Took and passed the La Bestia aka THE BEAST Q3 2014. Here is the part of the progress report for FAR:
Total Question Attempts - 823
Average Score - 67%
Average Trending Score - 75%
Total Time - 22:04
Passed FAR with a 78!!!!
Additionally, I also attempted 42 out of the 71 SIMS. If I'm going to be real honest, a lot of these were mostly research SIMS and whatever randoms the program gave me. I wanted to get comfortable with the data entry and the presentation seeing as FAR was my first exam.
I honestly thought I had failed because the SIMS wiped the floor with my face. Just awful and I ran out of time despite giving myself a full 1.5 hours. Let's just say that I wish I had taken a pee break between the 3rd testlet and the SIMS. I might have been able to concentrate better. If it's any indication, let's just take a random example of something that can be calculated or whatever multiple ways ranging from easy to mega hard. I was so tired/flustered/doing the pee dance that I didn't even recognize that the AICPA had handed me the easy way and I didn't finish the last half of the SIM. Instant heartbreak and despair the minute I got home and realized it when I was going over my notes.
As far as the NINJA MCQ's and preparation, my strategy (if you can even call it that) was to get comfortable with both the MCQ's in all 5 categories as well as the timing of answering MCQ's (tried to stay under 2 minutes each question) and not being afraid to answer wrong despite how that would reflect on my average score. I'd rather answer wrong in the comfort of my apartment than the icy bowels of Prometric. Because every wrong answer is a lesson in why it's wrong. Literally, man. Right after every question you get a little explanation and if it's a calculation, a break down of how to do it. There's also a button that you can click to automatically mark it down as incorrect so that if I guessed correctly, the program wouldn't count it as correct.
It's VITALLY important that you worry more about understanding why something is right (and why the other 3 are wrong) versus trying to artificially raise your average or trending scores. I started by doing sessions of 10 questions in the "Custom + Sims" module (anything more than that can be overwhelming) for each category and trying to stay within the 2 minutes per question. Then I progressed to 10 questions incorporating more categories so as to mimic what the CPA exam would be like AKA totally random in the Adaptive Phase. I always chose "New Questions" (sometimes I forgot) in order to minimize memorizing questions and answers without understanding. Sometimes I would recognize similar questions with different numbers, but the main takeaway was the PROCESS of how to answer the question, which I had memorized. Lo and behold, I had a few actual exam questions that were pretty similar to how they were worded in Ninja MCQ's. Made me feel pretty good about my purchase of Ninja MCQ's.
I can't wait to get through all the AUD material so I can purchase Ninja MCQ's and repeat the process for AUD. :)