[jeff]

Trying something new …

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

[Anonymous]

Good luck littlenumberrobot.

[I Want My Life Back 10.12]

So I am towards the end of week # 2 studying BEC and I HATE this!! I think this is probably the worst section… the costing and managerial accounting is so dry and confusing. Not to mention nearly every Becker lecture is practically 2 hours long with stupid amounts of MC per lecture. Its taking me forever to get through this and I am feeling discouraged with this section 🙁

REG - 72 (Oct 2011), 74 (May 2012), 80 (July 2012)
FAR - 77 (Feb 2012)
AUD - 70 (Aug 2012), 89! (Oct 2012)
BEC - 71 (Dec 2012), 75!(Feb 2013)

[sdgh1826]

@ I Want My Life Back 10.12

One word, patience! BEC taught me that the hard way. B1-B3 is brutal, I spent too much time on the examples on the book, the MCQs were a better source for me instead. Just don't spend too much time with the book's computation (they only presented tip of the iceberg), however they were good in presenting the concepts. I hated the MCQs first time I saw them. Making your own “formula cheat sheet” would help out greatly, I could nail Variance questions and some costs questions immediately, after painfully comparing all those problems and combining formulas.

I'm on my last chapter and scheduled to take my first section on 11/15. How are the other sections? BEC seems to be all over the place, studying for this is taking me longer than I thought. Made me think if I should've gone with FAR or REG first. Any tips on tackling them those two? It's impressive you've got two major sections down. Thanks in advance!

Becker 2012, NINJA notes

[I Want My Life Back 10.12]

@ sdgh1826

Thank you for the advice! 🙂 It's really nice to know someone else thinks going through these beginning chapters is brutal!! Right now I am about 12 pages into B2, still a ways to go! I am jealous you're on your last chapter! haha. I can definitely feel the amount of formulas building and will definitely need to start creating a formula cheat sheet. I used to love calculus and nailing down math problems in high school and college, I think I just need to dust off my skills! Memorizing the different terminologies in B1 is going to tough.

I have an accounting and auditing background, and knew I would enjoy studying for those sections more the Reg., so I tried to get Reg “out of the way” first, haha, that did not happen! Took me 3x's before I passed it. FAR is a beast to physically get through, now 10 chapters in Becker, but I think FAR is conceptually easier to handle, as your just essentially going down the BS and IS learning every area. I've heard BEC be referred to as the garbage bag of the CPA Exam. I think your smart getting BEC done first, I am regretting saving it for last! haha.

I would suggestion trying to figure out which of the two section you feel stronger in, Accounting? or Tax and Business Law? Then I think you'll need to ask yourself if you want a “break” and take the section you feel stronger in next, and hopefully get two sections under your belt, or move on the more challenging section and save your stronger points for the end.

Best of luck to you on 11/15!! Make sure to tell us how you did! I am dieing for my Audit score and praying BEC is my last section! Thanks again for the advice! 🙂

REG - 72 (Oct 2011), 74 (May 2012), 80 (July 2012)
FAR - 77 (Feb 2012)
AUD - 70 (Aug 2012), 89! (Oct 2012)
BEC - 71 (Dec 2012), 75!(Feb 2013)

[sdgh1826]

Awesome! It seems everyone whose using Becker for BEC has mentioned how challenging the first half was. Re: making a cheat sheet, make sure the formulas are simplified. Becker did not do a good job on this. Too much unnecessary steps in presenting the right answer.

I would suggest printing out problem in costs and variances that have similar given info. Write down your solution to the correct answer, then compare the probelms next to each other (I used erasable colored pencils just to make things less boring). This helped me “see the difference” and I used my own solutions as my basis for my formula sheet. It would be easier to memorize (I hate doing this) if you made your own formulas. The MCQs were a better basis than the book. Invest time in doing this, my solutions were shorter compared to Becker.

How the concept problems are worded is where I'm getting things wrong, they seem to be confusing but I just keep answering anyway. If you're doing awful in the MCQs for the first half, congrats! It verifies that you're human, I scored really low on my first go with the computations (again, the examples in the book weren't much help).

More than happy to help, just post. Not sure if my method works but it saved me a lot “head banging” moments. Gotta admit, I'm getting more nervous as my big day gets closer.

Becker 2012, NINJA notes

[I Want My Life Back 10.12]

Thanks for the cheat sheet tips! I like the idea of the erasable colored pencils to keep things interesting haha. It's such a relief to talk to people on here and know we're all going through the same thing 🙂 Its hard to remember that sometimes when your family and friends aren't going through it and begging you to stop studying!

Don't be nervous! You'll do great!

REG - 72 (Oct 2011), 74 (May 2012), 80 (July 2012)
FAR - 77 (Feb 2012)
AUD - 70 (Aug 2012), 89! (Oct 2012)
BEC - 71 (Dec 2012), 75!(Feb 2013)

[Anonymous]

Hey guys – I've been lurking and reading here for a while but this is my first post. B1 and B2 have brought me out of my silence. Geeze, these chapters are brutal! Spent an hour today working 10 MC questions on overhead variances.

