Reluctantly checked my score this morning and was very surprised to see I passed. And even more surprised to see an 85. I always thought because of my background BEC would be the easiest to pass for me, but once I started studying and seeing the type of stuff in it, I wasn't so sure. That being said, I kind of felt like the first testlet questions were pretty easy and the second and third were a little harder, but not extremely difficult. The only reason I thought they were somewhat difficult was because I didn't have the new material. I didn't think the written was too bad, but I am not a good writer, especially in timed, do-it-quick settings. I wrote some stuff, but they were fairly short answers, and I wasn't even sure what type of format to write.
Reasons why I shouldn't have passed:
1. First exam that I took, so even with Becker practice questions and exams, I didn't truly know what to expect.
2. I tried to get by with a friend's 2010 book because I figured it would be good enough. I did not realize until a week before the exam that they had taken out business structures and added corporate governance, and I thought there was only 1 longer written question instead of 3 shorter ones.
3. I didn't have any prep on corporate governance other than 30-45 minutes the morning of the exam when I Googled COSO and SOX, and reviewed some stuff on websites I found. Amazingly, I know for a fact at least one or two of the questions I got right because it was something that I read on the internet.
4. I'm not a good standardized test taker (my GMAT score 9 years ago was very average or maybe a little below average).
5. I only studied about 40-50 hours and very little the last week after thinking there was no hope once I found out the changes were more than I had thought they were.
I was comparable in corporate governance, information systems, operations management, and the written portion. I was stronger in economics, financial management, strategic planning, and multiple choice on a whole.
Now on to auditing, which is what I have been doing for the last three years (governmental and non-profit only). I think it will be harder for me though because of the memorization that is involved with it and without numbers, formulas, etc., the exam style doesn't suit me as well.
BEC - 85
AUD - 85
REG - 76
FAR - 82
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