DISCLAIMER: Before you read this, realize that you and I are not the same person.  You may be a lot smarter than me and not need to study this hard, or you may need to study more than I did.  I also studied for the CPA exam without many external factors such as work or a family to take care of.  I studied for the majority of the CPA Exam over the summer before my final year in college which made studying pretty easy since I could study all day without distraction.  If you don’t have this much time, or have more or less brain capacity than me, have a family to take care of or work to do, take those things into consideration when planning to take these difficult exams.  Okay, onto the story!

I started studying for BEC on July 27th, 2019 which happened to be the day I sat for the FAR Exam.  I know I should have probably taken some time off to decompress after taking FAR (which is known as the most difficult of the four CPA Exams), but after I took FAR I was trying to kill some time before an event, so I decided to go to a coffee shop, grab a snack and get started.  Because what’s better than studying?!  (a lot of things actually haha)

At that point in time, I have also been studying for the CPA Exam for about 3 months straight since the first day I started studying was on May 1st, 2019.  I took REG on June 7th 2019 and FAR on July 27th 2019.  The idea of starting to study for BEC where the book is about half the size of the FAR book and had much easier concepts sounded fun to me.  So I started going through the first few modules during the hour or two that I was trying to kill and I realized that all the material so far was recycled material from FAR and I was having such an easy time.

The next day (Sunday, July 28th) I got my calendar out and figured out which modules I would have to complete each day to be ready for my exam on September 9, 2019, which was just about 6 weeks away.  If you’ve read my previous articles, you know that I use Becker as my review material and for each module/sections (which there are about 5 to 10 modules per chapter) I would go through the lectures, skills practice, and the multiple choice.  Once I was done with a chapter I would do the simulations that would get me used to some of the short response questions that I might get asked.  I didn’t do these a lot but they are good to practice so that you are familiar with what to expect on the exam.  Each day I would also try and do multiple choice questions or flashcards for the modules I have already completed so that I didn’t forget anything.

I got through all of the content in 3 weeks and then started on the final review during the fourth week.  I had such a good grasp on the material during the fourth week that I honestly didn’t take the final review materials that serious.  The final review was a great recap though and I think it helps a lot on all of the exams (I actually ended up skipping the final review for audit and I believe that is why I failed that section the first try.  So don’t skip the final review no matter what you do).  If you have the final review book, definitely use it.

During weeks four and five of studying, I was also in RA (Resident Assistant for UW-Whitewater) training which is two weeks of full time training that occupied my days from 7:30 AM until about 5:30 PM every week day.  I would try my best to at least glance through my book during any free time I had.  This was my fourth RA training so I would think I would get more of a pass, but I guess not.  Each week day during RA training from 5:30 AM to 7:00 AM I would go through half of my giant stack of hand made flash cards and go through 60 MCQs on Becker (10 questions per chapter).  Once I got back to my room around 5:30 PM after dinner, I would finish the other half of the stack of flashcards and would do another 60 MCQs.  For the remaining time in the day I would either socialize with RAs, do RA work, or study until about 10:00 PM when I would have to go to bed to do it again the next day.  During this routine, I wasn’t necessarily learning anything new.  I learned all the content during the first three weeks of studying so these two weeks were simply me trying to preserve my knowledge and cement concepts into my brain.

Over the weekends between weeks three, four, and five, I would basically study all day in between my meals and working out.  On Saturdays I would do a Becker mock exam and would use the rest of the weekend to go over my weak points based on the results of the exam.  I would constantly be doing Becker MCQs and the flashcards I made for myself since I thought that this was the best way to know everything that was necessary for BEC.  And I can now say that MCQs and flashcards were the ticket to success.  My flashcards had difficult equations, concepts, or definitions that I found most difficult and I started making them after I had a good grasp of a concept.  I wouldn’t make a flashcard right away since everything was so new to me and basically everything was hard at first.  

When I was studying with my flashcards I made piles for myself.  I made 3 piles which included flashcards to go over everyday, every other day, and once every three days.  I made this up as I went so you can improvise if you’d like.  If a flashcard was hard or I got it wrong I would put it in the first pile that I would see daily.  If I got a flashcard right it would graduate to the next stack.  And if I got a card in stack number 2 right, that would graduate to pile number 3.  It was a great system and allowed me to go through my cards very efficiently without wasting time on flashcards that I already knew well. 

During my last week of studying it was also the first week of classes.  So at this point I was pretty well prepared for the exam already and I would basically be able to study all day long each day since I no longer had RA training to go to and my classes were just going over the syllabus for our classes.  So each day I would go through at least 200 MCQs, go through my entire giant stack of flashcards and would read through the book for any topics that I found difficult.  When I had a difficult concept, I would usually try and write it down or do the equation or journal entry it was asking for and try and quiz myself on it instead of just reading over it and assuming I knew what was going on.  I went through each of the three mock exams once that week and each one would take me probably an hour max since I have taken each exam probably twice by now and I didn’t want to waste too much time on it.  I used the mock exams as extra MCQ practice and refreshing myself on some of the concepts tested that weren’t seen in the regular course material.

I studied extremely hard that week and didn’t take any days or moments off of studying really.  Some people take the day before the exam off to rest their mind, but I feel that information is simply leaving my brain if I do that so I keep on studying.  I took the exam at about 8:00 am on Monday, September 9th, 2019 and I felt more ready than REG and FAR combined.  Personally the exam wasn’t that hard for me and I only had to give good guesses on a few multiple choice questions per section and I thought the simulations and essays were pretty simple for the knowledge I had.  I could have gone fast but I paced myself and made sure I didn’t go too fast and make mistakes.  So I finished the exam in about 3.5 hours.  I felt that I did great on the exam when I walked out but that sometimes doesn’t mean one will pass an exam.

(FYI: scores are usually released the night prior to the actual release date but I didn’t know about this at that point.)  I woke up really early on the morning of Thursday, September 19th, 2019 to see my score on CPA Central and after about 30 minutes of not wanting to face reality, I logged in and looked at my score… I passed with an 83!  I was so excited but it didn’t feel as good as passing REG or FAR since it wasn’t as difficult as those.  But after realizing that I only had Audit to pass now, I was so excited!!! I was 75% of the way to being a CPA at this point, and now it was onto Audit.

I hope this helps you with taking BEC and if you have any questions, be sure to click the contact button on my website and I’ll be sure to get back to you with any CPA questions you have.  Or if you’d like to not click the button above, feel free to email me at jake7hollenbeck@gmail.com