[Oceanman]

For those that use Becker CPA Review…defend it

I just finished taking FAR a couple of hours ago and that test was a beast. This was my first of the exams and I prepared using Becker.

I should preface by saying that I understand every exam is different. I don’t mean to scare anyone about to take the test either. I think that the Becker review is ok, and you will do fine, just not as good as advertised.

My question is for people that have used Becker for multiple exams and believe it is worth it. While I’m not saying that I failed, I really don’t think I did as well as I should have considering how much I studied (pretty much 5-6 days a week for at least 5-7 hrs per day for 7 weeks). I also have a very strong academic background for financial accounting classes. After taking the test I feel that the actual Becker review did not help very much. Most of the subjects that the class really emphasized were not heavily tested. Some were not tested at all. I understand that it is a broad test of an extensive list of subjects but I feel that it did not adequately prepare me for the exam. How well I did on the exam had most to do with the knowledge I had before I started studying as well as picking up little details from the Becker text that weren’t emphasized or even covered.

My point is that while I understand they cannot prepare you for every single possible question, I don’t believe it was worth nearly the $3000 I pd for every section of review materials. I think I would have been just as well off buying the cheapest review book and reading it over several times on my own so that I would have as much knowledge as possible. Rather than wasting time listening to the lectures I could have read and re-read the text to focus on the small details that I felt were so important on the actual exam. I also think that the practice m/c questions were ok but by no means extensive and I wasted a lot of time learning how to do problems I never saw on the exam

Has anyone else felt like this after an exam? I have done some research into other reviews but can anyone else suggest another one that they felt was good? I am taking auditing next (in this window) but am strongly considering returning Becker for the above reasons.

I know it’s a rant and a half but I really don’t feel great about my exam experience relative to my preparation.

Created with Compare Ninja

FAR-92
AUD-94
REG-87
BEC-(April)

[italianCPA]

I really liked becker.

It obviously worked for me.

I'm the kind of student who hates reading books (I rarely even bought books in college/business schools). I'd pay attention in class and take notes and then study on those.

That is exactly what I did with becker. Did not even touch the books, but instead gave them to my brother-in-law who is an accounting major in college (he appreciated the mnemonics and btw his midterms were as hard as the FAR exam, if not even more).

I had great knowledge in the FAR area and very good knowledge of the BEC area.

However, I had ZERO knowledge of the AUD and REG area, and it worked out just fine.

FAR - 7/26/10 - 95
AUD - 8/10/10 - 88
BEC - 8/31/10 - 88
REG - 10/15/10 - 95

[Anonymous]

my experience with Becker so far…I have sat and passed BEC (89) and FAR (88)…I signed up for the live courses not because of the instructors but because I needed that structure to get serious and study for the exam…tell me where to be twice a week and to have my homework done before the next week and I will have it done…I tried self study for the GMATs…bought the nice review book…and it sat on my desk for months and I never opened it…I was afraid the same would happen if I bought any of the CPA self study books…so since Becker was the only review in NJ that offers live instruction I went with them.

now the live classes did nothing for me…I would go home and watch the videos after each class anyway…I found that in class I was spending too much time worrying about what I needed to underline/highlight and wasn't paying attention to the materials…but as I said before, the classes were a planning tool for me more than anything else…and the classes did just that for me…so much so that I was able to do the Becker self study for the AUD section…I just took it today so I don't have the results but feel I was very well prepared and did well

TL;DR: used Becker live instruction to give me structure in studying..took BEC & FAR and passed both…did Becker self study for AUD and feel it went really well!

[Author]

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