[Anonymous]

Hey everyone,

I’m sitting for BEC next Monday and I’m using Gleim CPA Review for my main review course and supplementing with the Wiley test bank.

I’ve noticed that a few of the Gleim finance related SIMS require using Excel in order to calculate either:
1. the Standard deviation and/or variance of an expected return
2. to calculate NPV without a present value table
3. to calculate IRR.

As far as I can tell there aren’t any AICPA released questions that require calculating the standard deviation, variance, or IRR (they are always given) and when dealing with NPV the PVF or PVOA are always given or presented in a table.

Is this just a case of Gleim being over the top difficult or do we actually need to use Excel at this level for the exam? I get how to do it, but would need to review the process and really don’t want to spend the extra time if I don’t have to.

Thanks!