[vones]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on the BEC tests. I am using Becker for review. I just had success with my first test–Auditing–passing with an 86. BEC seems like its easy to underestimate, which scares me. I wanted to follow the same format I used for Auditing, but recent family and personal events have precluded me from doing so. I have 12 days until my test and I have a general understanding of most of the material excluding Cost (which I’m sure is crucial, and SOME financial management problems).

I guess I’m seeking advice on the balance of each unit on the exam. Business structures, Economics, and IT seem purely memorization, while FM and Cost seem heavy on formulas and arithmetic? Is this how the test is set up? How many problems can I expect? Where would you recommend I focus my attention?

I’m finishing up my second review of FM with a pretty good understanding, and I am fairly comfortable with Business Structures and Economics. This weekend I plan on becoming very comfortable with IT, and next week (Mon-Thurs) im focusing on cost. Then im going to spend 1 day on each section reviewing everything and doing the MC over and over until my test on July 21st.

This is similar to what I did with Auditing, except i was more focused from the beginning and I didn’t have a major interruption 2 weeks into studying.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Vones-

Do the Business Structures and IT chapters really well.

You do not need to spend a lot of time on the Econ stuff.

You do need a good grasp of the Finance and Cost chapters; though the mcq's I saw on the exam were less calculation intensive and less complicated than the ones in Becker.

A good chunk of the exam is theory questions, so try to get as many points as possible from those.

Know the “core” formula well. While there are dozens of formulas in BEC, few are key and focus on really understanding those.

Apart from Becker, I had used the Wiley CD and I felt that the questions on that resembled the exam style much more than Becker. I don't know if you've done the supplemental questions in Becker for Ch3 and 5, imo a good chunk of them are overkill!

Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

Your plan looks great and really solid. The best advice I can give you regarding BEC is do not underestimate it. I used Becker 2009 and thank God I passed BEC on my second try.

I wish you good luck on the test, stay positive, calm and focused.

By the way I did the supplemental questions for chapter 3 and 5. They might look overwhelming but I thought it was great help. Just take it easy and break them into small groups.

[vones]

thank you both for your advice!

[Anonymous]

Know the IT Chapter inside and out (read any updates on the Knowledge Base, too). I'd definitely do all, even supplemental, homework questions for 3 & 5. The actual exam won't be as hard as the Becker practice questions, so if you know the Becker questions, you'll be set.

[VTHokie13]

I just had BEC yesterday (7/10) and I feel fairly good about it. I have been telling my friends that if I had to compare my “feeling” of the questions on the actual exam to Becker, I would say Becker questions were 50% hard, 30% medium-hard and 20% medium-easy. The feeling I got from the actual exam was about 20% was “hard”, 50% was medium, and 30% was medium-easy (sorry if my quantification is confusing). Basically I thought Becker was much harder. I spent one week going over the video lectures, reviewing the chapters, and working all of the MCQs. Then I spent the next week simply going over the chapters again and working the MCQs for a second time (and third if I struggled), then took the final exams. Scored about a 65 and 70 on the final exams my first time through. I think if you have gone through all the material and worked all the problems, focus in on the topics you struggle with and you should do fine. The computational problems were definitely not as complex as the majority of the Becker problems. The conceptual were definitely no harder. Good luck!

Virginia: Becker Self-Study (Followed the bootcamp schedule)
BEC (7/10/10) 84 REG (7/31/10) 80
AUD (7/17/10) 81 FAR (8/14/10) 76

[NJCPA2B]

My advice is to keep a good pace during the exam. It's very easy to run out of time with BEC. Be prepared to guess “b” if you have no idea and what an answer is. I remember 3 problems which I thought I knew how to solve but couldn't come up with the anwer kept on trying and still couldn't get the answer…..I then realized I had 2 1/2 minutes to solve 9 MCQs…..I just guess “b”s for all of them and thought I would fail……..boy was I lucky…!

BEC=77, FAR=78, REG=73,74,80, AUD=70,69, 84 DONE!

[vones]

another question…

has anyone used the becker flashcards? if so, how well did the encompass exam material? i seem to be learning a lot from them (particularly in IT and COST), but i don't whether to focus more on those, or reviewing the outlines? obviously a healthy mixture of both would be appropriate, but i feel as though the flash cards do a pretty good job of covering the important material.

thanks!

[Author]

Replies