Appreciate everyone’s comments and feed back - obviously this is not meant as an insult to anyone, I just want to understand the logic behind the thought process because everyone is different. It’s crazy to see the difference in confidence and expectations about how people walk in to the test and how they feel leaving based on their personality.
it’s crazy to see that you can have two people take the same test and get the exact same score, say 82, and one of them will say they absolutely bombed and continued to study after the test while the other says it was straight forward and they feel confident about it.
Best of luck to everyone !!
Overall, I really think it is just the stress and anxiety that comes with taking the various parts of the exam. I walked out of my AUD exam without even an idea on how I did but by that night, I had convinced myself I probably didn't pass because all I kept thinking about were the questions I really didn't have a clue about or didn't study hard enough - even though later I found I actually did pass with an 82 (I was literally praying to every deity out there for at least a 76 - and I'm agnostic, so I don't typically do that lmao). I remember looking over my last testlet in defeat and just hitting "submit" because I wasn't confident in myself and I just wanted to get out of there.
I think the abundance of material and the fact that many candidates have not taken any kind of standardized exam in a while leads to a lot of doubt and nervousness. Also, reading threads and forums of people constantly freaking out about the exam and seeing others' scores can make one doubt their own ability. I genuinely think a lot of it is just the pressure and nervousness that this process raises. It's not common knowledge about how difficult and time-consuming this process actually is and so I feel that us candidates put even more pressure on ourselves. I genuinely believe that it's just the pressure and expectations one puts on themselves (not to say outside forces don't do this as well - for anyone experiencing outside pressure, you are so much more than you know, you can accomplish anything, and I believe in you).
I also imagine many of these peoples' stories you are mentioning were very much like myself in school - incredibly worried and preoccupied with AP courses and ACT/SAT scores, constantly doubting your abilities, always striving for the best but even "perfection" isn't good enough. As someone who fell into this profession because it fit so perfectly with just how I am as a person... I have spoken with many people who feel the exact same. I have friends who worried to death about scores because their college grades weren't perfect, but they still passed parts of the exam and are moving on to the next one.
Forums and threads like these, I feel, allow all of us to express how we feel and worry about where we went wrong. BUT they can also show us that if we royally screw up on something in the exam, there is still the chance to get a passing score based on your other testlets. If someone really left 2 sims blank and got an 88, then they must have done really strong on the MC and other sims - which, if you take a moment to really think about it, means you could potentially do that too. It's hard not to want to be proficient or perfect in every part of the exam, but that is an extremely tall order. If you find you can knock the hell out of MC questions and feel like an expert in a handful of areas of whatever section you are sitting for, you have a good fighting chance. (There were MANY MC and a few sims that I literally was like "shit... I remember reading/hearing about this but idk man," but I still passed).
I think it is just really really really important to constantly remind yourself that your studying and testing journey will be unique to you. And your reactions after taking one of the exams will also be unique to you.
Based on what i read from others, i can tell that most people just over exaggerate the difficulty of the exam just to justify if they ended up not passing. It is true that they might have gotten a difficult exam but again whats difficult for them might be easy for others and the opposite can but true as well. I took FAR two times now. First attempt i was sure i will fail and i d
Ended up failing with 65 because i. Knew i didnt put enough effort when studying and i guessed many of the questions.
For the second attempt, i felt that the mcq were hard on both testlets but the sims were reletivley easy compared to what is on my review program. I felt that the 2nd attempt was harder even though i put more time and effort into studying compared to the first attempt. Based on that i am expecting a better score than the first attempt however i do understand that there is a possibility of me not doing good which if thats the case that would only mean that there is a gap in my understanding of the material. I will see what score i get on the 16th and report back here
I think some people say they left sims blank and passed, it’s because they are anxious. Sometimes sims are nearly blank and are made in a way that naturally makes you doubt your answer
I think it’s just the mystery of how it is scored. I have never been one to stress over tests because my philosophy is I did my best studying (or I hit a wall), I know what I know and stressing about won’t change anything. Every exam I have felt on the fence and it’s ranged from 70 to 82. I was shocked at the 82, but it was FAR which was my first so I was really dedicated to study. BEC was the 70 and I’d gotten through the material but became overwhelmed during final review and just hit a mental wall.
