[Ralphie Dos Nachos]

I’m taking BEC for 3rd time January 2nd using the same materials as the last 2 times and I’m wondering if it’s worth getting either wiley test bank or Gleim CPA Review test bank? I went through becker book for 3 weeks taking notes and doing all their sims and mcq over the next 2 weeks until the test. Should i bother?

[CH89]

I use Wiley, and their test bank is good, but I feel some of the explanations are lacking, and dont seem to suffice, in my opinion. They did add a new feature to show weak areas, but that's only for practice exams. I would try and see if they offer a free trial and test them out. Have you tried the Ninja test bank?

[DocJ]

One of the big selling points when I bought Wiley was that they claimed to have the biggest test bank out of all programs. But I've learned the hard way that quantity does NOT equal quality. The questions are totally written by multiple different teachers and people within each section.

Guess it depends on what teacher you have. Some do good questions and 3-4 sentence explanations that put it in English. Some do WAY too easy questions and like one-sentence explanations (often just repeating the answer verbatim). And some give questions that are WAY too ridonkulous even for the CPA exam, followed by 3 paragraph rambling incoherent drunken gibberish explanations.

*** If any of you reading this work for CPA programs or write MCQs, an explanation should NEVER under any circumstances be longer than 3-4 sentences. Ever. Otherwise you suck at your job.

So yeah…Wiley is mixed feelings. Kinda wish I did Gleim or Ninja TBH, not sure how they could be any worse.

[Anthony]

I had both. Gleim all the way. Went 3/3 with it.

[Recked]

I only sampled Wiley. Recommend you try the sample of Gleim.
I used the Gleim TB for some of my exams (and the EA).
I really liked how they provide explanations as to why the right answer is right, and the wrong answer is wrong. Although sometimes the explanation for the wrong answer is the same as why the right answer is right, sometimes it does show you common mistakes that you MIGHT make to arrive at a wrong answer, which I found helpful.
I also appreciated the 20 chapter breakdowns, with the further subunit breakdown, so you can easily see which areas you are performing poorly in. Not just by chapter 5 for example, but you can see that in all of chapter 5, you are performing poorly in leases, but doing well on the other topics, so you can easily focus on your weak areas.

[Lindsey_p87]

Personally, I think Ninja is the best value for the money you're spending. Considering you're less than a month out from your exam, I don't see the need to spend hundreds of dollars on a test bank when you could spend $67 on Ninja. I personally think Ninja questions are harder and wordier than the actual exam questions, which will prepare you well if you truly understand why you're getting each one wrong.

FAR - PASSED 11/14
AUD - TBD
BEC - TBD
REG - First take 2/16

[Road2CPA]

I'm currently using the Wiley platinum package, and decided to supplement it with Gleim's test bank since my job offered to pay for the additional test bank. I felt like the test bank questions were night and day. A few things to note, I agree with DocJ completely on quantity doesn't always equal quality. The explanations were horrible in some sections, and what DocJ says about different teachers writing them makes sense. There was clearly no guidance on writing explanations – some explanations simply said, “this is the only choice that makes sense” or “this choice does not make sense for cost variances”.

When I started using Gleim's test bank about 50% through my studying for BEC, I panicked because I was getting so many questions wrong. Turns out, their test bank actually helped me because it asked difficult conceptual questions (and gave detailed answers), which forced you to ultimately understand a concept. In turn, it helped me understand calculations much better Wiley's test bank and lectures. Also, I paid the extra $16 with Gleim's test bank to receive a hard copy of the questions that included an outline for each section. The 1-2 page outlines helped sum up concepts and provided nice mnemonics (those have always helped me quite a bit).

Overall, I think Gleim's test bank is better. I'm still 50/50 on Wiley's total review package. I feel like Wiley did a great job on explaining some concepts, while a not so great job on others (well, at least for the areas that I struggled with). For example, there simply were no shortcuts on how to help remember certain things. Some shortcuts were provided in their live class, but outside of that, it was basically just… here's everything… the end.

[bigstakk]

I used GLEIM only for all my exams and went 4/4. The test bank is more difficult than the actual exams especially for BEC and REG so you’ll be prepared. I know a few others that used GLEIM only and all went 4/4. To me it’s the best proven value out in the market. Becker is overrated and over priced. Wiley seems like a decent option but I didn’t feel compelled to use it. Ninja seems like a nice supplement especially if you are to the point where you’ve memorized all of your test bank questions. However, I have not used it and never heard of it until this website. Bottom line go with GLEIM! Good luck!

[chrissy]

I did BEC 3 times as well. The first 2 times I used Wiley and failed. The third time I used NINJA only and passed. The NINJA MCQ for BEC is similar to the exam MCQ.

[Keer]

I have Roger review course but I added Gleim test bank. Did you feel you had to go through all the questions in Gleim to be well prepared? I feel overwhelmed with the amount of questions

[CPA1219]

Purchasing the Gliem test bank was an essential step for my passing. Using Becker & Gliem, here was my approach:

1. Using Becker, I went through ALL lectures, highlighted and marked EVERYTHING they said, answered ALL questions, and took ALL practice exams.

2. Repeat step 1, re-watch ALL lectures, re-answer ALL questions, and re-take ALL practice exams again.

3. Purchased Gliem test bank for newly worded questions. Spend 2 hours skimming and reviewing all highlighted/marked/underlined material in the book, cover to cover. Spend 2 hours taking Gliem practice tests. Repeat.

4. Go to the test center once I was consistently scoring 80%+ on Gliem practice questions.

5. Decompress for two days and begin again.

A caveat to this is that it was over a summer several years back, and I spent about 10 hours per day, 6 days per week, finishing it between graduation and my first day with the firm. I treated it like a full time job. Spending a few hours each day here and there isn't sufficient. Spending too much time can be as detrimental as spending too little time. You'll eventually forget previously covered material if you move too slow. The exam is a mental marathon and an exercise in discipline. Work effort and proper planning is key.

People I worked with at Big4 that said they chose to put it off are the ones who had the most difficulty passing. All of them regretted their choice.

[Author]

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