[April94]

Hi guys,

I take my final exam (BEC) on 8/8. I’m hoping I pass on the first attempt, but I’m feeling very uneasy. I’m not trending that well on MCQs (averaging about 60%) and I just feel so burned out from this whole journey. Of course, I’m gonna push through this last week, but was just wondering if anyone had any last-minute tips to help me get through this week? What did you guys do during the week of your BEC exam?

Any tips are appreciated. Thanks!

[Recked]

Keep on pushing! Don't forget the AICPA sample tests.
Always found those sample SIMs to be pretty helpful.
I feel like you don't need to stress over memorizing formulas.
I feel like you should be able to do about 100 MCQs a day for the next 4 days, then just focus on review on the 7th.

[Ralphie Dos Nachos]

You definitely need to know some formulas for sure. I would just rewrite them no matter how many times I did the same type of question.

Key topics: COSO, IT, and Variance Analyis. SAD PUREDADS is a good mnemonic for variances. google it.
Other important topics that I saw the 3 times I took BEC: Cost accounting, Economics, breakeven analysis, budgeting, ratio formulas.

As recked said, definitely do the AICPA sample exam.

[RobOh]

I also agree that you should not forget to take the AICPA practice tests. I was surprised to see very similar or even the same questions/SIMs on the actual exam. That's the closest thing you get to free points!

Also, make sure you know how you will structure the Written section (Intro paragraph, body, conclusion). If you don't know the answer, don't stress, just make sure to regurgitate the question and put in some key words and phrases. Even if the answer you write is incorrect you will still get points for your written structure etc.

[lILI889]

You will probably see a lot on corporate governance/IT/COSO/Econ. I don't think review courses prepared me for Econs and foreign currencies. Interestingly, there're few nonsense questions on these topics and they were repetitive on my other attempts, I can't pass BEC because of Econs. Good luck, and make sure you get these easy points (corporate governance/COSO/IT controls, security) in your pocket.

[April94]

Thank you all so much for these tips. I will definitely take the AICPA practice tests before 8/8. I actually liked the COSO and IT chapters the most (I found them the most interesting out of everything!) So I do feel comfortable with those topics, at least.

The topics I'm having the most trouble with are Economics (I was never good with this topic) and Capital Budgeting…praying to God I don't have too many questions about these topics, but of course I'm still practicing MCQs related to this topic. I'll find out my score 8/25, so it'll either be the best day of my life or an extreme disappointment.

Best of luck to everyone here still taking the exams! We can do it!

[CH89]

@April94 – Economics has always been a weak point for me too, and I dreaded it on BEC. I'm sure you probably do this, but I always found it helpful to search for any MCQ on Economics that I struggled with, and find it on this forum. Sometimes the way other people explain the answer just has it click better. Another thing I did too, was try and explain and walk myself through those Econ questions, and try to approach them with that “weird” logical manner that doesn't make sense to me haha.

Best of luck! You got this!

[lisl]

During my last week of review for BEC, I took my final Mock exam and went over my weak areas that were identified from the exam. I ran through practice testlets of about 10 MCQs each to not overwhelm myself. Once I started averaging 80 to 100% on those, I felt a lot better. Go through ALL of the AICPA recently released questions, especially the SIM ones. Those helped me a lot. Make sure you understand the concepts behind things and not just memorize calculations – for example, understand what could have caused a certain ratio to increase/ decrease. Do not get too hung up on the Written Communication section.

I took my BEC exam back in March – SIMS were brutal but I just kept going and answered them as best I could. I had about 45 minutes left for the WC – didn't know a single topic on each of the 3 questions but I just wrote in the format that Becker lays out and put some buzz words in – the timer ran out on me right when i finished my last WC so I wasn't able to look them over – passed with a 92. You got this!

[Recked]

Highly recommend drawing out the supply and demand charts for economics questions.
It's too easy to switch things around when you just visualize those charts in your mind.
When you draw the chart, it helps your mind keeps things correct.
Give it a try.

[April94]

Hey guys! One last question before my exam tomorrow. When you guys were studying for BEC, did you worry about the length of your essays for the written communication portion? I've been studying with Roger and I noticed some of the essay responses are soooo long like who has that much time to write a novel?! And then other essay responses were pretty short and concise.

[Flash]

I noticed that same thing when I studied for it last year w/ Becker in how long the sample answers were. On the actual, mine were nowhere near that long, and I still got a 6. Really the key with the essay portion is to focus on keeping it brief with good sentence + grammatical structure and making sure to incorporate the major “buzzwords” associated with the topics. Also, be sure to restate the question in your response for some free points.

Good luck, you got this!!

[April94]

Thank you! The exam wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. But I still left feeling like it could go either way…as I felt with each exam. Now I just have to wait until 8/25 to see if I’m done with these exams for good or if I need to retake BEC.

[Katt Pham]

I have just finished the exam this morning (1st attempt). Got killed by the MCQs. Took me 2 hours to complete all MCQs. Obviously I ran out of time and skipped the last giant SIM. I don't have too much hope for this exam. I am wondering if I could re-take it next week before the score be released on Aug 25th?

Feeling disappointed right now 🙁

[April94]

Are we allowed to retake a section before score release? I always thought we had to wait until score release to sign up for a retake. I'm in IL – maybe that's just an IL rule?

[monikernc]

You cannot retest on a section until you receive a failed score. With continuous testing you can now sit for the failed exam in the same testing window. Good luck, you never know how these things will go.

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