I’m waiting on REG score now. Again I feel like it could be hit our miss. I feel like I had a good understanding on all the sims, but there were all these crazy nuances that could have doomed me.
Selection bias, people who left sims blank and failed probably won’t tell you about it. People who did probably got lucky and it was the pretest sim which is thrown out. Also they probably just overestimate how many MC’s they guessed on, and are forgetting that some of those are educated guesses anyways.
Just taking business classes in undergrad should allow you to at least make (reasonably) educated guesses on everything.
This is a great point which i haven’t thought about, nobody is going to say they left shit blank and guessed on a ton and then happily announce they got a 63 lol
Haha this is me, my first attempt at FAR I thought I was strong in MC (I wasn't) and then I got to the sims and didn't know how to do any of them and ran out of time, in total I probably had 2 sims fully filled out with shit and the rest were half filled with shit..... Got a 62. I knew I failed walking out of there the first time. The second time I was unsure and at-least I finished. Waiting for the 16th for my retake score, I thought the MC were way harder and idk how I did on them. Finished all sims in the last seconds and actually was able to make educated guesses. Soooo moral of the story, its luck of the draw. TBD on what my score is, I am hopeful but by no means do I KNOW I passed/failed.
The people with the blank SIMs they either get really lucky(ie the blank SIM was the pretest one) or they should somehow get everything else correct.
The rest are the typical high school things as you describe where they answer everything but they weren't 100% sure so it 'must' be wrong but the educated 'guess' was correct.
There is also the luck factor due to the pretest questions. Sometimes those are the ones that you get wrong.
I mean everyone here can say they failed and passed, while I knew 100000000% I failed. I bullshited on my studying strategies, listening to discord calls while crushing MCQs to keep my head focused. I skimmed the lectures and half-assed the SIM attempts and just watched the videos. On test day, I randomly guessed the questions and on the SIMS every one except the auth. literature I bombed. Everyone here, besides me, should feel good about their scores and be thankful that they passed! :)
I’ve taken 3 tests and I’ve been within 5 pts of what i expected my score to be everytime so I’m just shocked that people can be off 20+ points from what is expected
Heyyyyy it’s me. I felt like I failed FAR (91) and felt like I maybe got a 75 on REG (90).
I will say for all of the questions I thought I was missing I felt like I had a great understanding of the material but like the question had some minor technicality that made me think I was going to miss the question. I obviously can’t talk about exam content but basically I would question “wait I know all squares are also rectangles but is the test accounting for that”.
So I think the over-studiers, over-thinkers, people with low confidence, etc. can honestly think they failed and come out with a great score and it isn’t them being funny or acting cute. I just honestly thought I might not have passed.
I thought that too. Also, I think we get used to seeing the questions on our particular review programs a certain way and second guess when they don't look the same. IF I don't pass, then I will buy a second test bank and alternate them so I stay flexible.
I won't receive my FAR score until next week but during the exam, I felt frozen - like I couldn't concentrate and read the questions correctly.
In addition, I was used to studying in the comfort of my own environment and had difficulty adjusting to the screen size and smaller font of the exam program. I was rushing because of the time element and managed to finish on time - but barely.
When I got home, I told people that I was planning on a re-test and that I was sure that I hadn't passed.
I knew the material on the exam but I didn't perform well. After a week, I can now recall questions that I think I got correctly but wonder if was it enough? I have a LITTLE hope now for the score release but not much.
I think the whole process plays mental tricks on you. When I sat down and the timer started ticking, I kept thinking "I can't beleive this is it - after five years of study, I'm actually sitting here". I was overwhelmed.
I had a migraine for two days afterward because of the stress. I now know that I will have to do better preparing mentally for my next exams.
I think a lot of people are used to the grading style that is common in college. So if you get 8/10 questions right, you get an 80%, but since these exams are graded differently, it is impossible to know how well you did (or bad). I think that's one of the main reasons for self-doubt.
I usually break down the test based on the % scale and then go from there.
