[jeff]

Welcome to the Q4 2017 CPA Exam Study Group for BEC. 🙂

Introduce yourselves and let your fellow NINJAs know when you plan to take your BEC exam.

The Five Steps (NINJA Framework): https://www.another71.com/pass-the-cpa-exam/

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) | Another71 | NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE

[HT415]

I agree 1000%. I hate to say I feel it's even worse once you get to the later sections like IT, I mean it almost feels like a waste watching the lectures because the MCQ's are from another world.

What I will say is, try not to get discouraged by it (I have BEC in two days so believe me it's hard lol).

Currently I'm using ninja MCQ's for BEC and it seems to be more in line with what I would expect after studying Becker BEC lectures.

[PNS2CLT]

…except that Becker boots a high satisfaction rate and the lion's share of Elijah Watt Sells Award winners utilized Becker. That's not to say “rah, rah, go Becker” — my firm offered it to me, but I turned it down knowing it wasn't the right fit — just that results speak for themselves. Of course, this is somewhat skewed in the sense that many (most?) Becker users get the through their employer, and employers offering it at no-cost to their employees generally tend to recruit the most academically talented (e.g. the people most likely to succeed on the exam).

That said, the problem is, NO major review program has nailed down the concepts related to the new IT terminology. Further research on my end yields that the AICPA has been feeding the new IT vocabulary to review programs for about a year now, saying they would go live in 2018. Given that people have been yapping about heavy testing on the new IT vocabulary for over a year now, but most still walk away with high scores, I suspect they're in pretest mode. But unfortunately, we don't know for certain (my best guess is sometime next year, the test will return to “normality,” with just a few of these questions tossed in).

[cpa2018]

@Coachemup – thanks for the words of encouragement. Took it today and well feel like complete sh*t. 🙂 I have no clue if I passed or failed this one. I was hoping for some cost accounting or even some computational on the MCQs and probably only had two.

My suggestion – go through AICPA sample test, the TBS on my exam was very similar to one of the ones on the sample test. Also, AICPA released questions were helpful and similar to the exam. I feel like I even had 2 or 3 that were the same but worded differently.

Also – COSO COSO COSO. Ratios. Please note that if the TBS has questions related to ratios, they provide the formulas in the resources tab (like the sample test). However, I think the tricky part is more of understanding how certain transactions can affect those ratios. Simple example, how does additional LT debt affect certain ratios…

I hope I made some sort of sense. I'm going to go drink my sorrows away for now and cheer up to study for AUD.

Good luck everyone!

[lizbette]

hi everyone! anyone able to help me on this mcq? i've been stuck on it for the past 2h, and that's not including my entire night yesterday 🙁

Nanjones Company manufactures a line of products distributed nationally through wholesalers. Presented below are planned manufacturing data for Year 1 and actual data for November Year 1. The company applies overhead based on planned machine hours using a predetermined annual rate.

The fixed overhead volume variance for November Year 1 was:
a) 1200 unfavorable
b) 5000 unfavorable
c) 5000 favorable
d) 1200 favorable
——
so:
FOH volume variance = Budgeted FOH – Standard FOH cost allocated to production
where Standard FOH cost allocated to production = Actual Production x Standard Rate

I get that Budgeted FOH = 100,000 (given)
I also get that the standard rate is 1200/240=$5/machine hour
I do not get why we're using the 21,000 for the “actual production” number, when the given info tells us that the “actual” machine hours was 21,600

here's the explanation they had, which I don't understand. please help. i feel so dumb right now.

REG (8/11/16) -
FAR (TBD) -
AUD (TBD) -
BEC (TBD) -

[Andria – Another71]

REG Test Your Might – NINJA MCQ

Post your answer in the facebook thread for a chance to win a NINJA Sniper Package of your choice (Book, Notes, Audio, Videos, MCQ/SIMS, Audio, & Flashcards – $197 Value).

One winner will be randomly chosen on Friday(ish). HIYA!

