[Study22]

I will be starting a masters of accounting in the coming months. So I have about 18 months before I start taking the tests. I have 2015 gleim books and I was wondering if I can use them to help me study for the 2017 exams. I basically want to take a marathon approach and first familarize myself with the cpa material. Are the 2015 gleim books still useful?

[TommyTheCat]

cant speak to gleim as I am not using that review provider. I am using Roger and I am using the 2016 books for the 2017 exams for AUD and FAR and do not see a whole lot of differences from the two years. BEC might be tough to rely on 2015 for the 2017 exam since there are TBS and DRS but I dont think the MCQ and general concepts have changed much otherwise.

[Study22]

Thanks for the reply. I think taking a marathon approach would be best in approaching these tests. I just want to study a little bit each day consistently during the 18 months without stressing too much on pass or fail. Most of my study time will be devoted to the masters of accounting and work. Im still not sure if these books would help me give me a good background to the 2017 cpa tests.

[Missy]

I just want to add that the marathon approach isn't very conducive to these tests, they are truly a function of short term memory (ie cramming as much into 6-10 weeks) and its rare to remember much studied before 3 months earlier. This isn't like typical college type learning that is cumulative which is why after 6-10 weeks of studying if a candidate fails you can't just do another 2-3 weeks to pass, it is very much starting from scratch every single time. The CPA material is a mile wide and an inch deep so any more than 3 mos studying for each section is pretty much futile.

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[Anonymous]

I agree that marathon approach and taking your time will not work. I would also suggest getting most up to date review materials. 2015 books seem way to outdated in my opinion.I am also not sure that casually studying for these while getting your master's is even worth it. Once you start really studying for the CPA exam, just go for it-the process is so painful, you don't want to stretch it out…

[Study22]

Thanks for the reply. I thought by getting a firm foundation of the material would help me prepare for passing the tests during one 18 month window. I dont have much background so I thought i would try to understand the concepts and cram during the testing window. But I understand what everyone is saying now.

[Author]

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