[Pete]

Anyone know how to memorize all the formulas from BEC?

They aren’t so difficult as they are numerous and not easy to memorize, since very few contain pneumonic devices. I mean, there are likely over 20 different formulas to memorize. Might do like we used to do in elementary school and write each formula 20 different times.

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
F=80 I don't wanna get banned for an expletive I'm thinking with "yea" proceeding it

[CPA2BEE]

Nail home the basic ones and have an idea of the difficult ones.

CA CPA - est. Dec 2016

FAR - 80
AUD - 82
BEC - 80
REG - 85

ETHICS - 90
EXPERIENCE - COMPLETE
Application for California license mailed 8/4/2016

[Zuly]

@Ratfus I actually did do that. 🙂 I agree with @CPA2BEE try to remember the basic ones or the ones you know are showing up the most in your MCQs.

FAR - (11/01/14) 71 (02/07/15) 79
AUD - (04/30/15) 86
BEC - (07/21/15) 73 (10/01/15) 75
REG - (11/30/15) 55 (05/19/16) 74

[jessica8926]

Well for your ease I have copy and pasted all the formulas I found throughout this forum for BEC. I put them into a word document and printed it out so i can have it as review material during my train ride home. I will not try to memorize them ALL, but maybe the easy ones and at least understand the more difficult ones. Good luck!

• APR (annual percentage return) = Effective Interest Rate * # of periods in year

• Asset turnover = Sales / Total Assets

• Breakeven Point in terms of units = fixed costs / Contribution Margin

• Breakeven Point in terms of dollars = fixed costs / contribution margin ratio

• Cash conversion cycle = inventory conversion period + receivables collection period – payables deferrable period

• Current ratio = current assets / current liabilities

• Contribution Margin = revenue – variable costs
or = sales – variable costs

• Cost of Goods Sold = Beg. Inventory + Inv. Purchases – End. Inventory

• Dividend Payout Ratio = cash dividend per share / Earnings per share

• Economic Value Added = net operating profit after taxes (NOPAT) – cost of financing

• Effective Interest Rate = (principle * rate * time) / principle

• Gross Margin = revenue – cost of goods sold (or gross profit)

• Inventory conversion period = Average Inventory / Cost of sales per day

• Average inventory = (Beginning inventory + Ending inventory) / 2. Make sure to use 365 days per year unless stated otherwise

• Inventory Turnover = cost of goods sold / average inventory

• Marginal propensity to consume = change in spending / change in disposable income

• Marginal propensity to save = change in savings / change in income

• Number of Days Sales in Inventory = # of days in year (usually 365 or 360) / Inventory Turnover

• Quick Ratio = Quick assets (cash, marketable securities, and A/R) / current liabilities

• Residual Income (RI) = operating profit – interest on investment (or required rate of return)

• Times interest Earned Ratio = earnings before interest and taxes / interest expense

• Total costs = fixed costs + variable costs or y = mx + b, where m = slope, x = variable value, and b = y intercept

• Variances – plug in the corresponding units:

• Labor Efficiency – SR * (SH – AH). Actual Quantity Purchased/Consumed *(standard price per unit – actual price per unit)

• Labor Rate – AH * (SR – AR). Standard price per unit * (standard quantity used – actual quantity used)

• Material Price – AQ * (SP – AP). Actual Quantity Purchased/Consumed *(standard price per unit – actual price per unit)

• Material Efficiency – SP * (SQ – AQ). Standard price per unit * (standard quantity used – actual quantity used)

• Fixed overhead spending – (budgeted-standard fixed overhead to incur – actual fixed overhead incurred)

• Fixed overhead volume – (budgeted-standard fixed overhead to incur – ((actual production * standard labor hours)*(budgeted-standard fixed overhead to incur/budgeted labor hours))

• Weighted Average Cost of Capital = [(cost of capital A / Total Amount)(rate of cost)(1-Tax Rate)] + [(cost of capital B / Total cost amount)(rate of cost)]

• Work in process = Direct Material used + Direct Labor + Manufacturing Overhead

• Average accounts receivable = (Beg. A/R + End. A/R) / 2

• Average accounts receivable collection period = sales on credit / average accounts receivable

• Average total assets = (Beginning total assets + Ending total assets) / 2

• Book value per share = common stock equity / common stock shares outstanding

• Common stockholders’ equity = stockholders’ equity – preferred stock liquidation value

• Contribution Margin Ratio = (sales – variable costs) / sales

• Cost of financing= (Total assets – current liabilities) * Weighted average cost of capital

• Cross-Elasticity = % change in demand for certain product A / % change in price of certain product B.

