[jeff]

Welcome to the Q4 2016 CPA Exam Study Group for BEC.

If this is your first post in the study group – please post your target exam date (just the time frame to preserve your anonymity), and your past history with this exam (optional, of course).

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

[Theodore]

I'm hoping of taking it mid November. God, Ratios will hunt us for the rest of our lives -.- That's one of the SIMs I was not prepared for.

FAR: 66, 76!
REG: 76!
AUD: 72, 9/7/2016
BEC: TBA

Don't Stop When You Are Tired, Stop When You Are Done.

[MrsCoderedpl]

@bondvillan congratulations on other two parts!

B 06/04/2016
A 07/30/2016
R N/A
F N/A

[mtaylo24]

@MrsCoderedpl, Drop the lectures and book…hammer MCQs until you puke. Seriously, be honest, how much do you retain from lectures and text? Waste of freaking time. I am just now personally coming to grips w/ this.

Trial and error my friend, do at least 4000 MCQs before you sit next time, seeing each question no less than 2 or 3 times, and that should get you close, if not over the hump! Aim for 500 MCQs M-F, and 500 MCQs Saturday and Sunday. Do MCQs in the morning, at work (i suggest lunch and break, but some people live on the edge), and at home at night. You have to make this an obsession. Repetition, Repetition, Repetition. Go in order until the last two weeks, and then for final review make your review as random as possible. Review the WCs the day before or the day you sit. Just review the structure.

AUD - 1st - 60 (12/12), 61 (2/13), 61 (8/13), 78! (11/15)
REG - 55 (2/16) 69 (5/16) Retake(8/16)
BEC - 71(5/16) Retake (9/16)
FAR - (8/16)

[MrsCoderedpl]

@mtaylo24 this a good strategy but I feel like for some questions you start memorizing the answers. Or for calculations you'll know what the answer is but won't know how to compute it and be stuck on exam. I'm pretty strong in WC so not scared about that

B 06/04/2016
A 07/30/2016
R N/A
F N/A

[mtaylo24]

^^^ I hear you on that, always stop and read the explanations, and even if you know the answer, calculate it a few times before moving on. I know the feeling though, I got tripped up on Breakeven point and one of the variance analysis questions when I sat last time. Prepping and actually taking the test are two different animals

AUD - 1st - 60 (12/12), 61 (2/13), 61 (8/13), 78! (11/15)
REG - 55 (2/16) 69 (5/16) Retake(8/16)
BEC - 71(5/16) Retake (9/16)
FAR - (8/16)

[MrsCoderedpl]

I agree.

B 06/04/2016
A 07/30/2016
R N/A
F N/A

[vorobjeva44]

Hi guys! I just failed BEC with 72, used Becker , bought Ninja MCh but almost didnt use it. It was my first try and I also messed up with WC as didnt follow the memo format. Planning to retake in the beginning of October. My weakest area was fin mngt, and i think machine got it and tested me on it over and over 🙁 IT and COSO were easy – if you use becker – i dint have any question that seemed to be strange. For me it all were fin mngt and eco. Quick question : I truly forgot: are they giving us PV of annuity factors in the problem or we have to know how to calculate it? Really forgot it!!! Thanks in advance!

[mckan514w]

@BondVillain- you and I are on the same schedule! October BEC retake then hoping to squeeze out FAR before end of year if not push to Jan. GOOD LUCK!

@MrsCoderedpl- I have to agree with @mtaylo24 – drop the books and start hitting the MCQ's like you have never hit them before. I am also a big proponent of writing EVERYTHING down! I would suggest instead of reading the book on the train bring a legal pad and start copying the book / your notes on the train.

@vorobjeva44- from what I remember they almost always give you the factor except on those questions where they want to know if you know how to compute the PV- but then it is an easy one like whats the PV $100 at 8% two years from today would be (100*(1/1.08)^2)

and they ask me why I drink...

FAR- 61-next time I'll ask for lube instead of a calculator
REG-75- Never been so happy to see such a low grade
BEC- 8/11
AUD- 9/2

[RE2PECT]

I think it depends how you learn and retain the material. For BEC, I've seen people say do as many mcq's as you can and others say that it's more important to know the concepts instead of hammering out thousands of mcq's. I did about 3000 for my first attempt and 3500 for the second and still came up short. Maybe if I did 5000 plus like Mytalo24 suggested I would have passed, but my brain needs a break after so many hours of mcq's. On a good day I'll only do around 150 because some of the calculations are really time consuming.

This time around I'm going back and reading through a different book (Becker) to try and pick up on certain things that were left out of Roger's book. I don't plan on reading the entire thing, just the areas that can ask a lot of conceptual questions like Econ, COSO, and IT. I'm also going through the Wiley book for some fresh questions. Ninja is a great resource, but I feel like I've memorized a bunch of the questions and I'm not getting as much from it. There's also a ton of ridiculously hard questions that you'll most likely not see on the exam and end up wasting a lot of time on. I'm not going to focus on what my trending or average scores are this time. I feel like people put too much emphasis on it and it can be a detriment if you're just trying to get your score as high as possible in hopes that it will translate to the actual exam.

There's no way you can be ready for everything they'll throw at you. I remember getting several questions on topics that were literally mentioned in one sentence of the book and never seen again. That's probably why it's pretty rare that you see people scoring in the 90's on this exam.

FAR: 75 Roger & Ninja (notes/flashcards/audio/MCQ)
AUD: 73, 81
BEC: 71, retake 8/29
REG:

[MrsCoderedpl]

@re2pect i agree everyone has their own methods of retaining the information. I'll try to combine all and see if I can come up with a study plan that will work for me. Thank you for your response!

B 06/04/2016
A 07/30/2016
R N/A
F N/A

[mtaylo24]

Without a doubt, reading the book/listening to audios and watching the lectures are cool whenever you exhaust out on MCQs. I get to that point every few days. But I know the lecture, than read, then stop to do the mcq method hasn't been working for me. If I had to put percentages on how I plan to approach this time around, probably 85% MCQ, 10% Reading text or notes or something like wiley focus notes/ninja notes, then 5% audios or lectures.

AUD - 1st - 60 (12/12), 61 (2/13), 61 (8/13), 78! (11/15)
REG - 55 (2/16) 69 (5/16) Retake(8/16)
BEC - 71(5/16) Retake (9/16)
FAR - (8/16)

[Teal]

do you guys think that all of the variances need to be completely memorized? I understand that concept, but not sure if I'd know exactly which variance is which. Just wanted to see what you thought.

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

[vorobjeva44]

Teal its easy to memorize them, use Becker memonics “PURE DADS SAD ” and it will be super easy not to make mistakes- i had at least 3 or 4 questions on variances on my exam and I am sure I got them right. Material usage variance, spending variance, production volume… They are easy points- don't missed them only because it seems difficult or you just lazy to dive into it, lol 🙂 I didnt like fin mngt and because of it I will retake exam in 2 weeks- now I am studying it so hard and it is not that ugly as i thought 🙂

[Teal]

@vorobjeva44 so true! Thank you for the advice 🙂 You'll get it this time around!!

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

[zsmorgan92]

So this will be my second exam (BEC Oct. 1st), I took and passed FAR with an 82 but am nervous but this one because there seems to be more conceptual.. which means they can bring in minute details from the text.

From anyone who has already taken BEC, what was the approximate breakdown of numerical/formula driven MC to conceptual?

[Author]

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