[Biff Tannen]

Studied using Becker. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:

1. I had a similar experience with the audit section, I feel Becker does a good job of preparing you for the MCQs, but the BEC simulations are Insane!! Lots of facts and documents to review. I wish Becker did a better job with the sims portion.
2. What’s up with all the COSO questions? It felt like I sat for the audit exam all over again.
3. The calculations on the MCQs were pretty easy. 1 or 2 steps to arrive at the final answer. Not like the Becker MCQs, which were overly difficult and tedious.
4. I did note that the 2nd MCQ testlet was more difficult than the first. The questions were way more conceptual and the answer choices were longer. The correct answer was not so obvious as in the first testlet.
5. I was taking too long on the simulations, so I guessed on a few answer choices in a few of the simulations. I wanted to leave enough time for the WC and earn those easy points!!

I walked out of BEC feeling OKAY. When I walked out of audit, it literally felt like I had failed, but it was my first exam. I ended up passing audit on my first try. Hopefully I passed the BEC section too!!

[GetThisCPA94]

How long did you prepare? And what did you use? I'm using Becker and NINJA and I like the supplement that NINJA gave me, a very nice “filler” after Becker.

Also, what was your study tactics?

[Biff Tannen]

I used Becker for 90% of my studies and I supplemented with ninja audio and ninja mcqs. I just went through the Becker study program as it’s laid out. I skipped the skills practice sessions though. I circled back to those during my final review week, and I only did the skills practice for the topics I was struggling with. I strongly recommend the Becker final review book. It helped a lot!! My BIGGEST recommendation is to brush up on COSO and IT. As far as the simulations go, I really don’t know how to recommend a good way to study those. The BEC sims were way harder than the audit sims. The AICPA simulations were NOTHING compared to the actual sims I saw today. The level of difficulty on the BEC simulations are a hit or miss, just make sure to study everything!!

[Painted_Jeans]

I failed BEC in April and getting ready to retake it in September :-(((((((
This exam makes me so depressed.. this part in particular. I took REG about two weeks ago and have mixed feelings but material is definitely more “digestible” for me, I didn't mind doing endless MCQ sessions for REG.

BEC just straight up sucks.. I had bunch of cost calcs in MCQs and it totally threw me off, i hate it with passion. My score was low the first attempt, so now I don't even know how to study for the retake. Do I start from scratch? Should I do MCQs and take notes?

I have access to Becker and Wiley. Cannot stand Becker lectures.. MCQs are alright I guess.. similar to Wiley, a lot of them are the same.

Please let me know your thoughts..

[GetThisCPA94]

@LIFO , thanks for the recommendations. I find that Becker's MCQ are usually the same format as the test, so they usually prepare me the most but I find that they can get repetitive and only present the questions to directly address the the topic so to speak, they don't really make you “think” as hard. Ninja certainly supplements it with MCQ which make you think/are worded differently. Two more quick questions. Can you try to explain the nature of the SIMs? AUD's seemed like a combo of Audit and extremely basic level FAR material. REG was straight to the point. Was BEC's overwhelming and somewhat “unanswerable” upon first review of the SIM? In addition to that, did you find that BEC was a lot harder than AUD in terms of being prepared for the exam?

@Painted_Jeans , I took AUD and REG and after barely passing both, I have realized that there's no shortcuts to studying (at least if you want to avoid taking it again). My method includes skimming/reading the Module (yes, literally from the first page to the last), typing down the key points from each paragraph and subsection in an excel doc, and then handwriting an even more summarized version of those notes. I also handwrite each significant example and illustration in the book and go back and make up my own questions/examples (I find this easy to do with the somewhat simplicity of calculations in BEC). After that, I type the flashcard questions and answers down in a word doc (the info on the flashcards make up 75-80% of the exam imo). I try to get two chapters out of the way during the week and then use the weekends to study both chapters together. While it may seem like overkill, I also do 80% of each Module's MC and write out the questions and answers and explanations. I write down the ninja notes as a precursor to all of this and then dive into the Becker process (mentioned above)

I know this process sounds extremely tedious, but with the simplicity and succinctness of the subject matter in BEC, I've found it much easier to continuously drill all concepts and keywords in my head and reap the benefits in the long run when it comes to the review. Now the MCQ are much much easier and it's showing how easy BEC really is compared to AUD and REG

[Ralphie Dos Nachos]

@LIFO was AICPA sample exam useful this time around?

[Biff Tannen]

@Tiramisu only the mcqs were useful. The simulations on the aicpa sample test were not representative of the exam at all. I was completely blindsided with the difficulty of the simulations on the actual exam. All four simulations had 5-8 documents to review and required lots of calculations. The topics that were tested were not general and were over very specific topics not heavily covered in Becker. I literally had to guess on a few. I hope I passed!

[Biff Tannen]

@painted jeans if you’re not understanding a topic fully then there’s really no point in hammering lots of mcqs. A better approach imo is to rewatch the lecture, do the skills practice, then practice with mcqs. Even if you don’t like the Becker lectures, I would just bite the bullet and watch them.

[Biff Tannen]

@getthiscpa the BEC sims are way different then the audit sims. Each BEC sim has three different tasks, and each task requires a different kind of calculation using the same documents. For example, task 1 might ask you to calculate the ratios, task 2 might ask you to calculate the cash collections and payments, etc. There’s four different simulations, but it feels like your working 12 total simulations since each simulation has 3 tasks. It’s a pain in the ass and time consuming!!

[Justin]

@LIFO Did the SIMS provide any formula sheets?

[Ralphie Dos Nachos]

@LIFO how were you scoring on becker MCQs first time around? i just finished ch3 and I'm generally anywhere between 50-70%

[Biff Tannen]

From what I hear, all exams provide formula sheets for ratios, so you should be fine

[Biff Tannen]

@tiramisu I’d say that’s pretty normal. You have to consider that the Becker mcqs are much more difficult than the actual exam. Even if you look at the 2019 aicpa released questions, the “hard” questions are a piece of cake compared to the Becker questions. If you have access to Becker, I’d skim over the released questions and see for yourself

[Painted_Jeans]

@LifoTheParty I'm planning to watch those videos on cost acc. with Bob, Jeff posted in another BEC related post on here, but other than that I think i am learning from the questions.. Becker lectures is just reading the book and circle that circle this and those mnemonics are just total crap that does nothing for me. I cannot remember none of them. I heard that a lot people like Becker, I dont mind their mcqs, they're definitely good practice but lectures… :-((((((((

[Beth]

@lifotheparty What did you mean when you mentioned you wanted to leave enough time for the WC and “earn those easy points?”
I'm taking BEC (my first CPA exam) in a few days and I'm pretty terrified of what the WC will be like.

[Author]

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