• Debt to equity = Total debt / total equity

• Debt to total assets = total liabilities / total assets

• Discounted Payback Period = multiply by Present Value factor until initial invested amount reached. Disregard salvage value

• Fixed asset turnover = sales / average net fixed assets

• Gross Profit = revenue – cost of goods sold

• Income Elasticity = % change in quantity demanded / % change in income

• Internal Rate of Return = Initial Investment + Cash Flow in Period n/ (1 + Discount Rate) to the nth power (# of periods).

• Marginal utility = change in total utility / change in quantity

• Market/Book Ratio = common stock price per share (or market value)/ book value per share

• Market Capitalization = Common stock price per share * common stock shares outstanding

• Operating leverage= % change in operating income / % change in unit volume

• Operating Profit Margin = Operating profit / net sales

• Preferred Stock Valuation – dividend per share / required rate of return

• Price/Earning (PE) Ratio = common stock price per share / Earning per share

• Profitability Index = project net present value / cost of project

• Receivables Collection Period = Average Accounts Receivable / Credit Sales per day

• Receivable Turnover = Net credit sales / average accounts receivable

• Reorder Point= delivery time of stock + safety stock or could be stated as = average daily demand * average lead time

• Return on Assets (ROA) = net income / average total assets

• Return on Equity (ROE) = net income / Average common stockholders’ equity

• Return on Investment (ROI) = Net Income / Total Assets

• Return on sales (ROS) = net income / Sales

• Safety Stock= (Max. Daily demand * Max. Lead time) – reorder point

• Total asset turnover = sales / average total assets

• ONE LEVEL OH VARIANCE: Total OH = Actual OH – Applied OH

• TWO LEVEL OH VARIANCE: Total OH = Budget (Controllable) Variance + Product (Denominator or Capacity) Volume Variance

• THREE LEVEL OH VARIANCE: Total OH = Price (Spending) Variance + Efficiency Variance + Production (Denom/Cap) Volume Variance

• FOUR LEVEL OH VARIANCE: Total OH = Variable Price (Spending) Variance + Fixed Price (Spending) Variance + Efficiency Variance + Production (Denominator or Capacity) Volume Variance

• Net present value = (expected after tax inflows x PV factor) – Investment cost

• PV for 1 year = cash flow / (1 + discount rate)^n

• PV factor = investment cost / annual cash inflows

• payback period = net initial investment / annual after tax cash flow

• Initial investment = annuity x PV factor

• Financial Leverage = % change in EPS / % change in EBIT

• DCL = DFL x DOL

• weighted average interest rate = cost of debt x (1-tax rate)

• earnings before tax = after tax income / 1 – tax rate

• CAPM = risk free rate + beta * (market return – risk free rate)

• interest payment per year = par value x %

• before tax cost = interest payment per year / discounted or premium proceeds

• after tax cost = before tax cost x (1 – tax rate)

• degree of financial leverage = % change in net income / % change in operating income

• operating leverage = (Quantity x (selling price – variable cost) / (quanity x (selling price – variable cost) – fixed cost

• total leverage = (Quantity x (selling price – variable cost) / (quanity x (selling price – variable cost) – fixed cost – Interest expense – (preferred dividends / (1 – tax rate)

• dividend capitalization model common stock = dividend / (selling price per share – underpricing – flotation) + expected annual growth

• gordon growth model = dividend / (price x (1 – flotation)) + expected annual growth

• cost of forgoing discount = (discount % x 365) / ((1 – discount%) x (pay period – discount period))

