Hi everyone,

I will have my BEC exam on April 2nd and I am so warried about the newly added written communication. I am not the native English speaker and doing poor in writting. Could anybody advice how many words do I need to write in each writting assignment? Is there anyway to boost the business style writting skill?

Many thanks!

Paige, you should be encouraged.  You are working hard and doing well so far.  It's tough because in BEC the writing may account for up to 12% of the final score (I don't know for sure).  Spellling and grammar are counted in that grade.  If you describe the accounting concept in the question correctly, you will receive partial credit for giving the right factual answer.  There is no minimum number of words you are required to write.  Most people write about two paragraphs with several sentences each. 

I have been in your situation and taken tests in another language.  The best way to practice in advance is to use a tutor to correct your spelling and grammar.  This helps you to get a little better each day.

There was a book in the 1950s called "Why Johnnny Can't Read" and it included the double-letter problem I noticed in your post.  "Written communication" is correct but notice how "writing assignment" only has one t in writing.  This is the kind of catch that a tutor can make, since English does not always make sense.

Another piece of advice, since the CPA exam is a written not oral test, is to spend less time listening to English-speaking broadcast TV and instead practice reading online newspapers such as NYTimes.com, which is well-edited.  This will help you avoid misspelling "worried" as "warried."  Reading written words over and over will help the correct spellings come naturally to you when you spell in writing.  The CPA exam only requires us to write at about a fourth-form level.  You don't need to use big words or long words.  Just use small words correctly. 

The fact is that learning how to communicate aloud in America is very different from learning how to write and spell English.  Unfortunately grammar and spelling can make us lose a lot of points on BEC.  The CPA examiners are specifically trying to test for good English.