I hated BEC…of all the CPA exams, it was by far my least favorite. I took it without SIMs to fall back on, and I'm better at sims than I am MCQ, generally. I'm not good at memorization without context/strategy.
I also didn't have the “other” business classes, or econ, that so much of the BEC non-sense was based in. Cost accounting was OK…I found that of all the areas, Becker was weakest on Cost and variance though. I remember it being easier in college…Becker made it worse somehow. But it was at least accounting and a “real” thing to learn. Maybe it's in my head…but I just don't remember variance being that bad in class…and somehow Becker taught it in a way that was constipated. I remember there being grids we used in class that made it easy, and that's not how Becker did it.
The thing that annoyed me were “coso” and the IT subjects…mostly because they were made up non-sense with artificial standards and definitions. It's not “real” in the sense that accounting is real, and I HATE studying/learning things I think are BS. And a lot of BEC was BS. It was also the last one I took, and I was burned out by that point. I was unwilling to study as hard as I did for FAR…and when I took the exam, I was irritated with it. It was the only exam I took where time actually became a factor. At some point I just decided “screw it” in regards to the COSO memorization…and, of course, I got a COSO enema on the exam.
I – think – I probably studied about 120 hours? I found BEC very time consuming and memorization heavy…which is not my strength and takes me a long time.
AUD - 96
BEC - 84
FAR - 89
REG - 86
Aaron and always remember, YMMV
I profit from your CPE frustration. You're welcome.
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