[kobebryant168]

I had my 3rd attempt on REG yday, and the MCs were fine because I had too much practices from Becker, Wiley Test Bank, and CPAreviewforfree. The MCs were relatively manageable but they do have tricky answers to choose from

I left with 1.5 hour to do the simulations. When the first one loaded up, I was like, WTF! just what da F**k, did Becker ever taught me such topic? ok, moved to next one, research, the next one research again, 4th one, 3 pages long of data and too much information to read…5th one, I have no idea what they want for answers; 6th totally no clue again….

Summary: I had two attempts on REG previously, both Sims were manageable, despite I failed the exam. However, at least I knew what they were asking for and I know that if i practice more, eventually i will pass. But this time, i m totally lost. Thinking those sims were humanly impossible. On the first sims topic mentioned above, which Becker or any other materials NEVER COVERED, I just filled in all 0s for every box just hopefully there may be some partial points

I was wondering if there are anyone of you had similar experience, but ended up passing.

My other question is, do the difficulty of the sims depend upon your performance on the MCs overall

If the sims I had yesterday is the current level of the CPA exam, that I may just forget being a CPA, give up what I have done so far…because this is just ridiculously impossible for me to get through

[Minimorty]

Sorry man. I can tell you that the sims difficulty has nothing to do with how you do on the multiple choice.

I thought all sims on all my exams were at least reasonable. Tough, but reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Never say impossible. If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.

[Mrschach]

I felt the same way on the SIMS and I passed with an 81.

AUD - 76 (July 2012)
FAR - 87 (Feb 2013
BEC - April 2013
REG - 81 (August 2012)

[Maverick]

I think we had the same sims. I had the three pages of information…maybe it was the pretest sim and will not be counted. There was another sim I was not sure how to calculate a portion of and just put 0s, but hopefully, I got the other half right. I pray to God I pass REG.

F - Passed...THANK YOU, LORD. GLORY TO GOD.
B - Passed...THANK YOU, LORD. GLORY TO GOD.
A - Passed...THANK YOU, LORD. GLORY TO GOD.
R - Passed...THANK YOU, LORD. GLORY TO GOD.

Ethics - 95

Licensed CPA

I COULD NOT HAVE DONE THIS WITHOUT MY LORD. THANK YOU.

"According to your faith will it be done to you." Matthew 9:29

[jenuno01]

I don't want to say my SIMS were ever cake, but I always thought they were fair. I thought I read somewhere that the CPA tests basic knowledge, or what a 1st year CPA should know; I thought the SIMS were pretty reflective of that statement.

I went HAM on studying the SIMS when I took REG. I even bought the ones on CPAreviewforfree.com, they were actually good practice and they're only like $10. I did all the Becker and Wiley SIMS as well.

Class of 2012

[mmcgrad1]

I know I bombed one SIM and questionably on two more SIMs for REG. I thought I failed but passed fairly easily.

Maybe some of those SIMs are pre-test.

You're almost done with this exam. Now is not the time to give up if you don't pass.

NIU CPA Review Correspondence is awesome!

I passed all four sections on the first attempt

[thistooshallpass]

@kobe, I also feel like we had the same SIMS and I thought they were completely awful/ridiculous. There were definitely topics that were not covered w/ Becker, or what is in Becker is too minimal to gain the knowledge to answer the SIMS (and I am generally a Becker supporter). I was annoyed at the 2 research questions as I had an awful time with them in REG for some reason. 1 I think I found, the other no way. I hate the super long information questions because it is so overwhelming and then scrolling all over the place just makes it hard to keep sh** straight. I also plugged zeros in part of one of the SIMS…that was another one where the concept was covered vaguely but even reading the book after I don't think I could have figured it out.

I felt pretty good about my MCQ's, but every time I think about the SIMS the likelihood of me passing seems soooo small. I've spent the past month with this hanging over me…should find out in a week.

AUD 85 (2/12) Using Becker
FAR 81 (5/12)
BEC 79 (7/13)
REG 85 (10/1)

"It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."

