[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

I’d like to hear from the people who didn’t buy a full review course. What was your alternative strategy for passing the CPA exam? How would you rate your strategy? (What did you use to study? How long?) What were your circumstances? (employment, family, etc)

[LisafutureCPA]

I agree with @CPAMAN, get the best you can. I used Becker all the way in all 4 parts and do not regret it. One thing I like about Becker is that when you do your progress tests, it tells you your strenghts and weaknesses, and let me tell you it is accurate because when I got my two 74's the weaknesses I showed on the progress tests where my weak areas on the actual test too. And also, I was able to see questions on the actual test that I had seen in my Becker homework and sims.

FAR – 80

REG – 80

AUD – 81

BEC – 74, 74, 77

FAR - 80
REG - 80
AUD - 81
BEC - 74, 74, 77, done & licensed!!!!!

[tbstew]

Here's a little from my experience:

Passed AUD using only CPAReviewForFree.com without spending a single penny. I just did the questions all the way through about 7 times, lol. Although I thought that was pretty cool, I only got a 79. Knowing that other sections (REG/FAR) would be more difficult for me, I was worried that the free stuff wasn't going to be enough. So I grabbed the Wiley Test bank from Jeff.

Used the Wiley & CPAReviewForFree for BEC and passed with an 88 – much more comfortable with that score. Never needed any lectures or anything… which speaks well for Wiley since I'm several years out of college and not the sharpest tool in the box. I highly recommend Wiley for that reason.

That said, though, I feel like I might need a little extra umph with REG, so I grabbed the Gleim system. The lectures are horribly boring, but the Audio helps for my commute, and I like all the additional MCQs in their test bank. The SIMS are good practice, too, I suppose/

LONG story short… anything's possible, but you'll have to feel it out for youself. Honestly if I had the money (and no kids/no mortgage/etc…), I would have gone with the full course from Roger or something. The key is to not underestimate this exam. Neither should we understimate the future benefits of passing it, which as many have said, will far outweigh whatever costs we put into it.

AUD - 79
BEC - 88
REG - 87
FAR - 86 - Woot, all done!
Ethics - 100

[Anonymous]

@EELCPA

I have been out of college for 7 years. Worked in public accounting doing a lot of audits so that section was pretty easy. Now I work in government so that section of FAR was a cake walk.

[Anonymous]

I bought CPAExcel but have used it very sparingly because I felt that Wiley was more comprehensive (it is) and that while I might be required to learn a lot more than from Wiley than a review course (I did), I figured that going into the test over prepared (I was) would be better than not.

I think that I am going to the mat with Wiley, until and unless I fail a part. Then I will consider going back to CPAExcel as well.

It seems to me that there are two schools of though with regards to the CPA Exam:

1) Study for the 75.

2) Study for 100.

I first did the study for the 75 thing to terrible results. Since changing to the study for 100 plan, 2 for 2 with high 80's.

[Anonymous]

why do pple say that Wiley is more comprehensive than CPAExcel? I used the Wiley test bank for FAR and it has way less MCQs than CPAExcel. Topics such as Governmental Acg and Business Combinations were not covered in detail as CPAExcel did. May be the actual review is different. I think CPAExcel is great! I actually paid about the same as Wiley would've cost me…:-).

[Anonymous]

I used the Wiley books and test bank and passed all four on the first try. Little background: I'm a thirty year old mother of three kids under the age of seven, work full time, have a husband who travels for work and our closest relatives are about 1200 miles away (so no help around the house). Translation: If I can do this, anyone can. Believe me.

It really depends on how you learn. I felt like I grapsed and was able to retain the concepts more easily by re-teaching myself this far out of school as opposed to someone just telling me. People kept telling me to buy the expensive courses because I was going to have to keep paying to retake the tests and it would cost me more in the end…but at $400 total for the Wiley review materials, I figured I was going to have to fail quite a few tests to reach the $2K or so I was seeing for comprehensive review courses. Could be because of the amount I'm shelling out for two in daycare in the bay area…gotta watch every penny!!

[Author]

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