Sarah is a NINJA CPA Blogger.

Hello NINJAs,

I’ve been plowing through BEC for a full week now and earlier in the week I was missing the comfort I had during AUD. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t KNOW AUD, but I somewhat knew AUD.

By the time I took my AUD test, the first week of April, I was ready to be done with that material and do something different. Now, I realize that different means learning something new, from the start.

Anyway, I’ve made my way through Corporate Governance and the Economic sections of my study plan this week. I plan to spend the next 10 days or so working through Financial Management, IT, and Planning & Measurement section.

This plan should give me a week to work on any trouble areas and two week doing nonstop Wiley MCQs for my final review. At some point, I’ll have to take some time and look at the writing section but getting through all my sections is my focus right now.

I’ve revised my study technique for BEC. AUD was my first test section and I think we can all admit that with the first section, you don’t really know how to study and what works best. I started out studying AUD one way and finished up another way.

I’m trying BEC yet another way to help hammer in the information. I’m watching the videos and taking notes; then I’m doing the questions in study mode to see any areas I didn’t really get. Finally, I’m reading and taking notes from the studying section and then finishing up with the questions in exam mode. At night before I go to bed, I’m trying to read through once section’s flashcards.

I find if I do it this way, I’m not just memorizing the answer to the questions; I’m focusing on why they’re right or wrong. I then allow myself to review the notes, taking them in context of how questions could be asked or answered.

This seems to be working so far, but the two sections I completed are really a lot of common sense and business school concepts that I started remember once I went through them again. I’m hoping what I think works, really works as I get into the financial management and planning and measurement sections.

On a side note, I’m anxiously awaiting my AUD score but it’s nice to have BEC to keep me occupied. None of my work people, friends, or family members understand how it can take 4+ weeks to grade a test but it’s also nice that they might forget about my missing score between now and then in the uneventful instance I didn’t pass.

Till next time NINJAs. Keep calm and study on.