[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

[jenpen]

@RB I just skimmed through the Wiley chapter on hedging and didn't see any reference to reduction or sharing.

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

Wiley CPAexcel and NINJA 10 Point Combo

[RB]

Jennifer – this would be in terms of risk response, a company may avoid, reduce, share, or accept. Becker puts it in ERM risk response principles, I would assume Wiley is similar?
That may just have to be a piece I leave as a 50/50 chance in the 1/2 % chance the question comes up with that specific fact pattern.

Ana, yes there is quite a bit of depth to the book for as small as it is. You can try 1 of each chapters for a week and then 1 week of cramming over various concepts… tough push but, not a huge cost if you fail it December 9th (? or 8th?). Good luck either way, don't get overwhelmed.

I've marked 300 problems I need to go over tonight as part of my final review, onward.

[Ana]

@rb that's been my process with cpa prior to now. I have to do 2 chapters a week this time because I only have 6 weeks for bec. I test on dec 8th. I don't know why I'm struggling so much with the math and concepts. I can only chalk it up to being burned out.

[RB]

Anna, take Thursday to enjoy your day with family for thanksgiving. Ignore any guilt about not studying. You're absolutely right about burnout, it sounds like you should carve it out as a day that hey, today, I'm not studying, no matter what. From wakeup until bedtime do anything else.
There was a point going through formulas trying to solve them out that I was just getting stuck and couldn't make sense of it either. A few days later it started to click again.

All of that aside – even if you feel unprepared, as stated – there's no reason you can't take it December 8th and, if you fail, take it again January 2nd or something. You're out 4 hours and $200 or so for your NTS. You'll have your score 10 days after you took it and can ramp up 2-3 weeks of review at that point. I'd still give it a shot.

[jenpen]

@RB I don't see anything about reducing or sharing risks anywhere in Wiley materials.

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

Wiley CPAexcel and NINJA 10 Point Combo

[Ana]

@rb, I scheduled it knowing if I don't pass I can redo very soon after. I've never walked into a test ready to fail so getting beat up for four hours on dec 8th is going to feel horrible. TBH, I don't enjoy family time too much so I'd rather study. I'd rather use a real day off for something that'll make me happy and relax. I don't want to come across as a horrible person, it's just that in our culture the women cook, set-up, serve, clean-up, wash, set-up for dessert, serve, and clean up the entire kitchen while the guys have drinks, cigars, and chit chat. And I know during my parents will boast endlessly about my brother's recent academic accomplishments, especially since his in-laws will be there. I'm still going there because I can't get out of it but I'll study as much as I can in between helping clean up. At least I'll have pie to eat and some online shopping.

On another note, I'm really annoyed with Becker mcq in the homework. Right off the bat, question #2 will be a long complex problem. Why don't they offer it in a graduated manner where students can build on the concepts and solving the problems. Much like they go through lecture, building on topics not showing in a haphazard format. Does anyone else think that would be more helpful?

[RB]

Jen – its surprising they don't elaborate on this. I just checked Wiley's material, I – corporate governance, ERM, “54” (lesson 54?),

“Improving risk responses—Enterprise risk management permits better choices from among alternative risk responses—risk avoidance, reduction, sharing, and acceptance.”

Also here in (53) “Risk response—Depending on management's appetite for risk, observed risks may be avoided, reduced, shared, or accepted”

It's not a huge topic, but one I expect to see one point on, Becker covers it a bit, like this scenario represents what response to risk? (And then those choices)

[jenpen]

Yeah, I saw that – but it didn't really help answer your question…or explain anything. No wonder I sucked at all of the COSO questions in the test bank. Frustrating.

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

Wiley CPAexcel and NINJA 10 Point Combo

[RB]

Jen – this is from my notes then:

Response – so, what do we do? Avoid? Reduce? Share? Or accept?
Avoid – terminate the product line / avoid the risk entirely
Reduce – reduce the impact, hedge or diversify
Share – basically buying insurance to cover you
Accept- take no action

(Not my notes but explanation now): Insurance is always a type of sharing, but apparently hedging is also a type of sharing. Most general mitigation plans are reduction, moving a building to a better location is reducing apparently ( I would assume avoiding but apparently not).
Hopefully that gets you a point on the exam.

[jenpen]

You're a rockstar. Thank you so much! I guess I'll be doing some extra research on that stuff.

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

Wiley CPAexcel and NINJA 10 Point Combo

[CoachEmUp]

Well back from the test. HOLY SMOKES! I'm honestly stunned how much doubt I have about whether i passed or not. I felt really good walking out of the first 3 tests. Today is another story.
First testlet: A bit harder than I expected, several ambiguous questions. The calc's were straightforward and pretty easy. Overall did pretty well.
Second testlet: Holy crap! On the second testlet out of the 31 MCQ's I got at least (not exaggerating) 15 IT questions. Most of those were stuff you can't study for because there were terms that I had not seen while using Wiley or Ninja. I think it was basically a disaster, but how many were pretest?

The SIM's were just odd. Reminded me of auditing in that it was pretty ambiguous and open for interpretation. I didn't “bomb” any of them, but i didn't feel confident that i got them all right either. Overall they weren't hard topics or necessarily hard to prepare for, but some tricky wording when trying to determine what answer to put.

WC's: These were fine. I'm pretty sure of my pretest, but i'll never know. Overall these each took me about 25 minutes to do, which was longer than I thought.

Timing: Took about 1 hr 5 min to do 62 MCQ's. Took break after 2 SIM's w 2 hr 15 min left. Finish testlet 4 w 1 hr 22 min left and my computer froze. Was able to go to another station and got the right amount of time on the clock so hopefully nothing from there happened. Like I said, took about 25 min for each WC.

Good luck to all those about to take the test. Do not take it lightly, I really grinded today and will be crossing my fingers this next month!

[Ana]

great recap, thanks for sharing Coach. Have you used Becker?

[RB]

Coach, as someone about to take my test in 20 hours your feedback is invaluable. Thank you!. I'll tailor my final review just a tiny bit.

[rencpa]

@ RB, thank you very much for your clarification about variances. It makes more sense after reading your explanation. Wish you all good luck tomorrow (Get another 95+!!)

@ CoatchEmUP thank you for sharing your experience. Be positive! I saw people complaining about the IT before. My husband is an IT person, he keeps telling me, to not worry about this material because according to him, we are going to be CPAs, not IT people. (we attended my BEC class together while I was pregnant because of some medical issues. He had a chance to hear what we need to know for the exam.) I am terrible with IT, but I keep myself positive that I can and will do it. I believe that majority of IT questions are pretest (at least this year). However, not all of them and I will not skip the IT part. Lucky you, you can enjoy your Thanksgiving!

@ Ana… nice to see you on this forum 🙂 Thank you for putting a smile on my face.

[Ana]

@ren super cute that your hubs came to class with you. My husband would come to a lot of my classes, to the point other students thought he attended my university and would ask him what he's doing for finals LOL. I'm glad I put a smile on your face, not sure how though. I feel like such a Debby downer with these exams. I wonder if everyone is like STFU Ana lol

[Author]

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