Took REG today, just BRUTAL. First testlet was tough, but manageable. Second one, WTF!!!! I must have flagged about half of the 24, ended up having to just flat-out guess on maybe 5 or 6 of them. I seriously have no idea where in sam h#ll they pulled some of those questions from, because they weren't anywhere in Becker or Wiley (I went back and looked). Third testlet was also hard, though clearly not as bad as the second one (so that's not a good sign). Had to guess on a bunch of those too. I also made some dumb mistakes on the few in that testlet that weren't impossible, making things even more difficult for myself. The testlets today also managed to ask THREE different questions about the exact same obscure (and I stress OBSCURE) topic in two different testlets, which I think is insane considering the breadth of other material they could test us on and on how little this topic was covered in Becker. Is that not completely illogical?
And the SIMS. O-M-G. Seriously, I don't understand where they come up with this stuff. Two of them weren't bad, one was tough (but fair), whereas the rest were completely obscure and specific. It wasn't even possible to prepare for SIMS like these because THEY WEREN'T ANYWHERE IN THE STUDY MATERIALS. I'll say no more, but I'm really ticked about that, are they serious? Finally, the research question was about two paragraphs long (LOL), but I did manage to get it after ten minutes of searching for it.
This was just an absolutely, positively, ridiculously hard test today. Based on my multiple choice performance (particularly in the second and third testlets) and based on my botching of at least two (and possibly a third) of the SIMS, I'm pessimistic about doing enough to get a 75 or higher. I don't mean to whine, but I'm a little annoyed because like most of the rest of you, I studied my tail off for this over a span of two months, easily putting in close to 200 hours between Becker and Wiley. I know they can't test us on everything, but I just can't believe they'd ask multiple questions on the EXACT same obscure topic while not even touching several other supposed "heavily" tested areas. Seems like an excessive triple whammy "gotcha" penalty for not knowing such a minor detail about something so insignificant (I wish I could be more specific, it would make so much more sense if I could but I'm not allowed to disclose it). Rant over! I hope everyone else who took an exam today had a better experience than I did.
FAR: 86 (8/31/11)
AUD: 99 (10/6/11)
REG: 88 (11/30/11)
Ethics: 100
(Illinois)
Used Becker for all four parts. Supplemented it with Wiley Test Bank for FAR and REG (HIGHLY recommended) and NINJA notes.
