[Young Neil]

How in depth does the exam go into the IT section? Are there key areas that I should focus on? Wiley is very detailed in this, with what seems like weeks worth of lectures. They also haven’t been highlighting what the key areas relevant to the exam. It’s getting hard to study all of it and I’m losing motivation because I don’t see how this is relevant to being a CPA and it’s very boring…end rant thanks for listening.

[Matt]

I agree, the amount of material and MCQ's for IT was overwhelming for me as well. It was the only topic within BEC that I didn't get through the majority of MCQ's for. I say this to most people: never skip studying a topic out of laziness. It will be worth your time, effort, and pain to go the extra mile once you receive your passing score. The IT section is very broad, and unfortunately the questions get pulled pretty evenly from the IT sub-topics.

That being said, if you were to focus on certain topics, I would focus on all IT controls (input/processing/output, logical, physical…etc), IT security, and disaster recovery/business continuity plans. I would also be familiar with IT governance and COBIT.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your studies!

-Matt

[jombe]

Any topic from CPA Exam Blueprints is fair game. Per Blueprints, IT covers 15-25% of BEC. This could easily be the make-or-break whether you pass the exam or not. Taking the exams once was stressful enough for me. Do everything within your power so you don't have to sit for a section more than once.

FAR - 94 (10/4/15), Local Prep Online Lectures, BISK & NINJA MCQ
AUD - 99 (1/19/16), Local Prep Online Lectures, BISK & NINJA MCQ
REG - 96 (4/19/16), Local Prep Online Lectures, BISK & NINJA MCQ
BEC - 91 (7/19/16), Local Prep Online Lectures, BISK & NINJA MCQ

581 days of listening to lectures, reading texts & 10,000+ MCQs...

[PDiddy2000]

That's funny. I'd rather study the IT section compared to the boring economics section any day. I'm also using WILEY, I'm about to give up on listening to the economics lectures and just read the text.

[Young Neil]

Thanks for the advice Matt and Jombe! Definitely what I needed to hear to motivate myself to go through this material.

PDiddy, the IT professor is way better than the econ professor (shout out to Dan Stone). There is only so much you can do to keep that material entertaining though.

[Author]

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