[Anonymous]

I am 3 chapters into studying and am already very overwhelmed. Corporate governance I can handle, but the IT module is probably 100 definitions and the Econ chapter is a bunch of foreign formulas. Then there’s the formula for calculating GDP which is in and of itself a nightmare! The only positives so far are no SIMS and the writing section I should be okay on. How do you pass this? How do you study for it?

[Texas27]

I studied with Becker and I believe it prepared me fairly well for the test. I had not done anything in BEC in 2+ years because it is all courses I took sophomore and junior year like cost accounting and economics. I never did well in economics but I found out the key is to know the supply/demand graphs and it will really help you out. As for the GDP calculation, you just need to memorize the mnemonic Becker gives you for the expenditure approach which is GICE (government purchases, gross private investment, personal consumption, and net exports). All other information in the problems is irrelevant to the GDP calculation. As for the IT section, I went over it once and never looked back. The reason for this is because I heard that the IT questions on the exam were completely random which turned out to be true but I could still make an educated guess and I ended up with a strong performance on the IT section.

If I were you I would focus mainly on cost accounting, COSO/internal control framework, economics, and budgeting. Make sure you know the formulas for calculating everything in these sections. When you do MC questions make sure you understand why you are getting them correct/wrong and just not memorizing. Even if you have seen the question before and know the answer, make sure you can actually work through the problems. On some multiple choice question in Becker I spent 5+ minutes going through the whole calculation (even calculations that the problem didn't ask for) so that I would understand the entire concept and the big picture.

I found the actual exam to be a lot easier than most of the MC questions Becker had. The questions on the actual exam were comparable to the AICPA released questions but I would not focus on those until the last couple of days because it is important that you understand the concepts first.

BEC - Feb 2012: 80
AUD - Feb 2012: 84
FAR - Apr 2012: 78
REG - May 2012: 90

Thanks Becker!

[Anonymous]

Thanks Texas!! That was extremely helpful. I'm feeling very overwhelmed by the material – I think I would almost rather take FAR again.

[Tootsie]

@apbandj, there is a lot of material and I don't think every little detail/term can be memorized. I've just been rereading the Becker text, redoing the practice questions, as well as more practice questions from Wiley. If you have a good understanding of the topics and practice questions, then you should do well. Also take full-length sample exams and time yourself.

FAR - 76
AUD - 88!!! DONE!!!!!!!!
BEC - 76
REG - 77

never, never, never give up

[Author]

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