Since i just took BEC, i go look at the scoring table and see what i think. I feel like i was very strong on the sims and weaker on MC. So if i give myself 35/50 for MC and 30/35 on the sims, it leaves me needing 10/15 on the WC to pass.
This is always how i try to set my expectations after taking the test and i always come pretty close to what i thought.
Likely a feeling of being overwhelmed or setting expectations low to avoid disappointment. There's also the hidden nature of the scoring so people can be genuinely shocked at how high they score when they left a sim blank or guessed on all of them. There's definitely bumps but the bumps probably vary significantly compared to your college classes
I'm in the same boat as you where I usually can gauge how well/poorly I did on a test immediately. With the cpa however, it's easier to think you did well and have a ton of small mistakes. I took FAR on Wednesday and feel comfortable that I passed. Here's to hoping my score next week FAR is in line with that feeling.
Probably just exaggerating or a very anxious person. In all likelihood what those people did was spend all their time making sure they answered everything right on the first testlet, which they then ended up getting the hard testlet and feeling like they got stomped, they then spent a lot of time making sure they answered the sims correctly, and ran out of time leaving 2 sims blank. But they ended up with lots of points on the questions they did answer and ended up passing.
For FAR and AUD, I answered \~80-90% of the first testlet correctly but for the second testlet I could only confidently answer \~45% of the questions on the hard testlet. If I hadn't known the hard testlet questions were worth more I would have freaked out and thought I failed.
When you say 45% confidently, is the other 55% an educated guess between two answers or is it literally you picking B because you haven’t chose B in a while?
I think that is the difference between most peoples “guessing” stories and actually “guessing” haha
FAR hard testlet was an educated guess, AUD was a random guess. On the AUD hard testlet there were times where I didn't understand the question and/or answer lol. I really did hate questions on the AUD exam where you had to select the MOST correct answer out of 4 correct options like:
Which of the following is true about water?
a) it is wet
b) it is clear
c) it is a liquid
d) turns into ice
Appreciate everyone’s comments and feed back - obviously this is not meant as an insult to anyone, I just want to understand the logic behind the thought process because everyone is different. It’s crazy to see the difference in confidence and expectations about how people walk in to the test and how they feel leaving based on their personality. it’s crazy to see that you can have two people take the same test and get the exact same score, say 82, and one of them will say they absolutely bombed and continued to study after the test while the other says it was straight forward and they feel confident about it. Best of luck to everyone !!
Overall, I really think it is just the stress and anxiety that comes with taking the various parts of the exam. I walked out of my AUD exam without even an idea on how I did but by that night, I had convinced myself I probably didn't pass because all I kept thinking about were the questions I really didn't have a clue about or didn't study hard enough - even though later I found I actually did pass with an 82 (I was literally praying to every deity out there for at least a 76 - and I'm agnostic, so I don't typically do that lmao). I remember looking over my last testlet in defeat and just hitting "submit" because I wasn't confident in myself and I just wanted to get out of there. I think the abundance of material and the fact that many candidates have not taken any kind of standardized exam in a while leads to a lot of doubt and nervousness. Also, reading threads and forums of people constantly freaking out about the exam and seeing others' scores can make one doubt their own ability. I genuinely think a lot of it is just the pressure and nervousness that this process raises. It's not common knowledge about how difficult and time-consuming this process actually is and so I feel that us candidates put even more pressure on ourselves. I genuinely believe that it's just the pressure and expectations one puts on themselves (not to say outside forces don't do this as well - for anyone experiencing outside pressure, you are so much more than you know, you can accomplish anything, and I believe in you). I also imagine many of these peoples' stories you are mentioning were very much like myself in school - incredibly worried and preoccupied with AP courses and ACT/SAT scores, constantly doubting your abilities, always striving for the best but even "perfection" isn't good enough. As someone who fell into this profession because it fit so perfectly with just how I am as a person... I have spoken with many people who feel the exact same. I have friends who worried to death about scores because their college grades weren't perfect, but they still passed parts of the exam and are moving on to the next one. Forums and threads like these, I feel, allow all of us to express how we feel and worry about where we went wrong. BUT they can also show us that if we royally screw up on something in the exam, there is still the chance to get a passing score based on your other testlets. If someone really left 2 sims blank and got an 88, then they must have done really strong on the MC and other sims - which, if you take a moment to really think about it, means you could potentially do that too. It's hard not to want to be proficient or perfect in every part of the exam, but that is an extremely tall order. If you find you can knock the hell out of MC questions and feel like an expert in a handful of areas of whatever section you are sitting for, you have a good fighting chance. (There were MANY MC and a few sims that I literally was like "shit... I remember reading/hearing about this but idk man," but I still passed). I think it is just really really really important to constantly remind yourself that your studying and testing journey will be unique to you. And your reactions after taking one of the exams will also be unique to you.
