 This is one of the toughest questions I get from students, from CPA candidate taking the exam. How can I prepare for the task-based simulation? What's the best way to prepare for the simulation? I failed the exam because I failed the simulation. So what I'm gonna try to do in this session is go over the types of simulations and by doing so, hopefully I can give you some tips on how to prepare and the description and an example for each task-based simulation so I can prepare you mentally when you are looking at a simulation, what is the idea behind the simulation itself? Before I start, I would like to remind you that if you are a CPA candidate, I strongly suggest you check out my website farhatlectures.com. I don't replace your CPA review course and you will notice in this session I will keep reminding you, you have to rely on your CPA review course but what I can be is a useful addition, a supplement like a vitamin pill that's gonna increase your score. Your risk to try me is one month of subscription. Your potential gain is passing the exam. Are you willing to take that risk? And my courses are designed to mirror image your CPA review course so you can go back and forth between my course and your material very easily. And if not for anything, take a look at my website to find out how well or not well your university doing on the CPA exam. I do have resources for other courses. Connect with me on LinkedIn if you haven't done so where you can see reviews from other students and recommendations that use my resources to pass the exam. Like this recording and share it. Connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. So the first type of CPA simulation is something called a choice list or something like a choice list. And this choice list is a drop down menu where you have to select an account type, an amount statement and sometime it's yes or no, you have to answer the question yes or no and sometime a combination of these two. And I will show you an example in a moment and sometime you have to show the account type, yes or no, the account type with yes or no or the account type and the amount. The combination of these information but the answer is basically given to you, you have to select the right amount. Now how do you prepare for this type of simulation? We'll see an example in a moment showing you a sample example in a moment is you have to use your CPA review course. Well, I can help you with these type of simulation. Forehand lectures and what I have, especially for FAR, specifically for FAR, what I have is exercises in these exercises you have to identify the amount type, the account type, the amount, I don't have statements but I have yes or no questions as well. So I, forehead lectures will help you with these type of simulation and what could help you a lot with these type of simulations is your college textbook. Those simulations, the choice list, if you are taking intermediate accounting, cost accounting, auditing and if you are using a software, a web-based software like a McGraw-Hill Connect or Wiley Plus or Pearson, they do have those type of exercises and it's very similar to what you will see on the CPA exam and this type of questions is covered on all four parts of the CPA exam. Let's take a look at an actual example. Here's an example of basically here you're asked copyright infringement and you have to say whether you need a financial statement disclosure either yes or no, yes or no. You have to answer the question yes or no and basically you are giving exhibits. Now, for example, if you're looking at the copy infringement well, you have to know the copy infringement information should be coming from the letter from the outside legal console. Now, all these simulations that I'm showing you now so all these simulations, I'm going to show you five of them. All the simulation with the exception of research simulations, I do have them solved on farhat-lectures.com in detail so you can go to my website and those are the AI CPA and I show you how to solve the whole thing but here I'm showing you a sample of what to expect, what type of questions. So it's either yes or no and you have to determine whether this is an asset or a liability as of December 31st. So this is, so if you click on this, it's going to tell you either an asset or a liability and you select it. This is what a list option is, a choice list. So this is one type of questions. Notice it's not very difficult. What's difficult about it is the exhibits and as long as you know which exhibit to use to answer the question, the question should be fairly simple. Okay, so what does that mean? It means if they're asking you about copyright infringement, go to the legal document, might be there with the consular, with your lawyer might give you that information. Once you know that you would read it, then you will answer the question rather than overwhelming yourself with documents. So the answers, the questions are simple in the sense that this could be also a multiple choice questions. All what they did is they gave you the information in the form of an exhibit. The second type of questions are number entry and here number means you have to put a number, actual number entry and you have obviously it's not like, you know, monkey see, monkey do. You might have to perform some computation then enter the amount in the cell. Now be careful with these number entries. If sometimes the answer might be negative, so be careful to follow the instruction on how to input that negative number. Okay, whether they want a minus or whether they want a parentheses, be careful. Otherwise your answer will be