[Anonymous]

I’m taking BEC tomorrow and scrambling to as best I can review the material, Im already rushing in the sense that Im taking it tomorrow, but thats another story.

I took Becker Final Exams for AUD and all it did was ruin my confidence. I found them to me much harder than the actual exam and I didnt see the point.

In BEC, I dont think I should because of the confidence issue as well as the fact that I think its more important to review all of the specific materials I dont know. Im focusing on IT and COSO today for the most part, I know economics pretty well, and the rest if I get to it today good, if not, then so be it (I practiced the rest the past few days)

Anyone using Becker not take the BEC Final Becker Exam and didnt regret it?

Thanks

[WantToBeDone]

I never do the final exams. Like you said, I find they destroy my confidence and that's a very important thing to have with you before going in on exam day.

BEC - 80
AUD - 85
FAR - 76
REG - 75

[pkd1982]

I prefer to sit down with the Wiley practice MCQs a few days before the exam now. For FAR and AUD I did Becker's final exam and thought I knew nothing–ended up failing both sections. With REG, I dumped Becker after the videos and did Wiley's MCQ's instead.

I found that the “hint” option in their questions let me feel more confident; instead of blindly thinking I didn't know what on earth I was doing, I was able to think, “Huh, I knew that, I just needed the memory jog.” It was an all-around calmer cram experience and I ended up passing REG. Doing the same thing for BEC right now, hopefully it works as well, but I already know that I'm going to be more zen walking into the exam room than I would be if I used Becker's confidence killers.

REG: Pass
BEC: Pass
AUD: Pass
FAR: August 2013

[CPA Hopeful]

I'll come at it from the other point of view. I took the Becker final exam # 1 for both FAR and REG and did not do particularly well in either. I will admit that for FAR it did hurt my confidence a bit, but what I did after the final exam was look at what I got wrong and study those topics. The next day I took the actual exam and I can remember getting at least 5 questions from the topics that I had gotten wrong on the final exam. So while it hurts your confidence it does give you a good idea of where you are still weak in before taking the real exam. When I took my REG Becker final exam I already figured going into it that I would do poorly and used it as a barometer of where I was at and what I needed to focus my final hours of studying on. If you already know that the Becker final is tough and you will most likely do poorly on it then it should not hurt your confidence. I knew that going into the REG Becker final and did not let it hurt my confidence because I knew that no matter how I did on that exam I would do much better on the real exam. So far so good and I have passed both exams (REG right on that magic mark). So while they may not be totally necessary, I do find them useful and will continue to do it for AUD and BEC. One final note, I only took final exam 1 of each section and saved final exam 2 in case I had to re-take…just a thought… Good luck!!

FAR - 81
REG - 75
AUD - 85
BEC - 79

Thank goodness it's over... Now on to the next step...

[momto5]

Well most would probably disagree with me, but I like doing some different, challenging questions at home prior to getting them in the exam. By this time I have memorized many of the MCQ's in the study materials. I want to be challenged to see some different questions and different ways of asking things. I feel like I saw things in the Final AUD exam that hadn't really been focused on in the regular questions, which gave me more experience. I try not to get too focused on how well or badly I did – I just look at it like a fresh set of questions and the experience similar to exam day to get ready for it.

That being said, I'm not sure you would want to wait until the night before your exam to do these unless your test isn't until tomorrow afternoon and you have the morning yet to review. And if you still have specific materials to review that you haven't fully covered yet, then I would definitely spend the time on that instead of the Final Exam.

Don't freak out, stay calm, and just do your best. I know you weren't planning on taking this so soon and your plans changed, so I can imagine how you feel about it. Don't bother with the Final Exam this time and just focus on the main material. Good luck! Will be anxious to see your report on how it went!

FAR - 92 (4/27/12)
AUD - 96 (7/17/12)
BEC - 92 (8/30/12)
REG - 91 (11/12/12)

[Anonymous]

@momto5,

thanks for the words of advice and encouragement. I really appreciate them as always. I hope I can stay calm, I wasnt able to sleep for hours while tossing and turning in my bed last night because I kept telling myself “I really want to pass, I really want to pass, I want to be a CPA already!”

That brought up feelings of anxiety bc I then began focusing on what If I dont pass, and it would suck to study for it again, etc.

Anyways, thank you and I hope to have good news to report!

[Author]

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