[Anonymous]

I’m curious to see how many hours we all honestly and truly study for these exams. Of course, no one’s probably going to have an exact figure…and it will vary based on the exam, on prior experience with the familiar, how good/recent our education was, etc., but if anyone else is willing to share their confessions (whether too much or too little!), I’m curious how it compares to the “recommended” study times. Maybe pair the study time with score obtained?

Also I would separate focused studying vs things like listening to audio while driving. It’s a great thing to do…but of course it’s not as focused on sitting down with books or lectures and focusing solely on studying!

Note: The goal here is neither to brag or to chide, just to get an idea of “real” people timing, to give people a better idea of what the range is. I’ve heard 100-200 hours being recommended depending on the test, but I’ve gathered that in reality, that varies from just a few to several hundred depending on the person!

Anyway…for me…

Study materials: Wiley books, Wiley test bank, occasional supplements with other free trials etc

For FAR, I studied approx 50-60 hours, passed with 83. I had 3 or 4 college classes that covered the material in this exam approx 1 year before the exam

For AUD, I’ve got about 40 hours in, and will get up to an additional 10 hours (probably less) between now and when I test day-after-tomorow. Only had 1 auditing class, but it really “clicked” when I took it.

For BEC, man, I can’t remember. 😐 I’m guessing around 40 hours total. Passed with an 81. Had a lot of business classes in college, and 2 cost accounting classes.

For all 3 above, I listened to audio a bit, but my car is too loud to hear it well…so I haven’t counted that in the above totals, probably was just about 3 hours per test. The times above are just “real” study time.

REG is the one that scares me, because my taxes classes was a joke (open-book, grade entirely based on final exam, and almost exclusively over individual taxation), and my business law class wasn’t any better (evening class, 3 credits, met for 10-15 minutes a week…2 exams, each took about 15 minutes…). So I expect my study time to go up drastically when I study for REG!

[futureCPA12]

FAR: I spent about 6 weeks studying and 250 hours. Worked over 1,500 MC questions at least twice. Went over Sims twice. 6 progress tests (30 question testlets at 45 minutes) a day for the two weeks leading up to the exam.

REG: Started studying 3 weeks ago and so far I've put in probably 140 hours. I've worked over 1,000 MC questions at least twice. Went over Sims once. Just starting today with my progress tests (24 question testlets at 24 minutes). I'm going to try and do 7-10 of those per day while writing out the ones I get wrong onto note cards so I engrave it into my brain. Got 2 1/2 more weeks remaining of study time!

AUD - 92
BEC - 81
FAR - 76
REG - 89

Never give up!

[barelystayingsane]

@MrsBing I know listening to Mozart while pregnant supposedly makes your baby smarter, but what about listening to Jeff's NINJA audio?

[MrsBing]

@barely, Unfortuately I've only listed to classical music once during the pregnancy, but the baby has probably heard Jeff's voice more than my husbands 🙂 This baby should be an expect in accounting.

Becker, Wiley Test Bank, and Ninja 10 Point Combo!

FAR: 89
REG: 87
AUD: 92
BEC: 75
Ethics: 90

Licensed Arizona CPA

[MintsRGood]

REG: Just over 4 weeks, 80-90 hours. FYI, I work in public accounting as a senior tax accountant and love tax! I prepare complex corps, partnerships, estates/trusts, and high level 1040s as well as work paper review from the staff accountants. That being said, I realize that I am not an attorney and BLaw almost put me in an early REG grave. The SIMS saved my score without question! Do not skimp on Blaw!!!!!!!!!

BEC: Around 4 weeks, 100 hours. I sat for my successful audit attempt on 4/16 and thought “why waste a window?” and so I sat for BEC on 5/31. It was desperate, crazy, and frenzied but it worked. The holiday weekend saved my behind!

FAR: I'm sitting for FAR on 8/27 and have been studying since mid-June. I've been putting in my usual 20 hours per week, with the exception of a 10 day vacation I took over the 4th of July (which I still put in 2 hours per day in vacation mode…not too shabby!) So that will put me at 8-9 weeks approx. and I will hit somewhere between 180-200 hours for FAR. I hope that is enough!!!!! 🙂

I don't even want to think about how many hours in the past year or so of my life I have spent studying for auditing…it makes me a little depressed actually. Here we go…..

