I can understand that the pre-test questions aren't counted AGAINST an examiner...but why don't you get credit for actually doing them?

Especially the "pre-test" simulations. I had a few REALLY hairy sim questions on my FAR exam, and the thing is, I spent a lot of time going through them...and if one of them was a Pre-test, that was time that I could actually have spent doing a REAL simulation.

So in essence, spending time going through a really hairy SIM question that's a Pre-Test...could make you lose points. Because that's time you could of spent completing an actual sim question.

So if the Pre-test questions technically make you lose points (because your losing time that you could spend on other SIM questions)...then it seems like they should maybe count for something.

Or is there just some psycho-metric b.s. reason for this madness?

Just curious if there were any thoughts on this...

Thanks!

That makes sense. But I still feel that any time spent on a really tricky pre-test SIM, is time that could have been used to double check your work on other problems...

I'm not saying to NOT have the pre-test questions...but I do think it's a little unfair if someone spends the time to answer it, gets it right...gets to their 7th simulation with 11 minutes left, and realizes that they have to re-create an entire cash flow statement using the Direct Method....and it's like, damn...if only I had a little more time...I could maybe actually create this cash flow statement in its entirety...and get just enough percentage points to get that 75.

BUT, the pre-test SIM that you got completely right gets thrown out...and you got screwed over because you only got through half of the cash flow statement before you just started BSing numbers just to have some numbers typed in as time runs out...and THAT's the one that gets graded. 

I guess what I'm saying is...wouldn't it make sense if these Pre-Test questions were counted as Bonus questions? The tester still wouldn't know which one is the Pre-Test, and it wouldn't count against the examiner (outside of the time wasted), but it would count for something for the examiner if they got some or all of it right.

I can understand that the pre-test questions aren't counted AGAINST an examiner...but why don't you get credit for actually doing them?

Especially the "pre-test" simulations. I had a few REALLY hairy sim questions on my FAR exam, and the thing is, I spent a lot of time going through them...and if one of them was a Pre-test, that was time that I could actually have spent doing a REAL simulation.

So in essence, spending time going through a really hairy SIM question that's a Pre-Test...could make you lose points. Because that's time you could of spent completing an actual sim question.

So if the Pre-test questions technically make you lose points (because your losing time that you could spend on other SIM questions)...then it seems like they should maybe count for something.

Or is there just some psycho-metric b.s. reason for this madness?

Just curious if there were any thoughts on this...

Thanks!

Pretested questions allow the AICPA to introduce topics that will sometimes be tested in the future.    

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