[CoachEmUp]

Anyone else find it laughable the the AICPA won't even give us an example of a good answer for the written communications? I just did their practice test and just think it's complete BS that they won't give us a sample.

Between them and Wiley not really giving much advice at all it's rather funny to think it accounts to 15% of the test. I can't say even though I've seen good templates on here that I'll be less prepared for something on the CPA Exam than these WC's.

I was also a little surprised that on one of the sample SIMs on the AICPA site that they didn't give us the variance formulas in that 2nd SIM. I guess I'll waste brain space in memorizing a sales volume variance for operating income.

One more week of this non-sense!

[Ana]

Completely absurd that the aicpa practice exams do not offer explanations or solutions to some of the questions.

[runegoblet3xx]

I'm glad (well, sort of) that others feel the same way about Becker not preparing you for the MCQ's. I felt that in earlier chapters, and still sort of feeling it now starting B4.

Thanks to numerous other things popping up, I did end up pushing my test back, but it'll still be before busy season.

I'm thinking of taking a day and just writing out a “cheat sheet” for all of the formulas across all of the chapters. Then give a sentence or two summary of what it's used for. I think having them all together will help ease my anxiety on them some.

I've never checked out the AICPA website before for practice questions, but I think I might this time. Also considering buying NINJA.

Becker does give fairly thorough examples of WC answers, however. I generally at least read them because it may help drive a certain topic home for me.

[Ana]

How did anyone make sense of B2 in Becker? A thousand formulas….whyyyyyyyyy

[jenpen]

@runegoblet3xx the cheat sheet sounds like a great idea! I have a couple (one printed off here and one I wrote out last time) that lists all the formulas, but I really like the idea of a little description for use. I may do that, also.

AUD - 56 - 68 - 61 - 9/8/16
REG - 75
FAR - 7/15/16
BEC - TBD

Wiley CPAexcel and NINJA 10 Point Combo

[Teal]

@cpApex predator thank you so much for your details!! It is helpful 🙂

FAR (66,68) Aug 26
REG (66) July 25
AUD (66) December 1st
BEC - October 3rd

[RB]

Lizbette – I don't have a perfect answer, I struggled with a few aspects of this problem too. But the 21,000 hours they're using is because that's how many hours they should have use at that actual level of production. Now what we are comparing this against 20,000 hours doesn't make as much sense to me because (I get they're taking annual total over 12), but they show November planned 22,000 machine hours.
I generally try to make sense of all of these problems too, and this is the one I had to say no, let's move on

[RB]

I have a question about the Return on Equity computation, this is specific from the Becker software, in the skills practice for B3-M5:

Question 7, what is the impact on ROA and ROE if “Convertible preferred stock is exchanged for common stock”, and the answer is “does not impact ROA or ROE”.
Angie Brown in the explanation states “this is a stock for stock transaction and really has no impact on any of the components of ROA or ROE, changing preferred stock for common stock doesn’t change net income…. And it doesn’t even change equity because you’re just replacing one type of equity for another type of equity”

I thought ROE is return on common stockholder’s equity and would exclude preferred shares, so converting preferred stock to common stock would dilute stockholders equity and reduce ROE, right? Am I just mis-interpreting this?

[Tim]

ROE = net income / shareholders equity

Return on common equity is a whole different ratio where you subtract out preferred dividends and only divide by common equity.

[curlyhare]

I last took BEC in November 2015 after studying 4 weeks (only 2.5 seriously) using Becker and passed the first time around with a 76. I was NOT fresh out of college or working in cost accounting. It has expired and so now I am studying using Roger CPA Review and am taking 24 days to cram and take the test. From what I remember of it it wasn't difficult and the easiest material (to me) by far than other exams. We are all going to pass this test, don't over think it. If you believe it is hard, then it will be hard for you. Don't sike yourselves out. Know the formulas and understand the material sufficiently to write it out, not in flashy sentences, just make sense.

[Author]

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