[thedavep]

My question is this, should I read through the college accounting textbooks, before I go through becker.

I do not have a degree in accounting or experience in accounting. Most background in terms of both degree and job is in marketing. I scrapped together the requirements with some 2.0, passing courses with online accounting courses couple years ago with the help of my husband often..oops… do not know how i passed… as i was working in multinational marketing, travelling with kids, just carried along somehow to qualify for the exam.

Due to career shifting plans and stability and growing respect for accounting, Now I am thinking of taking the exam…

My strategy. I am properly reading intermediate accounting textbook and the advanced accounting textbook before i study becker for the far. and then with auditing read the auditing textbook then do the becker stuff… then read tax textbooks before becker, and then take regulation.. and finally just do becker for bec, as I have some idea of the content in this section.

So is this the right approach. Also I heard that becker simulations were not as strong as required and to use wiley simulations as an extra prep tool.

I was going to give one month to reading the textbooks and dummies version of the content, and sometimes doing problems, but focusing on understanding the technical side if accounting and then two months for becker and wiley prep stuff where I will practice all the problems. Average of 5 hours a day of studying at least.

Is final review of becker worth purchasing?

Is this enough?

Please advice on these questions and am i on the right track. I do not know where to start. I want to finish all the 4 sections in 2013.

I have a very rudimentary knowledge of accounting and I need your guidance folks. PLEASE respond appropriately. Thank you

[kv_]

What state do you live in?

Do you have enough credits to be eligible to sit for the CPA exam?

You generally need to have that accounting degree and bare minimum 150 credit hours of higher education, with some of those in accounting classes. Different states have different levels of flexibility though:

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[thedavep]

Please read my question properly. I have already stated I qualified to take the exam. I will repeat my questions. Please do not be confused.

1) Is becker final review worth it

2) Is collegetextbooks, then becker and the wiley testbank enough

3) is reading textbooks the relevent ones for each section and then the becker review material and wiley the ideal way to go for someone with weak accounting background.

4) Is 1 month for textbook stuff and then 2 months for each section enough time.

5) is the time sequence i stated enough

Please read my first post and answer. Thank you

[jeff]

First rule of Exam Club: Don't ask for advice … and then advise people on how they should answer.

🙂

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) | Another71 | NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE

[Anonymous]

If you work really hard and try to stick to the schedule you are planning then yes, it is doable. But keep in mind that things happen and you may not pass it all in one year with a weak accounting background. I have a strong background in private accounting but no experience in public accounting. I had a 4.0 in my accounting courses and started taking the exams as soon as I finished my accounting degree. (I have a BS in marketing with a minor in management and went back to get my accounting degree) and I am still trying to pass the exams after two years. There are others on here who have passed these exams in less than a years time.

If you haven't purchased Becker yet you my want to consider Yaeger CPA review because they are a full teaching course and they teach you the concepts, how to work all the problems, etc.

Regarding the final review, I think they can be worth the money but you will get differing opinions.

One other piece of advice, just to add to what Jeff said, this forum will be here to help when you need it but if you come across with attitude in how you want your questions answered you will likely not get any answers.

[Anonymous]

lol, Jeff.

OP as far as your story goes, well, read my name.

Also, you need to know your financial accounting before starting Becker. I highly doubt you can pick it up just by reading the college books. Go take the basic courses at a community college or something.

Or just switch gears and go for a CHRP.

[Mjs157]

1) Becker review, alone, will not be enough for someone with next to zero accounting background. I see a lot of questions from candidates who do not understand the Becker solutions, and sometimes I don't agree with the presentation of the solutions as well.

2) I recommend buying a Kieso edition of financial accounting. You can save some money buy buying a slightly older edition. Becker + Text + Wiley is a very good base.

3) I suggest actually TAKING the accounting courses your S/O took for you. Simply reading the material without the answer solutions would be feeble.

4) Not for you, you're at least a year away from even attempting your first section – which is another problem for your CPA candidacy requirements.

5) G-d no.

I have a question for you:

1 – Is English your first language? Your spelling and grammar needs work. I suggest reaching out to someone who has gone through this process as an ESL candidate.

2- Have you had your transcripts reviewed and approved by the state accounting board?

[nataliamw]

Here are my answers to your questions:

1. I do not know. I purchased old Becker books on Ebay for $50 for the whole set. I would never pay the hefty price for anything new from Becker because there are other, much cheaper publishers that offer the same content and I just don't see how Becker is any better. I study from those old Becker books and newly issued Wiley together and found them to supplement each other nicely. Wiley is $30 a section book. For some sections Wiley has too much content (REG), while for some it's pretty good (AUD and BEC). Wiley has a ton of exam-like questions at the end of every chapter so I use it as my mcq study bank, and Becker has good review style content like mnemonics and passkeys.

