[Anonymous]

I am just starting out at the CPA exam process and wanted to say thank you to this forum. I am working through all of the exams, notes, textbooks and courses to see which may be best for my learning style and situation. I am coming from a non-accounting field, so I am a little behind recent graduates and my undergraduate was not in accounting and was in the mid 90’s. So far it seems the order that alot of people take is Far, Aud, Reg, Bec and that full courses may not be the best but to reasearch each section and find out what people are having the best luck with for that section and how those fit my learning style. Looking at the schedule, I think I can take my first test hopefully in July. Any advice or anyone who has been in a similar situation and what worked for them as far as basically learning alot of new information rather than refreshing it as the more recent accounting graduates are doing? Thanks in advance.

[ncuser]

it looks like I had to re-register but I would still value any input.

Started exam prep
July 2013 Far (had to reschedule)
August 2013 Aud
October 2013 Reg
November 2013 Bec
Jan-Feb 2014 Far

[RopinC]

Personally, I got overwhelmed by FAR. I tried to take it first and just though I can't do this. After some time I decided to there is no written rule on what is best for everyone. I ended up taking REG first because I was helping a CPA during tax time. So glad I did that. Yes I would be very happy to have FAR out of the way first, but it just wasn't working for me.

I can really see the benefit of buying different programs for the different sections, at the same time everyone has a different learning style. I had read a lot about the different programs but finally had to read what people were posting. Really looking at which comments I identified most with. We shall see if my strategy works. 🙂

Here we go......?

REG - April 06, 2013 PASSED
AUD
FAR
BEC

[wendywhite]

I graduated over 15 yrs ago with my Masters & spent 10 of the years since then being a stay home mom… have recently returned to accounting – so my experience is about 5 yrs in all.

I took my time and started with FAR because the clock doesn't start ticking until you pass the first exam. FAR covers so much material – the kind of material you have to calculate – cannot just be good at picking an answer for… so I spent 4 months almost preparing for FAR. I actually purchased a new intermediate accounting text book & worksheet book and worked the entire workbook problems & read the entire text. I found it very helpful.

The order of my exams was altered by learning that Auditing was changing in July '13. So I moved it up and took it 2nd instead.

I'm taking the exams in the order you stated: FAR, AUD, REG, BEC.

I thought the 3 hour exams would be easier than the 4 hour.. don't make that mistake. – they are all hard.

I used Yeager videos for FAR – they are more teaching than just review.

I used Becker & Wiley for all.

FAR 11/2012: 80
AUD 2/19/2013: 90
REG 5/14/2013: 76
BEC 11/2013: 85
Ethics: 100
Waiting on the packet....

[Anonymous]

I would avoid REG first mostly because I felt REG is the exam where you are more in a rush.. I would start with AUD or FAR

AUD is less material than FARE and questions use to be shorter so less time spend reading. However, for some reason, AUD had been the lowest passing rate on the last 2 trimesters

FARE in the other hand, its a lot of material and some people rather get it out of the way asap. Also knowing material from FARE helps you understand other materials.

[jaredo155]

There are a couple different views on the best order to take the exams in (easiest to hardest, hardest to easiest, hard easy hard easy, etc), but there are far more different opinions on which exams are the easiest or hardest. This will really depend on what professional experience you have (if any), as well as your learning style (i.e. do you do better with conceptual material or computational).

I graduated in 2006 with a bachelor's in Economics, and have pieced together the accounting hours I needed since then. I wanted a review material which would not only review but also teach me any areas that I didn't remember or understand fully. I am using Yaeger and the Ninja materials, and I would highly recommend Yaeger for someone who needs to have gaps filled in and not just a review. However I am not sure how much that is worth, since I have only studied for 2 sections so far.

I know a lot of people mix and match review courses depending on the section, and if price is not a consideration I can understand that, but if you buy all 4 sections up front you usually get a considerable discount. I would highly recommend looking through all the sample materials from each review course, but it sounds like you have already started doing that.

Good luck!

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

[ncuser]

Thanks for the input. A little nervous about starting the process. Good thing is I currently work from home, so I have alot of free time to manage. The bad thing is that is that my current job is pretty much 100% not related to accounting so I don't gain anything from the time I work.

Started exam prep
July 2013 Far (had to reschedule)
August 2013 Aud
October 2013 Reg
November 2013 Bec
Jan-Feb 2014 Far

[wendywhite]

“so I don't gain anything from the time I work”

I'm an accountant. What I do does not help me pass my CPA exam. At All. 🙂

FAR 11/2012: 80
AUD 2/19/2013: 90
REG 5/14/2013: 76
BEC 11/2013: 85
Ethics: 100
Waiting on the packet....

[Author]

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