And for my last trick (hopefully), I started studying for BEC this week. The wait for my REG results is killing me but the show must go on! I think I will be able to concentrate better on BEC once I know if I passed REG. Luckily, BEC starts out with Economic Concepts & Strategy and a lot of the economics concepts are coming back to me. However, just like every other section of the CPA Exam, there are areas that I forgot or never learned (or never wanted to learn..ha!).
So far, the Economic Concepts & Strategy section seems to be pretty formula and definition heavy. When learning formulas and definitions, the best study tool for myself (other than an infinite amount of MCQs) is flashcards because I will need to know these concepts inside out. Formulas and definitions were made for flash cards. I am making the flash cards after I write my initial notes for each section.
Then I will add the cards to my stack for easy and portable studying. When I feel that I know a card well enough I will take it out of rotation for a while in order to concentrate on the cards that I do not know as well. Just like anything else the key is repetition and persistence.
Maybe you are even lucky enough to have a friend or coworker to help you study with the flashcards. One of the most important concepts in the microeconomics section is understanding the supply and demand curves. There are many factors that shift the supply and demand curves which in turn changes the equilibrium price and quantity. I will make flashcards to learn the factors that have a direct and inverse relationship with the curves.
Roger provides a great chart that summarizes the changes in equilibrium price and quantity resulting from various shifts in supply and demand curves. Memorization of this chart is important but it is easier to memorize the chart if you understand why an increase or decrease changes the equilibrium. I have been drawing numerous supply and demand curves to visualize how the shifts work. I know that on exam day I will be drawing the supply and demand curves for every question about shifts.
Now that I am almost done with Section 1 – Economic Concepts & Strategy, I look forward to moving on to Section 2 – Corporate Governance, Internal Control & Enterprise Risk Management and I continue to keep my fingers crossed for good news on result day.
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