[reallytired]

Ok I am desperate for some help. I have been reading the book and listening to the lectures for BEC IT with Becker… But the homework questions ask stuff that was definitely not in the book. Am I missing something? Are we already expected to know a bit about IT or am I not comprehending what the book is saying? I keep scoring awful scores on it all and I am just so confused and becoming increasingly frustrated.

B 10/29/16
A 10/1/16
R 9/2/16
F 7/26/16

[ixlr82day]

I have a IT background so the IT section when I took it last year was passable but if I did not have that background I would have failed. Becker definitely did not go in depth on the subject though. I am not familiar with the new Becker review on this section but if the homework is way harder than the lectures I would go over the homework and if I get it wrong I would try to read and remember why I got it wrong. Also does the AICPA offer test questions for this area? I sometimes look into that or if you want try Ninja MC. Maybe someone can offer you advice on whether that would help.

I totally believe you can pass! I saw your notes for FAR and know that you put in a ton of effort into the subject. You will do well! The journey is almost over and you got this! Cmon! I have an exam on Monday too and I am struggling to stay focused instead of thinking of going to the beach and buying a surfboard…Almost over! Good luck to all of us!

[ixlr82day]

btw that thread seems to have a bunch of good info. Good luck!

https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-forum/topic/bec-2nd-fail/

[BBHYX]

I have found that becker MCQ don't match the book/lecture for every chapter in BEC to some extent, but it's the worst in IT! I think they cut out some content and rearranged some stuff in their update, and did a horrible job of matching up and updating the MCQ/

[Smith]

@reallytired I was just asking myself the same thing. Finished chapter 6 with a lot of doubts due to the MCQ. I heard that CPAreviewforfree is a good alternative as well.

[shawn in VA]

really tired-

I just took BEC yesterday (8/22) and I guess I lucked out there was not many IT questions I would say no more than 10 but half of them (5 questions) were in my study materials. I believe there are 62 MCQs now on BEC so about 16% that comes out to for IT. I Used Roger and Wiley. I would STRONGLY suggest cpareviewforfee.com. As the name suggests its free and there are 150 IT questions. Takes about 3 hours to go through them all.

I really lucked out my version of exam maybe had 1-2 left field questions on IT.

[reallytired]

@ixlr82day, The frustrating part with the IT for Becker is that when I do get a question wrong, I will click on the book link to take me to that part of the chapter that it talked about the question and there will not be a single thing on the entire page about it! So I feel like I am getting questions wrong and I can't even properly go and check why I got it wrong. We both have our exam Monday! So I wish you the best luck, hopefully we will both be celebrating the end in September.

@BBHYX, Oh my gosh, that is what it is, isn't it! They revamped all of their materials but for some reason didn't go and confirm that the homework matched up to what that chapter taught us! That makes so much more sense.

@lugomarimar, Yep I will finish the chapter tonight and am not feeling good about it at all right now. I just checked out cpareviewforfree and it looks pretty awesome, thanks for the heads up!

@Shawn in VA, Thanks for letting me know about cpareviewforfree, I just looked into it and it looks like the perfect supplement for the entire exam! I think that I would prefer IT over other topics, like cost accounting so hopefully they'll throw me a bone 🙂

B 10/29/16
A 10/1/16
R 9/2/16
F 7/26/16

[seju52179]

yeah, I felt the same with Becker. I'm super bad with computers and all the IT stuffs. What I did was just memorize the MCQs and answers that weren't covered on Becker.

[shawn in VA]

I agree really tired.

COST accounting semi difficult but the variance analysis KILLS me. You can almost be guaranteed a SIM on that. cpareviewforfree.com gives average explanations but nothing over the top if you get right or wrong answer.

[Anonymous]

I agree that Becker does not really prepare you for the IT, but from what I've read on this forum, it seems most test banks don't do a great job at covering all the IT definitions. I think that's just the nature of the section. There is no possible way to cover every definition in IT ever, especially since technology is changing all the time. I think if you can understand base words and roots then you can figure out other definitions as well.

[pjd11006]

Agreed. The absolute worst part of BEC is the IT section. Unfortunately, I got slammed with IT heavy questions. Was getting so frustrated with the types of questions they asked, that I almost left the exam early… but, I decided to keep at it, and move through the exam. I believe this is the trick to BEC, or at least it was before the change. Each and every person I have talked to about BEC has said the exact same thing: “I got fu**ed with a bunch of IT questions.” I honestly think they put in there just to make us really irritated and nervous.

Becker is terrible with the IT section, but I wouldn't spend any additional money on other review avenues. IT is IT. If you've done it for a while, you'll be set. If not, you're not going to get… and that, sadly, is the truth. My suggestion is to focus on the other areas, as they may seem less important than IT, they still appear and have a decent weight. Plus, I've heard the sims on the new exam are more focused on non-IT related areas.

Caution: I am not saying to ignore IT, just make sure it isn't your primary focus from now until exam day.

P.S. I thought I boomed because of IT, but came out with an 87. You will do fine. Continue chugging along and be ready for that well-deserved victory lap!

Good luck!!

FAR TBD (8/02/2016)
BEC --
AUD --
REG --

[bhunt815]

IT was heavily tested on my exam. Like maybe 25% of the MCQ's heavy. I used Becker and was nowhere near prepared the IT portion of BEC. I must have done really well on the rest or guessed correctly because I passed, but it was a nervous few weeks waiting for that score.

Becker is a solid product but it is weak on IT prep IMO.

FAR 04/11/2016 - 84
AUD 05/12/2016 - 79
BEC 07/06/2016 - 81
REG 08/29/2016

[HoldMyBeerCPA]

I agree with just about everyone in here. There's no real way to prepare for most of the IT portion of this exam. I used Roger and Ninja MCQ/Audio/Notes for BEC and was able to answer maybe 3 of the IT questions with confidence. The rest were just make my best guess, pray and move on.

As you can see, I miraculously passed that exam.

You seem to have a pretty solid work ethic and understanding of what it takes to pass this exam, so I think that you'll be fine on test day as long as you have good grasp on the other topics that will even out the IT portion of the exam.

[shawn in VA]

Turbo Sandwhich-

When you left the exam how did you feel? Did you feel that you passed for sure, 50/50, or pure fail ?

I see you barely got by with a 78 which is nice. But were you expecting lower or higher?

Just curious. I took it a couple days ago and I felt really good leaving, but I have been disappointing before and don't want to give my hopes up.

[HoldMyBeerCPA]

@shawn in VA: When I submitted the exam I felt sick to my stomach. I also wanted to burst into tears. Once I walked out I was sure I bombed it. I spoke with another test taker who was taking REG and he was able to talk me off the ledge a bit.

The next day I looked up some of my notes to try and see which of the flagged questions I got right. Turns out I got five of those flagged questions right. Though I was sure I still failed. Instead of a score in the 40s, I was convinced that something in the 60s was possible.

A fail was expected ever since I started the simulations of the exam.

[Anonymous]

A lot of the questions are not addressed in the book in the new materials. Like their question about viruses. Overall I actually think the IT questions in Becker are kind of on the easy side? If you think you need more work on it I think you should add Ninja MCQ. I've been going through the questions for IT and they are pretty damn hard.

[Author]

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