[momof4]

thistooshallpass

I know this is awful. If those scores don't come soon I'll need Prozac. I would not feel so strongly if I had not done the work. I put a ton of work and sacrifice into this one. I hope it paid off. Sims have me worried.

BEC 84
FAR 80
AUD 85
REG 78

[thistooshallpass]

@momof4, good luck, I think I will try to stay off here till Friday when I watch jealously as others start getting scores. I think the amount of time I spent studying is what makes me so mad to feel like I might fail. I honestly wouldn't be able to do any more with my Becker material, so I would have to buy something else and come up with a new process…ok, time to try and shut my brain off on this for awhile, too frustrating. :'(

AUD 85 (2/12) Using Becker
FAR 81 (5/12)
BEC 79 (7/13)
REG 85 (10/1)

"It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."

[kobebryant168]

The WTF question that I experienced was almost nowhere near tax or accounting, perhaps a stock broker or a finance analyst maybe able to get that question. That's why it's a WTF question for me. Like I said, I failed two times previously, and i have never complained those to be “foreign” sims to me, they are tough because they combines various topics together. At least I know what they asking for, it was up to me whether I get the numbers right. But this time, clueless, frustration all showed up. In fact, my tears were about to come out. Clock ticking down, the worst exam ever in my cpa journey….I saw a couple views before with people complaining about REG sims,

@ mmcgrad1, were you somewhere near what I experienced?

@thistooshallpass, please update me when you get your score, I found 1 out of the 2 research only as well…the other sims were foreign language to me

[TMFuller]

OK, now I am scared of this exam. I thought FAR was hard, but from the sounds of all you above REG sims has it beat hands down.

@kobebryant168 – Have you started to study again? How many Sims did you practice? From what you said it probably would not have mattered anyway, DON'T GIVE UP. The amount of accomplishment you will feel when all 4 parts are passed I hear is amazing. I can't wait for that feeling.

Also, does Becker provide lectures on how to complete the TBS? I am using Roger CPA Review and he has lectures just on the homework. Not all the homework lectures include the TBS, but I have found the ones he does have very helpful.

@jenuno01 – I have never heard of CPA Exam reivew for free. Did it have some of the same questions as Wiley?

Good luck to all

AUD - Passed
FAR - Apr
REG - Feb
BEC - Feb

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't have pass REG or AUD if I didn't use the Authoritative Literature tabs to answer the SIM questions. What worked for me was to whip through the MCQs as fast as I could (while still making good choices). Then take all the time you can and thoroughly research the SIM questions. You'd be surprised what you can find. Some of the SIMs are literally verbatim from the authoritative literature. You won't find the answer to all of them, especially if it requires computations, but you'll find a good chunk if you have the time to search.

Good Luck.

[Da Bears]

I will confirm Dtomasello, you can find verbatim in authoritative literature for SIMS.

FAR- 8/14/12 91
AUD- 10/16/12 88
BEC- 11/07/12 92
REG- 01/05/13 86
NIU CPA Review

[Anonymous]

Kobebryant168 nothing is impossible. First you have to believe that it is possible, it maybe difficult but possible. Since you already passed AUD, BEC, and FAR, therefore you have done a fantastic job and REG will be the “Coup-degrace”.

The SIMs are just like some of the MC questions (out of this world), only longer in terms of computations and answers. I can say that sometimes the information presented to answer a SIM is rather long, however, the majority of the times only a small part of the information is relevant in getting to the answer. Always go to the stem of the question when given a lot of information. Sometimes we may have seen the material before but worded differently or maybe that part is a pretest SIM.

The AICPA's job is to try and trick us or get us frustrated and our job is to not fall for their tricks. I hope you did your very best and you will get a passing score.

I think for one my exam (AUD or FAR I think) , I got like a 2 pages of information with about another page to put my answers. I was so intimidated but I told myself “they cannot expect me to do all this in x time therefore something is not right with the information and the space provided for the answers. I read the stem of the question like 5 times before I figured what they really wanted and then just picked out the relevant info and completed the sim. They try to present information in different ways to trick you because they would love to see you taking their exam again.

The SIMs are just a longer versions of the MCQs so if you did well on the MCQs the SIMs will be more manageable

[Author]

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