2 and 3 – difficult questions, because I know there are people taking the exam straight out of college, who never worked a day in accounting. I myself cannot imagine such a situation. I have been in private and public accounting for ten years now and I just don't understand how someone with no experience can even begin to study in an efficient and effective way. I cannot imagine studying this type of material as a pure theory, like studying for REG without ever having prepared a tax return. Or worse, AUD without any audit experience. It must take hours upon hours to get sufficiently prepared for the exam when one has no background in a given area. Some areas rely heavily on understanding the concepts in practical terms, as opposed to simple memorization.

4 and 5. In my opinion, that's enough time, but five hours a day will kill you in week two of your whole year plan. I have a one year old, am pregnant with my second child, work full time and still found enough time to pass 3 sections in one year. But I don't study more than 1.5h in each sitting. More would be a waste of time, given my attention span, energy levels and such. I can see doing 1.5 h in the morning and 1.5 in the evening tops.

I am very curious as to why on earth you'd like to sit for the CPA exam, given your slim accounting experience. You can't possibly know you will like and enjoy working in this industry, while the exam is a very costly and a very demanding task to accomplish. It also sounds like you may not even be that good at it, and my firm has promptly fired anyone who had the license but could not prove themselves in practice. On the contrary, they retained and promoted people who could never pass the whole thing, but who are so good in the field that they are now supervisors and managers.

I do have friends who have spent 30K on becoming an ultrasound tech, a lie detector operator, a certified Microsoft this or that because they thought there would be a demand for those skills and just had no better plans, and now they are paying off those huge loans working low paying, no skills required jobs, but the CPA exam is nowhere near that cost, so I guess I can see how you could at least give it a try. You sound like a person that can accomplish anything you set your mind to, so just think about it a little more in light of other alternatives that may in the end suit you better.

[thedavep]

Thank you for your responses. Forgive me for the initial postings. I am new to this forum.

To follow up your responses and a few clarifications.

I did my undergraduate degree in marketing and nuclear engineering from Berkley and my MBA from MIT with a focus in marketing. My working life has been launching cola beverage products in Sub-Saharan and Western Africa and then launching cosmetic consumer products in in South America mostly in bolivia, peru, chile, brazil,suriname etc .After selling things to people who do not need stuff in countries where people cannot afford I became disillusioned with this line of work –when your in the middle of mali and people cannot get water and your selling them cola, something made me uneasy after a while..anyway.. i did have exposure to the accounting teams I worked with and also with many foundations doing charitable work and many non profits. My exposure to both these worlds and people's has inclined me towards working towards a long term goal of a c-suite position at a large foundation in an accounting position.

So to follow up.

1) I qualified and am registered to take the exam in hawaii… based on some accounting courses i took as a undergrad,combined with some with my mba accounting courses, and then I took some online accounting courses, which i kind of half hazardly did over a period of years, as I was slowly thinking of when I come back to america to take the cpa sometime. so now I do not feel i have the strong foundation traditional accounting majors have. All those nights of reading textbooks, doing excel sheets, hw problems of intermediate accounting etc I did not do that. So I know the basics, but i plan to read intermediate and advanced textbooks with solutions.. not doing many problems. Just getting the understanding. Then tackle the problems in becker and wiley… as they have videos, questions, sims, etc etc with solutions.

2) My understanding is that the cpa is not an aptitude test, it is more of if you put in enough time and work hard, u will pass it eventually.. it is not hard math, statistics but just rules which you once understand, you just got to keep practicing and i know people who were 50 year old semi retired bookkeepers who were clerks, but very hard working, that they eventually passed this exam with enough persistence.. it is not like studying the applications of uranium in space.. where u get it or not.. is this the right outlook?

3) sorry for the typing errors..lot of jetlag tonight..

4) i am pregnant with triplets. so i have alot of time just sitting.. right now..for the next 8 months at least..

any more feedback is welcome.. thanks alot.

[momto5]

I am not so sure I would take a lot of time reading textbooks. I mean, ideally your goal would be to finish this before those triplets show up, which doesn't give you a lot of time really. It is true that many people with much accounting experience have trouble passing these exams the first time through. On the other hand, my only accounting experience is in Accounts Receivable and some Accounts Payable and Sales Tax. Not too much that relates to REAL experience. I did just graduate in December of 2011 (went back to school after my kids were grown) but my last year of classes had mostly those basic social courses one needs to fulfill, so I haven't had an accounting class in awhile either. Although I did do well in the ones I had, so most of the info I come across I have at least seen before. So far I have passed each exam the first time I took it, mostly because I spent a lot of time and effort (used Becker) and because I generally am a good test studier and taker.

