HazeEastwood
offlineMember
I have a friend that just took BEC and felt that it was pretty easy in terms of the simplicity of the questions.. Have any of you had experience with the exam being easy? If so how did you fair after actually receiving your score?
Trevor
offlineMember
A "friend" eh. lol classic!!! If BEC is studied for enough it is a relatively easy exam I think. Also it depends on your background. Now, I am not saying it is easy, because its NOT, but remember the CPA exam is supposed to be a test for entry level accountants :D
HazeEastwood
offlineMember
Lol, no its really a friend. I am studying for BEC right now. She just felt the questions were simple ones, not many of the complex questions. So I was wondering if it was possible that these questions seemed simple but had some kinda twist to them that she didn't pick up on.
Trevor
offlineMember
haha, there are not too many tricks they can through in there for BEC... not many things deal with dates or anything... trying to recall... Yea I really think if she knew the concepts well she did great.
AU1222
offlineMember
I took BEC on Monday and, I hope this doesn't jinx me, but I thought the exam was MUCH easier than I expected it to be...I used Becker and supplemented with the Gleim MCQ bank, and the questions I saw during my prep were exponentially harder than what I encountered during the exam. I know it's been said numerous times, but there were some random "say wha??" MCQ's, especially in regard to IT, but I was familiar enough with the material that I think I made some educated guesses.
My advice is to study diligently and you should be adequately prepared. The thing about BEC is that it's pretty broad, but shallow (just like FAR), so you'll never know what will pop up and what won't...
italianCPA
offlineMember
AU1222 pretty much described my experience with the BEC exam on Tuesday.
I hope I don't jinx myself either though.
There only was a question where I totally guessed (needless to say it was IT), and the calculations were sooooo much easier than the becker questions that the first couple of questions I went over 3 times to find out where the catch (trick) was. No cacth, they were just easy, most of them to the point that I didn't even need a calculator.
Joey J
offlineMember
You know the funny thing about BEC? I thought the exam was much easier than the Wiley prep books, Focus Notes, Audio CD's and sample exams that I used. And I did really well on it in terms of scoring. But most people have this as their lowest scores of all 4 sections. If you look at all the people's posting on this discussion board, other boards and through your networks, you may discover the same thing. A few CPA friends of mine say that's because public accountants don't like all that financial analysis, capital planning, managerial accounting, IT, supply chain and operations management stuff. I think "what, that's the best stuff!". I don't know, again, I find it funny when people say it's the easiest and a piece of cake, but the scores on people's posting show that it is their lowest. I truly wonder why that is.
GSU Josh
offlineMember
I agree with you guys too that it wasn't that bad. I'm not sure if I passed as I did mark a number of questions (about 5-10, 10, and 5), but some of the calculation questions were rather easy. Variance especially was a joke. I did have a number of questions I was unfamiliar with and about 3 or so that I made a stupid mistake on after looking after the exam, but I still feel like I should pass. I'm kinda worried about not passing, though, as you say Joey that BEC is most people's lowest score. I know the wc has always helped me so I'm wondering what my score will be like without it. I'm pretty sure I made in the 70's, I just hope it's above a 75. If I didn't get it, it will suck but it won't be as bad studying this stuff again. More than anything, I would hate the wait for scores again on a retake. I purposefully took the exam at the end of the window to shorten the wait time.
Trevor
offlineMember
@Joey J - I think it may be simply taken too lightly at first... the book it was like quarter the size? If we can get away with studying less then we will try it. (Saying we meaning me, accountants, candidates...) This was my case the first time, well and my second lol but I knew what I needed to focus on the second time. Between the two tests I studied less than 60 hrs... Could I have gotten in the 90's, yea sure (at least I would hope), but I didnt NEED a 99 to be a CPA lol. Just my thoughts..
AU1222
offlineMember
@Italian, I thought the exact.same.thing. during the exam. I kept looking at the questions in my first testlet going "Where's the trick?" and wondering if I was taking the right exam. I have a financial background (masters in finance, 9 years in banking), so I am probably more familiar with this material than I was with FAR or AUD, but I didn't take it lightly. In fact, while studying for B5 I became increasingly more frantic and worried about what I would see on the test. I still worry about my score because of the lack of transparency with the scoring process and a nagging feeling that I missed the "trick" to many of the calculations.
And speaking of the lack of transparency, last night I was wondering about the lower scores on BEC and I think it's more than just people blowing off the exam or disliking the material. If you consider that pass rates hover around 50% and the fact that, on average, raw scores on BEC are probably higher than what you would see on FAR, an individual would have to score that much higher compared to his or her peers. I wonder if, it would be possible to "pass" BEC based on a raw score, but still fail because performance was lower as compared to the average score during the testing window...
Joey J
offlineMember
Trevor, yes you are right. I would have thought the same about being less time-consuming and lighter for people to go through. In my experiences with exams (CPA inclusive), I need to push it to the max on all sections, levels, parts, etc. I have a 5-part operations management/supply chain certification as well (CPIM), and I took one part lightly, and I didn't pass it. I learned to never do that again. Even with my securities licenses (Series 6, 7, 63), the 63 was way easier than the 7, but I studied commersurately for it. The score was higher, because it was easier. I would think many people would do the same, but perhaps not. Because you are right, we are all different and if you don't need to push it all the way to the metal, why do it? My philosophy is that it's probably not good to take the chance, but that's just me. I remember I HATED having to wait another whole period to take the CPIM part again and delay my certification.
ClassicalPianoAddict
offlineMember
I took BEC on Aug. 31. I went in under-prepared, because I didn't leave enough time to tackle the variance chapter. I thought i was screwed major time, but after the exam, I felt I was only "minorly" screwed. The Qs aren't half as hard as in Becker practice questions. However, I put too much focus on that variance chapter that I didn't even get to finish, and didn't review the easier conceptual chapters before going in. During the exam, I realized I forgot a lot about the easier part... oh well... we'll see.
Btw, when do you think I will receive the score for BEC taken on Aug 31? Thanks in advance!
ClassicalPianoAddict
offlineMember
I agree that there were many never-seen-before questions on IT, but I have some additional IT knowledge from once self-studying some basic programming and database design to get me through it. I also definitely saw some never-seen finance and econ questions that I had no clue about. When I said it was easier than I expected, I was referring to the calculation questions, e.g. the variances (that killed me while studying).
potatogun
offlineMember
It is rather interesting to me that BEC has so much IT focus when accountants really don't need to understand a lot of it except at a general level. I could understand the CISA or CIA type certs stressing it a lot more, but seems odd for the CPA to have it.
Luckily for me I have an IT background and have always be interested in technology in general. So hopefully IT won't be too bad, but seems like a lot of just memorization.
And my background is in econ too, which I enjoy. So I think this will be my "favorite" of the 4.
AU1222
offlineMember
I should clarify, too, and say that I thought the calculations were easier than what I expected. There were certainly some concept questions that were out in left field, and not just in the realm of IT. I had several that seemed as though they belonged on a different section of the exam, not BEC.
I am IT-challenged. I don't like it and it doesn't like me back. I hope that my deductive reasoning and good ole' common sense served me well with some of *those* questions.
You must log in to post.