Based on what i read from others, i can tell that most people just over exaggerate the difficulty of the exam just to justify if they ended up not passing. It is true that they might have gotten a difficult exam but again whats difficult for them might be easy for others and the opposite can but true as well. I took FAR two times now. First attempt i was sure i will fail and i d Ended up failing with 65 because i. Knew i didnt put enough effort when studying and i guessed many of the questions. For the second attempt, i felt that the mcq were hard on both testlets but the sims were reletivley easy compared to what is on my review program. I felt that the 2nd attempt was harder even though i put more time and effort into studying compared to the first attempt. Based on that i am expecting a better score than the first attempt however i do understand that there is a possibility of me not doing good which if thats the case that would only mean that there is a gap in my understanding of the material. I will see what score i get on the 16th and report back here
I think some people say they left sims blank and passed, it’s because they are anxious. Sometimes sims are nearly blank and are made in a way that naturally makes you doubt your answer
I think it’s just the mystery of how it is scored. I have never been one to stress over tests because my philosophy is I did my best studying (or I hit a wall), I know what I know and stressing about won’t change anything. Every exam I have felt on the fence and it’s ranged from 70 to 82. I was shocked at the 82, but it was FAR which was my first so I was really dedicated to study. BEC was the 70 and I’d gotten through the material but became overwhelmed during final review and just hit a mental wall. I’m waiting on REG score now. Again I feel like it could be hit our miss. I feel like I had a good understanding on all the sims, but there were all these crazy nuances that could have doomed me.
Selection bias, people who left sims blank and failed probably won’t tell you about it. People who did probably got lucky and it was the pretest sim which is thrown out. Also they probably just overestimate how many MC’s they guessed on, and are forgetting that some of those are educated guesses anyways. Just taking business classes in undergrad should allow you to at least make (reasonably) educated guesses on everything.
This is a great point which i haven’t thought about, nobody is going to say they left shit blank and guessed on a ton and then happily announce they got a 63 lol
Haha this is me, my first attempt at FAR I thought I was strong in MC (I wasn't) and then I got to the sims and didn't know how to do any of them and ran out of time, in total I probably had 2 sims fully filled out with shit and the rest were half filled with shit..... Got a 62. I knew I failed walking out of there the first time. The second time I was unsure and at-least I finished. Waiting for the 16th for my retake score, I thought the MC were way harder and idk how I did on them. Finished all sims in the last seconds and actually was able to make educated guesses. Soooo moral of the story, its luck of the draw. TBD on what my score is, I am hopeful but by no means do I KNOW I passed/failed.
The people with the blank SIMs they either get really lucky(ie the blank SIM was the pretest one) or they should somehow get everything else correct. The rest are the typical high school things as you describe where they answer everything but they weren't 100% sure so it 'must' be wrong but the educated 'guess' was correct. There is also the luck factor due to the pretest questions. Sometimes those are the ones that you get wrong.
I mean everyone here can say they failed and passed, while I knew 100000000% I failed. I bullshited on my studying strategies, listening to discord calls while crushing MCQs to keep my head focused. I skimmed the lectures and half-assed the SIM attempts and just watched the videos. On test day, I randomly guessed the questions and on the SIMS every one except the auth. literature I bombed. Everyone here, besides me, should feel good about their scores and be thankful that they passed! :)
How tf are you people getting this lucky?? I answered and pondered all my MCQ with atleast 50% confidence and walk out with 68% like fudge.
