[Anonymous]

I am a first time poster and recently took my first CPA exam — FAR. I am wondering if anybody knows the likelihood that the most difficult SIM is the pretest question. I used Becker to study for the exam and never saw a similar question on any of the homework/practice tests.

I think I did well on the MC because the second and third testlets were much more difficult than the first. I saw the difficult SIM I mentioned above and skipped it to focus on the other questions. Unfortunately, the other questions took me more time than I had anticipated and I ended up committing the cardinal sin of taking the CPA Exam… I left the question blank.

I have read other topics about people skipping a few questions, but I am specifically wondering if people know whether or not the most difficult SIM is generally the pretest question.

[stephanieb]

I took FAR in July. It's hard to say if my hardest SIM was the pre-test SIM, but I do know that I struggled with one pretty severely and ended up running out of time which caused me to leave another SIM completely blank. Actually not entirely blank I admit. I left enough time to enter 0's for all the questions in that particular SIM.

FAR - (7/3/12) 77
AUD - (8/9/12) 87
REG - (10/4/12) 93
BEC - (11/21/12)85
Ethics - (12/9/12) 100

[Anonymous]

if one of the sims give you 10 lines for journal entries, but say you only need 4 lines, do you leave the rest of the lines blank or do you enter 0s for the amounts?

[Anonymous]

The pre-test SIM is usually the one on a topic you have never seen before.

[Herbieherb]

It probably is if you never seen it before, and well prepared

NEW YORK- DONE

[Jade CPA-to-be]

with that said, i think #1 SIM on my exam would be pre-test. Becker did not cover that topic or had similar material with that at all. But that is not the worst Sim in my opinion, hope that is not a pre-test. uhh….

CPA Licensed in California- Class of 2013

[Anonymous]

@CannotPassAgain – When the question of journal entries in Sims first came up, I e-mailed the AICPA and here is their response:

RE: CPA Exam Inquiry

Dear Ms. Mitchell,

We are following up regarding your inquiry about the general format of journal entries on the CPA Exam.

It doesn't matter what order the Debit/Credit responses are entered in as long as the proper corresponding debits and credits are provided with each response.

We apologize for the delayed response. We appreciate you taking the time to research this information and look forward to serving you in the future.

Kind regards,

XXXXXX

AICPA Member Service

I read that to mean, if your entry is correct then forget about the extra space. They are a detractor.

[Anonymous]

@kricket — awesome, thanks kricket! and i appreciate YOU taking the time to research that information!

good to know i can just email the AICPA if i have any questions in the future, instead of waiting on the phone for a person

[Anonymous]

Well…I don't mean to be the screen door on your submarine, OP, but it's not necessarily a pretest. I'm a huge proponent of Becker and I think overall, they do an awesome job, but their goal is to get you to pass, not to get a 99, ya know? So it's very possible that it was a topic within the scope of the CSO for that section, but not covered well and/or extensively in Becker. I also used Becker for FAR, I DESTROYED the MCQ and the last 2 SIMS (this was back in 2010), but the first SIM was ridiculously difficult and a topic I had never seen anything on before. Granted, I got an 86, I'm not complaining that I passed, just saying, based on how I know I did on MCQ and other SIMS, I had to have gotten hammered on that SIM.

I'm not ruling out that it could have been a pretest, though. I think either way, you're probably in good shape! Sounds like you had an awesome exam experience. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

From my far exam experience post..

”X1 of the SIMS was on a Becker obscure topic, but it was extremely long and TMI so I figured it was the pretest and didn't fill anything for the values of the journal entries. Chose whatever I could assume was correct from the drop down menu for the Debits/Credits and that was that. probably 10% right if I guessed some of the 10 debits/credits correctly, which I doubt.”

I had a similar experience, except I didn't think testlet 1 was a breeze. It had it's fair share of tricky questions. T2/T3 were from hell.

[taupat2012]

If there is two research questions, is one likely a pretest?

[Anonymous]

My personal hypothesis based on my multiple sittings is the sims are laid out as follows:

2 fill in the blanks (1 is usually ridiculous and 1 medium)

3 J/E sims

1 research

1 pretest (could be any of the above)

So if you get 2 research one is the pretest or if you got 4 J/E then one of those is the pretest, etc.

Again I have no basis for this but after 4 attempts that's what it seems like to me.

[Author]

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