Brent is a NINJA CPA Blogger.
Starting off week number three studying for BEC which has been scheduled for August 30. I had a wonderful surprise over the past weekend when I checked my FAR score and saw PASS on the screen!
It felt as if an enormous weight had been lifted off my shoulders and also gave me motivation to work harder studying for BEC. I walked out of that exam (retake #3) feeling as if it were the hardest of the retakes and that it was my worst performance. I was preparing myself to spend the entire month of September studying for it again. However, my hard work paid off and I am now halfway through my exam process.
So far into BEC, I have covered corporate governance, COSO framework for internal control, enterprise risk management, planning techniques for forecasting and projection along with budgeting and analysis. The majority of this information seems new to me and I am having a really tough time remembering the concepts from my college courses.
As I work the homework multiple choice questions I find myself turning to my text book to get an idea of how to work the problem, otherwise I am totally clueless of where to start. After selecting an answer and viewing the solution to the problem, I am still having a having a hard time trying to understand it rather than just memorizing the procedure to get to the problem.
In addition to working the multiple choice problems, I have been taking notes as I go and using flash cards to get the information to stick. I have also been taking full advantage of the NINJA Audio lectures to really hammer this material into my brain.
I have found thatthe NINJA Notes Audio provides greater clarity and allows me to visualize the topics being discussed when I am sitting at my desk, at the gym, or in the car and only have the ability to listen, rather than having the physical notes in front of me.
As I have found with experience studying for prior exams, the best way to understand the material is practice and continuous review. You really have to eat, sleep and breathe the material to get it engraved in your memory. With that being said, its back to multiple choice questions as I finish up chapter 3 and prepare to move on to my next lecture covering organizational needs and system design.
I encourage everyone out there studying for the August test window to keep at it and stay positive. Continue to study hard and I promise the effort will pay off!
