[forever4]

Ok maybe I exaggerate it a bit but wth!?!? I’m studying the IT section for BEC and there are tons of stuff that I’m like who cares!??!?! Chances are I will never need to know them at all in my life besides the CPA exam. WHY!!?!??!?!

From all the tax to business law. From IT to finance. From financial report to costing methods. Even supply chain management. The list goes on.

Just my moments with all the terms that only computer science geeks would need to know blarghhh.

And I know I should be studying instead of posting this stuff blah blah blah…

To any one who passed: do you feel like a genius afterward!?!?! hahaha I probably will after passing them all. Ok, maybe for like a day.

FAR 5/14 88 PASSED!
REG 7/13 74 :((((((((....! I cant believe it!!!! I studied so hard...
REG retake 11/29 -> 89!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BEC 10/11/12 -> 84!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AUD 10/25/12 -> 95!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm DONE! OMG 8 months of hard work.

I SHALL PASS. BECAUSE IT'S ME, SO EVERYTHING WILL BE OK!

[Anonymous]

I hated BEC for that exact reason… I had no idea why an accountant would need to know the BEC book in that level of detail. I had to go over the finance sections 4 or 5 times to even have a general understanding of it. Ugh!

I got some great advice on the IT section from this forum before I took it back in May. Just read the IT section once while studying, work the MCQs and then read it again the day before the exam. There is so much detail and the questions you get on the exam are going to be completely random. I would focus more on the other areas.

[forever4]

I've heard that they test you on IT a lot!?!?!?!?!

FAR 5/14 88 PASSED!
REG 7/13 74 :((((((((....! I cant believe it!!!! I studied so hard...
REG retake 11/29 -> 89!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BEC 10/11/12 -> 84!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AUD 10/25/12 -> 95!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm DONE! OMG 8 months of hard work.

I SHALL PASS. BECAUSE IT'S ME, SO EVERYTHING WILL BE OK!

[mmcgrad1]

The CPA exam is trying to protect the public. The AICPA is making sure you have general knowledge in accounting and general business areas. I hate tax and I will never become a tax accountant. However, I should understand how to file a basic tax return as a CPA.

The business law and finance can be very important in the workplace. You wouldn't believe how many contracts I had to look through working on Intercompany loans and relating them to our public debt and researching restrictions and laws related to the terms of the contracts. That's not even including how interest rates and payments on loans had to be evaluated for tax purposes before being approved in some cases when dealing with foreign countries. Not to mention the role finance plays in FP&A.

I'm not even going to get into financial reporting or costing methods because those are obviously important topics for corporate accounting jobs.

You obviously haven't had to work on strategic planning or project planning. Yes, some of the definitions are more for IT people, but flowcharts, ERP, and much of the work on backup for the G/L incorporate a lot of the IT information.

Plus, many of the definitions are common sense for anyone using technology today. I really don't think IT on BEC is that big of a deal.

Realistically, the CPA exam covers a lot of basic concepts that a professional should know in order to call themselves a CPA. There is a lot of information a CPA should know but it isn't extremely difficult. I realistically expect any recent graduate of an undergraduate accounting program to be able to know the material on the exam once they've spent time studying it and refreshing their minds on concepts they've learned throughout their academic career.

I think the exam is much more difficult for those who graduated college years ago because they have been in the workforce for a long time and may not have learned some of the changes in accounting for certain areas and some of the new IT information.

NIU CPA Review Correspondence is awesome!

I passed all four sections on the first attempt

[Author]

Replies