[Sarah1421]

Do you find practicing the written communication to be helpful? I’m thinking about just reading the question and the solution – not practicing at all. I feel like it’s a better use of time to familiarize yourself with the topics.. but I could be making a mistake.

I have the Becker materials, so I’m planning to go through the additional tips a few times. What else did you (or are you) doing to prepare for this section?

FAR - 90
AUD - 91
BEC - 86
REG - 87

[Reflektor]

I think you're right…I never practiced them at all. Knowing the concepts is the best way to prepare. Then again I've always liked writing so that part comes sort of naturally to me

I guess if you're worried about them the best thing you can do is read some of the examples in your practice material to get an idea of how they outline their points and how much detail they go into. I certainly wouldn't write up a whole bunch of them yourself though, I think that's sort of a waste of time

BEC - 69, 70, 82 - DONE
FAR - 59, 77 - DONE
REG - 53, 70, 85 - DONE
AUD - 66, 68, 70, 85 - DONE

[Anonymous]

Given that the WC is only weighted at 15%, I personally found it worthwhile to focus soley on MCQs. Understanding the MCQ material is sufficient preparation if English is your native language. I'd say the only reason to practice the writing is if you struggle with English and grammar.

[Sarah1421]

Good to know – it seems really annoying to practice. I think I'll just jot down a couple concepts related to the question, read the solution, and then move on.

Thanks for the responses!

One more question – I've read responses in the forum asking “did you use the keywords?” What are they talking about? Just keywords from their study material or is there some sort of guidance that's more specific?

Anyway I look at this, I see myself wasting time that I should be spending on the concepts/MC.

FAR - 90
AUD - 91
BEC - 86
REG - 87

[Anonymous]

Do not practice them. Keep on memorizing IT and COSO concepts.

Restate question asked in introduction. Use key words in your two-three paragraphs of the body (key words come from question). Throw fluff in around the body. Provide generic conclusion regarding a possible follow up and restate the prompt.

“Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them”

[rzrbkfaith]

I agree – don't practice. Our Becker instructor gave us a simple formula…

1. Open with restating the question.

2. Answer the question(s) in the order they were asked (or address the problems in the order delivered in the scenario).

3. Close with the same “Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. I will be available at your convenience.” for each of them.

4. Don't forget a “yours truly” and your name.

5. Read all of the WC and then work from the one you know best to the one you know least.

I think its a winning formula.

AUD - 99
BEC - 97
REG - 91
FAR - 1/8/16

[Sarah1421]

@_Nick_ Great points. “Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them.” 🙂

@rzrbkfaith – I'm actually going to write that formula in my notes… Very helpful!

FAR - 90
AUD - 91
BEC - 86
REG - 87

[Anonymous]

Practicing essays is not the best use of time, but think of the BEC essay section like this – (keeping in mind that its 15% of your exam score)

The amount of time you spend practicing for the essay section vs the amount of points that time spent pays you exam day – is actually pretty huge on the essay section. Especially for an exam like BEC; where the test is such a huge mash-up of unrelated topics. You can spend tons of time drilling any one particular BEC topic or formula but come exam day, that will only be such a small portion of the test – likely a lot less than 15% of your exam.

If you are to measure study time by how much points it pays you exam day for BEC, then preparing for the essay section would be your most valuable time spent – point wise that is.

However, this is not to say you should go ahead and spend hours and hours preparing for the essays when you know you don't understand other topics as well as you would like to. Just make sure you definitely don't skip preparing for the essays – I think a good 2 hours on essay prep should be more than good enough for most people (unless English is your second language maybe)

Becker is a great review program, but nonetheless, how they grade the essays is largely unknown since a scoring card hasn't been released on the essays for many years.

Definitely read through all of the Becker essay tips on what they are looking for. Get the simple things down like making sure you address the essay to the proper audience, use the proper tone (simpler terms if you are addressing inferiors, more complex language if you are addressing a boss, etc) and make sure you assume your assigned role (ie, they tell you you are a controller, etc) properly. Try to throw in your name and title in your signature/closing of every essay and address your audience by name at least once on every essay to snag up these easy points on every essay. (3 essays)

When it comes to content, that can be tough because you may get asked about content that is really on FAR, or AUD (neither of which I took yet) and you definitely wont be able to study those materials as well as BEC materials. The saving grace here is that in many cases on the essay question itself will list for you the information they want you use in your essay response; so make sure at a MINIMUM you repeat all of the information they gave to you if that is the case.

So lets say, for example, you are super pressed for time and have a mere 3-4 minutes per essay come exam day – you can snag up a good amount of points still by getting all the right names out there in the essay body and signature and then get those information points out on the essay that they gave you in the questions. If you absolutely cannot finish a particular essay information wise, make sure you jump to the end and sign your name and title! Then jump back to the body and see how much you can get out there before the clock expires.

I think perhaps reading a few practice essays would be more of a benefit than writing multiple essays. I think writing one would be a great idea, but law of diminishing returns says writing more than one really isn't going to do you any good.

Rip out a few sample essays that scored high and make them crapper reading for the next couple weeks – write one good practice essay and call it good. Spend the rest of your time mastering BEC specific material and they should give you enough on the essay question itself to pass well if they throw curve-ball topics at you.

I'm 2 for 2 on BEC and my first time around I got completely killed on the Corp Governance MCQ's which were weirdly heavily tested my exam and still managed to pass.

I wrote 3 practice essays the first time around (got a 79) and I wrote 0 practice essays the second time around (got an 88) but I did re-read the becker tips the second time around on the morning of my exam and thats it.

[Anonymous]

I never practice them , just re read them the week before exam!! As Nick said there is a lot of COSO and IT to focus on…

English is not my first language and apparently I did well

[Author]

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