BEC Writing Portion – Study tips

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  • #178028
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hey All,

    I am beginning to study for BEC and trying to figure out how to prepare for the writing portion of BEC. There isn’t really a way to practice this part and have it actually graded. I am a pretty decent writer as far as my wording, punctuation, and grammar skills. My biggest issue is knowing the content well enough to write memo’s and letters. I can work my way through MCQ’s and SIMS without much issue, but when I have to explain the advantages and concerns. I just kind of freeze up. Part of it is that I have never done well with timed essays. I always have needed time to think things through and research my topics.

    Any suggestions and thoughts on how to best tackle this? I know that traditionally, 1 Sim is considered Pre-test. Is one writing assignment considered pretest or do they all count? Any good tips/reminders for the formatting of each writing assignment? Does length or word count play a factor into the grading?

    Thanks for your time!

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
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  • #421309
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Anyone?

    #421310
    mangos
    Member

    Practice.

    FAR (5/07/13): 96

    #421311
    MintsRGood
    Participant

    The Wiley text for BEC has WC topics with each chapter and also presents a sample memo to compare against yours. I didn't “practice” the WC per say, but I did take an evening a few days before my exam and read all of the sample essays in each module to get a feel of what style they are looking for and for ideas on how to convey the topics in a memo format. What materials are you using for BEC?

    REG: 75 DONE 🙂
    AUD: 61, 71, 68, 92 DONE 🙂
    BEC: 76 DONE 🙂
    FAR: 72, 74, 79 DONE 🙂
    Licensed Michigan CPA 🙂
    -Some people dream of success...others wake up and work hard for it!!!
    -The cowards never start and the weak die along the way!
    -You better work, b***h!
    -Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.-JFK

    #421312
    ORcpaHOPEFUL
    Member

    I didn't really practice either. I just read all WC problems I could find and made sure I knew something about each one. The questions I got on the actual test were pretty easy… But also 2 were FAR topics which i've already passed! Don't stress about the WC part 🙂

    FAR: PASSED!! 64, 68, 79 on 2/27/13!
    AUD: PASSED!! 73, 93 on 4/5/13!!!
    BEC: PASSED!! 75 (phew) on 5/24/13!
    REG: PASSED!!! 77 on 8/7/13 I AM DONE!!!!!

    Experience: got it!
    Ethics Exam: PASSED on first try (what a waste of money)

    #421313

    I didn't practice. Make your own decision on how to allocate your time, of course, but consider these points.

    A) You'd be hard pressed to find anything to give you useful feedback. The good thing about MCQ and SIM practice is that you can instantly know if you did something correctly or not. Practice without feedback is a very low value activity to me, so practicing BEC essays were not in my best interest.

    B) Grammar/syntax is king. If you're a poor writer, then you might as well just work on general writing skills rather than practicing specific BEC material.

    C) Even if content is scored, which is sort of unclear, then learning the material is more important than writing about it. Regular studying will help you obtain the information you need to write a good BEC essay more efficiently.

    D) CPA candidates have limited time. I would practice BEC essays if my study time wasn't a limited resource, but it is. I would rather do high value activities like reading/doing questions.

    #421314
    marissa567
    Member

    I know my topic seems a bit repetitive but I was hoping to get advice from anyone that has insight on using the Becker BEC sims. Is it helpful/useful in preparing you for the writing portion of the exam?

    Honestly, I have not been practicing with the sims at all and Im worried it might haunt me on exam day. I tried doing the sim for B1, but I felt like drafting a memo was not the most efficient use of my time.

    So anyone with insight on the topic, should I refocus on doing the Becker BEC sims?

    BEC - Jul 2013
    FAR - Aug 2013
    REG - Oct 2013
    AUD - Nov 2013

    #421315
    IwannaBaCPA
    Participant

    I have some tips.First, since you said you are a strong writer, then you really don't need to worry so much about this section of the exam. I would read through some of the practice examples to get an idea of how to structure a response and what kind of information you may want to include. I am not sure what course you are using but I used Becker and they have lots of examples. I think their examples are far too detailed considering the amount of time you have for the exam and the fact that you have to do three of them.

    Yes, one of them is considered a pretest (not graded) question. The trouble is, there is just no way of knowing which question is the pretest. So if you are only able to finish two of the three, that doesn't mean those are the two that count.

    I would suggest practicing a few just to get the hang of it. I would also set a timer so that you are aware how long it takes you to complete each one that you practice. Even if it isn't graded – it will still be valuable to see what you are able to come up with in the allotted time. You will be able to tell if what you wrote is reasonable and sufficient.

    As for timing – I think Becker says to plan for about 15 minutes per writing question at a minimum. So you need to get to that final writing section with at least 45 minutes to spare. I think I had about 50 minutes and used every bit of it.

    Good luck! Don't stress 🙂

    BEC: 79 - April 2011
    FAR: 78 - May 2011
    AUD: 81 - May 2012
    REG: 79 - October 2012
    Ethics: Passed - March 2013
    I am finally DONE!

    #421316
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    @marissa I used Becker and for the written sims I simply read their answers to get familiar with the structure of how the testers view the maximum point responses rather than stretch myself even thinner on time writing essays. As one poster says above, practicing BEC essays is just not a high value activity in the greater scheme of your study window. Reading Becker's responses and getting familiar with the essay structure was valuable though and allowed me to go into the test with the exact idea of how to begin and end any response. The content itself is best learned in your regular BEC studying because you could get a question on virtually anything. If writing is not one of your strong suites, then practice and watching the Becker writing lecture/reading the writing chapter might be useful but I would suggest if you are a confident and comfortable writer, focus on MCQs and learning the text material.

    #421317
    IwannaBaCPA
    Participant

    @marissa – I kind of just answered your question. I used Becker and I really didn't practice the Sims too much (for all the sections to be honest). For BEC – I looked at a few and I did time myself in writing a few just so I could get a feeling of how best to manage my time. If you have plenty of time, then sure…practice them. But if not, at least spend a little time getting familiar with what you will have to do and how to approach the questions given the time constraint.

    Good luck!

    BEC: 79 - April 2011
    FAR: 78 - May 2011
    AUD: 81 - May 2012
    REG: 79 - October 2012
    Ethics: Passed - March 2013
    I am finally DONE!

    #421318
    marissa567
    Member

    @IwannaBaCPA and @CPAztec Thank you so much for your advice :), it was very helpful. I am using Becker 2013 to study so I think I will read through all of the examples just to see what they want and then probably do a few timed practice runs. Thank you again!

    BEC - Jul 2013
    FAR - Aug 2013
    REG - Oct 2013
    AUD - Nov 2013

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