[jeff]

Welcome to the Q1 2017 CPA Exam Study Group for BEC. 🙂

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

[wng1885]

How would you determine if a teslet is harder than the previous one? Seems to be very subjective. I know i likely bombed the first one as there were maybe 5-7 calculation questions I had to take wild guesses on. The second and third teslet generally speaking had fewer calculations. Does the system take into consideration which subject you are struggling with in the first teslet and throw more of those types of questions at you if it gets harder?

[cottonkandi]

@yozdemir27 I'm wondering the same thing. B6 sucks in Becker. I wish I knew that more conceptual Financial parts are in that chapter, I would've studied it while I was doing financial management.

[Rhunter]

Does anyone know of a reason to ignore tax savings from interest when calculating WACC? The reason I ask is because I just did NINJA MCQ #960 in which an EVA calculation did not factor (1-tax rate) into the cost of debt when calculating the WACC. Did I overlook something critical in this question?

Zig Corp. provides the following information:

Pretax operating profit $300,000,000
Tax rate 40%
Capital used to generate profits 50% debt, 50% equity $1,200,000,000
Cost of equity 15%
Cost of debt 5%

What of the following represents Zig's year-end economic value added amount?

I calculated $72,000.00, but the “correct” answer is $60,000.00

[cottonkandi]

@rhunter The only way this makes sense is rounding up cost of capital (7.5 to 8) and after-tax cost of debt(1.5 to 2). Therefore 10% of equity will be 120,000. I get EVA of 72,000 when I don't round with WACC of 9%. I think 72,000 is the right answer based on the information you have provided.

[famh110]

just a quick update on my exam. mixed feelings on how i did so cant make any speculations. it was definitely IT heavy. some time ago, i read in one of the posts that if you ask prometric for a handheld calculator they would give you one. i never knew about this but i really wanted to find out so after we completed the signing in process i asked the administrator that i will be needing a calculator and she handed me a nice medium size calculator (not the pocket size). i was so glad i asked and doing calculations was much easier and quicker. just wanted to get this out there for those of you who hate the online software calculator and could benefit from this information.

i was doing good with timing till i went to WC portion. i started with 40mins on the clock. one tip regarding WC portion, among the 3, start working on the one you like the most. for me, my first was on economics. i knew this subject more than the others so i was able to write good 5 paragraphs on it and naturally it took the longest but it was on point for sure. among the last two, i saved the one i didn't have enough knowledge about for last and it was a smart mov. for this one i had 9 nine mins and but i managed to get it done right before the time was up.

another thing that i did that helps with bringing efficiency is that as soon as i wrote a down a basic intro and conclusion paragraph for my first one, i immediately copied it to the second and third one so all i had to do was to think of what goes in between and come up with some filler.

best wishes to everyone. i hope we all pass!

[famh110]

@rhunter. i also calculated a WACC of 9% and EVA =72,000. only way for EVA to be $60K is when the WACC is 5% and based on the information provided, it should be 9%.

[mperez102204]

Well, not in a great mood today. I was doing great on yesterday… average 70 and trending 84….. i am currently averaging 64 and trending 66. Sigh…. keep telling myself to truck along….

Test is on Friday. Should i stop with Ninja and go back to Wiley and do progress test per chapter and any questions I get wrong, review and write notes on?

Or should I go through my Ninja notes and focus notes from Wiley and start hard review that way?

[cottonkandi]

@mperez102204 At this point you can focus on your weak areas and try to work on mcq's on those. I'm trending 70's right now on Ninja and went through all of Becker questions at least once. Some chapters I've done 2 or 3 times just because it was a weaker area for me. I found out I'm weak in Working Capital, B6 (Financial Risks and Management in general), and IT. Also rewriting formula's over and over again.

[Anonymous]

@mperez. Trust your study process. If you studied well, you WILL pass.

Don't worry about whats trending. The exam is so freaking random its not funny.

Look over th Content Specification Outline and identify that you are atleast familiar with the topics.

[cottonkandi]

Took my Becker Final #1: Got a 71. Don't know what that means. I felt the Becker final exam just regurgitated the practice questions, I don't know if it's reflective of real thing. I got straight 71's on each testlet.

[emichelle2321]

@Rosy0407 – I took the test on the 28th and felt EXACTLY like you leaving the testing center, I literally cried the whole drive home. Don't lose hope. I found out I passed with an 81 last night so you just never know!

For everyone else asking about Becker chapters – don't skip out on any part of any chapter is all I will say. I hear a lot of people not paying as much attention to B6 and I think that is a mistake…

[Anonymous]

Took the BEC exam. Trying not to predict by the difficulty levels of the testlets. To all using Becker and neglecting to study B6, at least scan through the chapter. If i fail, i would know it was IT that caused the damage.

Now its time to wait…the worst part. Good luck to all of you.

[cottonkandi]

@drkarm: I don't know why Becker had to separate B6 from the main topics. For me I feel I should've studied each part of B6 with the corresponding chapters, for example the internal auditing section with COSO. Sigh, reviewing B6 and IT tonight.

[julyaf1207]

I agree. I felt really good last night going into B6. Now I feel really confused and overwhelmed. Judging by how many MCQs there are in most of the sections I'm hoping it's not heavily tested. At this point a basic understanding of B6 is going to have to do! Here's to hoping I know the rest of the book well enough for a 75!!

[JMG]

Took BEC yesterday after less than 2 weeks of studying, obviously got my ass handed to me on the MCQs. Testlets went Medium – Medium – Hard, one good thing is I was able to get through them in an hour and a half which left a half hour for each WC. WC topics were very manageable (a little vague though) and I feel like I did a good job on them. Even if I got full credit on all three it's not likely I passed, on to the dreaded retake in Q2.

[Author]

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