[gennatay]

I had a question about an MCQ, so I asked a Gleim professor and their response left me with a bad feeling like they were tapping me on the hand for asking. Take a look, am I being overly sensitive about their comment…

Fact Pattern:
The estimated unit costs for Cole Co. using absorption (full) costing and planning to produce and sell at a level of 12,000 units per month are as follows:

Estimated
Cost Item
Unit Cost
Direct materials
$32
Direct labor
20
Variable manufacturing overhead
15
Fixed manufacturing overhead
6
Variable selling
3
Fixed selling
4
Product Question:
Cole’s estimated conversion costs per unit are

a: $35
b: $41
c: $48
d: $67
Your Answer: b
Correct Answer: b

Your Question: If the company was using absorption costing, why wasn’t direct materials taken into account?

Response:
Please note that the answer explanation says that conversion costs are costs spent converting the direct materials. Conversion costs include direct labor and manufacturing overhead. Direct labor and manufacturing costs are costs that *convert* raw materials or direct materials into finished goods.

***

The goal at Gleim is to position all of our candidates for success. One of the many ways we do this is by giving our customers access to Gleim accounting experts via this Question and Answer service.

The Gleim self-study method is designed to prepare you to pass your exam under actual exam conditions. Part of this preparation includes independently working through our materials and the questions that they generate for you so that you develop an ability to problem solve on your own, just as you will have to do during the exam. Therefore, although we want to answer your questions, we also want to refrain from providing you with a level of support now that will inhibit your ability to function independently on exam day.

As a result, this service is designed to provide you with the ability to submit a reasonable number of inquiries about Gleim materials. It is not an unlimited service. However, most candidates find that our materials and study method provides them with all of the information they need to be successful and therefore submit very few questions.

In keeping with all of the above, the types of inquiries that we will not answer are:

1. General accounting questions or requests for in-depth explanations of general concepts
2. Questions already answered in the FAQ.
3. Questions on information outside of the scope of the exam
4. Hypothetical questions
5. Questions on material not produced by Gleim
6. Questions that disclose any information covered in a nondisclosure agreement

If you have any questions about this policy, please contact your Personal Counselor at …

 

 

[sdcat23]

I think you guys are forgetting something that is key, $1000 gets you a Gleim response and $3000+ gets you a Becker response.

[mw798]

True, you get what you pay for.

[Anonymous]

The commentary after the answer is the Q&A Terms and Conditions which you can see before you actually proceed to ask the question. I sent questions to Gleim before but never satisfied on how they answered them and you don't even have the option to ask follow up question. The above answer though makes sense and if you still need help, I agree that you post the question in the study group forum instead. I'm using Gleim all the way (combined with Another71 community) and passed all 3 sections so far, all first time, so I'll give them credit for that.

[Excel14]

Again, Gleim is great as a study program; it is just when a person relies on their personal counselors to assist, that the problem arises. They even tell you that they are not subject matter experts.

BEC (2/28/16) ----- 78
FAR (09/10/16)-----
AUD
REG

CIA, CGAP, CFE

[Gleim CPA Review]

Gina,

Thank you for discussing your concerns with our sales manager Tuesday evening. Please let us know anytime we do not meet/exceed your expectations with the Content Inquiry service, or any other service or product we offer. The Gleim team is committed to your satisfaction and success.

Based on some of the posts to the thread, I can see that we haven't effectively communicated to our customers the differences between Gleim Personal Counselors and Gleim Content Experts. While we work on updating our website to better identify how each team contributes to your study experiences, please let me address this here. Our Personal Counselors are focused on preparing our candidates for the exams and do not answer content questions. This team is separate from our sales team. The Personal Counselors are responsible for mentoring our candidates. They can offer study advice, guidance on specific questions like how to approach the Written Communication portion of BEC, setting up study plans, encourage candidates along the way, and answer any exam-related questions. The Content Expert team works to answer specific questions about our materials, including our multiple-choice questions. When you submit a question, it goes directly to the Content Expert team. If you have ever sent a question to your Personal Counselor directly, they send it to a Content Expert, who will answer your question.

Recently, Gleim added the Terms and Conditions regarding the content expert service we offer. These terms were added as a way to better communicate the types of questions we are not able to answer. We know that candidates sometimes put a significant amount of time into explaining why they don't understand a question and we wanted to clarify in advance which types of questions are outside of the scope of the service. While most questions submitted are included in the scope of the Content Expert service, there are some instances in which we are not able to answer a candidate's question, such as when he or she is asking for an explanation on material which was covered in another review provider's course. Thank you for bringing to our attention that these Terms as presented were causing concern for you. We will review them and consider any needed changes.

