[caotran]

Anyone took BEC, what did you do when you didn’t know what to write in WC section ? Like absolutely have no idea what to write.

[KJ]

I have not taken BEC but I have heard lot of people who took them saying just write key words related to the topics but do write something which includes opening paragraph, body/story and conclusion (kind of re-iterate your story).

FAR - August 2016
AUD - September 2016
REG - October 2016
BEC - November 2016

Remember: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein

[caotran]

THank you. That's a good point. I will take BEC in 10 days and don't know how to prepare for WC part.

[Anonymous]

What kanwak78 wrote is the main concensus. I used it and passed with an 82 english being my second language. Do not worry too much if you do not know the actual answer to the questions just watch your grammar, go straight to the point and make an intro, body and conclusion.

[Valar Dohaeris]

I took BEC twice (passed both times with an 85 (expired) and 83). The first time I took BEC, there was a WC on economic indicators that I had zero clue how to answer. The second time I took BEC, there was a WC on interest rate swaps that I had zero clue how to answer.

As mentioned above, I also stuck to script of ensuring I used proper English and a coherent format (intro, body, conclusion). I'll just expand on the interest rate swap WC, because I took that 2 weeks ago. Literally, all I could recall about an interest rate swap was that it's a derivative, a hedging instrument, and a complex accounting concept. The background of the question was something along the lines of I'm the Controller and the CFO noticed interest rates have fallen since our company took out some high interest debt instruments in prior years. Now, the call of the question was the CFO wanted to know how we could benefit from obtaining some interest rate swaps.

What I did was essentially explain that an interest rate swap is a hedging derivative instrument which was the extent of my ability to demonstrate my technical understanding of an interest rate swap. I leveraged the concepts of forward/future contracts which are derivative instruments I did know. I thought this could add some (bonus/sympathy) points to my “technical understanding” of derivatives to any reviewer. I articulated a fictitious scenario how in the past we had some financial gains from forward/future contract derivatives, and this was received well by our shareholders. I added to my fictitious story that some of the drawbacks of purchasing interest rate swaps is we will have to contract consultants to assist us with how to disclose these instruments on our financial statements. So, similar to what's been said above, I leveraged other BEC concepts and tried to convey a tone to a reader that I have thought of various other impacts this derivative could have on our business environment.

Briefly, for the WC about economic indicators, I took a similar approach. However, this was back in 2014, and I swear the WC didn't include a memo format atop the writing space. This threw me off when I took BEC a couple of weeks ago. In any case, the WC about economic indicators was to an audience of subordinates. So, I maintained a tone that I was emailing subordinates and offered to discuss the topic in person.

BEC - 85
AUD - 81
REG - 84
FAR - 7/24/16

[Pete E. Rino]

For the WC in BEC, they care about two things:
1) Formal writing. No bullet points, text talk, etc. Paragraph form, proper grammar, etc. is what is needed. Write like a professional is what it means.
2) Make sure you address and answer the issue being asked. It does NOT have to be factually correct. As long as you answer it, that is all that matters.

Keep this in mind: 1 of the 3 is thrown out since it is a pre-test question. Before you start look at all three, and see if one pops out and you are like “how the hell am I to answer this?” If that is the case, save it for last when you are most weary because odds are it won't count anyway. Work easiest–>hardest that way you are fresh for the ones that count. Make sure you proofread it after you finish for spelling/grammatical errors. You don't want to lose easy points because of that. If you want to use an acronym (like EPS) don't use it before you spell it out fully, i.e. In the first quarter of the year the company had an earnings per share (EPS) of $2.10, but the next quarter resulted in an EPS of $1.09. Once you say it fully and then say what the acronym is, then you can use the acronym as is. It is recommended you give about 45 minutes to the WC (~15 per WC), but if you are a person who is slow to write, or feel like you need more time, take the most 40 minutes for each of the first three testlets at most, that way you will have an hour for the 3 WC. It should not take you more than 20 minutes to do a WC.

I passed and the way I structured it was:
1) Brief one sentence intro to explain the point of the memo.
2) 2 body paragraphs are usually the case when I was practising them on Becker and on actual exam. In these paragraphs, answer the questions/topic addressed.
3) Another one sentence conclusion stating that they can contact me at their earliest convenience.

[Author]

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