How To Master Simulations: A Wiley Book Review

General Comment: 4 Stars

As you can see from Amazon the book has a so-so 3-star rating overall. I personally would give it a 4-star because I think it’s helpful and practical for those who are looking for help in this area. Having said that, this book isn’t for everyone and I recognize a few notable drawbacks which I am going to discuss below.

Pros

• I like the way the book discusses the various research strategies with a number of good examples to show how each strategy can be better than others under different scenario.
• There are 2 sample full simulations for each of FAR, REG and AUD (note that BEC didn’t have simulations at the time of the book’s publication) with detailed explanations

Cons

• On the Communications Tab, while the book puts in the best effort to show you how to maximize the points in this section, the discussion on how to improve writing skills can never be very practical.
• While the research tab discussion is great, you can’t practice the problems using the CD-ROM. If this is what you are looking for, please note there’s minimal help.
• As we all know CPA exam is going to have a revamp effective Jan 1, 2011. This book covers the old format. While the main part should be relevant the format and content is bound to be different.

Detail Review of This CPA Simulations Guide

Ch.1 Introduction (p.1-14)

This chapter is an introduction of the CPA exam itself, including:

• The purpose of CPA exam, the format (i.e. MC and simulations)
• The functionality e.g. how to navigate from tab to tab by clicking the mouse on the desired tab; how to copy and paste, how to left-click and drag the corner to resize the pop-up spreadsheet.

I suppose this chapter is necessary for sake of completeness but I personally don’t find the content useful.

Provided you have basic knowledge in Microsoft WORD and EXCEL, it’s more efficient for you to figure this out by working on the actual simulation demo available on the official CPA exam site (www.CPA-exam.org) or by using any of the software CDs from major CPA exam review courses.

Ch.2: Research Requirements of Simulations (p. 15-24)

This chapter is dedicated to the research tab. It introduces of the functionality within the research tab and also discusses in greater detail on search strategies.

Specifically, it lists out 5 strategies that you can pick and choose depending on the nature of the questions. While I can’t say these strategies are completely new to me I do appreciate how they categorize them in an organized manner, and better yet, listing the pros and cons of each strategy.

In addition, the book walks you through how these strategies work in a real-life example which I find pretty useful. After understanding how it works you can move on to work on the 6 questions with detailed explanation in the appendix.

The only downside is that these practice problems are not available in the “actual exam” (i.e. electronic) format. They do however list out 3 sources (2 with free-trials, 1 without) that you can subscribe for further practice on your own.

Ch.3 Communication Requirements of Simulations (p. 25-36)

This chapter introduces the nature of this tab — the question mostly requests candidates to write a memo to client (e.g. management, board of directors) or to audit staff.

The book rightly points out that effective writing skill is more important than technical accuracy. In other words, it is crucial for you to write in a coherent, organized, clear and typo-free manner rather than worrying too much about the content.

It then goes on to list out the definition of coherence, format, clarity, good standard of English and so on, with  3 examples (one for each of FAR, AUD and REG) to show how candidates can outline the information requested together with sample of a “good” answer.

While the discussion is helpful as a reference, it is not very tangible… but in way it’s due to the nature of writing, like you need practice and critique by a real person in order to improve.

As mentioned above I think the book has done a good job but theoretical discussion can never be very effective. You are fine as long as you have a realistic expectation on this chapter.

Ch. 4 Mastering FAR Simulations (p. 37-68)

This chapter focuses on:

• What to expect for a typical FAR research tab and communications tab
• Detailed discussion on the core simulation part of this section
• Outline of strategies to tackle the simulation with 6 steps.

Again these 6 steps should not be completely new to you but it’s nice to list out so you can have a systematic way to work on the sims.

I find the way they walk you through the entire process with 2 full examples (i.e. complete with sims, research and communitions) using the strategies discussed quite useful. There are also 2 practice problems to work on with detailed explanation in the appendix.

Ch. 5 – 6 REG/AUD Simulations (p.69-140)

These two chapters follow the same format as Ch.4, so the value-add is the walking through of the 2 examples in each of the chapters. There are also 2 problems to work on with detailed explanation at the back.

Appendix A: Solutions to Problems (p. 141-162)

Obviously it’s not as good as having a private tutor, but the book is doing a pretty decent job in explaining in good details on the logic behind the sample answer to the questions.

A Note on the CD-ROM

Please note that a CD-Rom is included with 6 additional simulations for your further practice. While answers are given these sims are not automatically graded so you have to grade the sims yourself.

Conclusion and Recommendations

If you are struggling with the simulation part of the CPA exam, this is one convenient book that outlines how to come up with proper answers in the research, communication and core Sims tabs.

However, if you are relatively comfortable with sims and that you have enough practice from your CPA exam review course, then you might not need this book.

If you aren’t sure, I would recommend that you hit on the simulations in the practice problems available to you first (practice is always more important than reading the theories!)

If you still encounter:

• Difficulty in getting the right answer
• Spending too much time on the research /communication tabs in your mock exam
• Freaking out at the Sims section of the exam in general…

… then you can consider getting this book.

Last Tip

Don’t buy it in bookstore or Wiley website. Get it at Amazon for a generous 42% discount off retail price.

Any questions and comments are welcome!

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