The CPA (Certified Public Accountant) exam is considered one of the most difficult professional credentialing exams that require dedicated hours of study and perseverance to pass.
The CPA exam includes multiple-choice questions (or MCQs) and task-based simulations, or TBSs or SIMs. The most crucial part – simulations are “summarized case studies” for evaluating your knowledge in a specific field. These are complex problems that require you to apply conceptual knowledge and skills to real-world applications.
Remember, whether you are studying with a CPA exam private tutor or taking review classes in a group, practicing SIMs should be an essential part of your preparations. This is because SIMs account for a larger share of a candidate’s exam section score, your performance in SIMs becomes more crucial to a passing grade.
However, many candidates couldn’t make it to score in SIMs regardless of studying all day and night. If you are one among them, maybe you are making any of the following mistakes in simulations. Read on to find them.
- Not reading and following directions
Most candidates have the tendency to rush while answering the questions during the exam and oversee instructions. In the CPA exam, you better not rush and skip instructions. Directions for individual simulation (sim) will clearly illustrate what needs to be done in that particular SIM and whether there are any conditions around any answers.
For instance, while doing journal entries, there will be some blanks where no entry is needed, the instructions will read whether to enter “0” or leave it blank. Skipping the instructions, you may be putting a blank where a “0” should be. As a result, you won’t get any points for that specific answer because you made a technical mistake.
Instead of hurrying, first, read all the instructions provided with every question, and SIMs will pay bonuses towards your score.
- Not practicing simulations
As said above, practicing SIMs should essentially be in your study plan. Just reading study materials and practicing multiple-choice questions will not fully prepare you for the CPA examination. You must be knowing the methods to answer SIMs, and the only way to know this is by practicing. You can take assistance from the best CPA exam teacher.
In comparison to MCQs, task-based simulations in CPA exams take much longer to solve. It often seems overwhelming while studying. However, to be able to answer SIMs confidently in the CPA exam, you must spend time actually trying to solve the SIMs while practicing problems. You can do one thing; set up an exam-like environment and take an assessment exam. This will give you an idea of how to strategize your overall CPA examination.
- Not knowing how much time to allocate for SIMs
If we talk about the section-wise score weightage breakdown for the MCQs and Simulations in CPA exams, you will find them almost equal. The breakdown is as follows:
Item Type |
AUD |
BEC |
FAR |
REG |
Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) |
50% |
50% |
50% |
50% |
Task-based simulations (TBSs) |
50% |
35% |
50% |
50% |
Written communication tasks(WC) |
N/A |
15% |
N/A |
N/A |
Although the weightage split is almost equal, the time you spend on each type of question cannot be the same. Considering the likely complexity of some of the simulation questions, it’s recommended to spend about 45 minutes to complete each of the two MCQ testlets (90 minutes total), giving you 2 ½ hours to confront the simulation questions.
For FAR, AUD and REG sections, you can spend complete two hours on the three Task-Based Simulation testlets. Since the BEC section has both Task-Based Simulations and Written Communication Tasks, you can distribute the two and half hours used for the simulations as:
- a) one-hour approx., for the Written Communication questions and b) one-hour approx., for task-based simulations.
Note: Do not spend too much time on one question, as you have only two and a half hours to complete 8 SIMs (7 for BEC). Depending on the type of simulation, you could easily spend between 10 – 30 minutes on each one.
Conclusion
The only way to avoid these common mistakes while solving SIMs in the CPA exam is to practice. It will help you greatly in scoring in the CPA exam. And for exam day, you must keep cool and not panic. First, answer the questions you know, read the instructions carefully and do not spend too much time on just one question. You will then be able to score well.
You can sign up for Andrew Katz Tutoring, where you can join CPA exam private tutoring sessions or group sessions to help you prepare for the CPA exams. They offer hourly sessions online that also include personal assistance by Andrew Katz, CPA.