incorrect. Sometime it's a number, remember, we have an amount here. Sometime the number entry is a combination of with a choice list. How do you prepare for this? Once again, your CPA review course should have this far hat lecture, especially for far. I do have exercises for my intermediate accounting and advanced accounting topics where you have to compute an amount in to determine whether it's an asset, a liability or something like that. Also your college textbook, if you should have your college textbook and these type of questions are, they exist in all four parts of the exam. So you have to be very familiar. And when I say your college textbook, think about your managerial accounting, cost accounting for BEC, your income tax course and your corporate tax course for regulation, your auditing textbook for the audit exam, advanced accounting, intermediate accounting and governmental accounting for your FAR. So all your textbook, your college textbook, at the end of each chapter, you have exercises. Those are, this is what we're looking at here, either a choice list or a number entry. Those are really exercises from your textbook. That's basically what they are. So if you keep your textbook plus your CPA review course plus far hat lectures, you should have a better understanding and be a little bit more comfortable. But let's take a look at an actual example, a sample to see what number entry would look like. Okay, this is an example where you have to input a number, a dollar amount here. They're asking me about the adjustments if required for the inventory. For example, here you are looking for the hex bolts and basically the hex bolt, you have to look at the inventory count sheet maybe and look at the hex bolt and maybe look at additional information. I don't know to find out whether the hex bolt needs an adjustment and the justification for the adjustment. Why are you adjusting the number of the hex bolt and not the dollar amount for the hex bolt? So notice here, you have to type the number. You have to type the number. And as I mentioned earlier, be careful if that number has to be negative or positive. Just read the instruction carefully. Read the instruction carefully. Okay, notice here, enter decreases to the perpetual listing as a negative whole number. And notice if no adjustments to the perpetual enter zero, make sure to enter zero, make sure to remember all of those. Don't lose any points. Don't lose any points. And by the way, the simulation too, I have it solved on farhatlectures.com. I believe this is part of the FAR section. Let's take a look at the third type of simulations and this is journal entries. Sometime the task based simulation is basically it would require you to input a journal entry. And come on, if you took college courses, you did a lot of journal entries. And that's basically what it is, knowing your debits and your credits, usually those entries involving adjusting entries. They're not gonna give you, you know, the investor invest that $10,000 journalize the entry. That's simple. Usually it's they want you to adjust to make an adjusting entry. And sometime the journal entries are a combination of choice list number entry. But what you have to do now is translate this information into debit and credit. Do you know how to put a journal entry? Obviously, how do you prepare for this? Again, your CPA review course, I can help you a lot with this. I mean, because I teach, my material is designed for college students and in college, you would learn about your journal entries, debits and credits, also your college textbook. All of your college textbook will involve journal entry, especially intermediate accounting, governmental accounting, advanced accounting. And I have plenty of exercises on my website as well. Usually those journal entries are usually on your FAR in your audit. And let me show you a sample, although you really don't need to see a sample because you should be familiar with journal entries. This is what the journal entry would look like. Basically adjusting journal entry one, adjusting journal entry two, you would just select the account and select and type the amount, the debit and the credit and you are done. I mean, it's not that simple. You have to see what you are giving. Again, the simulation is covered on FARHAT lectures. The fourth type of simulation, which is a document review, I believe this one is more challenging in my opinion for most students. And the reason is because you don't do this during your college career. So you don't do a document review. Basically you're analyzing a statement or a conclusion and you need to keep, replace or delete that statement. And based on after your review exhibits, email, telephone conversation, conversation between individuals, maybe memo, financial statement, purchase or sales invoice or any other document. So based on that document, you have to adjust. You have to whether say the statement is correct, not correct, keep or replace basically. How do you prepare your CPA review course? And here really what you are relying on is your good reading and comprehension skills. So you have to read, first you have to understand what you are giving and compare what you are giving to what's actually in the exhibit. I mean, again, it's not difficult. Although I said it's the most difficult, it's not difficult, but the difficulty of it is you're not prepared in college. In college you don't get those type of exhibits. At least not yet in college textbook. But if you're studying for the GMAT, the GMAT they do ask you about similar exercises. So you're looking at a statement and just making a statement, whether