[Dougie]

So I just took FAR last Thursday and I studied my ass off for it. Spent 300+ hours it felt and scored a 75 and a 73 on the Becker practice exams. While I didn’t get the best scores I was feeling confident as I heard many people say that you should expect a bump up in score from the Becker practice exams to the actual exam. However after the exam I am really starting to doubt whether I passed or not. The MCQs were not bad, they were easier than Becker in fact, but I still feel like there were at least 10-15 MCQs out of the 66 that I had to make educated guesses. Additionally, i did not feel as if the second testlet was harder than the first, which I took as a bad sign. Then I got to the SIMs and they were much harder. While I don’t feel like I completely bombed them I am not confident with a lot of my answers on there. The last SIM especially I did not even think was possible to do in the allotted time. Could someone who took the exam give a prediction on how you think I did given these circumstances? I feel like this forum is riddled with questions like these but I am super worried that I feel like I can’t even wait the full time for my score. Thanks!

[SecondTaxdeadline100+hoursaweek]

If you knew the material and felt good on the multiple choice questions and finished the simulations you passed I bet.

I left 4 simulations blank and scored a 79 on FAR. Got my result last week. I scored stronger in all areas except the simulations which I scored weaker.

My second grade teacher said I'd never amount to anything in life.

My grandfather agreed with her.

 

[animalwithin]

@Dougie I wouldn't use the “expected harder questions” as a gauge of whether or not you were doing well.

Hard to tell if you passed or not and much of these exams is predicated on luck, although many here will tell you otherwise.

I took FAR yesterday. I felt similar to how you felt on the MCQ's. Not bad but definitely realized last night I made some STUPID mistakes on easy ones so I'm fuming.

SIMS were brutal. The first set weren't bad but the second set had a few that were horrid and I had to guess on many of the answers so I'm going to assume I didn't pass and start studying soon.

I really don't understand people like @SecondTaxdeadline100+hoursaweek. I've seen numerous people on here claim that they guessed through all of their SIMS or left them blank yet still passed. Either these people are lying or they're incredibly lucky in their guessing which goes back to what I originally said about this exam being very luck-based.

[SiNGjAi]

Sounds like you had a pretty similar experience as me. Obviously predicting whether you passed or failed is out of the question but here's my experience/results if it helps you feel better:

I studied for FAR for about 6 weeks at about 25 hours a week, so total about 150 hours. My Becker mock exam scores for Exams 1-3 were as follows: 62, 67, 64. I also leveraged Ninja as a supplement and was trending in the mid 60s.

I took the Exam in October and similar to you, the 2nd MC testlet didn't seem that much harder which worried me.. The sims were definitely hard for the time given but I knew for the most part how to do them except maybe 2. I think I completely bombed one of the sims and ran out of time on the last one.. The last one was a drop down so I just randomly dropped down what I could with the last few seconds of the exam. I also knew I could've got more right answers on another sim but again, ran out of time..

All in all, walked out feeling like I failed but ended up with an 81 and stronger in both MC and sims.

Hope this helps and good luck!

AUD - 80
BEC - 84
FAR - 81
REG - 87

whyhello

[animalwithin]

@SiNGjAi You've got a very encouraging experience but I think you got lucky :p

Every FAR experience I've had where I felt like I did poorly at the SIMS I ended up scoring badly overall which is why I don't feel like I passed this time since at least two of the SIMS I got were very difficult and I ran out of time on the last one.

[Dougie]

@animalwithin if you don’t mind me asking, what were you scoring on your practice exams? And how many times have you taken the exam?

[animalwithin]

@Dougie I don't take any practice exams, I just do large questions sets during each sitting (100 MCQs at a time or 20 SIMS at a time).

I've passed BEC and AUD on the first try and had a trending score in the 80s. I've taken FAR 7 times now and my scores have been as low as 56 and as high as 71. My trending score in NINJA on the MCQ this time for FAR was also in the 80s but I know I made many stupid mistakes last week and every time I've felt that I don't end up passing. MCQ's weren't bad and didn't feel like they were necessarily hard or foreign, but I can count at least 5 that I missed as I reflect back on the exam now, all from just misreading the question or overthinking.

The reason why I feel a large part of this exam is luck is based on my personal experience. The people who claim they felt bad about the MCQ's and then guessed their way through the SIMS and still end up passing are either lying or they're VERY lucky. Every time I've felt uncertain about the MCQ's and/or felt like I did poorly on the SIMs, I don't pass, simple as that. So if I don't feel good about it, I just assume I didn't pass and I move forward accordingly.

[Mark.S]

Dougie ,

Let me know what you got because I had the same feeling about the exam that I took on October

[Dougie]

Just to let everyone know I got an 87! So I guess my worrying was for no reason lol. I guess it’s true that if you think you failed you probably passed!

[Recked]

Congrats on the pass, just goes to show you… you never really know with FAR or any of the CPA exams.

Memento Mori - Kingston NY CPA & EA (SUNY Albany 2002)

FAR-93 11/9/17 (10wks, 250 hrs, Roger 1800+ MCQs, Gleim TB 600+MCQs, SIMs)
AUD-88 12/7/17 (3 wks, 85 hrs, Roger 1000 MCQs no SIMs hail mary)
REG-96 1/18/18 (6 wks, 110 hrs, 1400 MCQs, no SIMs)
BEC-91 2/16/18 (4wks, 90 hrs, 1240 MCQs)

[Author]

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