I feel better after venting now…thanks 🙂

[I Want My Life Back 10.12]

@Adamdenton1 –

I lurked for a long time too before I first posted 🙂 I am still working through B2… in all of the thousands and thousands of Becker MC questions I've done, none of them have taken as long as BEC questions do. I was stunned last week when I was working through B1's Cost Measurement Methods & Techniques 97 questions… probably took me close to 4 hours! I can only imagine how long its going to take me to get through the 120 questions in Budgeting & Analysis… I am really looking forward to the shorter lectures and hw sets over B4 to B6!

REG - 72 (Oct 2011), 74 (May 2012), 80 (July 2012)
FAR - 77 (Feb 2012)
AUD - 70 (Aug 2012), 89! (Oct 2012)
BEC - 71 (Dec 2012), 75!(Feb 2013)

[sdgh1826]

@Adamdenton1

Welcome! I got a rude awekening when I started Cost. I'm glad I stuck with the harder chapters first, expect to spend more time on the first half.

@I Want My Life

How's your studying going? Know the ABA BSA on the 3-way var. example inside and out, that will carry you through so many MCQs (as well as the labor & materials examples). Read it several times over and over until you get it. I mentioned earlier that I didn't like some of the Becker examples, but this one is an exception. Their example on FIFO & WA are good too. For the other computations, I still prefer basing them on the MCQs.

Are the computations on the other sections not as bad as BEC? Just wanna get through this section. I should be starting my final review in 2 days. Any do's & don'ts? I experimented on my first 2 weeks on finding which study method worked for me, now I don't have that luxury in the final review. Please share your experiences. Thanks.

Becker 2012, NINJA notes

[Anonymous]

Well I took FAR last week and won't find out until 11/26 if I passed. If I did I'll be in here tackling BEC next.

[CPA Hopeful]

I am like most of you just getting through B2. Spending 4 hours doing 120 MC questions is not exactly how I envisioned studying for BEC. “BEC is the easy one” That's what I always hear regarding the 4 exams. 2 sections in and I am really questioning that. Just feels like there is so much to learn as far as formulas and concepts. Man do I miss AUD, LOL. Well hopefully it does get better from here, at least after B3 as I see I have another whopping 258 questions in total to get through once I'm done with the chapter. That should be another 10 hours of work (at least). Oh well, now that I'm done venting, back to the task at hand. I just needed a BEC break. Good luck you guys!

FAR - 81
REG - 75
AUD - 85
BEC - 79

Thank goodness it's over... Now on to the next step...

[KJAX]

Hey all. I've been hanging around since August when I was studying for Audit… but this is my first post. This sight has been an awesome resource and motivator for me. Any time I'm struggling to get my studying in I hop on this sight and read a few posts to get re-inspired!

The reason for my post: I purchased the iphone Ninja flashcards today for BEC. AWESOME!! I've been addicted to them all afternoon.. they are to-the-point and in understandable wording. I highly recommend them.

Happy studies!

AUD -8/2012- 84
BEC -11/2012- 76
REG-5/2013- 81
FAR- 10/2013 - WAITING TO FIND OUT IF I GET MY LIFE BACK!!!!!

"Push your limits... then watch them back down."

[I Want My Life Back 10.12]

@sdgh1826 – studying is going okay… still haven't finished B2 haha, its taking forever to get through this stuff! How's your review going?

@CPA Hopeful – I couldn't agree more with so many things you said…missing AUD, going into BEC thinking it was the “easy” section and spending hour after after getting through what seems to be a small amount of MC questions haha.

@KJAX – Welcome! Thanks for the feedback on Ninja Flashcards! Who would ever think one could become addicted to BEC flashcards! I also think this site it a great inspiration and motivator… gives you a chance to vent and talk to people that know and understand your pain more than your family and friends do (as cheesy as that sounds 🙂

REG - 72 (Oct 2011), 74 (May 2012), 80 (July 2012)
FAR - 77 (Feb 2012)
AUD - 70 (Aug 2012), 89! (Oct 2012)
BEC - 71 (Dec 2012), 75!(Feb 2013)

[TripleNetAcct]

If there was a word worse than HATE, I would use it to describe my feelings toward BEC.

AUD 73 (Aug 12) 77
BEC 66 71 (Nov 12) 80
REG 54 81 (May 13) 81
FAR 63 (Dec 13) 75 TEXAS

[sdgh1826]

@ I Want My Life Back 10.12 and everyone too

Can you please give me some tips on how to review for the final 2 weeks? Everyone is most welcomed to post what they think of this:

1. Read each chapter over

2. Read my notes & NINJA notes

3. Review Becker MCQs (I wrote down notes on each MCQ, computations + explainations on concepts, I also listed the page reference). I have “binders full of” MCQs.

4. Repeat this for each chapter, I'm planning to watch IT again. There isn't much thinking involved, just a lot of memorization.

5. Do Wiley MCQs (They have a number of MCQs that I didn't see in Becker).

6. Take Becker & Wiley test

7. Go through Becker MCQs again with note taking

I haven't taken any progress tests yet, not sure if they are helpful, getting mixed reviews on this one. Studying hard so that I won't have to see this material after test day. Anything that needs to be tweaked in my final 2 weeks. Gonna be done with all chapters by Thursday, including the written part (haven't studied this one yet).

Hardly keeping my focus on the last chapter. Will be off 2 hours earlier each work day next week to study more. Everyone, stick it out with Cost and Variance, do more MCQs and that will help you piece the puzzle. Take very good and tedious notes. No matter how much I study, I'm not sure if I'll ever be ready. Good luck to all!

Becker 2012, NINJA notes

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