that statement is correct based on the information given. And let me give you an example about this. Maybe if you look at an example, it will be easier for you to understand. This is an example. For example, the first statement underlined, revenues for the second quarter of year nine decreased 1,331 or 8.5% to 18,254. So is this a correct statement or need to be adjusted, basically? Keep or delete or it's even, should not be there, it should be delete. For example, revenues. Well, revenues you should know. Revenues should be on the income statement. So you should be focusing on the income statement. You go to the income statement and you would look at revenues for the second quarter of year nine. You would look at year nine, second quarter. Did it decrease by this amount? To 18,254. If it's correct, you keep it. If it's not correct, you wanna compute the decrease and find out. Or let's assume you're not giving this information, then you need to delete it and that information is not giving. So this is basically what the document review is. But notice they're giving you a lot. You're giving you an income statement, a balance sheet, consolidated cash flow. But it seems here, for example, the first section it deals with the revenues. The increase in revenues for the year nine to date compared to the same year, compared to the same period in year eight was due to higher sales of the home theater category. With the increase being partially offset by lower sales in the company's audio and theme categories. Again, you have to go back and look at your income statement. Maybe the notes might have some information as well, but it has to do with your revenues. And you have to look at if whether that statement is correct about the home theater category. The fifth type of task-based simulation is research tasks. And basically here, you have to research your online authoritative literature. Basically, do you know how to do research? Because in the real world, you are expected to do so. Whether you are working in tax, preparing financial statements or audit. In all three, you have to do this research. Your CPA review course will show you this and you need to, like for example, in my opinion, you should ace this. The research you should ace this. It's not difficult. You have to learn it. And once you learn it, it's basically you can apply it. Also, college tax book. Your income tax course will show you how to do that. Your intermediate accounting will show you how to do that. I don't teach those. I don't teach research a lot. Maybe I should do that. That's why I don't have part-hat lectures here. Maybe I should do that. But that's something you should get 100% at, okay? Now, all these simulations, they could be very easy. They could be very difficult. Even a choice list. If they give you a lot of information, you could be overwhelmed. So that's why you have to relax. Say, what are they asking me? What are they asking me? I have the answer. I just have to select the right answer. The document review could be easy. It could be very difficult. Same thing with journal entries. So the point that I'm trying to make. Yes, it could be easy. It could be difficult. What are you telling me? You're not giving me any information. What I'm trying to tell you is, don't be intimidated by those task-based simulations. Let me show you a research. Just basically they're asking you to research. You can pull the authoritative literature. For example, this is a tax code. And you have to look under the IRS code and input the IRS, the proper IRS code. If you're looking at something for financial statements, you might look under FASB. If you're looking something for auditing, you may look under AICPA. If you're looking for something, maybe ethics or professional standard, you would look under the AICPA. So you have to know where to look. But again, you should be able, most of you should be able to ace the research tasks. And the others, be comfortable, be confident. The task-based simulation, they're no different than your multiple choice in a different format. So it's the same information. You studied it. But you have to prepare for it differently. Your three sources, the first source is your CPA review course. The second, the first source is this. Like, if I want to say which one are the best sources, your CPA review course, one, college textbook. Second, and Farhat lecture, third, okay? Because in college textbook, you have exercises. And this is what I have. But obviously college textbook will have more than Farhat lectures. But if you understand the material, then it's easy for you. I mean, Farhat lectures would still help you substantially in understanding the material. So understanding the material is a prerequisite. So understanding is prerequisite, okay? And I can do that. I can help you understand the material better to solve these questions. But I don't have CPA simulations as of today. And when I do, I'm gonna make a big announcement that now I can provide you with extra sample simulation. So don't be intimidated by CPA, by the simulations. Be confident. Farhat lectures is here to help you. Your CPA review course is there to help you. And sometime you might have to buy an additional simulations. If that's what you have to do, buy the additional simulations, go to another CPA review course and buy the simulations to practice. But anyhow, I'm gonna again invite you to go to farhatlectures.com to help you understand the material. This will help you improve your score, improve your understanding, use your information on the CPA review course better and do better on the exam. Good luck, study hard and stay safe.