[runegoblet3xx]

I heard pretty pretty often that BEC was considered to be the “easiest” of the 4 exams.

I’m a couple modules into chapter 3 of Becker and I feel totally overwhelmed.

I swear there were over 20 formulas from Chapter 2 alone, and I feel like some of the cost accounting MCQ’s that Becker provides can take 5+ minutes to do. How am I suppose to remember all these formulas??

Anybody have advice? Did others feel this way? My test isn’t until January 8th, but I haven’t done well studying the last couple of weeks between work being busy and going away for training for almost a full week. So, that’s adding to my anxiety that I’m sort of behind.

[shawn in VA]

Runeg-

Far from easy is BEC!! I got 74,74,81. Finally passed under Q3 2017 with the SIMS. Do not underestimate this BEC. Definitely has the least amount of material but many of the topics are not related. i.e. Cost acct, varances, IT, Econ, etc…

Practice the SIMS on AICPA website for sure no matter what and try Cpareviewforfree.com. Got me a pass finally. The calc problems on the exam at least for me were straightforward and took no more than 2 mins to answer. homework is much harder for sure. I felt like i knew the material all 3 tries BUT the Writing topics in first 2 tries were NON BEC. Finally 3rd time with the pass had writing topics that were BEC and the whole exam was very fair. I got lucky and got a few IT questions only and I knew them all.

Do not underestimate this for a minute. BEC for me was harder than REG by a long shot

[PNS2CLT]

BEC is not the “easiest” exam, that is just a myth based purely on the historical passing rate, which is the highest of the four exams. If you dig into the splits, you'll notice that first time pass rates are similar to the other exams, but there are far fewer candidates taking BEC. This is because people choose FAR, AUD or REG as their first exam & many end up repeating it. Thus, there are far fewer “less successful” candidates attempting BEC, distorting the percentages.

[Sweet<3 soon to be CPA]

Funny you are saying this about BEC because I am feeling this exact same way for FAR. BEC I thought the review gave a great explanation on what to expect. I also had made sure I took BEC Q1 of 2017 to be sure to avoid SIMS (this being my first sit down for the CPA). The writing portion is easy and I think it determined my grade from a Pass or Fail. For the writing portion you do not need to have the correct answer- you're required to explain your answer in proper english 🙂 Assuming you a fluent in English, this should not be a problem and will boost your score.
This should still help for the exam that now includes SIMS since it lowers their weight.
I personally went into BEC w/o doing much of ANY review for the writing portion. This enables you more time to work on MCQ and SIM studying- this should only help your writing portion anyway giving you more substance to correctly form a written communication.

With this in mind, I wish FAR had WC! I get all the FAR topics in a nutshell but to go into a timed exam I am freaking out. I want this to be my last exam but with the amount of information I am expecting to need a retake. Exam currently scheduled for Dec.

Best of Luck!

[runegoblet3xx]

@Sweet – I'm not too worried about the WC, to be honest. I've sort of skipped over them. What I do instead is read the answer that Becker provides, because it helps solidify the concept, and it's like an extra review. I'll do a couple of the practice ones, but I won't spend a lot of time focusing on them.

Foreign currency and pretty much all of B2 in Becker have just completely gone over my head. I'm thinking of supplementing with NINJA.

Appreciate all the feedback so far! I had to take a bit of a break and calm down a bit; that always helps me in the short-term.

[Sweet<3 soon to be CPA]

What I notice now is there is a lot of BEC overlapping in FAR. Since you already passed FAR – this material should be just a review for you as well.

Without giving too much away – I didn't see an abundance of calculations on my BEC exam (remember this was also the old way- SIMS may make this different now). I did think I did better than I thought but in the end a pass is a pass – and I learned from this.
For BEC I did not use Ninja, thereafter I did use Ninja MCQ and I see a drastic difference in my preparation for these exams. For REG I struggled with the SIMS – but thanks to the strong similarity between ninja MCQ and exam day I believe I was stronger in MCQ to give me the edge to pass in spite of not doing so well on SIMS.

I hear mixed things about Ninja MCQ and exam day but I can tell you for both REG and AUD it was a great advantage!

[Lentilcounter]

@sweet Just wondering but did you take reg in Q3 of this year?

BEC = 72 (6/08/16)
FAR = ?
REG = ?
AUD = ?

[jenpen]

You're not alone. I can't find a good way to study for this section and I feel like I'm not grasping the information I am trying to learn. It's very frustrating.

AUD - 56 - 68 - 61 - 9/8/16
REG - 75
FAR - 7/15/16
BEC - TBD

Wiley CPAexcel and NINJA 10 Point Combo

[Ana]

Becker is so hard compared to the actual exam, just keep that in mind.

[Anonymous]

BEC used to be an easy exam for a lot of people. Once they started putting SIMs on it, this year, it became far harder. The ones I got were a nightmare. I didn't do two of the seven or eight (can't remember how many SIMs are on there?) All it means is that we just have to study more for it than people in the past did. As far as complexity of the material, BEC isn't really too tough compared to FAR or REG. And, it's easier than AUD I think because AUD just has a zillion small details about the whole audit program that you have to know (many “do's” and “don'ts”-type trivia…hundreds of little factoids that you have to keep straight in your head.) I think most of BEC topics get covered in a typical the typical “Bachelors Degree in Accounting”-type curriculum.

As stupid as this sounds, I am looking forward to retaking BEC especially because now I know exactly what to expect. I did not study variance analysis at all because my time simply ran out. My NTS was expiring and although I wasn't ready, I just had to cut my losses and take it. I didn't think the SIMs would be such an ordeal but now I know what to expect.

[Sweet<3 soon to be CPA]

@ Lentilcounter –

Yes, I took REG in July and AUD in Sept. \

[Author]

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