[Topo30]

Hello all:

I have not posted anything in about three months or so. That being said, I reached out to a director of a public university which has a *highly* respected undergraduate (accounting program) and CPA review course to discuss how they could be of some help.

He was gracious enough to assess my feedback form from the IL BOE, and he stated the following: My scores indicate that there are gaps in the fundamental learning. He highly recommended I retake intermediate accounting courses at a reputable institution, so that I may solidify my foundation. He did not endorse his institution, just fyi.

I am grateful for his assessment, but I do not have the desire to go back to the basics. After all, I have read numerous posts on this forum of individuals who have been out of higher ed for 5, 10, 15 years, choose a review course and pass the exams! I do give it my all! I study, do MCQs, SIMS. Rinse and repeat. Further, I do not feel that I am incompetent individual; otherwise, I would not have been promoted to Sr. Staff Accountant.

Kindly give your thought and comments.

Much appreciated.

AUD-FAILED X5
FAR-FAILED X1
BEC-FAILED
REG-FAILED

[juuustin]

I banged out an online degree in Accounting in about a year and a half and most of the classes were essentially self-study. I understood the basic concepts, but I was by no means an accounting whiz. After 7 weeks of Becker and NINJA, I can honestly say I understand financial accounting better than after the six or seven courses I took for the degree. The knowledge was just presented in a more practical manner, in my opinion.

MD Candidate: 10/1/14

FAR - 87 (11/23/14)
REG - 87 (1/30/15)
BEC - 89 (4/19/15)
AUD - 98 (5/30/15)

Ethics - 100

Experience - In Progress!

[y_u_no_pass]

I don't know if this was mentioned, but what did you expect? This is a man who works in academia. Of course his solution would be for you to take more courses. If you asked a CPA course for assistance, they would tell you to watch more lectures, or buy supplemental info. Maybe you are missing out on some of the basics, but it is more than possible to learn them without going back to school, also more efficient both monetarily and time-wise. Maybe just buy an intermediate accounting book and reference it for areas where your review course does not seem to be clicking for you.

Florida CPA!
Took final exam 2/25/15.
Sent in Application 3/12/15.
Issued License 3/20/15.
Used CPA Excel solely for all exams.

[Anonymous]

I am in my 30s and am just not finishing up a MAcc program. I went back to school after 10 years with a different undergraduate degree. I have passed 2 out of 3 exams taken. I can honestly say I could not have done this without school.

I also use Becker. To me a review course is just that, a review. There are a ton of gaps in the material that would make it hard for me to comprehend without a foundation. I passed FAR and REG because of what I learned in school, not because of Becker. Most of the stuff I studied in Becker has yet to actually appear on an exam. I believe I failed AUD because I only took one Audit class in school, while I had 4 financial reporting courses (FAR), 3 tax classes and 1 business law (REG).

I only post because I definitely don't believe that it is a “waste of time” as has been posted above. For me school was the best option. Like I said, there is no way I could have passed the two I have without school.

These comments are only MY OPINION.

[spinfuzer]

Ultimately, your access on the exams relies on your ability to understand the concepts and be able to apply them to things you may have never seen before or to things that you do not completely remember how to do. Memorizing procedures can only get you so far. With strong fundamentals, you should be able to figure out most, if not all, of the questions thrown at you on the CPA Exams or Review Course Questions.

When I'm talking about strong fundamentals, I mean basic accounting concepts, finance concepts (Time Value Money), and algebra. When you are studying you need to be answer these very important questions: What am I doing? Why am I doing it this way? How is this different from (or similar to) this other concept? How would the answer change if I changed this fact about the question?

Having said all that, everyone learns differently. You have to ask yourself if you can learn fundamentals on your own or not. Do you need someone else to structure your learning for you or can you set up your own schedule and stick to it?

FAR - 08/08/14 - 93
BEC - 08/28/14 - 95
REG - 10/11/14 - 96
AUD - 11/30/14 - 99

[Author]

Replies