[RayanAli]

Hello,

So first things first – I have been studying for BEC the last 4 months. I first took it late 2016 and got an 49. I took it again few weeks ago and just received my score of 48. I am very frustrated – I studied anywhere 6 to 15 hours every single day. With a total of 100 or so hours. Basically, I wasted 100 hours. I used NINJA ( I got 63% from 72 hours total. I studied almost more than half questions on NINJA.) and also used Wiley CPA Excel – I also used cpaexamquestions.com.

I work full-time, so studying more than 8 hours is impossible on weekdays. Please keep in mind I never read the Wiley CPA BEC Book. I did a lot of multiple questions and understood most concepts.

My question to every dear viewer of this thread:

What advise do you have and what study material would one use, especially with the new tough revised BEC effective April 2017 knowing that one barely made 48 and 49 on BEC.

I am very frustrated/disappointed/demotivated/sad/angry.

-Rayan Ali from California

[Goingallin]

You know it could all boil down to study material you use. I used Becker. Did multiple choice questions. Never read a single page of book. Becker questions did a really good job at teaching me the concept without reading the book. I've seen a few other review material and can honestly say I wouldn't have been able to pass simply by practicing the homework questions for those. You pay for what you get. Not everyone is gong to agree with me but there's a reason why Becker is able to charge 3 times more and still be in business. Sure I could've saved money had I purchase something else, but I doubt I would be able to pass within 7 months first attempt. That extra money I paid for Becker was worth every penny cuz i don't have to spend another year studying my arse off and foregoing Life! that's priceless!

[mtaylo24]

@goingallin, I usually do see the becker heads scoring well, but also I always see the people who did well as students and work for great firms using becker, which is also paid for. All the programs pretty much all use the same retired cpa questions. What made Becker so great? The explanations? Not flaming or knocking it because I have never tried it, but I have always been curious. Just wanted to know what you noticed between becker and the others.

AUD - 1st - 60 (12/12), 61 (2/13), 61 (8/13), 78! (11/15)
REG - 55 (2/16) 69 (5/16) Retake(8/16)
BEC - 71(5/16) Retake (9/16)
FAR - (8/16)

[NeedsA75]

It's not the Becker test bank that makes it a good program, it's the textbook that makes it so good. The text has “pass keys” that I think do an extremely good job of highlighting material that has an above average chance of being tested on the exam.

On AUD, I got a pass key straight from the Becker text that was literally a one line random fact that the Gleim text just glossed over. Super easy points but I would have had to take a wild guess if Becker didn't highlight that one little fact for me.

This is not an isolated incident either. I saw some B-Law questions that were straight up pass keys from the Becker text and saved me points on REG

FWIW, I used Gleim exclusively for FAR and then used the Becker text for my other 3 scores.

[Anonymous]

I only use Gleim premium w/o supplementing. I have found that jumping straight to Multiple Choice questions without any base knowledge led to more inefficient studying as I ended up going back to the book or lecture to learn the material. I also found that with Gleim lectures that it moves too fast for me and doesn't really hammer important concepts and “teach.” They more or less read the outline in the book… I started out each section by reading the book, each page and each example, and then reinforcing with A LOT of MCQs and simulation practice. I know that reading a book is dry and you don't think you are picking up a lot, but when I got to the MCQs i ended up retaining more than I thought and I at least remembered going over the material in the book even if I got the answer wrong. MCQs are good for identifying weak areas and reinforcing concepts, not building a base.

With that being said, everyone is different as many people have already stated on here. Some people can learn the material just by doing MCQs, I needed to read the book first to make the MCQs worthwhile. Also, I'm not exactly “killing it” when it comes to these tests, but I have only failed BEC once and have passed the rest on the first attempt, so I'm going to stick with my method for REG and hopefully be done for good on the first try. I wouldn't say BEC is harder than any other test, but it is not to be underestimated. I failed my first attempt because I tried to take shortcuts and skip sections. Made myself look like a fool on my first attempt of BEC.

[Anonymous]

For BEC I recommend writing Ninja Notes. And Rewriting them again at the end. Do a lot of MCQs and Sims.

[EZ_Sims_4_me_Pls]

I used GLEIM, NINJA, and I have the becker books…so I tore the questions out of those and went over them.

nothing in any of those materials covered the IT questions that I saw. Ive literally never seen any of those IT subjects before.

having said that, I scored “stronger” on IT… I know this doesn't help you or anyone else… but I've always been an excellent guesser

I've always owned multiple choice question tests..

im also a very good writer, and I got easy WC questions, so I scored stronger on those as well (scored stronger on 4 portions of mcq, weaker on 2.)

[mtaylo24]

@needa75, Thanks! Its now my mission in life to find the FAR becker text 😂

AUD - 1st - 60 (12/12), 61 (2/13), 61 (8/13), 78! (11/15)
REG - 55 (2/16) 69 (5/16) Retake(8/16)
BEC - 71(5/16) Retake (9/16)
FAR - (8/16)

[NeedsA75]

mytaylo, if you can get a copy of the new becker text I'd highly recommend reading it before you retake FAR in May so you can be done for good!

[gigabyte2001]

So here's my thoughts for whatever minuscule value they have for you.
Different people learn in different ways. There's Auditory, Visual & Kinetic learners. I happen to be mostly a visual learner with a little Kinetic thrown in there. If all I did was listen to lectures, I'd never retain anything. For me that sounds like the teacher on a Charlie Brown special and/or the words jumble up in my head. If I can see it, I can figure it out most of the time. When it gets complicated, I have to see it and then work the problem several times over to cement it. If I had skipped reading the book, I'd have failed all 4 exams. But the audio lectures might be the best thing for someone that's an auditory learner. Key point is – you need to know how YOU learn. Once you know you can make an informed decision about what steps to take in your studies.
There's an old adage that people have to hear/see something 3 times before it sinks in. That's why every speech repeats the important item 3 times and every commercial repeats the phone number 3 times. In a very early public accounting job, the CPA I worked for told me it takes a full year to train a staff accountant because you've got to do something 4 times before you really understand how to do it, and so much is done quarterly.
Gleim takes both of these thoughts into consideration in their premium system. There's audio, visual and kinetic looks at the material. There's lots of MCQ's to look at and work through. If you follow their system, you will do 20 MCQ's, then either audio or visual lectures, then 30 T/F questions, then read the book, then 60 MCQ's and 1 set of 7 SIMS for each study unit. There are 20 study units per exam. That works out to 1600 MCQ's, 600 T/F and 140 SIMS before you even start the final review. The final review begins with an exam rehearsal which looks exactly like the exam you will take. If the exam is 72 MCQs and 7 Sims, that's what you'll do. This is why if you follow their system, they guarantee access until you pass.

It really does work if you follow the steps and work the program.

B - 11/11/16
A - 4/16/16 87!!
R - 2/17/17
F - 7/26/16 - Waiting for 8/23

[mooseonloose]

@need did you take down any notes. I don't usually take notes. In the past, I just listened to the lectures and then did MC

[NeedsA75]

Yes, I read the text and outline notes throughout. Then I do a second pass on the text and add to my notes as needed. My final review includes going through the text a third time and focusing on my weak areas and reviewing my notes.

Writing stuff down is key for me to remember it long term

[mooseonloose]

@thanks! I will follow your strategy, maybe thats what I am missing. textbook and note taking

[NeedsA75]

Yea it really boiled down to the basics for me. Reading, writing, and understanding the fundamental concepts from the text and then practicing the MC to familiarize myself with how I will see the concepts tested on the exam

[Author]

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