BEC Study Group – Q2 2018 - Page 14

@kahloon – really? I didn't know about that. If that's the case, I don't know how I passed FAR with a 87 and I felt like I didn't nail some of the SIMs….couldn't have gotten my score without getting partial credits.

@kahloon – I would focus on your weak areas because you never know if you're going to get questions that have topics that you weren't so strong on while studying on the actual exam.

@kahloon I'm using Wiley to study. Unless they just changed how they grade their SIMs within the last few weeks, they're grading based on partial credit where applicable on the practice SIMs. Obviously there are some SIMs that can't be graded with partial credit like the research SIMs.

@kahloon, I used Surgent to study and they give partial credit on SIMs and they told me that is the way the CPA exam is graded as well.

@CPAoneday,

Was there any of the new ERM framework? Ive havent had much time to go over the updated materials Becker put out.

Been following this thread the last few days as I prepared for BEC, and wanted to share my experience after taking it today.

First testlet was difficult for sure, lots of calculations. I flagged a good 15 of them. This stressed me out because all I could think was, yup I bombed this testlet. Sidebar- anyone here had an experience where they messed up one MC testlet and ended up passing? When I passed audit I noticed my MC testlets increase in difficulty, so this first testlet for BEC had me really worried.

Second testlet was a lot easier, definitely more conceptual questions. I think there were only like 3 total calculation questions. Of course, this re-enforced my thought that I bombed the first testlet. However, I feel okay about almost all the multiple choice in the second testlet so hopefully that'll help me out.

Before I get into SIMs, I'd like to note that I typically don't practice sims before my exams. I usually just focus on multiple choice questions/ my notes and understanding the concepts. Okay, so onto sims. I don't know if anyone else experienced this with BEC recently, but the sims were MUCH simpler than I was expecting. I think I read somewhere that someone's sims were like 20 questions within each one? Not my experience at all. I was almost concerned that I was missing something. But yeah, much simpler than I was expecting.

I left myself about 50 minutes for my written communications, and finished the exam with 4 minutes left (surprising because I usually run out of time). The WCs took me maybe a minute or 2 per memo to think about how to answer them, but otherwise not bad.

Overall tips I'd share:
-Budget your time. I usually spend way too much time on multiple choice which ends up making me rush through sims. I'm glad I budgeted my time for this exam because I was able to relax and work on sims and review them, and can feel somewhat confident about them (don't wanna be too confident because you just never know with this exam).
-Try to know at least 70-80% of every chapter. I think the AICPA blueprints were pretty accurate in terms of content area.

Unfortunately I don't think I can share anymore due to the AICPA guidelines (if you have a question that wouldn't violate the guidelines, I'd be happy to answer), but I hope this helps! Praying for a pass for everyone!

@yoshi thanks for you feedback! I'm not sure what it is but the operations management portion, particularly cost accounting, of BEC is just plain dull and uninteresting to me. I feel like I'm 10 feet in the weeds. It's killing my motivation to finish strong for this exam. I've been studying 3-4 hours everyday for the past 2 weeks for BEC. Maybe I'm just burned out. Maybe it's just Wiley throwing the kitchen sink at me with everything that might be on the exam. AICPA can't ask questions on every thing. GEEZ!! AUD wasn't this bad and FAR to me wasn't this bad either because I could at least see the forest over the trees.