[Jgabbay]

I’m beginning to study for BEC tonight with Becker CPA Review and was hoping any of you could please share some insight on how to maximize my studying over the next month and a half (expected to take it 10/20ish). THANKS!

 

 

[Anonymous]

Hit cost accounting hard and do all the MCQs multiple times. Memorize all the formulas Provided.

Becker didn’t really prepare me for the type of COSO and IT MCQ questions but make sure to study those topics well.

[Anonymous]

Just follow Becker study plan, you should be good! Make sure to do progress tests throughout your prep…For review, supplement with Ninja MCQ if you can…

[Anonymous]

Becker doesn't use this mnemonic (at least not when I took BEC,) but for cost accounting SAD PURE DADS will help you remember all the variance formulas much easier than anything Becker teaches.

SAD = Standard – Actual = Difference

P = Price = Difference x Actual
U = Usage = Difference x Standard
R = Rate = Difference x Actual
E = Efficiency = Difference x Standard

This mnemonic also helps with figuring out whether a variance is favorable or unfavorable too.

Besides that, make sure you know COSO backwards and forwards. A lot of people will say Becker does a bad job on teaching IT, but for such a broad subject as IT I think Becker did OK. If you don't agree maybe use NINJA to supplement, but if you follow the Becker study plan you should be fine.

[Anonymous]

I would definitely agree with the above: COSO framework and IT are things you need to be familiar with. Making flashcards of all of the formulas in the book will help too (I think I made around 115 of them) and it's worth it to know them because you never what you'll get.

[SAMP03]

How many weeks of studying are needed for BEC? I passed the other 3 sections, BEC is the only one I have left. My FAR score expires in June 2019 and my Becker live online class does not begin till November. So the earliest I would prefer take the exam is early January 2019 which means I wont get the score till Feb 2019….is this a good idea? I passed all 3 sections on my first try using the becker live classes, so don't want to rock the boat for this one……any suggestions whether I should self study and take the exam earlier in December 2018 or stick to the plan and get the result close to Feb 2019?

NERVOUS and CONFUSED 🙁

[Anonymous]

@Samp03, do you have access to the Becker materials to self-study? I'm not too sure how that works when you buy the live courses. If so, I would say it just depends on what you are comfortable with. I think you do have plenty of time to study for BEC if you are looking to take it in 2018. I studied about five weeks for it while working full-time. If you take your exam by December 10th, you should get your results by December 19th. If you don't pass you can always re-sit in Q1 2019 without losing any of your scores. Probably what I would be tempted to do, but it's completely your choice.

[Superdude3000]

Just know going in that there really isn't much flow to this section. What's nice about the other sections is that they cover related topics. BEC is a clusterf*** of random business items.

[Anonymous]

@Superdude-that's a very accurate description of what BEC is! 🙂

[Anonymous]

@Superdude, exactly my thoughts about BEC as well. Although I often heard BEC was the easiest, it was my least favorite section to study for this reason. It's not a ton of material, but it's do painfully disjointed.

[Anonymous]

My tip for clearing BEC. Chp 1 is important just understand CRIME and the ERM concepts.
Chp 2 know all the financial calculations and what they mean.
Chp 3 is the easiest chapter just understand cost accounting

[Anonymous]

Chp 4 know breakeven and variance analysis
Chp 5 Economics personally I did not get more than 1 mcq on the exam…kinda annoyed it was my best subject
Chp 6 just understand the basics you can get 5 pts on the exam at best.

[Jgabbay]

For the other exams, I didn't really read the textbook/watch lectures. I just reviewed the Becker chapter outlines and then did the mcqs over and over again.

Is BEC passable without diving into the textbook/lectures?

[rahee]

Really study/understand/memorize chapter 1. COSO is guaranteed to be on the exam–which is good because its the easiest material to study even though its long since its purely memorization. Chapter 2–just know the formulas, and you should be good because the way BEC tests financial information is pretty straight forward with little curveballs (atleast for me). Cost Accounting was hard for me–I had to do a lot of studying for it for me to understand the material, and I didnt even end up getting it on my exam! When you do cost accounting, definitely have a good understanding of Variance Analysis. Chapter 5–the econ info is pretty basic and it kind of seems like an Econ 101 class. Chapter 6– IT is a hit or a miss. Honestly, the IT questions I saw on my exam wasnt what I saw on Becker 🙁

So tldr- based on MY experience: really really study COSO, cost accounting, variance analysis, and have a pretty good understanding of Financial, Econ, IT.

[Author]

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