[urbanberry]

I am wondering how much of other subjects will be tested on the new BEC. For people who took BEC in 2011, how much of FAR, AUD, and REG was tested on BEC written communication? I was thinking of starting off with BEC but then realized I might have to know all other subjects to do well on the written communication portion since it will be testing on all other subjects. Also, how much of IFRS stuff is tested on the new FAR? I started out studying in the beginning of 2010 but got discouraged and stopped studying but now I’m about to restart and get some sections out of the way. Please help me if you have already taken the new CPA exam this year. I appreciate it!

[kb24]

urbanberry

My advice is to do FAR first and BEC last. While the examiners try to segregate the material as much as possible for the 4 exams, there is some overlap. IMO, where FAR overlapped with another exam it made more sense to have learned the material in FAR–it made more sense and the study material typically covered it better (I used Becker and Wiley). BEC had quite a bit of overlap with FAR and AUD and a little bit with REG. In every instance of overlap, I was glad I'd studied it previously for my other exams. I don't think it's as big a deal for the written sections. Supposedly, they are looking for a response written in a business like manner that is on point, but it doesn't matter if your answer is correct or not. So, for example, if you got a FAR question that you had no clue about but you wrote an answer that directly addressed the question you should do OK.

I can't really address your IFRS question. Not only would it be breaking the confidentiality agreement, but the number of IFRS questions on my exam could be quite different from yours. You do need to know the IFRS material. Becker recommends that you learn the GAAP method and then learn the IFRS differences which worked well for me. Becker and Wiley both have decent summaries of the differences between GAAP and IFRS in their texts.

FAR 4/1/11 - 89
AUD 4/15/11 - 85
REG 4/29/11 - 80
BEC 5/13/11 - 85

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