Finally!

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I took BEC this morning. It took me about 40 minutes of waiting to get checked in, but oh well.

I think I smoked the exam…we’ll see. I felt this way with AUD and that turned out OK. You never really know, though.

Financial Management has always been my weak area. I’ve never wanted to study it so I’ve always ignored it. THANKFULLY I did just about every question on Yaeger’s list of “minimum” questions to do. That prepared me.

I also followed their advice and did every single IT question in the Wiley book and that paid dividends as well.

The exam followed the content weights released by the AICPA, so no surprises really.

One thing about BEC is that memorizing terms won’t cut it. They want you to actually apply the knowledge. Odd.

REG is in 2.5 hours…

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BEC is up first thing in the morning. I can roll out of bed and score a 71 on BEC, so to end my streak, I’ve been hitting areas that I’ve always ignored (Financial Management…I hate studying for it, so I go into the Exam and try to fake it).

I did 307 IT questions today. I could write a book about the “Joys of Electronic Data Interchange”.

In the past, I’ve also tried to limp my way through Econ. I did a ton of problems on elasticity calculations.

One regret is that I have spent a disproportionate amount of time on BEC rather than REG. I hit Corporations pretty hard (my week part when I scored a 74 last time) and I have a 5 hour break in-between exams, so I’ll come back and gorge myself on individual tax, estates/trusts and whatever else.

I was tempted to give it the old college try and pull an all-nighter, but I know better than to do that.

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I’ve done the math and mapped out my final week of studying/cramming/praying and it goes something like this:

(keep in mind that I’m not a very structured person…I have a tendency to live by default and not design, per se, so this may be difficult for me).

This is hardcore (to me it is, anyway), but I’m only doing this for a week.

(95 hours of work + study…)

Sunday night: Lights out at 11pm (I usually stay up til 12:30am or 1)

Monday:
Study 5:30-7am (I usually get up at 7am…I live 10 min. from work)
11:30-1pm (extended lunch)
5-6:30pm
6:30-7 – briefly remind the kids that I exist
7-11pm
(6.5 hours)

Tuesday: repeat

Wednesday: repeat

Thursday: Family time starting at 7pm (4.5 hours)

Friday: same as Thursday, but no studying after work or in the evening (3 hours)

Saturday: 5:30-7am, 8-11:30, 12-4, 6-10 (14 hours)

Sunday: same as Saturday

Monday: Exams – BEC and REG

Total studying from Monday-Sunday: 55 hours + a full work week.

Is this realistic? Yes, I think so.

Will it be terrible/worst thing ever? Absolutely.

Will I pass if I do this: Without a doubt.

If anyone out there is slaving away this week, know that there’s someone else as miserable as you. Needless to say, I went to the grocery store and stockpiled coffee today.

I guess it all comes down to this:

How badly do you want to be a CPA?

It’s time to be done with this thing.

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I can use slang and double-negatives when referring to BEC because there’s no essay or writing portion of the exam – at least not until 2009.

I consider BEC as the second-hardest section of the CPA Exam.

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I’ve been running the numbers trying to devise a battle plan for REG and BEC. I did the math and I have 4,706 REG multiple choice questions and 2,790 BEC questions at my disposal. By the way, that’s 7,496 questions - all on software. I’ve never done all of the questions in preparing for an exam (or even came close) and that may be my downfall.

I have one chance to get it right on each or I have to re-take the dreaded FAR exam. In order to complete all of the MCQs once in the next 30 days, I have to average 250 questions a day. Granted, Saturday and Sunday naturally lend themselves to more study time, but it is going to be a grind doing that many questions in study mode for the next 30 days with work and family on top of it all.

It will be a sacrifice, but when I’m done – I’m done.

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I double check my scores each day in hope that they will magically change and today I got my wish. My “71″ turned into an “Error: Score not found.”

Maybe they meant 81 and not 71.

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My FAR score expires in April and I know this much as of today:

I must pass BEC and REG or I have to re-take the beast known and Financial Accounting and Reporting.

Ugh.

Maybe I shouldn’t have celebrated passing FAR by taking a year off? Just a thought.

I hate the BEC exam with a passion. It’s the most seemingly benign exam, yet I think it’s the worst of them all.

I also have to take REG again. I got my score comparison in the mail today, so I know at least why I scored a 74.

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