[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

[RB]

Crooks – as far as written, they seem to be focusing on keywords. Look at the question, restate the question, write as many key words as you can that will address the topic, form some idea you want to convey, then actually write your answer out.

I signed up for the free wiley 2 week trial and plan to watch their webinar later today to prep myself for the written a little more. May be open to anyone? Not sure –
Wiley CPAexcel

For everyone else – I'm a little discouraged too seeing the reviews of how much IT is covered. BUT – I did look at the overall pass rates and Q2 and Q3 pass rates for BEC are up slightly after the change.

So take this in stride, the AICPA weighs all the questions based on difficulty and some complex magic math they won't actually release. So the super tough questions everyone feels unprepared for, somehow they're giving extra points for getting them right, or some magic formula that has passing rates >50% for BEC.

Be prepared as you can and take it confidently. I'm taking mine 10/22 as well, UBER final review phase now

[Peggy]

Thanks RB. I paid for Wiley so I have access to all of their products. I watched the Wiley webinar on writing 8/10. I'll go back over the slides from it and try to just focus on keywords. I guess it's just the topics that I am more nervous about.

[RB]

Crooks –

Everything I've read on the written portion has been clear that we're not really graded on our technical expertise. According to Becker's written explanation, you don't even need to be correct, IE you can talk about the differences in FIFO and Weighted Average and be wrong, as long as the answer seems like it would be useful to the recipient.
They seem to focus on – 1 – do you address the question (hence some keywords sprinkled in), 2 – how is the writing style, and 3 – do you actually offer some advice or come to a conclusion that helps the recipient.
I am of the belief that as long as you talk about the topic and bring up one or two concepts related to it, you'll get AT LEAST half of the credit for writing. Say 8 maybe 11 of the 15 possible points, that's not bad. Do a few practice written so it's not foreign, but don't sweat it too much, as long as you give some reasonable answer.

[CoachEmUp]

Test day tomorrow. Out of all 4 this feels similar to auditing for me going in before-hand. Only difference is I feel pretty confident that I will do well on the SIMS (even though there isn't much out there to practice) because I think they'll be straight forward compared to other sections. (AUD I felt very good about MCQ's and was proven right)

I'm scoring in the 80's on every MCQ set I do for BEC so hopefully replicate that and should be in good shape. Excited to hopefully be done with this whole process in 24 hours.

Best of luck to all those reaching test day. Don't get too worked up over some of the topics in here… it seems most people on here could use a good jolt of confidence. Confidence and grinding your butt off for 4 hours is a good recipe imo to do well.

[jenpen]

Good luck tomorrow, @CoachEmUp! And thanks for the words of encouragement – Lord knows I need them! I'm with you on the thought of finally being done. That's what keeps me motivated right now. After 2.5 very long years I finally have some light at the end of the tunnel and can't wait to get out of it.

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

Wiley CPAexcel and NINJA 10 Point Combo

[RB]

Coach – knock em dead and be done with this! I'm 24 hours behind ya and I'm already looking at some black friday rewards for finishing this.
Jennifer, master your final review and go in strong. The pass rates for Q2 and Q3 just don't match what everyone is saying, somehow their grading is curved because its ~50% pass rate, even though everyone's experience here sounds abysmal.

And Crooks – about the writing, I will say this evening I set a 40 minute timer for myself and tackled 2 writing questions. It was enough to learn I need to allocate at least an hour for the 3, if not slightly more. I would recommend you do a few, time yourself, and compare your answers. It's just my writing style I know I want a little more time to revise and check my wording, many people could push them out in 15 minutes each. But that was an important lesson I'm glad I learned before I sit for this section.

[rencpa]

Hi Guys,

I just came back from Europe a couple of days ago. Trying to get back to where I left my studying. It is going to be harder because my brother passed away… Anyway, I am trying to be strong even though my heart keeps bleeding…there is still life, still one more exam to finish.

Today, I reviewed some of the topics I studied before i left, like variances. I have no problem with any direct material and direct labor variances (pretty much sure I can help with any questions). Manufacturing variances are more challenging. Hope I will have a chance to master them better before the exam day.

