[KGC111210]

I took REG on 2/11. I studied much harder than in the past using Becker, Wiley, and writing out my own notes. I felt confident when I left but was flipping through the book and saw a couple I missed. Anyone else did/felt the same and still passed??

FAR 69, 74, 78
REG 69, 69, 69, 82
BEC 75
AUD 76

[musicamor]

Yes, have definitely felt that way. After a while, I stopped following “the way I felt” and just tried to study as much as possible.

Texas CPA - licensed in 2012!!!

[Pippy Longstocking 93105]

CKG

I took REG again 2/28 last day of the window, it expired on me, I passed with an 84.

Here's how I prepared. I did all the questions with Becker, and Wiley.

1st pass went as slow as it took me, but I'm not working, but it still took more than 6 weeks. I work slowly and methodically thru all the material. The slowdown for me was all the business law, its very complex and detailed material. I also wrote my own flashcards (but did not really drill with them very much) and wrote out 20 pages per module of detailed typed notes this helps me organize and remember the material. So many facets and nuances to remember. The whole IRC, and a bunch of Business law too.

2nd Pass repeated all Becker and Wiley questions much faster, marked and noted anything I got wrong. took about 2 weeks but I had a big interruption but I could have done this in a week.

Final polish

Went thru all the questions I got wrong more than 2x. Finished this in 4 days.

Took the exam and passed easily. But note that the exam I took was very difficult, with a massive mess with you part. I'd say that on the MCQs, 1/3 were accredited answers, the best I could do on them was eliminate half the obviously wrong answers. Everything else I knew cold. So by my estimate I got about 82% on the MCQs.

Sims were easy, don't psych yourself out, there was maybe one tab that had difficult parts, obscure stuff. I probably got somewhere in the high 80's on the sim part. Sims for the old dogs are easy, I've been working as an Acct for more than 10 years, and I've done 3 tax seasons, so I'm maybe a Senior or close to it. So I know the Individual tax stuff pretty well, same with the flow thrus, same with the various others forms as well. The examiners could destroy you with Corp, but the stuff on the reviews is all pretty easy. But there was one tab that asked obscure stuff. I just did my best. Fortunately the research Q I was able to nail pretty quickly, they can be a stumbling block. So I guess if I was batting a 1.0 on 6 of the tabs and a .5 on 1 of the tabs, I got somewhere in the hi 80s.

Ultimate score was an 84. I guessed my score was in that neighborhood, between 84-86. They said I was stronger in every part accept one. I thought this was a very difficult exam because usually the study material has you well prepared for the exam, in this case at least 1/3 of the Qs I was not prepared for, but I covered all Becker and all of Wiley, and I walked into the exam unable to prepare better. So despite missing lots of MCQ, I'm sure, I still did overall very well. Now if they increased that to 2/3 accredited answers, I'd be retaking it maybe.

What surprised me about my exam experience, was how little of the hard stuff they tested. And how many things I spent a lot of time studying did not even show up on the exam at all like almost all of it. Now with BEC you expect that, because how can they test 1000 pages of dense material in a 4 hour exam, they can't test very much of it, but since you can't predict what they are going to test very well you have to know all of it. But with REG I would have expected they would have hit those hard parts with a sledgehammer, instead it was empty holes, and questions you could not prepare for that were hit with a sledgehammer. Does not seem quite fair but at least for me its now a moot point. My brother thinks they use the accredited answer Qs to screw with the foreign candidates. I think there are Universities in Bombay and Shanghai dedicated to helping students parrot the exam. These accredited answers Qs weed out all but the smartest of them. So if that is the point then maybe its not such a bad thing afterall. It was easy to eliminate 2 of the 4 ususally, but nearly impossible to distinguish the correct answer between what was left. Even in retrospect I was scratching my head over many of the Qs, but I did not flog myself over it either.

Anyhow almost done I have one more expired section to retake, AUD should be easy. I got an 87 the last time thru. I think most people who sail thru the exam have a more challenging time with this section, not because its difficult, but because your college class did not cover it very detailed. So there is more new material to learn, if you were a good studious college student. For the sloggers like me who did not sail thru the exam, this is I think the easiest section. because its small and concise area, logical and easy to learn, like making a pot of coffee.

Passed all 4
Done!
If I can pass, you can too!

[redox1100]

pippy, thanks for the novella.

[OkieGasAcct]

Pippy, what's an accredited answer?

BEC: 7/15/13 - Passed! 83
AUD: 5/20/13 - Passed! 84
REG: 2/25/13 - 68, 4/8/13- 74 - You have got to be joking. Retake: 8/31/13
FAR: 11/29/12 - Passed! 82

Pregnant and studying- due with my first (baby boy) in November.

[SammyJ]

Pippy, how can i get your novella on kindle?

FAR-81!!
AUD-69, Retake: 84!!
REG-86!!
BEC-81!!
Education- Done
Ethics- August 2013
Experience- 7 Months of CPA Experience and counting!

[Pippy Longstocking 93105]

OkieGasAcct

What I mean by an accredited answer is one where a perfectly prepared test taker is likely to get a wrong answer.

The question will cover an area you understand well, and you think you're well prepared for it. So you read the question and you look for the correct answer, and its not one of the choices.

It comes in 2 flavors, more than one seemingly correct answer, or no seemingly correct answers.

So the only way to tackle these are eliminating the obviously wrong answers, making a guess and moving on. So you're going to get only partial credit on these types of questions, maybe at best 50%.

Its one of the less ethical ways of making an exam difficult to pass IMHO, as it does not reward the well studied well prepared candidate.

Passed all 4
Done!
If I can pass, you can too!