Thank you for allowing me to address the differences between our Personal Counselor and Content Expert services, and explain the addition of our standard Terms and Conditions to each response we send.
Monica
Gleim CPA Review

[Anonymous]

I totally agree that Gleim personal counselor sucks. They don't add any value at all. I have not been happy with them. I used Gleim for CMA.

[Anonymous]

Never had a problem with the questions I asked from Gleim. For one problem I was really confused by a small piece of information and it turns out that I found an area in the materials that needed to be clarified. Gleim apologized and said they would forward the information to their editors for potential update.

Overall though, I've found several confusing and not terribly clear questions in Gleim and in many cases when I cleared my head it was due to me not reading the question correctly or missing something in the book. There have been a few times where the detail in the book wasn't enough for me and when I did the multiple choice questions for that particular subsection I was able to figure it out because there were a few questions that had answers with extreme detail.

Gleim's responses seem to be matter of fact and professional versus super casual. That doesn't really bother me since I see both styles of writing in emails frequently. The tidbit at the end is just a signature of sorts. I have received those exact paragraphs in my responses.

Overall though, it can be frustrating at times trying to understand things, but come exam time you'll be more ready than you think.

[gennatay]

I actually spoke to someone at Gleim about this. He apologized for the wording at the end of the problem and encouraged me to ask more questions if needed. He also clarified that the questions are answered by accounting specialist, who are different from personal counselors. I'm still a little shaded by the experience, but we will see the outcome come exam time.

[Excel14]

Interesting Gleim response. My personal counselor never mentioned any such thing as “content experts”, nor mentioned forwarding specific accounting related questions to them. All I ever was told, was that the personal counsellors do not answer accounting related questions. Don't get me wrong, I think Gleim has prepared many people well to pass; but it was never made clear to me at least, that there was even such a thing as content experts who would assist.

BEC (2/28/16) ----- 78
FAR (09/10/16)-----
AUD
REG

CIA, CGAP, CFE

[Anonymous]

@Excel14 – After you complete questions/SIMS there is an option below each that takes you to another screen for general inquires or specific content related questions. I don't recall specifically my personal counselor mentioning the experts either but its been a while since I've talked with her. lol

[Skynet]

I will attest to the fact that as a current user of Gleim, the review course has really prepared me well. The materials they provide are not difficult to comprehend. Their test bank I feel is also one of the best with their ability to customize practice tests to your desirability. Currently, I am so far ahead in my studies for both AUD and FAR even though my exams are a few months down the road. A lot of accounting professionals told me about Gleim, but I didn't think too much about it. After multiple exam failures using Wiley, Bisk, and Lambers review books, I decided to take a chance at it based on reviews about the course and the reasonable price. Although I think I also contributed to my exam failures for using the books only and not supplementing them with test banks. With two passes under my belt using Gleim, I'm pretty much sold at this point. But that's my opinion though.

[gennatay]

@SKYNET if you dont mind me asking, how do you use Gleim to study? Do you use their recommended sequence?

[Skynet]

Gina, this is my study plan. My study plan is similar to the Gleim study plan with some tweaks.

1. Read the chapter.

2. Work the T/F questions.

3. Do the two 20 questions diagnostics practice test as a guide to my knowledge comprehension.

4. Work each Units subunits using the Study Sessions as many times as needed.

5. Once I get a comprehension of study unit, then I make a practice test of all the units questions.

6. After you comprehend the mcq's, then work the sims to reinforce your understanding.

7. Repeat for each unit.

8. VERY IMPORTANT – Every so often, create practice tests for all the units that you have covered and gone over to make sure you keep the materials fresh in your head.

[Anonymous]

Gleim was the first review course I used. I took all four exams using it and failed all of them. When I called Customer Service about their “Money Back Guarantee”, I was told by the person that answered the phone “Maybe accounting isn't for you. Have you thought about choosing a different career?” Real helpful. And I never got my money back. I know it works for some people, I just wasn't one of them. Water under the bridge at this point. So to answer your question, no, I don't think you were being overly sensitive.

[mw798]

I'm using Gleim right now for the CMA. After using Becker for the CPA, I would GLADLY pay 4 times as much if Becker had a CMA test prep. That says a lot.

[Author]

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