[Anonymous]

Hi guys,

I am very new in this forum. I am going to begin my CPA exam journey by sending application of Intent next week. I have some questions for experienced and expert in this forum.( I am an MBA, graduated in 2007 (not so fresh), working full time as accountant/book keeper/admin in small company for 50 hrs a week.)

1. I goggled about the review books and got mixed reaction . which is the best books in terms of everything like clarity, presentation, price etc?

2. Do I have to buy all the 4 set of books once or i can buy one at a time? and what edition should I look for caz its half of the 2011 is over.

3. Which set do I have to attempt first?

Thank you in advance guys , thank you for your valuable time..

[Skippy1997]

Welcome cpa2012

1) Review programs are fairly subjective. You can search a bit on the forums and see which people prefer. I personally only have experience with Becker and I feel it is pretty good.

Some things to consider:

– Do you want to have a live class or self study?

– Do you have a strong basis in the material? Some methods are very intensive (almost like full text books) while others are more review-like.

– Price a factor or will you get it reimbursed through work?

2) Segwaying from price, all of the programs are able to be bought ala carte or in full. You typically get a discount if you buy more than one at a time and you get a certain amount of months to get any updates free or reduced in price.

3) This is also pretty subjective. Some people feel that FAR is the hardest and want to tackle that one first. Others feel differently, so again it goes on how much background you have and the time table in studying.

AUD - 05/27/11 - 81
FAR - 07/05/11 - 83
REG - 08/06/11 - 91
BEC - 08/29/11 - 87
Ethics - 95

[kb24]

@cpa2012

1. The answer to this depends on your knowledge base, learning style, and budget. Most of the courses do provide sample lessons that you should look at to see what you think will work best for you. No matter which one you choose, I'd recommend also using a test bank. Even when people disagree on the best review course, they usually agree on the need to do as many MCQ as possible. There've been a number of threads on this topic lately. You can read them to get more info on Wiley and Gleim.

2. You don't have to buy all 4 at once although you usually get a discount if you do. Most of them issue updates, but sometimes aren't really timely about this. I didn't use a lecture review course so I don't know how much the instructors addressed this.

3. Everybody has there own opinion, but I think it's best to do FAR first and BEC last. To me, FAR covers the theory underlying the other exams. This might not be an issue for someone straight out of school, but it had been over 5 years for me. Similarly,cohere is a lot of overlap between BEC and the other exams. I felt that the material made more sense when it I was reviewing for those exams.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

FAR 4/1/11 - 89
AUD 4/15/11 - 85
REG 4/29/11 - 80
BEC 5/13/11 - 85

[Author]

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