Comments on: Time Management on the CPA Exam

By: Vaish

Vaish — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 18:26:42 +0000

Hey, thanks a lot for sharing your inputs on time management. I have written REG twice and found both attempts pretty easy and thought I would pass each time I wrote the exam. unfortunately (or hopefuly fortunate this time), I am writing it again.

I dont think it is in my hands to decide the difficulty of the paper. I have heard from my friends that tougher the paper, means that you are doing well.

In my first attempt, most of the MCQs were from the theory part (Laws) which I was strong at – but ended up in 60s

Do you know if the 2nd and 3rd testlet are dependent on your performance in the 1st?

thanks a ton!

By: magic_8_ball_did_i_pass

magic_8_ball_did_i_pass — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:00:40 +0000

You can schedule your test on the holiday joe??? I wonder if i can change my date without being penalized now??? I selected 29 to take AUD.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:53:23 +0000

Would you all say there is more of a time pinch in reg then in BEC???

BEC 75
AUD 84
REG 2/13/10
FIN 5/31/10

By: roy

roy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:24:00 +0000

Is an hard simulation worth more points than an easy one? Like the consept of the MC

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:13:00 +0000

MA REG is out! 87….woohooo…I am done!!!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:08:00 +0000

Thank you all for sharing your experience on this one. REG is to a great extent about time management, so any other thoughts/experiences are more than welcome. I’m taking the exam in a month. Emily, marking the questions and writing the two best answers in the scratch paper is a very clevel tactic!

By: Emily

Emily — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:04:00 +0000

My break out in time was very similar to anonymous above. I probably had more like 20 minutes to spare but of course I used that time looking over my last simulation just in case. Time can be a huge issue and it is very important to not get tied up on the MC questions. For each MC testlet I marked for review ATLEAST half of the questions. I usually could narrow it down to two selections so on my scratch paper I would jot down the question number and the letter answers I had narrowed it down to.

The exam is all about maximize your score the most efficient way possible. If you spend more than 3 minutes on a MC question you are unsure about that is eating into your time later down the road. You could end up missing out on the 2nd simulation all together and it would really be a bummer if it?s a topic you know VERY well but just didn?t have time to complete it.

Thanks for sharing your experience Another 71?I can?t wait to have FAR over with!! It?s really scaring me though?so many topics.

By: another71.com

another71.com — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:13:00 +0000

Thanks for sharing your experience…it shows that everyone is different. My exam time allocation was just to show what I encountered so that people wouldn’t freak out if things didn’t go according to the ideal allocation.

I’ll agree…40-45 min per sim is ideal, it just never worked out that way for me.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:39:00 +0000

I'll be honest, I don't necessarily agree with your timing structure. I think allocating 50 minutes to the first simulation is too long and 17 minutes is not sufficient time to write a memo and do research for the second simulation.

I structured my time as follows:
Multiple Choice 1 - 30 min
Multiple Choice 2 - 35 min
Multiple Choice 3 - 35 min
Simulation 1 - 40 min
Simulation 2 - 40 min

I found that when I took this exam, the actual exam questions were considerably easier then the practice questions offered by Becker. I ended up with averaging less than 30 min for each multiple choice testlet and had 45+ min for each simulation.

To ensure that I didn't waste time, I utilized the "mark review" feature and would only quickly give those questions a second thought, otherwise my original answer on the others questions was my final answer.

I ended up finishing the exam with about 10 minutes remaining and scored a 87 on the first attempt.

...Just my thoughts

By: another71.com

another71.com — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 03:26:00 +0000

Qualler – your teacher is incorrect. The first testlet begins at medium difficulty. If you do well, it will ratchet up to a harder difficulty level. If you do well, it will remain hard. If not, it will drop back to medium.

The harder questions are worth more points. Also – up to 20% of your MCQs can be “test” questions that they are trying out…which is weird because you don’t know which ones they are, obviously.