[Anonymous]

Hey guys,

I was hoping to get your advice on some stuff here. So I recently passed audit (WOOT) with an 87 using Becker. It took me (what seemed like) much longer to prepare than it took others. This was my method:

• Watch lecture for a section
• Create an outline in my own understanding
• Do that sections homework

Rewriting my notes just took a REALLY long time, even on my scale. As much as it helped, I can’t do that for BEC. I’m working full-time now and I don’t have the time to study 6-8 hours a day like I did before. As far as the actual study plan, I think I need to change what I’m doing and I’m curious as to what people have done in similar situations. So here are some of the things I’ve read/heard of people doing:

• Skip the lectures (I have a lot of trouble focusing during these and waste a lot of time)
• Skim/read the chapter first, then do homework questions, write weak areas as you go
• Do the homework first, then watch lectures for known weak areas (interesting?)

Right now I just feel so discouraged. It takes me three hours to watch an hour long lecture, 5 hours to do 40 multiple choice questions…you guys get the point. I’m quickly falling behind (BEC is on January 4th) and really need to readdress my studying techniques to give me some much needed motivation. What do you guys think? Thanks!

[Want2BeCPAsoBad]

Honestly I have found that BEC is better to hammer all the multiple choice questions, and read the questions explanations. For some reason I feel that the lectures don't translate all that well into the questions, but once you get the concept from the question explanation and redo problems you get a better understanding. You have plenty of time. I'm going into to BEC with 3 weeks of study time. 10 days left, a full time job, and school aged kids. You get the idea. Hammer all the multiple choice and repeat and repeat all the formulas until they become second nature. We can do this! Hi Ya!

[Anonymous]

I do agree that if you are pressed for time, just hammer out the MCQ and read all the explanations, and make notes based on those. I am now into Chapter 5 (exam scheduled for 1/21) and I find that 1-3 were a lot easier to study thoroughly because of all the formulas, whereas the last two chapters (IT and Economics) are hard to focus on. I have done some lectures, reading the book, doing MCQ-there is no rhyme or reason at this point-sometimes I find that it's easier to jump into the MCQ with conceptual stuff and then just weed out the weak areas, and follow up with the book and notes later. Good luck!

[So FAR So Good]

Did you find that this method was helpful for Audit? You did very well so it seems to have worked. If so, I would continue on the same path and maybe just try to tweak anything that you think contributed less to your success. Maybe cut down on the time it takes to do MCQ? That's certainly too much time per question to be dedicating to MCQ, and I couldn't imagine doing less than 20-30 in an hour depending on whether they're calculations or concept questions.

I, similar to you, work full time (actually, more like 60-70 hours a week), but force myself to do at least the lectures and outlines on the weekends and then do MCQs during the week. For the lectures, I take 9-10 hours to go through them while taking notes, so also very similar to you. This is quite frankly the only way that I can absorb things – hammering MCQ just doesn't work for everyone.

F - 91 (6/5/2016)
A - 7/30/2016
R - 10/8/2016
B - 12/10/2016

[Author]

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