[Anonymous]

I just got out of my BEC exam. My butt hurts immensely. I studied my arse off with Becker and knew things backwards and I got rocked on my last testlet. Besides questions on topics I have blantantly never seen before there were also questions in the other testlets that just looked nothing like anything Becker taught. I am very disappointed.

I used Becker for FAR and AUD (passed both with good scores) and felt they were on topic. BEC however, was just horrible. Everything they asked about COBIT, IT information, among other things were just completely different. It’s like I studied for the wrong test or something. Ive never felt so prepared yet got beat so bad. Writing assignments werent bad but the last 2 testlets were HARD and the 2nd one got me good. Really hoping the 4 questions in each section I had no idea were test questions becaue they were literally a different subject!!!! Anyone else experience this.

[MintsRGood]

BEC is the “hot dog” of the CPA exam…all the leftover random parts that don't belong anywhere else find their way to BEC! Everyone I talk to or read about on here has a completely different take on BEC. It seems like we aren't even taking an exam from the same content outline. It's so bizarre.

I have am admittedly a materials hoarder and used all of the above to prepare for BEC: Wiley textbook, Wiley test bank, Ninja notes/audio/flashcards, I had a second-hand Becker BEC text on loan from a pal which I read cover to cover, and I attended a live review course last fall offered by my grad school and have handouts, notes, and my course materials.

It's quite the shopping cart of materials and yet I STILL had exam questions that appeared in none of the above mentioned resources. I have no idea how to advise anyone to prepare for BEC, except to expose yourself to as many resources as possible. I think all the materials providers are taking shots in the dark, crossing their fingers, and hoping for the best IMHO!

REG: 75 DONE 🙂
AUD: 61, 71, 68, 92 DONE 🙂
BEC: 76 DONE 🙂
FAR: 72, 74, 79 DONE 🙂
Licensed Michigan CPA 🙂
-Some people dream of success...others wake up and work hard for it!!!
-The cowards never start and the weak die along the way!
-You better work, b***h!
-Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.-JFK

[Anonymous]

Becker prepared me jussssstt enough….

@ Electric – I honestly didn't think that I passed BEC when I walked out either but I had trouble on A LOT more questions than just 4 in two testlets like you. Judging on your other scores, increasingly difficult testlets, and the fact that you only had trouble with 8 MC I think you are going to get a passing grade my friend.

[novatrek86]

Nature of the beast. There is no overarching concept behind BEC. The topics are varied and mostly unrelated. Its a b**** to study for it and it sucked while taking it.

[icanhazcpa]

I think Becker did fine. There are just too many concepts with BEC to learn them all. I did notice more questions out of nowhere with BEC, but I felt like Becker gave me enough theory where I could figure it out.

BEC - 83
FAR - 83
REG - 74, 78
AUD - 76

Becker Self Study

[Anonymous]

I definitely thought that that Becker was horrible for BEC. Half the time their MC answer calculations would be in a different format than the book (MC would use BASE, book would switch the additions/subtractions around) and they were terrible at explaining variances, which are generally a large part of BEC. They make them way too confusing and convoluted. I had to consult my old managerial accounting textbook to really understand variances.

[mmp3]

Hi I'm just wondering for those of you who felt unprepared with Becker for this or other sections if you really felt like the material was not covered at all or just there were not enough MCQs on a specific topic so you were surprised to get lots of questions on actual exam? From my own experience I found that what tripped me up was I would be over-prepared on topics where there might be 60-100 questions covered in Becker but my real exam seemed to have a handful of questions on something I saw one or 2 questions on. I have tried to alter my study plan slightly with each new section based upon previous experience but these tests are so hard to predict. To be fair, when I have gone back and reviewed my text after my exams, I did have things written in the margins that Peter or Tim had said but I just didn't elevate to a level of importance in my review. I think the AICPA is hip to what is covered in the review materials and tries their best to keep things interesting. If we were all scoring as well as we did in our review it wouldn't be much of a challenge would it?

FAR 92 (2/27/13)
AUD 99 (4/18/13)
REG 93 (7/5/13)
BEC 92 (8/12/13)

Becker Self Study

[HappyDayss]

I think Becker does a great job preparing you for each exam. I have heard that Becker was weak in BEC but i dont think so. So far BEC has been my highest score and I only use Becker Book/Lecture/and HW MCQs..I dont use the progress test or the practice test at the end (no time for those unfortunately). Yes, there were questions that were random and not covered in Becker, but definitely most are all familiar.

Done ^_^

[pbonner]

I thought Becker did well for the most part covering BEC, however, the depth of coverage for some topics surprised me. The Balanced Scorecard, for example, had a whole four lines in the book……

REG - 7/22
BEC - 8/2
AUD - 8/15
FAR - ?/??

[Tootsie]

@Electric, I got hard 2nd and 3rd testlets as well (I think). The 3rd testlet had longer, wordier questions and long calculations. I felt horrible about that testlet.

Hopefully we passed. Good luck!

FAR - 76
AUD - 88!!! DONE!!!!!!!!
BEC - 76
REG - 77

never, never, never give up

[sarita]

Just getting back from my exam, I can tell you that Becker definitely prepared me for the “moderate” testlets, but was completely useless for the “difficult” testlet.

My exam went moderate, difficult, moderate. I'm worried that the difficult testlet will cause me to fail. I obviously didn't do well if my last section was easy. Half of the difficult testlet had keywords that I never even heard of. That portion of the exam would have been a lot easier if I just knew some of the definitions of those terms.

I feel like I knew a bunch of more complicated material from Becker that was no where to be found. I just had easy Becker MCQs and then random, out of nowhere MCQs.

FAR 7/3/13 - 82
BEC 8/21/13 - 82
AUD 10/2/13 - 92
REG 12/3/13 - 88

DONE!!!! CA Candidate
Beat the 12/31/13 clock!

[Anonymous]

I apologize for bitching, but I got an 85. This leads me to believe Becker was GREAT and all the questions I felt completely unprepared for were test questions that didnt count. Thanks for al the kind words everyone. REG next friday and im done!

[SeattleAccountant]

Hehe, Electric … apologizing to Becker :0)

Becker Class of Jan - Aug 2013: FARB DONE!!!!
CPA license pending 🙂

[so1913]

See, I was right! SURPRISE!!! and CONGRATULATIONS!!!

AUD - 90 Pass
REG - 70,61,81 Pass DONE DONE DOOOOONNEEE!!!!!!!!
BEC - 79 - Pass
FAR - 70,82 - Pass

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone! Yes, Im going to write a letter to Tim Gearty apologizing for bad mouthing BEC becker haha

[Zaq]

Just got finish with the exam. On phone.

I swear I've never had an exam where I saw so many questions and topics I have never seen before. And I looked all the material like thrice over so I know.

I definitely aced the writing.

But I am scared. I have no idea what to expect. It was very difficult.

FAR: 50, 76!
REG: 74... (ouch baby, very ouch), 76!
AUD: 65, 91!?
BEC: 80! Aaaand doneskies!

May 2012 to August 2013. Can't believe it's over.

[Author]

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