[DTXCPA]

Hey guys,

Just took BEC today. It was my second time taking it after a 74 on the first go. I did find it harder than my first attempt though. The MCQ’s were alright. Some were a little challenging, some a little simpler. The sims were extremely time consuming. All of them had multiple documents, which meant that I was only left with 30 mins for the last testlet. I think I did fine on 1 WC, but the other 2 I just wrote about 5 lines and tried to use as many buzz words as I could in those 5 lines. Just wondering if that would be sufficient. Have any of you written very brief WCs and still managed a good score?

[tncpa2018]

I made an 82 in my exam last month. I barely wrote anything in my wc due to time constraint – I only had 20 minutes left to write for the 3 written communication. I was sure my wc responses would have failed me, but judging from my score the mcq and sims must have saved my b*tt. Afterall the wc is only 15% of the exam. See my exam experience in the link below.

https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-forum/topic/bec-is-hard/

[CS]

@ DTXCPA Your experience sounds similar to others here, with the SIMs being the most difficult part of the exam, best of luck! Regarding the MCQ, did it seem IT heavy? I noticed since the 2017 changed many candidates have stated that there is a significant amount of IT and no real way to prepare for it. Hoping you can break this exam and pass!

@tnacpa2018 Congratulations! I know (as do many others) that feeling right after the exam when you “know” you failed, then you end up passing. Sucks at first but great motivation to keep at it

[Go.For.Broke]

@DTXCPA I put together long entries with a lot of buzz words for my WC section of the BEC exam, but I only barely passed (75). This, I'm sure, was mostly due to doing not-so-hot on the other sections of the exam. I think my WC slightly helped me out. If you feel you did well in the other sections of the exam, you probably passed – as long as (like you said) you used lots of buzz words that the “grader” will see and give good marks for.

Good luck!

[DTXCPA]

Thanks for the input guys. I does make me feel better for now.

tncpa2018, glad you passed.

SBNY2K17, yes the mcqs were. I felt Becker had prepared me for some of them while some looked totally unfamiliar and I had no clue. Assuming and hoping they are pretest since we are no IT majors.
I didn’t find the sims technically hard. It’s just that I had to go through 4-5 pages of information to answer them.

Go.For.Broke, glad you’re done.

[CS]

@ DTXCPA Thank you for the input, best of luck on the next exam

[IGOTTHEKEYS]

@DTXCPA

You need the Yeager cram. Buy all the Yeager Crams and do all only 100 MCQ.

I passed 3 parts only with the Yeager cram and i only read the cram only and did 100mcq. I also called Yaeger himself to give me motivation weeks and even the day before the exam.

[Recked]

BEC experience.
Not feeling great about this one, but I never feel good about them, except for REG, but even that was more I would be disappointed if I failed, but hey it could happen. First testlet was very calculation heavy. Ended up taking 50 minutes. Part of it was me double checking my work worried I made a simple calculator error. 2nd testlet was less calculation, was able to get that one done by 2:30. 3rd testlet had one ok SIM and then one that was just off the wall insanity. I felt like it would have taken me 15 minutes just to read through all the details to calculate the thing they were looking for me to calculate. Instead of working through the long calc's I just eyeballed it and made judgement decisions. I think I called it a wrap by 1:40 to get the break and try to leave myself enough time for #4 and #5 in case I had more monster SIMs. 4's SIMs were relatively easier and I ended up with 59 minutes for the WC portion.
If I were to do it again I would have allocated more time to testlet #3 for that crazy SIM. I could have been wrapped up with the WC with 15-20 minutes to spare, but I paid for that 4 hours so you bet your ass I reviewed my WC until the bitter end. If you are a fast/proficient typer I would suggest no more than 15 minutes for each WC and even that is pushing it, you could probably get away with less.

AL is available in testlet 3 and 4, but not 5 for the WC. Not that it will do you any good.
The spell check is more of a one click and wait for the choices to pop up, vs a right click on the misspelled word in a normal WP program.
Overall I felt like for the WC I wrote what I knew, whether or not that matched up with exactly what they wanted me to write… not sure. Tried to use as many key terms and buzz words as I could. I wouldn't say the WC were atrocious, but I could have done better.

