[wrj02]

SO…Monday I found out I failed BEC….not too much of a surprise, but what was more surprising was that I got a 73 (which irks me). The fact that I failed wasn’t a surprise because when I was sitting for the exam, I:

1) checked to make sure I was taking BEC for the CPA exam. I was getting all sorts of questions that I had never seen in Becker. Granted, I only used becker…and yes, I am aware that sometimes BEC can be a crap shoot. But I was literally guessing on almost half of each testlet, not because I had recognized the information but didn’t know the answer, but because I had never seen it before!

2) Contemplated walking out because I knew where this was going. Weeks of non-stop studying and now, non-stop guessing. Bonus was I knew all the WC’s, and I feel I am fairly strong in writing, so I think that went well. Still have yet to see a progress report.

My question is, has anyone else gone through this? I feel like I was fairly prepared, maybe not for a 99, but at least prepared enough to make a 75 or better. I didn’t feel weak in any certain areas as I had in past exams.

It is busy season after all, so that was my goal to begin with. Because of this I want to sit again in a few weeks, just doing a review of all the chapters similar to how I review a couple weeks before a normal CPA exam.

Has anyone else had a similar situation and success in the retake?

FAR 77
REG 82
BEC 73, 83
AUD 59???, 87! DONE!

[Quinacridone]

Java230, you were one of the lucky ones in this last test window. Several of us had BEC in early April and had questions that were completely foreign. I was getting 90s and 100s in all my BEC practice exams before I went in for the test. I was blown away by some of the questions that were seemingly from a different stratosphere. I knew the Beckers material like the back of my hand. If we were allowed to talk specifically about the test questions, I would give you examples, but that can't happen.

My opinion is that the questions I had were all pre-test questions and I likely missed every one of them. The material I knew from Beckers, I was easily able to do and likely that is how I was able to get a passing score.

Thanking God, Becker, and Ninja MCQ for a pass on that test. I honestly did not believe there was anyway that I could have. BEC was BY FAR my hardest test (and I thought it would be my easiest since I love cost accounting).

REG - Nov 4, 2013: 88
FAR - Feb 27, 2014: 86
AUD - April 5, 2014: 91
BEC - May 6, 2014: 83

Florida CPA 24 July 2014
(Done in seven months - thank you Jesus!!)

[h1522gq]

Oh man. I have BEC scheduled in 4 days and I've been using Becker all the way! I hope it's not too late for me. :/

FAR - 83
BEC - 8/2014
AUD - 10/2014
REG - 11/2014

[mikecuh]

@Java

That is not correct. I have seen people say that on their exams, the Becker material covered almost everything they saw just as you said. However, there are many like me who experienced the exact opposite. I saw at least 10-15 questions that Becker never touched on once. I can legitimately say that for that specific exam I received, Becker did NOT adequately prepare me. Maybe BEC is really about the luck of the draw, but that just sucks.

[GoVPI]

@mike– you have to remember there were 12 pretest questions in there.

BEC 8/14/14 - Passed
Graduated from college 12/13/14
AUD 8/31/15 - 74. Retake - Passed
REG
FAR

[Uhartsoccer21]

If you could enter a test prepared to answer every single question it wouldn't be challenging.. They want you to use what you know and apply it to foreign concepts bc that's what you have to do in the real world. If they throw you a curveball do you sit there and panic, or do you react make a decision and mooooove on! That's why you only need a 75 to get the pass.

A - 89 10/23/2014
R - 90 2/27/2014
F - 75 5/25/2014
B - 83 8/28/2014

[Pumpkins]

I've heard from people who studied both Becker and Wiley that the questions on the actual exam were extremely random. I've heard from people doing Ninja and Gleim that they were familiar with all material on the actual BEC exam.

I'm studying Gleim and taking BEC tomorrow so I'll report back!

I think all exams have questions out of left field… I had a few on AUD that were totally random and not even very audit-related… I looked the answers up after the exam and missed all of those random questions lol… and I still killed it! So don't lose heart if you get a lot of random questions.