On auditing attempts 1-2 I was grossly unprepared…let's say 40 hours between the two. No shocker that I didn't pass on those attempts and I deserved the failing scores I received! No excuses!!! My 3rd attempt I put in around 160 hours (8 weeks @ 20 hours/week) and failed. Hint: don't memorize a bunch of lame mnemonics and inadvertently memorize the Wiley test bank…for some of us there is an overkill point where you stop learning and are only memorizing. Not good. For my 4th and successful attempt, I put approx. 60 hours over 4 weeks during the height of tax season and finally passed.

So all day about 260 hours, and that's on the conservative side….ugh. I think I need a glass of wine now. 🙁

REG: 75 DONE 🙂
AUD: 61, 71, 68, 92 DONE 🙂
BEC: 76 DONE 🙂
FAR: 72, 74, 79 DONE 🙂
Licensed Michigan CPA 🙂
-Some people dream of success...others wake up and work hard for it!!!
-The cowards never start and the weak die along the way!
-You better work, b***h!
-Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.-JFK

[Anonymous]

If you can't sit for BEC before baby arrives, maybe see if the baby can sit for you instead! lol.

[barelystayingsane]

Nobody puts baby in a corner (of Prometric).

[smp73]

I am not sure I want to sit down and calculate the number of hours I spent across my 3 REG attempts. That 74 hurt bad. I would say upwards of 300 hours for all three attempts for REG and that is way conservative. 🙁

The other three parts I was probably between 100-150 per part.

Gah. So much of my life dedicated to this exam!

NYS CPA License # 113563
CIA: Done as of 2/15/14

Training for a half marathon post studying!

[jaredo155]

Used Yaeger w/Wiley and Ninja 10-point combo

AUD – 8 weeks – 140 to 160 hours ( includes review, videos, and MCQ's )

BEC – 8 weeks – 140 to 160 hours ( same )

FAR – 12 weeks – 240 to 260 hours ( same )

REG – planning 12 weeks – 240 to 260 hours

I know that is more time than some, but I have a wife and baby girl at home and am determined to only take each of these one time and be done with this process, so I wanted to make sure I wasn't cutting any corners.

AUD - 2/2013 - Passed!
BEC - 5/2013 - Passed!
FAR - 8/2013 - Passed!
REG - 11/2013 - Passed!
"Do or do not, there is no try." - Yoda

[Anonymous]

2 weeks for each exam during school so about 20 hours each week. Apprx 40 hrs per exam. Although had I known about the $20k for the EWS award, I probably would have tried harder.

[Letsdothis]

I'm def jelly of whoever is studying for 40 hrs per exam and passing ….I'll be more than happy if I pass with a 75 on my recent tested Reg exam in which I dedicated a good 150+ hrs within 6 weeks

We all have the ability to be whomever we want to be in this life. It's just a matter of DETERMINATION, PERSISTENCE, PATIENCE and the WILL to follow through. Never give up!

[samdiegoCPA]

Wow, jealous of you guys who spend only 50-80 hours studying. I feel I spend like 500 hours studying and I'm not joking! I used to study 8-10 hours a day when I didn't work for weeks and weeks. That would only be like 1 week of studying with 50 hours!

AUD: 84
REG: 84
BEC: 79
FAR: 83

[Anonymous]

@Awesome/@SamDiego – Comes down to a different skill set. Doesn't always have anything to do with intelligence. Me, for instance, Accounting is just something I soaked in easily. College was easy for me, the Master's program was easy, and the CPA was easy. But I will tell you that I struggle mightily in my soft skills. I was rated a “1” this past year (our firm's best rating), but I was given a lengthy lecture about how I need to work on my communication skills. I've always been great with the client, but sometimes my inter-team communication skills are lacking. I've been yelled at for coming across too abrupt/insensitive too many times. So, it's all about trade-offs…yes, the technical aspects come to me easily, but the stuff everyone else probably thinks is easy is a struggle for me. So be happy if you can pass this exam and have a normal set of social skills.

[novatrek86]

I would wager the top end of my studying time for FAR, BEC, and REG topped out very close to 100 hours. AUDIT was my first exam and I think I may have went about 120+ for that. Just did a quick check of the problems ive done on becker pass master and it appears as though I probably did somewhere between 300-500 questions.

[Author]

Replies