[red07]

Hello all,
I am preparing for bec using Becker CPA Review. I started off September 17th and uptil now I’m only on B2. First I thought that with B1 it might be taking a little long since I was getting into the study mode and all but now it’s making me anxious.
I first started off by listening to the lecture of module1 then making notes and mcqs as they suggest but realized it was taking too much time, so I switched to listening all the lectures, then making notes and then do the mcqs and skill practices. Overall the mcqs have been going good. But I feel it’s very time consuming. According to the study plan I dedicated a week for each of the sections. And I’m nowhere near doing that. Is it normal or do I need to speed up a bit.
How do you or did you use Becker? What was ur effective plan and do you think what I’m doing is fine and shld just keep on studying like this?
Thanks

In Training

[Anonymous]

Is BEC your first exam by chance?
I think the key is figuring out what works for you. I used Becker on all of the sections. I would read the textbook instead of watching the lecture (I was able to do this MUCH faster). I then did all of the MCQ. I never did any of the skills videos. On the first exam (REG), I did maybe half of the SIMs. I did maybe a handful on BEC, but really not any on AUD or FAR.
– For me, this was the winning, time-effective combo of reading the exam + doing MCQ.
– Becker has a TON of material, and you can easily drown in it if you're not careful figuring out what's important.
-I would generally sit down and say I'm going to do “XYZ” right now. For example, I might do B1 M1-2 or M3 in a single sitting. Sometimes, it took 20 minutes, sometimes it took two hours. Generally, I tried to move through two units a week though (B1-B2 and B3-4, etc). I was generally able to maintain this while working full-time average about 15-20 hours a week.

[Anonymous]

Hey Red, it seems like you're getting bogged down with taking notes. I know everyone learns differently, but handwriting notes from the textbook never really worked for me and seems very time consuming. Like Chandler, I also used Becker and here is what worked for me:
Listen to the lectures at 1.25x or 1.5x speed. Whatever is the fastest speed you can keep up with actually listening to the lecturer and underlining/highlighting what they tell you to in the textbook. I did the skills practices and I think they can be helpful if you didn't grasp a concept completely when you went through the lecture. Then I did the MCQs. I used the Becker note function to write down a quick note about why I got a question wrong (or accidentally right,) the first time through the questions. Then I would re-do just the MCQs I got wrong the first time through until I got 100% of them correct. If you use this strategy you can get through 1-2 modules in about 3-4 hours pretty easily.
At the end of the week I would do all the SIMs for that section at once , then I would copy and paste all the notes I had written during the MCQs in Becker's note function to a Word document and print them out to use as study notes during my final review period leading up to the actual exam.
Also, during my final review I would go back and read the highlighted sections of the textbook that the lecturers had mentioned and maybe make some quick handwritten notes about a topic I was struggling with and add those notes to my MCQs notes. Then I would do as many MCQs as humanly possible in the weeks leading up to the exam.
Hope this helps!

[red07]

Thanks Chandler and Zach,
Yes this is my first exam.and you can tell im nervous and trying really hard to figure out a study method that makes me through this beast.
Zach I really like your study way and try incorporating it for the next modules amd see if it works.

thanks

In Training

[Anonymous]

I agree with the others-the strategy that worked for me was to listen to the lectures-good way to spend time on your commute, then attempt MCQ, then go back through the book and take notes and make flashcards… I found that taking notes while watching the lecture is useless and takes too long…I always set my study plan to do 1 chapter a week, and yes, some modules take a couple of hours, some take a few nights…. good luck!

[Author]

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