[Anonymous]

Anyone else here feel alot of “fat” can be trimmed from their materials without sacrificing much in the way of points? I’m all for “covering your bases” but I feel like you could potentially condense 1/3 of the book down and the cost vs benefit would literally be negligable. To me, the more crap you throw in you throw in just to see if “it sticks” is just more brain power I have to use and the potential to forgot something important because I tried to remember something unlikely to be tested.

I’m not looking for cliff notes, just trim up the fat / redundancy a little….

Thoughts??? Obviously their the “experts” but that’s just my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Well personally I like Becker's approach (having looked at the books this season vs what I used way back when—the gosh awful binders). However, I consider it a risky approach in that if the exam is heavily skewed towards something that they don't cover you are hosed.

My BEC exam I really hit hard on the last five sections of Wiley that included the computations….and I hardly had any computations of significant difficulty. My exam focused elsewhere or had angles on the computations.

If you don't like Becker, you'd hate Wiley's notes. 😀 I think Wiley was great for Auditing and BEC but I don't know if I can read that much for REG and certainly not for FAR. I think that would just be too much information. I may go back to CPAExcel for the REG and FAR and do the MCQ's from Wiley as well.

[Minimorty]

@dtom – I actually agree with you on this one. However, you know all the naysayers would bitch and complain about getting a single question on their exam that wasn't covered in the material. So, Becker is kinda screwed if they do and screwed if they dont. I would be willing to bet top dollar that of the people who pass all four sections on their first time, more than half used Becker.

[Tux]

Yes, I would LOVE it if Becker were more condensed. I've heard that Yaeger tries to narrow the field a bit and focus only on “what you need to know”.

I bought Becker for their reputation, but Yaeger has a good track record too. I'm wondering if I picked the right course?

I'm so overwhelmed right now that I end up going in circles, not knowing what to focus on – so not focusing on any one thing nearly enough.

I'll keep plugging away at it. I honestly don't know how anyone gets through this info in a few weeks. This will take several months for me.

I'm starting to realize that a Ph.D would be easier than studying for these tests!

FAR - 86 - 2/27/14
AUD - 75 - 5/29/14
BEC - 80 - 8/31/14
REG - 89 - 2/27/15
Praise Jesus! I'm done!!

Study resources:
Becker
Wiley test bank

[greeneyesCPA]

Lol… @tux, i feel getting a higher degree would be easier too.

My friend used Jeff's notes from this site. I think his notes would help you at focusing on the “what you need to know”.

FAR Passed
BEC Passed
AUD Passed
REG Passed

[Anonymous]

I agree completely. When I took FAR I walked out thinking “um…. where was all the other stuff I studied?!?!” But like everyone says you don't know what you'll actually be tested on so they're just covering their bases. It seems absolutely impossible at first to cover all the material but repetition will be your friend and you'll do just fine. I LOVE the NINJA notes – definitely think it's a MUST.

[ppierce]

This pertains to the question i just posed for Yaegar improvments. They give lists of minimum MCQ to review and then go on to review some of this on their videos. I think a great video would be to just get rid of the reading out of the book and teaching and go straigh to those MCQ. Give detailed explanations on the answers etc..

FAR 80
REG 76
AUD 85
BEC 85
Ethics 98
DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jenuno01]

Very much agreed!!! Specially on FAR, I can guarantee you only need to know about 40% of the material covered in Becker to pass…the tricky part is knowing which 40% to concentrate on 😉

Class of 2012

[Anonymous]

I've never used Becker cuz I'm poor, but of the 1200 pages that I read for FAR using CPAExcel, reading only 50 would've made it…lol

[Tux]

Thank you, guys, for the suggestions!

I'm buying the Ninja notes now. Hoping it will help me to focus and provide guidance. It can't hurt.

FAR - 86 - 2/27/14
AUD - 75 - 5/29/14
BEC - 80 - 8/31/14
REG - 89 - 2/27/15
Praise Jesus! I'm done!!

Study resources:
Becker
Wiley test bank

[oneFREAKINGpoint]

@ jenuno01 Any helpful hints as to what the 40% is comprised of? (Or not comprised of, in interest of non-disclosure…)

[jenuno01]

Lol @oneFreakn well, I would say focus on Bonds, Leases, Consolidations, Govt & NFP, IFRS, Cash Flow!

Class of 2012

[oneFREAKINGpoint]

@ jenuno01 Thanks (: You just listed all the topics I suck at. Time to hit the books! (Again…harder this time…)

On another note, does anyone know of a good study source for IFRS? I feel like Becker doesn't cover it very thoroughly (although their “these are the differences” charts are helpful…) and it's showing up more frequently on FAR. It was too new back when I was an undergrad and therefore not covered in class so other than what I see in Becker, I don't know much about it.

[Anonymous]

I don't think trimming the material is a good idea honestly.

I took my first exam (far) on 2/25 and although I honestly blanked out right after I submitted, I tried remembering what the main concentrations were and the only thing I can remember is that there was a sprinkle from everything.

I knew F1-F9 inside out, and although weaker on a few topics I felt fairly comfortable with all of it. I didn't even LOOK at F10, and I don't think I got a single question from there.

Becker has to include everything that may be covered though, and that's why the book is huge. I don't sit through an 8 hour highlighting class every Saturday for no reason. That's why Becker Review has its reputation. They can't study for you, but they tell you EXACTLY what you need to study / focus on.

Whether I do pass or not is a different story though, as I understand that my study schedule was cut by 4 days (I planned on sitting on the 29th but got my NTS way too late and there was only ONE spot left in ALL of my state at all the Prometrics, and thus I had to take my chance and sign up for the 25th. I didn't get a chance to even look at F10, I had to study F7-F9 in 4 days, and review F1-F9 in the remaining 2 days. It was really really tough but I cut it and feel like I did enough to pass, but that I'll find out soon.

[jeff]

mkay – so you're highlighting all day … does the highlighting mean anything to you or is it just a means to feel like you've done something?

Personally – I believe highlighting sucks and has a very little ROI time-wise.

Why? Because you highlight something and color pretty colors on grey paper – but it means nothing to you.

Writing it in your own voice – and then re-writing it to review…that's where it's at.

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) | Another71 | NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE

[Anonymous]

@Jeff

It is called ”The Becker [Review]”. They're not supposed to teach you all the concepts, they're supposed to review the most important topics.

My class is on 8 am – 5 pm every Saturday and believe me I go there just to highlight. I do not pay any attention nor do I participate in any clicker questions.

When I'm home and want to start studying let's say on a Monday morning. I open the book and that's where the highlighting comes into place. I STUDY, really well, all the highlighted parts (which is most of the material anyway) and I just skim over the rest such that I know it, but haven't necessarily spent so much time on it.

Once again I may just be a misinformed, spoiled, 21 year old who knows very little about what he's talking about, but this is how I see it thus far, no disrespect to anyone or any courses out there.

[Author]

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