[viva_cpa]

Hey all,

The Becker review guide claims that the “accuracy” of your answer doesn’t count and that it is just writing skills and “technical content”. It says that technical content is just being “relevant and helpful” to the reader. I’ve heard from some people that this implies that as long as you write well and address the main issue, it doesn’t matter if what you actually said is correct.

If I get a written task about an unfamiliar topic that I don’t know a whole lot about, should I only talk about what I’m sure is correct (even if that is very little)? Or, should I try to give a longer answer and throw a little BS in there as long as it sounds plausible?

Any thoughts/info on exactly how they grade these? Thanks a ton.

AUD: July 2012 - 97
FAR: August 2012 - 94
REG: October 2012 - 76
BEC: December 2012

[Anonymous]

I had heard that if you have no clue on the topic, that you could say that you were going to have to research the issue and would get back to them at a certain time. I have no idea if this is accurate or not. Chances are you will be able to come up with something on each WC.

[pkd1982]

I've used the “I will research the topic further” line after putting in a couple paragraphs of very general commentary on prompts that I didn't know the answer for. Agree with Kricket though, chances are you'll recall something, even if it's extremely vague, on test day. Pay attention to your spelling, grammar, subject-verb agreement, making sure you're not using acronyms without defining them first, things like that.

REG: Pass
BEC: Pass
AUD: Pass
FAR: August 2013

[musicamor]

None of us will TRULY know what counts on these exams–we can only speculate since the AICPA keeps such a tight watch on what feedback is disseminated to the public; however, we do know in part what constitutes acceptable responses. To answer your specific question, it is generally understood that the BEC WC is mostly graded around grammar, sentence structure, and one's ability to effectively communicate to others in the form of a memorandum. That said, I do believe that one should be at least remotely correct when it comes to your response to the fact pattern.

Texas CPA - licensed in 2012!!!

[Author]

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