[cpawax]

I am on the F3 section of Becker and have been using it for a few weeks. So, far I do not feel confident in the material I am learning. I watch the lectures, read the book, make flash cards, then do MCQs and the simulations; however, I am consistently scoring maximum in the 60s on the MCQs. I am considering purchasing the Ten Point Combo to supplement Becker or I might try to apply the NINJA strategy to Becker, but before I do I have a few questions. I realize that everyone learns differently, but I’ll take any advice I can get.

To any one who has used just Becker did you study using the traditional method or the NINJA way? Results?

If I purchased the Ten Point Combo should I apply the NINJA way to Becker or use that traditional and use the NINJA way with the Ten Point Combo materials?

Thoughts?

Thank you.

[kctiger]

@ Keely – I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I've seen a lot of talk on here about the Becker Final Exam scores being somewhat of a reflection of how you do on your real exam. I just took my final exam and scored: 86-76-73 on it. This may sound like a dumb question, but does that in any way give me an idea of how the real exam will be, or is it all just relative to how exam day turns out?

Unfortunately, I have probably skipped over more of the sims than I should have, but I am hoping having a decent grasp on the conceptual knowledge will at least help me in that area. One can only hope I guess.

[kctiger]

@ Keely – I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I've seen a lot of talk on here about the Becker Final Exam scores being somewhat of a reflection of how you do on your real exam. I just took my final exam and scored: 86-76-73 on it. This may sound like a dumb question, but does that in any way give me an idea of how the real exam will be, or is it all just relative to how exam day turns out?

Unfortunately, I have probably skipped over more of the sims than I should have, but I am hoping having a decent grasp on the conceptual knowledge will at least help me in that area. One can only hope I guess.

[JeffSkilling]

For the most part Becker will prepare you extremely well for the Multiple Choice. I would put virtually nothing into there simulations as Ive found that on my 3 exams, no Becker sim has ever been remotely close to what I've seen. The real sims are much more difficult, and this has been discussed ad naseum on this board.

I would write down every journal entry you see and be familiar with it. Most FAR sims will have J/Es.

@kctiger.. I stopped doing Becker practice exams. I've found little value add to them. Essentially you spend the majority of time trying to correlate your score to how you think you might do on the real thing. While some people say “add 10 points and that will be your real score” that certainly isn't full proof and I've never really found that the format on the Becker exam has been close to what the real exam has been like. That being said those scores do indicate that you're doing pretty well, so I'd say your in good shape.

This is all my personal opinion stemming from my experience, so perhaps others have had different experiences.

BEC - 83 | AUD - 85 | REG - 77 | FAR - 87

[JeffSkilling]

For the most part Becker will prepare you extremely well for the Multiple Choice. I would put virtually nothing into there simulations as Ive found that on my 3 exams, no Becker sim has ever been remotely close to what I've seen. The real sims are much more difficult, and this has been discussed ad naseum on this board.

I would write down every journal entry you see and be familiar with it. Most FAR sims will have J/Es.

@kctiger.. I stopped doing Becker practice exams. I've found little value add to them. Essentially you spend the majority of time trying to correlate your score to how you think you might do on the real thing. While some people say “add 10 points and that will be your real score” that certainly isn't full proof and I've never really found that the format on the Becker exam has been close to what the real exam has been like. That being said those scores do indicate that you're doing pretty well, so I'd say your in good shape.

This is all my personal opinion stemming from my experience, so perhaps others have had different experiences.

BEC - 83 | AUD - 85 | REG - 77 | FAR - 87

[MCLKT]

Hey KCTiger, it's totally ok. No need to apologize 🙂 You'd be surprised how many people do go on public forums just to start up arguments. But, I figured you were genuinely concerned with knowing FAR in its entirety, which is a valid concern. I was just trying to help explain what I thought Keely was getting to.

I completely understand being on edge or getting into freak out mode. Been there, done that. Will probably be there again in a couple of weeks when I sit for FAR…. again. FWIW, I think your scores for Becker review are really good. I've heard they make that pretty tough.

Best of luck!

A:[73]97 F:[74]85 R:86 B:[74]82
*NINJA 10 Pt. COMBO & Yaeger*

[MCLKT]

Hey KCTiger, it's totally ok. No need to apologize 🙂 You'd be surprised how many people do go on public forums just to start up arguments. But, I figured you were genuinely concerned with knowing FAR in its entirety, which is a valid concern. I was just trying to help explain what I thought Keely was getting to.

I completely understand being on edge or getting into freak out mode. Been there, done that. Will probably be there again in a couple of weeks when I sit for FAR…. again. FWIW, I think your scores for Becker review are really good. I've heard they make that pretty tough.

Best of luck!

A:[73]97 F:[74]85 R:86 B:[74]82
*NINJA 10 Pt. COMBO & Yaeger*

[syllo2012]

@Keely – I totally understand where your coming from…I just started Becker F5 and there have been topics that I read and reread and cant grasp and instead of spending 4 hours trying to figure it out I rather move on and learn 5 new topics that I can grasp. It has been my experience thou that I leave a topic and come back to it later and then be like “wow this was easy, I don't understand why yesterday I could not get it”

@all – I am having trouble with the SIMS, how do I know that the answer is right? are they graded somewhere or are the answers somewhere?