That being said, while it seems like a huge challenge to get through these exams in the time period you need, you sound like a very smart person who is motivated to get this done. I would not discourage you from trying, and would suggest that you just start going through the lectures and reference an accounting book when you need more help. I do hear that there are other programs that have more of a “teaching” aspect to them than Becker does so if you didn't already purchase Becker, you may want to check out others.

Keep in mind that once you pass your first exam, you only have 18 months to pass the rest. I can't imagine trying to study much AFTER those triplets arrive, at least for awhile. Are you good at taking exams? Memorizing volumes of information? While there is no hard math, per se, there are challenging concepts and calculations that give all of us grief. And I would assume the biggest challenge for you will be to make sense of all those concepts in order to use the information in the simulations without that accounting background. All you can do is jump in and try and see how it goes. Good luck and keep us all posted!

FAR - 92 (4/27/12)
AUD - 96 (7/17/12)
BEC - 92 (8/30/12)
REG - 91 (11/12/12)

[Future-CPA]

Hello, I am also a Non-Accounting Major with no formal Accounting experience but I wouldn’t say we are in the same boat since my degree was in Finance and I have been working in Finance with some minor accounting jobs when I first graduated. Though my degree is closely related to Accounting, I am coming into this as if I had no knowledge of accounting concepts and that is how I intend to study. I am familiar with some of the concepts and Accounting jargon but I am going to start my studying from the basics. I am going to approach this like I never heard of accounting before, and I think that your background and experiences show that you are able to learn new concepts. My plan is to take the Yaeger Prep course, since from the reviews and their sample videos that I have seen online, their approach is like a classroom approach and they teach you concepts as opposed to memorization. Of course someone with an Accounting background/experience will spend less time to understand some of the concepts but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible for you. It’s all about how much time and dedication you are willing to put towards it. And also about how much you want it. Best of luck!

[Minimorty]

I got a lot of LOLz out of this thread.

[thedavep]

Thanks alot! you people are awesome.

1) Yaegar is worth looking into, alot of people all over this forum say yaegar is in depth, i bought becker self study.. i will try that first.. then maybe look int yaegar, there is no harm in doing multiple review courses right?

2) Is the the calculator in the exam easy to use?

3) for official exam samples, we have to go the aicpa website?

4) Is there alot of journal entry stuff on the exam, or is it more big picture?

5) I am in addition to some textbook reading, using some dummies and schaums guides with problems, to fresh up the material, is that app?

6) I have heard, FAR is like 40% of the cpa exam, you get through far, then aud, reg and bec are much easier ?

7) I remember in some of the accounting courses taken years ago, there were alot of spreadsheet manipulations in advanced accounting but you would get partial credit even if you got some parts right and some wrong, is there psrtial credit on the simulations portion of the exams?

8) how many practice exams should one give before the actual exam section your doing.. 2,5, 10 ?

9) where do you find more practice exams beyond wiley, becker and the official website..

10) Where to find the most important formulaes to memorize for the cpa exam.. is there a list somewhere?

11) is the flashcards worth it from becker?

Thanks again,

[jeff]

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Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) | Another71 | NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE

[Anonymous]

@OP

1) Becker Self Study is enough even if you have ZERO accounting knowledge. Wiley supplement doesn't hurt for extra practice (Jeff can hook you up) but more than that honestly is money down the drain.

2) No it sucks ass and I hated it. Very basic functions.

3) Don't waste your time. Becker has plenty of examples and simulates the exam experience pretty good.

4) It's more big picture but you WILL get journal entry sims so you must know them.

5) Like I said all that is overkill and will start to be counter productive. Pick 1-2 materials and stick with them.

6) I personally agree with that statement. FAR sucks, I didn't think the others were as bad.

7) Yes, you get partial credit on SIMS.

8) That's a subjective question. As many as YOU think you need. Practice exams to me are good for practicing your time management. Just hammer the MCQs in general and you'll be fine.

9) Again, you don't need more than that. Focus on quality studying not quantity.

10) There is no official list. Every CPA course will point out what you need to know and what would not hurt knowing.

11) I didn't like the flashcards, my co-worker SWORE by them. Depends on the type of learner you are.

[thedavep]

Thank you to those who answered my questions.

Cheers.

[Author]

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