• cost of debt = (interest expense – tax benefit) / carrying value of debt

• accounting rate of return = net income / average investment

• economic order quantity = Square root ((2 x demand per year x production setup) / (cost per unit x carrying cost))

• reward to risk ratio = return / standard deviation

• Sharpe portfolio measure = (portfolio return – risk free rate) / standard deviation

• Treynor index = (portfolio return – risk free rate) / beta

• cost of preferred stock = (dividend% x par) / (issue price – issuing cost)

• cost of common equity = (dividend / price) + growth percentage

• CPI = (current / base ) x 100

• payback reciprocal = 1 / payback period

AUD - 77
BEC - 82
FAR - 75
REG - 81

Illinois Certified Public Accountant 2016

AUD - 69, 77
REG - 74, 81
FAR - 75!
BEC - 71, 82

IL candidate!

Finally done (5/24/16)!! Yahooooooo!

[mtaylo24]

@jessica8926 Where's the HIYA button when you need it?

CPA (2017)

REG:  75

BEC:  76

FAR:  77

AUD: 78

 

CMA (2019)

P1: 380

P2: 360

AUD - 1st - 60 (12/12), 61 (2/13), 61 (8/13), 78! (11/15)
REG - 55 (2/16) 69 (5/16) Retake(8/16)
BEC - 71(5/16) Retake (9/16)
FAR - (8/16)

[jairvin3]

I took the long approach but it has proven worth it:

During my first run through of NINJA MCQ I wrote down every single formula on a flashcard as I progressed through the material. Each morning and evening, I would run through the flashcards. It takes a while, but my test is 2 weeks out and I have officially memorized every single formula in NINJA for BEC.

You definitely can do it, you just need to make sure you write down, re-read, and truly understand what the formula is communicating. You can memorize any formula with ease, but if you do not understand its application consider that memory wasted space.

Hope this helps.

[the LAST Coffee]

Lol, waste of time to memorize ALL the formulas, we're talking 50 – 70 formulas.

I memorized 20 and got the gist of the rest. As long as you have an idea and some critical thinking, a problem that you've never seen before should still be manageable on the exam.

FAR 84 (AUG '15)
BEC 83 (AUG '15)
AUD 79 (OCT '15)
REG 71, 78! (NOV '15, FEB '16)

[RE2PECT]

@jessica8926 – I just got heart palpatations looking at that list! Which ones would be considered “must know” for the exam? I'm good with all the turnover and liquidity ratios since I already took FAR and AUD.

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."

Roger & Ninja

FAR: 75
AUD: 73, 81
BEC: 71, 73, 82
REG: 68, 82

FAR: 75 Roger & Ninja (notes/flashcards/audio/MCQ)
AUD: 73, 81
BEC: 71, retake 8/29
REG:

[jessica8926]

For sure the variance ones. Good to know the turnover ones like you said. Also FOR SURE COGS and COGS manufactured. Those will come in handy if you need to calculate a piece of that formula. They may give you COGS but then you will have to calculate something else using that. Otherwise, its hard to say about the other formulas. They are a hit or miss.

AUD - 77
BEC - 82
FAR - 75
REG - 81

Illinois Certified Public Accountant 2016

AUD - 69, 77
REG - 74, 81
FAR - 75!
BEC - 71, 82

IL candidate!

Finally done (5/24/16)!! Yahooooooo!

[golfball7773]

flashcards. I memorized over 50 the first time I took BEC and I remember it being helpful

AUD - NINJA in Training
BEC - 86
FAR - NINJA in Training
REG - NINJA in Training

AUD - 71, 73

BEC - 74, 86

REG - 77*

FAR - 57

*expired

(I have been trying to become a CPA since 2013). only one test down.......

FAR: 63, 55, 62
REG: 65, 77*
AUD: Fail, 64, 71
BEC: 72, 74, 81

*expired

[Ib]

@Jessica8926. Thanks. I was looking for this formula sheet. Awesome☺

AUD - 87
BEC - 78
FAR - 79
REG - 81

Licensed CPA in MA, OCT 2016

FAR 79
AUD 87
BEC 78
REG 08/31/2016

[Author]

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