FAR - 04/15/13 70 - 07/02/13 79!!!
AUD - 08/19/13 84 🙂
REG - 10/14/13
BEC - 11/29/13

Using Becker

[syllo2012]

@Keely – I totally understand where your coming from…I just started Becker F5 and there have been topics that I read and reread and cant grasp and instead of spending 4 hours trying to figure it out I rather move on and learn 5 new topics that I can grasp. It has been my experience thou that I leave a topic and come back to it later and then be like “wow this was easy, I don't understand why yesterday I could not get it”

@all – I am having trouble with the SIMS, how do I know that the answer is right? are they graded somewhere or are the answers somewhere?

FAR - 04/15/13 70 - 07/02/13 79!!!
AUD - 08/19/13 84 🙂
REG - 10/14/13
BEC - 11/29/13

Using Becker

[Anonymous]

I am using becker strictly. F1-3 i felt comfortable after text and mcqs. Now im on f4 wrapping up mcqs and im so lost by these mcqs. The text was not so bad. Im overwhelmed. Just becker has worked fine thus far for reg bec and aud

[Anonymous]

I am using becker strictly. F1-3 i felt comfortable after text and mcqs. Now im on f4 wrapping up mcqs and im so lost by these mcqs. The text was not so bad. Im overwhelmed. Just becker has worked fine thus far for reg bec and aud

[Anonymous]

I'm taking FAR again in about 10 days, and it's frustrating to reread through the book, especially F3-F5 because the text makes it such more complicated and confusing than it needs to be. I'm simply just gonna start running through MCQs nonstop and forget about reading the book.

I'm convinced you could pass these tests by just pounding MCQ from Wiley and Becker and forgetting completely about the text and lectures.

The first time I took FAR last year, I only failed because I walked out before during the SIMS because I was so hungry. Plus, I took it at like 6pm (big mistake) so I was drained from studying all day up until that. And from what I remember about the test, the questions were much more simplistic than Becker or Wiley.

[Anonymous]

I'm taking FAR again in about 10 days, and it's frustrating to reread through the book, especially F3-F5 because the text makes it such more complicated and confusing than it needs to be. I'm simply just gonna start running through MCQs nonstop and forget about reading the book.

I'm convinced you could pass these tests by just pounding MCQ from Wiley and Becker and forgetting completely about the text and lectures.

The first time I took FAR last year, I only failed because I walked out before during the SIMS because I was so hungry. Plus, I took it at like 6pm (big mistake) so I was drained from studying all day up until that. And from what I remember about the test, the questions were much more simplistic than Becker or Wiley.

[jasonrobbins]

@ Keely

I don't mean to bump this old topic but how can people possibly read FAR “cover to cover 6 to 7 times”??? That's absurd!

My test is on Feb. 28th and I'm halfway through F9. Reading the book again would seem like a serious waste of time at this point. Even if you failed the test, reading the book more than 1 more time is a waste of time in my opinion!

Maybe I am just in full out freak mode before my exam, but I come on to this site to get helpful advice and when people say stuff like this, it just really agitates me because a) either they are lying b) it's bad advice and/or c) other people encourage this type of behavior. Reading the book cover to cover 6 to 7 times is not an effective way to study for the CPA peps!

Another example is when people say they have gone through the Becker FAR MCQs 3 or 4 times. HOW IS THAT FREAKING POSSIBLE???!!! ARE YOU MACHINES AND DON”T SLEEP?!?!?! I will be lucky to get through the MCQs maybe 1.5 times!! After each question I get wrong, I thoughtfully consider why I got it wrong and decide if I need to review that section again. How can you do this with thousands of MCQs???

I have passed all my other exams (AUD, REG, BEC) on my first try and just don't understand what to believe on this site anymore.

*sigh* End rant.

AUD- 97 1x
REG- 81 1x
BEC- 79 1x
FAR- 88 1x

DONE!

10/1/12 to 2/28/14

[jasonrobbins]

@ Keely

I don't mean to bump this old topic but how can people possibly read FAR “cover to cover 6 to 7 times”??? That's absurd!

My test is on Feb. 28th and I'm halfway through F9. Reading the book again would seem like a serious waste of time at this point. Even if you failed the test, reading the book more than 1 more time is a waste of time in my opinion!

Maybe I am just in full out freak mode before my exam, but I come on to this site to get helpful advice and when people say stuff like this, it just really agitates me because a) either they are lying b) it's bad advice and/or c) other people encourage this type of behavior. Reading the book cover to cover 6 to 7 times is not an effective way to study for the CPA peps!

Another example is when people say they have gone through the Becker FAR MCQs 3 or 4 times. HOW IS THAT FREAKING POSSIBLE???!!! ARE YOU MACHINES AND DON”T SLEEP?!?!?! I will be lucky to get through the MCQs maybe 1.5 times!! After each question I get wrong, I thoughtfully consider why I got it wrong and decide if I need to review that section again. How can you do this with thousands of MCQs???

I have passed all my other exams (AUD, REG, BEC) on my first try and just don't understand what to believe on this site anymore.

*sigh* End rant.

AUD- 97 1x
REG- 81 1x
BEC- 79 1x
FAR- 88 1x

DONE!

10/1/12 to 2/28/14

[Gatorbates]

The day before your exam, you should know what are your weakest areas. Lightly review all of those areas. That's what I did the morning of my exam, and I believe it is what helped me pass. There were 4-5 questions on my exam that I looked over during my light review. I didn't want to overload my brain right before the test.

And to answer the original question from a year ago, yes, Becker is enough. More than enough. I used Becker for AUD and FAR. I used a $40 Bisk book, a spiral notebook, my butt and the library for REG and BEC (not recommended, but it worked).

Licensed Florida CPA:
B: 71, 73, 79
A: 83
R: 78 (expired), 77
F: 74, 74, 80

It's finally freaking over.

[Author]

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