[Pippy Longstocking 93105]

I thought the point of this thread was to discuss our feelings of how we thought we did on the exam relative to our actual score. My feelings on this question are very complex.

I think there are several variables going on that can effect your perception. But I think the 3 most important ones for the MCQs are: 1. How well prepared you were going into the exam. 2. How difficult of an exam you pulled (the exam difficulty can vary dramatically) 3. The direction of difficulty of the computer based testing if they use it.

Basically I think if you're better prepared your sense of performance will be counter intuitive, especially when the draw is more difficult, and the CBT adjustments are downward in difficulty. But your sense of performance will be enhanced when the CBT adjustments are upwards in difficulty, and the overall draw is relatively easier. A better prepared and intuitive test taker, will very much understand which questions they are guessing on and which ones they know cold. So the ones they don't know will weigh heavily on the mind, even if you get them correct, which is enhanced by your overall better level of preparation. A CBT adjustment going downward for the better prepared, won't be going down, so difficult after difficult questions would be encountered. The sense is that you would underestimate your actual performance. A difficult draw would also distort your sense of performance, because you'd be making more guesses but you'd be overall performing at a high level especially in comparison to others, so a hard draw would give you a sense of worse than actual performance. An easy draw would enhance your perception, as you'd do very very well on them and you'd know it.

The simulation section is a black box since so little information on this has been released, and I suspect they curve the score on this with bigger adjustments at times. But I think performance on this can be very accurately perceived, but the curve on it can't so this could be a big variable.

Anyone else have theories?

Passed all 4
Done!
If I can pass, you can too!

[mla1169]

Well the exam is absolutely not curved in the traditional sense of the word, so that doesn't play into it. Curved means your score is determined in part by the results of others who take the exam in the same window. Not the case.

How you feel about the exam has little correlation to the scoring simply because the score is not a straight percentage of correct answers. Your confidence in yourself can be thwarted by a handful of questions. You believe you did poorly. What you don't realize is that the answers to those particular questions don't count toward your score at all as they are pre-test questions.

I left exams convinced I passed, and passed. Left exams convinced I passed, and bombed. Left exams convinced I bombed and got an 84.

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[Anonymous]

Pippy – I like your thoughts on accredited answers. I read the question, the answers pops in my brain, yet it's not one of my choices! Then comes the hard part of picking the “better” answer. I've run into quite a few of those in my journey. I'm sitting here waiting to find out if I was able to pick the better answers in FAR…

[KGC111210]

Okay, so when I took REG on the 3rd there was one question that absolutely, positively, without a doubt did not provide the correct answer in the answer options. It is a simple calculation I've done over and over in both Becker and Wiley. I've looked at Becker and Wiley to prove the calculation. It stinks that I can't show you'll do to disclosure reasons. I know it's only one question and may not even of counted but it bothered me and I know there is nothing I can do about it.

It seemed, at least for me, that AUD had the most accredited questions.

FAR 69, 74, 78
REG 69, 69, 69, 82
BEC 75
AUD 76

[Pippy Longstocking 93105]

mla1169

Your discussion of the curve are you saying this from personal knowledge or speculation?

My discussion on the curve is purely speculative, but very much based on my own personal experience in combination with what tidbits I've heard here and there, and putting them all together in a way they make sense to me.

But for sure, a subjective element to score determination might very well weaken one's perception of performance to actual.

I'm going to guess that they make queries in the data set (objective scores) and look for anomalies before they assign scores. Not just for cheating, but also for evaluating performance. Since they aren't giving the same exam questions to everyone, and the difficulty of the draw can be significant, I'd be surprised if they did not consider this, and adjust for it.

Passed all 4
Done!
If I can pass, you can too!

[Pippy Longstocking 93105]

KGC111210

That would be a classic accredited answer question, no correct answer. But maybe you misunderstood something.

Would the examiners do that? Give a question with no correct answer, to see what the rats in the maze do? Maybe.

Passed all 4
Done!
If I can pass, you can too!

[mla1169]

Pippy the AICPA provides an explanation (to some extent) of how the exam is scored. Granted it is not entirely comprehensive, but it is directly from their own literature that the exam is not curved. There is much speculation when it comes to this exam, of course. People have been trying to “figure it out” forever.

https://www.aicpa.org/BECOMEACPA/CPAEXAM/PSYCHOMETRICSANDSCORING/Pages/PsychometricsandScoring.aspx

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[Pippy Longstocking 93105]

mla1169

Okay per your suggestion, I read an article by Ziawen Zhou “A review of Assessment Engineering Principals with select applications to the CPA exam” Since this is the AICPA released article on the subject of preparation and grading of the CPA exam its highly relevant.

So the relevant summary is that the question difficulty is hard to predict and control. And there is a model data fit assessment. e.g. Which sounds to me in spoken English as a curve. So if you get a hard draw, they might adjust for it or maybe not, depending on their assessment of how you performed according to the criteria for assessing your knowledge and cognitive ability in relation to the subject matter. Bla bla bla.

All these things effect your perception of performance, and could distort perception vs. actual.

But the variable the test taker has the most control over is the preparation. The better prepared you are the better you score in general, that's obvious. The wild card for test takers, is more on the lines of how you achieve the appropriate level of preparation. But I can tell you its not achieved spending time on stuff like this. Enough said back to the books.

Passed all 4
Done!
If I can pass, you can too!

[Pippy Longstocking 93105]

BTW

Got the results today, I'm finally finished with the exam! Done. I got an 81.

It was a difficult exam, they seemed to very heavily test areas that were peripheral to my studying. But I was well prepared.

What I can say is that if Pippy can pass this exam, you can too.++

Passed all 4
Done!
If I can pass, you can too!

[Author]

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