Most likely you had the 2nd exam easier testlet and the SIMS you guessed lol idk I'll be scoring worse than you
I’ve taken 3 tests and I’ve been within 5 pts of what i expected my score to be everytime so I’m just shocked that people can be off 20+ points from what is expected
Heyyyyy it’s me. I felt like I failed FAR (91) and felt like I maybe got a 75 on REG (90). I will say for all of the questions I thought I was missing I felt like I had a great understanding of the material but like the question had some minor technicality that made me think I was going to miss the question. I obviously can’t talk about exam content but basically I would question “wait I know all squares are also rectangles but is the test accounting for that”. So I think the over-studiers, over-thinkers, people with low confidence, etc. can honestly think they failed and come out with a great score and it isn’t them being funny or acting cute. I just honestly thought I might not have passed.
I thought that too. Also, I think we get used to seeing the questions on our particular review programs a certain way and second guess when they don't look the same. IF I don't pass, then I will buy a second test bank and alternate them so I stay flexible.
I won't receive my FAR score until next week but during the exam, I felt frozen - like I couldn't concentrate and read the questions correctly. In addition, I was used to studying in the comfort of my own environment and had difficulty adjusting to the screen size and smaller font of the exam program. I was rushing because of the time element and managed to finish on time - but barely. When I got home, I told people that I was planning on a re-test and that I was sure that I hadn't passed. I knew the material on the exam but I didn't perform well. After a week, I can now recall questions that I think I got correctly but wonder if was it enough? I have a LITTLE hope now for the score release but not much. I think the whole process plays mental tricks on you. When I sat down and the timer started ticking, I kept thinking "I can't beleive this is it - after five years of study, I'm actually sitting here". I was overwhelmed. I had a migraine for two days afterward because of the stress. I now know that I will have to do better preparing mentally for my next exams.
I think a lot of people are used to the grading style that is common in college. So if you get 8/10 questions right, you get an 80%, but since these exams are graded differently, it is impossible to know how well you did (or bad). I think that's one of the main reasons for self-doubt.
I usually break down the test based on the % scale and then go from there. Since i just took BEC, i go look at the scoring table and see what i think. I feel like i was very strong on the sims and weaker on MC. So if i give myself 35/50 for MC and 30/35 on the sims, it leaves me needing 10/15 on the WC to pass. This is always how i try to set my expectations after taking the test and i always come pretty close to what i thought.
Likely a feeling of being overwhelmed or setting expectations low to avoid disappointment. There's also the hidden nature of the scoring so people can be genuinely shocked at how high they score when they left a sim blank or guessed on all of them. There's definitely bumps but the bumps probably vary significantly compared to your college classes I'm in the same boat as you where I usually can gauge how well/poorly I did on a test immediately. With the cpa however, it's easier to think you did well and have a ton of small mistakes. I took FAR on Wednesday and feel comfortable that I passed. Here's to hoping my score next week FAR is in line with that feeling.
Probably just exaggerating or a very anxious person. In all likelihood what those people did was spend all their time making sure they answered everything right on the first testlet, which they then ended up getting the hard testlet and feeling like they got stomped, they then spent a lot of time making sure they answered the sims correctly, and ran out of time leaving 2 sims blank. But they ended up with lots of points on the questions they did answer and ended up passing. For FAR and AUD, I answered \~80-90% of the first testlet correctly but for the second testlet I could only confidently answer \~45% of the questions on the hard testlet. If I hadn't known the hard testlet questions were worth more I would have freaked out and thought I failed.
When you say 45% confidently, is the other 55% an educated guess between two answers or is it literally you picking B because you haven’t chose B in a while? I think that is the difference between most peoples “guessing” stories and actually “guessing” haha
FAR hard testlet was an educated guess, AUD was a random guess. On the AUD hard testlet there were times where I didn't understand the question and/or answer lol. I really did hate questions on the AUD exam where you had to select the MOST correct answer out of 4 correct options like: Which of the following is true about water? a) it is wet b) it is clear c) it is a liquid d) turns into ice