Posted this on another thread.
I sat for Aud on Oct 4th and the went on to sit for BEC on Nov 30th. So I didn't have a lot of time here. I started studying around Oct 14th, 10 days of rest, `So I had 6 weeks.
I though BEC is the easiest section so in my mind made sense to sit for it in the same testing window.
BEC probably IS easiest but it's god damn boring!
I used Becker.
First Lecture was damn about Coso and Enterprise risk assessment. Thought I knew COSO from Auditing but I didn't COSO in BEC is in much more detailed and a tad more complicated. Enterprise Risk Management has a lot of details too. In between the lecture I found it boring and lost a bit of concentration. Reread the lecture after listening to it and got most of the concept. 2nd Half of the lecture is related to cost accounting which was not that hard too be honest. It was basic cost accounting stuff. Most important stuff was related to COGMF, COGS, and calculating direct material used price. You need to go over it thoroughly. Struggled with COSO questions. Found questions are more difficult than the material. MCQs for cos accounting were not that hard for lecture 1
2nd Lecture. Too much cost accounting and calculations. Material ad MCQs were hard. A lot of calculations and long calculations. You need a cup coffee to solve MCQs. Many MCQs require long calculations. Like AUD, did one subtopic at a time and score percentages were mixed. Scored well in MCQs of 2nd lecture. Around 70s and 80s. Grasped the knowledge well.
3rd Lecture. was about corporate finance. Too many calculations and formulas. It was really hard to keep a track of all the formulas. Scored in 50s and 70s in the MCQs of this section. Good think was the calculations were not long. Formulas are easy to apply but there were so many of them.
Lecture 4. It was Information technology. Boring and full of IT terminologies. I don't have much interest in IT so found it hard to grasp the knowledge initially. I listened to the lecture and then read the text. From my experience you have to keep an eye on different procedures and have to learn some important definitions as well.. You have to learn EDI, E-commerce, Risk Assessment, etc.
Lecture 5. It was about economics. I had pretty good concept abut economics so I found this one pretty interesting.. Lecture is not that hard especially if you know basic concept of supply and demand.
Lecture 6. It's on the same concepts of lecture 1-5 except except the hedging. I don't pay much attention to the hedging. It was there in FAR as well but you hardly get 1-2 qns on it. Those qns are not hard too.
After finishing the lectures first time I reread it and then redid the qns. I keep doing all the questions until I get each and everyone right. I don't go the ones which I did correct more than once.
After finishing the review I did the progress questions. I did 100 questions and 72 questions. Then I took Becker's final exam. I scored 87 in the first testlet, 62 in the second and 62 in the third of the Becker's exam.
I realized my concepts related to COSO and enterprise risk management and information technology were weak. I went over the first lecture and 4th lecture again. Then I did 50 MCQs of both lectures again. Then I practiced important formula related to cost accounting and corporate finance. NPV, Variances, Payback, CAPM, these are really important.
Then I did 30 MCQs each of lecture 2, 3, and 5. Every time I read text and did MCQs my concept got better and better.
I did not do simulations. I read it but did not write it. I knew my writing skills were good enough, I didn't need to write 20 simulations to practice it. You need to go over the format of the writing skills, see the length, opening and closing. Before the exam night I listened to Becker's lecture about writing portion to understand the format.
On the exam day, I realized that Becker didn't prepare me enough for COSO and ERM questions. Questions were pretty vague as well. Plus there were few questions related to COSO which I felt I didn't study enough. And there were so many COSO questions. If you're using Becker try to get some other materials related to COSO. Older version would work as well. other than COSO nothing was unexpected. Calculations were easier than what I did in Becker. As expected there were two easy questions on hedging and forward exchange rates.
IMO the key to passing AUD and BEC is having strong concepts. These are mainly conceptual exams. And to have strong concepts you need need to go over text and qns as many times as you could. For FAR MCQS hold the key but for AUD and BEC you nee concepts. Writing section was easy.
I can't stress this enough don't panic. Never Panic while studying or when you're giving the exam. You always know more than you think you.
Good Luck to you!
FAR May 2012 81 (lost credit, didn't sit for other sections.)
FAR 86 Aug 2015
AUD 85 Nov 2015
BEC 84 Dec 2015
REG 78 Mar 2016
Passed ALL sections in first attempt!!
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