[SallyCPA]

Hello everyone,

The first time I took it I got a 74 and walked out thinking it wasn’t too bad. I honestly think that my testlets never got that much harder because I do not remember any very complex questions. My score report showed comparable in three areas of the multiple choice and weaker in the other 3. My written communication was stronger.

I just took BEC for the second time yesterday. I got to the second testlet and noticed it was much more difficult than my first time I took BEC. I spent a lot of time on the second testlet because there was a lot of heavy calculations. Got to the third testlet and noticed it was just as difficult with a lot more complex questions than my first time I took it. Finally got to the written communications with 15 minutes left. I finished two (which were pretty well written) got to the third with very little time left and was only able to put an intro and a couple sentences for the body paragraph before time ran out. My question is, if I didn’t finish one of the written communications completely, will that hurt me? I would love to hear your input and experiences.

[Wannafree]

Based on your harder and harder testlets and 2 well written memos You will pass for sure. You could write 2 memos good and third at least you wrote some intro and closing.That's good enough to pass BEC.

[SallyCPA]

@Nath I hope so. I actually only had an opening paragraph for the 3rd written communication and about half of the closing sentence done. I just checked with my friend who took BEC in another location and he had the same first two memos as me but our third one was different. Would that mean that the 3rd one was a test/sample memo?

[Wannafree]

@SallyCPA I assumed it as non test and still feel you would pass based on my own experience.As you said you did well on two other memos and also opening and closing part you wrote ( mean you didn't leave blank ) ,as it is automated you would pass assuming it's non test .If it's test memo then you will get above 82.

[marine]

Hopefully it was a test/sample memo.Even if it was not, I heard people passed the BEC with 2-3 sentences in the body in all 3 and they still pass. As you sad, you did 2!and didn't leave blanc #3.And the good sign is that you noticed that testlets were harder and harder. You will pass!!!
I got 68 on BEC although I was doing 85-90 and higher at home:(( I think I did very bed on my memos. I had 30 min for them, but….English is not my first language and I have trouble with this part. I am going to take it in 2 weeks.
And I also know feeling of 74. I got it for FAR before I passed it!

[marine]

Do you remember your WC topics?

[jjjgolf500]

@marine people are not allowed to share that detailed info. But if you are scoring well on MCQ and understand the concepts, the WC part will be easy!

[marine]

Oh!! Didn't know that and talked about my existence on the last exam and the topic that I had trouble with. Thank you and good luck!!!

[SallyCPA]

The first two written communication topics were not out of the ordinary but the third one kinda made me think. I just think its weird that my friend had the same first two memos but that our 3rd memos were different.

[marine]

My 1st memo was hard and I guess it was test one, but the other two were not too difficult. My problem is English, because it's my 3rd language, but I tried to put maximum key words.

[SallyCPA]

@Marine I think the trick with BEC is the multiple choice. If you can do better than most people then you should be good.

For the difficulty on the testlets the 2nd time taking BEC, I feel like I could tell that the second and third testlets were much harder because the calculations were 3 to 4 steps, instead of the simple one step ratio calculations in testlet one. Can anyone concur with this on their BEC exam or talk about their experience about difficulty? Its agony having to wait until Feb 7th to hear back!

[Anonymous]

I had a very similar experience to yours when I took BEC and passed with an 81. My 2nd and 3rd testlets were definitely harder and more calc heavy with some tricky conceptual problems that I was able to spot. It took me forever to get through the 2nd testlet. I had about 45 min left to do my WC's which is way more time than you had but I ended up spending way too much time on 2 of the WC’s and ended up with 6 minutes left for the last WC and I ended up putting some random answer that didn’t even make sense. I barely was able to form a good 3 sentences before time ran out. Given that the MC is weighted 85% I would not worry too much. Even if it wasn’t a complete response you will maybe receive partial points and remember that 1 is pretest.

[aaronmo]

I really feel like there should be a waiver for non-native english speakers…

It's hard enough taking an exam like this in a non-native tongue, and if a business hires a non-native speaker, they're going to be understanding and accepting of communications like this.

[Anonymous]

Those WC are making me nervous! I am normally good with writing, but when you are on the clock and the topic is boring and hard to write about to say the least-I am very nervous about what I will be able to spit out in hopefully 45 to an hour!

[SallyCPA]

@AshiaJ That sounds exactly what happened to me so thats definitely a breath of fresh air. Its funny because the first time I took BEC, I walked out thinking it was tough but not that bad. The second time I noticed how much harder it got in the 2nd and 3rd testlet. I definitely had to guess on a couple but I feel like I had a much better grasp on some of the questions. BEC is the one test I actually noticed questions getting more difficult.

[SallyCPA]

Anyone else have a similar experience with BEC? This February 7th release date is killing me!

[Author]

Replies