[polarbear]

Is there anyway to tell if you would pass the exam based on how you did on the final exams that Becker offers?

[Anonymous]

I definitely don't think so! The Becker Final exams are a great tool, but don't let them be too discouraging. I think the only one I ever passed was for BEC, but I passed all my actual exams on the first try.

My classmates all seemed to have a similar experience. On average we were scoring 20 points higher on the actual exam.

[Anonymous]

I agree with CPAPlease, the final exams for Becker are brutal. I'd say if you are passing those consistently, you should do well on the mc on the actual exam.

[packers54301]

So far this has been my experience since I started studying for this stupid exam….

FAR – Becker Final Exam MCQ percent (average of the two) = 67% real score was 85.

BEC – Becker Final Exam MCQ percent (average of the two) = 79% real score 90%.

hopefully this pattern can keep going for 2 more tests

FAR - 85
BEC - 90
REG - 10/19

[Anonymous]

One of Becker Professors told us that these exam are much more difficult than real exams, because they want to make sure that real ones seem easy for you… seems smart, right? Both times I walked out of testing room feeling "well, it wasn't that bad… much more straightforward than I expected".

The idea is that you do final exams, get your 60's or 70's, study questions you did wrong on them – you're going to be in a good shape for the exam.

I got low 60's on my BEC final exams and 80's on my auditing final exams.

I think it's safe to say that you can expect your real grade to be approximately 5-10 points higher…

[halfCPA]

Hi Anna,

So would you say the Becker Audit Final Exam was more difficult than the actual exam too? I am taking Audit tomorrow, and just ran through the multiple choice on one of the final exams and got an 86, but I don't know how this compares to the real thing.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Well, these final exams are supposed to simulate exam environment, so in order for you to see how stressful the whole thing is -you would need to pretend that you are actually taking the exam, and do the whole thing from the beginning to the end… which I know is extremely boring.

But still, yes, you will see that questions on real exam are less wordy, less tricky, kind of built simpler than in Becker final exams.

Of course, they can always ask you something you don't know that well… but I think it's safe to say that if you got 86 on MCQ on practice exam – you are in a very good shape for the real one. I averaged 80 on samples and got 86 on actual exam.

You'll do great!

[halfCPA]

Thanks for the answer! That makes me feel better. I actually wasn't even going to attempt the Final Exams, because I did them for both BEC and REG and found them to be much much more difficult than the real thing! It just made me more nervous after doing it for those 2.

I'm still worried about simulations though, because I feel it's hard to prepare for them.

[Anonymous]

Well, as i said – one of the points of those final exams to make sure that when you get something on them wrong, you go over that, understand what you did wrong and be in your best shape for the real thing.

As far as simulations are concerned… nothing can prepare you for them. I just looked through answers for them, read sample memos that Becker gives you. Well, I did practice writing memos and I think it helped.

Now, in both of my audit simulations i got unrelated tabs. One tab easy – auditing stuff. Memos were fine. And some tabs I was like "yeah… I'm not even going to worry about this sh., cause nobody can do it" So i just plugged in something random, without even guessing. Still passed as you can see.

Important to remember that simulations are only 30% all together and 1/3 of this is memo.

[halfCPA]

That's good to know! I think my biggest fear is getting a lot of tabs with having to analyze ratios — that is definitely my weakness.

The worries just don't end… 🙂

[Anonymous]

If you do – the most important thing is not to panick. Stay cool and just do your best.

[halfCPA]

Agreed! I think I'm so nervous about this one because I expected to be memorizing tons and tons of lists in my head and constantly going back to the book to make sure I memorized them. Yet, I don't feel like I did this at all. I only skimmed the chapters before going through the Becker questions the first time, and after that just re-did the Becker questions twice. I felt that going through Becker questions reinforced a lot of the memorization. Did you feel the same?

[Anonymous]

I did do MCQ couple of times at least for both exams. I was able to not be nervous for them at all: BEC and AUD are mostly conceptual – I'm better with memorization and concepts than with numbers.

I do feel this way about FARE… it's difficult for me, I'm basically learning accounting from the beginning and the amount of info overwhelms me. I found that memorization techniques that are used in Becker course don't work for me with FARE, so I switched to Yeager…

Generally, I think that if you honestly know that you did your best with studying – like you input enough hours, have gone through recommended amount of problems – you should be just fine to pass even if you have weak areas… everyone has them.

[halfCPA]

I also felt very discouraged with FARE. I wanted to cry when leaving each class, and after doing the Becker MC first time around. I took the exam on October 2nd, so only time will tell, but all I can tell you is going through those MC over and over again definitely makes you feel more comfortable as time goes on!

[Anonymous]

hey all, i saw the forum topic and thought you people read my mind! im taking FARE next week, and so i took both finals exams just to see where my weaknesses are. Well the first one i did decent on, i passed, and then the second one was a massacre. I dont even know how they could make the second one so much harder than the first one!! now i am totally discouraged because i was confident after i took the first one and now im completely upset. i noticed the second one asked a ton on governmental accounting that were totally foreign and not really touched upon anywhere. some of the questions were plain out strange. did any1 else have this experience with the FARE finals exam in becker? and if they did…any consolation for me??

[Anonymous]

As I said – Becker professor told us that they design them as extremely difficult, so I think if you review what you dis wrong on them and understand why – you should be good.

[Author]

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