I noticed there is a question posted on November 13 by “lizbette” I can recognize the question from Becker, CPA – 03850. Is there any volunteer who would be willing to answer that question? Question was: “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” When I did the question first time, I used 21, 600. Is it because the other Machine hours is based on output and we are looking for volume variance? Trying to use my logic, which has been not the best lately.

Another question about variances: According to the Becker book, VOH has two variances: Rate/Spending and Efficiency and two variances for FOH: Budget/Spending and Volume/Production. What is the flexible budget OH variance? I think by using different terminology I got confused. I understand flexible budget (part of actual and part of master budget). There is “something” that I feel that I am missing, but I cannot figure out what that is.

Please help.

[Peggy]

Thanks RB, I am starting to feel a little bit better about the writing. I'll spend some time working on it today then going over ratios again. Good luck tomorrow, the end is near!!!

[RB]

Ren – Let me expand on variances a bit here:

This is what I'm memorizing going in, all variances have 2 components, there is a “Rate or spending” variance, which is the difference in what you paid (Price per unit versus expected price per unit) X ACTUAL units purchased. And then a volume or efficiency variance, which uses the STANDARD rate X (how many units used versus how many units expected to be used).

For Variable overhead its the same thing, rate is the (difference in price paid) x ACTUAL cost driver (actual hours applied usually)
And efficiency (volume) variance is the STANDARD (VOH) rate x (Actual hours applied less standard hours we should have applied at that level of production)
Hence, the VOH efficiency variance IS the volume variance, the difference between the master budget to flexible budget, then the “Rate” variance is the difference between flexible budget (what we would expect to pay at that actual level of production) and the actual final totals, what we did pay / incur

[jenpen]

@RB Can you just create a lecture for this section so I can learn from you? Your explanations make SO much more sense than most of my study materials.

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

Wiley CPAexcel and NINJA 10 Point Combo

[RB]

Thanks for your feedback Jen :-). I'll try to monitor the forums after my own test and see if I can fill in some gaps for people… Although to be fair I plan to be celebrating for a week starting at 5 PM tomorrow. I took a week off work and am rewarding myself with a Black Friday PS4 and PS4 VR. And beer, lots of beer.

Feel free to reach out if my profile shows my email, I offered someone else the same, once my exam is over I can carve out some time to go over some of the big picture concepts here.

[Pam]

So I took BEC on 10/31… I got a 73 in April (which was a 12 week delay in scores). I honestly don't know how I did. I found the first round of MCQ's to be tough, like I had to go back to almost half of them, the second round seemed easier (which probably isn't good) but also I thought it was heavy IT which has been my stronger side. The TBS were tough… the WC was OK, I think they tossed in some weird topics to throw people but again, hopefully I maintained being stronger there and improved in the TBS and MC in order to pass.
Very uneasy, praying from now until 12/19

Thoughts on what others found from this testing window?
I also took Audit earlier in October, first attempt… so 12/19 is a big day.

[jenpen]

@RB I don't blame you one bit! Based on the fact that your undergrad is econ and the way you have been helping people, I'm confident you'll pass and be done with this silly exam! I have to say, I'm slightly jealous. 🙂

But I only have 2 more weeks, and then I get to coast until the 19th. I'm not confident my journey will be over, but at least I will have a little time to not feel guilty about not studying.

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

Wiley CPAexcel and NINJA 10 Point Combo

[RB]

QUESTION – risk Reduction versus risk Sharing

From WILEY's problem set:

“Management of Warren Company has decided to respond to a particular risk by hedging the risk with futures contracts. This is an example of risk…”

Okay, my Becker notes are crystal clear, hedging = reduction, insurance = sharing

But the answer states this is a type of risk sharing because you're sharing the risk with another party. Technically true but, a hedge is to reduce risk.

I checked quick and I don't see a good counter MC question from Becker. So… we call hedging a type of risk sharing if it comes up? Any clarification?

[Ana]

Almost finished with chapter 4 in Becker and finally got my book. How is the book so small?! I can never show anyone the book because they'd think it's the easiest test ever. I wish they had a section of all the formulas together, I think they have that in the old book. I have about 3 weeks left for the test and don't think I'll pass. I was really hoping to be done with quarter but it seems like it'll be a miracle. There's a lot I want to do to study but there just won't be enough time.

[Author]

Replies