I took Becker in 2006. The “classes” are nothing but pre-recorded lectures on CD’s. The in-class instructor is only there to change out the CD’s and answer any questions you might have. But by the time that 4 hour CD is over, no one wanted to ask any questions – we just wanted to get out of there!

Becker was expensive, but well worth it. It summarized the material nicely and they told you where to concentrate your efforts (as well as where not to waste too much time!). The flashcards are crappy, but I learned a lot from correcting/modifying them 😉 The software was excellent. Lots of questions and sims are structured EXACTLY like the sims on exam. When you sign up, you get two practice exams for each section (formatted exactly like the real thing!). I scored 10 points higher on the actual exam for all sections except Audit (I scored 5 points higher for AUD).

Becker is good if you do what they say. Study what they say to study and do all the required homework. There are supplemental questions, but I didn’t touch those for 3 of the 4 sections. I scored 84-96 – passed all sections on the first try in less than 6 months – and that was while working full time…during our year end closeout!

Good luck!

I would definitely recommend Becker CPA review materials if you would like to have the best chance of passing all exams on your first try. They are the leaders in this area and update their materials frequently.

It would be hard to give you the quality of Becker instructors since it varies by location. Through my own personal experience, there have been 1 professor who was excellent teaching 3 sections, and 1 poor professor teaching audit. Either way though, the live lectures do not really help much but still add to the learning experience. Fellow classmates have told me the actual lecture CD’s that accompany the materials are actually better than the live lectures, since they are created by a top professor with the benefits of pausing, rewinding and rereviewing and so on.

The bulk of your studies should not be on the lectures itself however, it should be through the constant reviewing of the Becker textbook, maybe trying to read it through 2-3 times. Also the passmaster practice questiosn really assist big time, with my personal experience seeing about half of the questions present on the exam word for word, with the exception of some different possible multiple choice answers.

I cant compare this material to others such as micromash since I have not tried them, but I can say that because of the Becker material, I was able to recently pass all 4 sectiosn on my first try all within the same window. I have some other classmates too who also had the same success, but there are others who did not do so well. Bottom line, get the great materials from Becker, and put in a great deal of effort and the exam will be conquered.

Good luck

I was a becker rep myself in college and took becker review for my exam. To be honest, there are no instructors in the course. If you take the classroom version, there will be a video running overhead in which there will be an instructor. Now in that video the instructors inter-act etc but no instructor in the class will teach you. Sure there are Becker people moderating the classroom, to answer questions, to pause, to go over quizzes etc (that is at least how it is Chicago, and i think most US, EXCEPT may be NY). But the courses are pretty comprehensive and they provide updates to answers on the site and any regulatory changes etc. (you can check that on student tab on their site even now). The CD version is the same EXACT as live class version and i recommend the cd version bec you can go over the lecture million times if you want, where as if you wana go over the lecture if you were registered as a live class student, you will have to pay $20 per chapter. I highly highly recommend cd versions and moreover it is the same exact thing.. good luck