.

FAR - 76 (Lost credit), 76
AUD - 80
BEC - 76
REG - 75

Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.

[Anonymous]

Took REG today.

I left the exam not feeling as terrible as I did when I took audit for the first time and I KNEW I failed, but I didn't feel as confident as I did when I took audit and passed…so I'm hoping that translates to a 75. 🙁 I started studying back in June but had to work long hours and then I became unmotivated which is usually how my CPA exam-taking experience goes.

The MC was very similar or the same as Becker (some were straight up Becker test bank I think)
I had really one far out sim…far out in that it wasn't really something Becker prepared me for. The other SIMS were more fair, but just about all of them had like 6 support documents. I think the SIMS were fair but I know I missed points on a few specific ones which bums me out (I looked up what the answer should've been after the exam) 🙁

As always, there was the obligatory FAR question thrown in there.

I marked about 12 questions per MC testlet. I'm convinced one of my multiple choice questions did NOT have the of the correct answer! I am considering sending in a support ticket.

All-in-all I did have one area of material that was wayyyy more tested than I would've imagined. Sims were fair, MC was fair, I am just hoping for that pass so I can start studying for FAR. I will continue to study for REG though. I know where my weaknesses lie.

[Anonymous]

Oh, also, Time management. I'm usually very fast at MC and slower on the SIMS so I finished the MC with about 3 hours and 10 minutes left and then I ended up having 45 minutes left over :|. I could've definitely used that time during the first testlet which was much more difficult :/

[Ninja Juice]

A

[Ninja Juice]

Took it yesterday Although not as prepared as I'd like the exam was fair McQ wise sims were ok but with so many attachments on sims time mgmt is essential. One of the sims were Completely off the wall but the others were fair in terms of complexity. My screen froze on one of the attachment n computer restarted but other than that no major hiccups ps I hate all of the attachments it makes answering sims in ltd time very inefficient.

[Namstut]

Good luck everyone.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

All Done!!!

AUD 7/6/16 Passed
BEC 9/3/16
FAR TBD
REG TBD

[Anonymous]

I had the same thing happen as Ninja Juice!! My computer froze when I clicked on one of the SIM attachments! I bet it was the same one haha. So FYI give it a second, don't click around your screen if it freezes. It'll unfreeze in about 5 seconds!

[samantha09]

Took REG on September 8th.

My MC were extremely extremely detailed oriented about things that were barely covered in Becker which surprised me. My questions were very Business Law heavy.

SIMS. I think this sealed the nail in my coffin for failing. The only one I feel confident about was the research question. I had another one that required using the AL for a SIM and for the life of me couldn't find it anywhere. Had a DRS on a topic that was also barely covered in Becker so straight up didn't know how to answer that.

Frustrated and extremely discouraged after spending my summer doing FAR and REG in the same window.

AUD - NINJA in Training
BEC - 82
FAR - 83
REG - 81

 

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[Earla Riopel (NYCARE)]

It seems like we really have to read the Becker's textbook well, from first to last page to have a better chance in these exams. I took 4-sets in Q1 (old format) (2017) and another 4-sets in Q3 (new format) (2017), and I really believe that MCQs and SIMs practices are not enough.

The only way I can pass these exams is actually read the whole textbook for each section, and fully understand it. Lots of work, but that's the only way I can pass these 4 sections.

I have to know the textbooks really well, plus tons of MCQs practice, for ‘speed'. Giving me enough time for sorting out SIMs. Sigh…I am exhausted.

Meanwhile, as a Canadian candidate, Las Vegas trip was nice.

AUD - 49
BEC - NINJA in Training
FAR - NINJA in Training
REG - 55

Passed: AUD (75%'08/77%'17), REG (76%'09) & BLaw(77%'99); highest on FAR (63%'11/'15) & BEC (63%'11). Credit Hours: USA(PH)-BCom'85(4yr-grandfathered); UBC-(DAP'02/'19); DC-(BBA-Acctg.'22-4th yr)=over 150 hrs credits

[HoldMyBeerCPA]

As you all know I've been complaining for the past four weeks about this exam, even though I've hail mary'd it. But today was finally the day.

I only flagged about 8 questions within the MCQs (which means I had absolutely no idea what the answer was). I took a quick break after the MCQs only because I had five minutes to spare (I wanted to go into the SIMS with 2.5 hours left).

Half of the first sim testlet was reasonable. Nothing too difficult. The other half…I really didn't know how to approach it. I used the AL to the best of my ability, but I'd say that I got maybe 50% of that sim right.
However, here's where a nearly fatal (figuratively) mistake came in. Once I finished the first sim testlet, I was ready to go on my 15-minute break. Once the screen popped up, I simply stood up and walked out. That's right…I didn't actually click “Take a break”! I ended up losing 14 minutes for the remaining 6 SIMS. Once I realized my mistake, I'm pretty sure I was audible when I said, “S**T!”

Fortunately, the first of the remaining six SIMS was a research question that took about 45 seconds to find. The rest of the simulations were all very reasonable.

There were a few things I nearly missed, but I had plenty of time to check my answers with a fine tooth comb which saved my hide for a couple of responses, even with the 14 minutes I lost.
Overall, I expect that I passed this exam. However, I won't complain be too bummed out if I fail. There's way too many variables outside of my control.

"FACT": The odds of consecutively passing all four sections of the CPA exam on the first try: 7%.

Me: Hold my beer...

FAR (April 2017): 75+

BEC (May 2017): 75+

AUD (July 2017): 75+

REG (September 2017): 75+

Roger + Ninja Audio/MCQ/Notes (BEC & REG)

[Anonymous]

My experience on 9/10:

MCQ's were either pretty easy or I needed to do a few calculations and really think the question through. But, I did feel a lot of pressure to keep up with the clock on the MCQ's.

Sims… geese louise… The first 3 Sims were not too bad for me and I definitely earned good points. Then, came the next 5 Sims and I grabbed my ankles for the next 2 hours. 2 of the Sims were very difficult and really required higher order thinking that frustrated me in the intense testing environment. The other 3 were just very time consuming bc all of the damn documents and trying to sort out the info. I had to pretty much guess on my last Sim bc I was running out of time. So, if I fail it will be bc I had to basically guess on that last Sim, which will really suck.

I'm really, really hoping for a pass, but it will be close. I feel like I did okay, but just got my ass kicked in a few areas – specifically 3 of the Sims.

Goodluck everyone. I wanted to almost cry in the exam room at one point bc I was so frustrated with the Sims – no lie. But, I kept on pushing through and hoping that I get a lucky 75 or better!!

[rwglapalma]

Would've posted earlier, just got back from the dentist as a result of having my teeth kicked in. In all honesty I felt pretty good walking into prometric, but left wondering what the heck happened. Went through both mcq testlets in an hour since I made educated guesses on close to a third of the questions, at least 4 were total guesses and I saw questions that weren't covered in my review materials… or I just had a total brain fart, either way, it was painful. Sims were not as bad as I expected, I know I nailed my research sim and used the AL to help me get through the other sims. I'm guessing I'll be studying for this test again Q4. Hope I passed BEC in July!

AUD - 79
BEC - 87
FAR - 87
REG - 83

"Stay ready so you don't need to get ready"

¿Listo? ¡Siempre!

[Author]

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