The SIMs seemed drop down box heavy-ish. I thought after my FAR experience last year that they did away with the drop box method.

PRO TIP: READ THE QUESTIONS/work area first. Figure out exactly what they want to know. You can get lost in the information so easily, so just focus on what they are asking, what you need to know to answer it, then find the info, solve the problem, and move on to the next one.

[Accounting123]

@reckedracing

I see you also took audit and did very well. Would you be able to provide some information about your experience with that and any recommendations you may have?

You did it so fast, and I was just wondering how you were able to do it and what helped.

[J King]

@accounting123, hey.. check this out.

You're welcome.

@reckedracing, your story kind of relates to my AUD exam last week.. all drop box, no DRS.. Even though some said I have solid chance of passing because of no DRS, I still never felt good..

[Anonymous]

OMG very well explained ..
I just finished BEC today – 1st attempt !
I was reading what you wrote .. and it was like reading my mind .!
I was shocked !! .. I expected easier exam . I think I am going to fail.!

Wish you a good luck .. hope you will pass .

[CS]

@ reckedracing Good luck, pulling for your journey to be over. Regarding the MCQs, did you find them closer in difficulty in length/format closer to Gleim's TB as opposed to Roger? I know you used both by the end, as am I, and I am assuming the calculation intensive ones are more like Gleim which often have multiple equations/steps to set up. Thanks for the tip for looking at what the question is actually asking. I find it's worse than FAR, as I see MCQs with tons of lines of info which look relevant because at some point we need to calculate ratios with them but the final question only uses 2 or 3 of the items.

@ Che3000 Best of luck to you as well. I know BEC has the reputation of being the “easiest” but it's material is so varied and random I don't think one could afford to take it lightly, despite what a few posters I've seen say. What surprised you about the exam?

[mramos]

What are the major changes noticed from last year ? format?

[Recked]

I honestly can't really answer that question as I don't have a clear recollection of what the CPA exam questions were really like.
My gut feeling is that they were perhaps less wordy/complicated as compared to Gleim, as an overall impression.
Some were straight forward ish, some were more involved.
I would not describe any of them as easy. This exam is such a mind f*ck, through and through.
I always feel mentally raped when I walk out of that room.

Prometric staff honestly said I looked “shell shocked” when I walked out of FAR, after the timer pinged me out at the end of 4 hours.
Intense… thats the best way to describe them.

[CS]

@ ReckedRacing Thank you for the feedback, and I hear you, these exams test your mental fortitude and endurance as much as anything.

[CS]

Figured I'd just update this thread instead of creating a new one.

I sat for BEC yesterday (2/26), and my biggest piece of advice pretty much parrots what has been written here…COSO + IT. Think of the way people stress Govt/NFP for FAR, but even moreso. I was ready for a bunch of COSO/IT, and still was amazed at the amount of Qs regarding them.

Regarding SIMs, only because of time I felt constrained and had to make some guesses. Also wasted 5 – 6 min on one because I was a moron and had tunnel vision, was overlooking a simple item which obviously kept me from getting the correct answer to a problem I knew was easy points and didn't stop until I got it (eventually but what a time waster).

Once I was done with MCQs, I had 2:20 on the clock. I was shooting for 2:30, but my hand scrubbed some of the marker of my scrap work and I had to rewrite/redo a couple of MCQs. I learned from my previous experiences not to dwell to much on any MCQ with the clock ticking away. I didn't practice any written communications so I wanted to leave an hour for them but ended up leaving 45 minutes. Definitely rushed through a document heavy SIM with tons of information. The scrolling is such a pain. These SIMs weren't on par with FAR but for me were definitely much more difficult (especially with the amount of information and documents) than Audit. Also, you do have access to AL, but like ReckedRacing mentioned, don't really see how much it would help.

Written Communication I thought I would have a brain freeze but my hands just kept typing, I was throwing in “buzz words”, and the auto-correct feature is pretty handy.

Main takeaway, study everything, but know and love COSO. IT also, but I do think it's a hit or miss. I had Roger plus NINJA/Gleim test banks. For the last couple days of review I hammered NINJA IT because it seemed to be the most comprehensive and Gleim COSO.

[Author]

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