Question For Cpas

[mrfritz 885]

What did you use to study for the CPA exam??

[mrfritz 885]

Why did it make the p and a lower case in the title stupid.

[Napa Lite 3,278]

I used becker because that's what I always heard was the best and my company paid for it, so I didn't care about the cost. A lot of the kids in my office are using cpa excel and seem to be doing fine. The most important thing is that you actually put in the hours studying. All the material is going to be basically the same regardless of what provider you use.

[mrfritz 885]

ya i was gonna go with becker, but it's expensive. that's bad-ass your company paid for it.

 

If the material is basically the same, then I'll prolly just buy a study guide.

[SuitedAces21 2,722]

good luck wang

[Napa Lite 3,278]

Well, I'd still get some sort of book/video/quiz bank program because there is a ton of material (inch deep, mile wide as they say) but you certainly odn't have to spend the $3k for the becker program. Wiley has some really good iphone notecard and quiz apps that I used to supplement becker.

[mrfritz 885]

I was considering wiley, and those apps look pretty solid. I'll probably go with them.

 

I heard FAR was the hardest section? I'm going to study for that first, this is going to be ridiculous.

[Napa Lite 3,278]

Well, FAR certainly has the most material to cover. It's really subjective as to what is the hardest section though. I would recommend not taking FAR and REG back to back as it's super easy to get confused as to the difference between GAAP and tax accounting.

[mrfritz 885]

See this is the kind of advice i need.

 

I'm going to do REG third after AUD, then BEC last. That's a good plan...I think.

[Napa Lite 3,278]

Yeah, I think that's a good plan. I thought BEC was by far the easiest and a lot of people seem to agree with me, so doing that last is good. Especially if you're getting close to the 18 month window. You don't need the extra stress of if I don't pass AUD here I'm going to lose my FAR score. Seriously the best advice I can give you is to just study, study, study. Treat studying as a second FT job (or a first one if you don't have one) and just get it over with. Life will absolutely suck for those six months but at least it's done and over and you get to sit back and laugh at younger staff complaining about studying. You probably won't feel amazing after you pass them all, but at least you'll have it done and as long as you keep up with your CPE you'll have it for life.

 

Edit: And when you do pass them all and take the ethics exam get the digital version. You'll be able to CTRL+F your way around the pdf's to find the questions basically word for word instead of reading through the book. Probably not very ethical for me to suggest that. I wouldn't know though because I didn't actually read the ethics book, but I did get 100/100 on the ethics exam.

[mrfritz 885]

great advice, tyvm Napa Lite.

[Napa Lite 3,278]

Oh, and schedule your tests as soon as you get your NTS because A) testing slots will fill up super fast at prometric and B) just to get a date on the calender so you're not just perpetually studying.

 

I would shoot for two sections a testing window (about 1.5-2 months to prep for each test). I also liked to schedule my tests for Monday late morning so I knew I'd always have two full days of no work to review material prior. But that's just me. You know how you learn better than I do.

 

If you have any questions or need to vent about failing or anything just send me a pm and I'll answer what I can. I didn't pass them all on the first try so I know how deflating it can be to not pass. I think i got a 73 on FAR my first time taking it (I tried studying for two days straight like I always did in college...didn't work out for me on this).

[hank213 1,823]

Why did it make the p and a lower case in the title stupid.

 

welp you've failed. might as well try your series 7.