I'm doing Becker right now, and this is my first time through, so I don't have much to compare it with. They're “mmmmmeh, okay.” My experiences with them are as follows:
The live classes are okay. You will not have the same instructor throughout the course, so you won't get used to a teaching style, and you won't have a regular instructor you can ask a question of from the last class period. Every session will be a different instructor. Some read right out of the book to you (which doesn't really add much value) while others have really good tips and shortcuts to help you out.
The online lectures have been helpful to me, especially since the live instructors often skip over stuff or just read out of the book. The online lectures do a pretty good job of explaining the “why” and giving you memory keys that are helpful. I had thought the the live classes would add benefit by being in a room with live people, but that really hasn't been the case. The live classes aren't really a place to ask many questions anyway — the classroom culture isn't really geared for, “Wait a minute, can you clarify that?” kinds of questions. If you don't get it in class, you're on your own.
The instructors offer their personal contact info to help you, though, so you can shoot them an email outside of class. I've also had good luck contacting Becker academic support to ask questions. I've sent in three questions to Academic Support as I've been going through homework, and I've gotten emailed responses back within a couple of days.
Despite what some of their literature still says, you will not get CDs or DVDs. It's all online. The downloads finally theoretically work for Mac, but they failed for me even though I use a supported system version and browser, so I'm stuck with the online version. That would be okay, if there weren't so many “glitches” with the new online system. I think it will be fine in a year or two, but it's new and not really ready for “prime time.”
That brings us to my *BIG* problem with Becker: Becker Tech Support SUCKS. I paid for all 4 sections up front to get the discount; had I known how bad their tech support would be, I would not have done so. It is bad to the point that I would seriously like switching to Yaeger or some other company for future sections.
Becker Tech Support does not reply even to really serious problems with their system. For example, after taking one of the practice exams, reviewing my mistakes was nearly impossible because their website's scroll features were not working (yes, I use a supported browser). That was bad enough, but I was completely unable to actually read a solution and explanation for SIX of the SEVEN task-based simulations. Only the explanation for the first one would come up (no matter which one was opened). I tried a couple of different computers and reported the problem to Becker Tech Support. They clearly didn't even read my message before responding and telling me to do exactly what I had reported was not working… So, ultimately, I know my score, but I gave up on trying to learn from my mistakes because I cannot see the explanations. Having invested 4 hours into taking the exam, I don't really feel I got what I paid for there… I won't be taking the second practice exam that is available because it does me no good to get a score and not be able to learn from my mistakes.
At least they responded back that time. The prior 4 or 5 times I've contacted them to report problems with their online interface, they acknowledged receipt and gave me a ticket number, then never ever EVER followed up or corrected the problem. These were for things like video clips not working, homework solutions said “A” was the solution, then explained why “C” was the solution, etc. Individually, they are small things — but when you're charging customers some serious bank for the experience, you might be interested in correcting these kinds of problems, no?
And yeah, I've followed up on a couple of the tickets, but it was clear the folks at Becker didn't care, so I gave up the effort. If they didn't already have my money, I'd probably try a different company for the next round. My sense is that any prep company really can give you the tools you need if you're ready to apply yourself to the task at hand, so I don't know that Becker is necessarily better or worse than any of the others. It all depends on whether you're willing to do the work. For me, I'm just so burned about the lousy tech support at Becker that it would drive me away. But the other parts of Becker are okay.
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