AUD- 93
BEC- 81
FAR- 1/26/2015
REG- TBD

CIA Exams Passed in March, 2014

[h0wdyus]

@Pumpkins

Please don't forget to post your exam experience tomorrow. Good luck.

FAR - 81 29th Aug 2013
AUD - 84
REG - 82
BEC - 89 29th Aug 2014
Using Yager

FROM NJ

[vlc1982]

I used Yaeger, Wiley book, and Ninja MCQ and I only had one or two questions where I was completely unfamiliar with the content.

FAR 66, 80
AUD 86
REG 76
BEC 74, 77 - DONE!!

Yaeger, Ninja MCQ for BEC
TX Candidate

[GoVPI]

I had atleast 2 questions word for word out of Becker.

BEC 8/14/14 - Passed
Graduated from college 12/13/14
AUD 8/31/15 - 74. Retake - Passed
REG
FAR

[h1522gq]

I agree with CPAin14 although I remember more than 2 questions straight out of Becker. The first testlet was a breeze, the second was brutal, and the third was about as brutal as the second.

I was having a really hard time with the IT chapter but found that everything worked out ok. There was a huge discrepancy between what Becker was teaching about IT and what I learned in the IT classes required in school. The exam was closer to my IT classes. I was pleased!

I'm still waiting on my score, but barring a complete bomb on the WC section I think I at least passed.

FAR - 83
BEC - 8/2014
AUD - 10/2014
REG - 11/2014

[Garion]

I sat yesterday for BEC and like ‘h522gq'… I found the first testlet to fairly easy and was almost afraid of how easy it was. Finished it in 30 mins… so I took another five just to review all of the questions to make sure I wasn't delirious. Reality quickly set in… the second was brutal as there were seven questions I flagged for review. The third was a little less brutal than the second but not by much.

I found a couple of questions on the exam to be almost identical to the Becker homework. In contrast, some question topics came from nowhere or had pseudo/synonyms which I had not seen before… So I did the educated guess thing and moved on.

Theory to calc ratio was probably 70/30 and the calcs were not difficult at all compared to Becker homework problems. Pretty sure Becker just scares the hell out of you into over studying to get a high pass rate.

All in all… I think I did well… but you never know.

Icing on the cake was holding out for two days to open my FAR results. After finishing BEC… I calmly walked to the car… opened my iPad to read the results and screamed my head off when I saw the word ‘PASS.' I scared the hell out of some lady walking by. I then proceeded to scream some more.

FAR 84 (7/24/14)
BEC 87 (8/28/14)
REG 84 (10/14/14)
AUD 86 (11/24/14)
Ethics 98 (1/19/15)
Licensed CPA: March 13, 2015

[Anonymous]

Flagging seven questions isn't all that bad. A few probably were pre-test problems and even if you missed most of the ones you flagged, you will score over 80% on the test let.

[h0wdyus]

@garion

Finally another one who has come forward to say the test was okay. Other one was amanda.runia.

FAR - 81 29th Aug 2013
AUD - 84
REG - 82
BEC - 89 29th Aug 2014
Using Yager

FROM NJ

[Anonymous]

This got me feeling nervous…

[Garion]

@CPAHOPEFULL11… Thanks for the confidence!!! The further I get away from the test the better I feel about the prep and the effort on the exam. Looking forward to the release on the 9th. On to REG.

@h0wdyus… It really was ok as some of the MCQ's were very easy but I also completed the Becker homework MCQ's at least two times and for those areas I struggled… I did them three times. By the end I was scoring in the high 80's to low 90's without referencing any material. Some of that is memorization where possible but I was able to get through the calcs fairly well which was the important part. I must qualify as I am an old guy trying to re-teach myself many of these items

@Nick… You are going to be nervous anyway so give it you best today and let us know how you did. Know that many of us read the posts and get more worried as the date approaches. Best of luck and have a great weekend.

FAR 84 (7/24/14)
BEC 87 (8/28/14)
REG 84 (10/14/14)
AUD 86 (11/24/14)
Ethics 98 (1/19/15)
Licensed CPA: March 13, 2015

[Author]

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