[mcdonm12]

Hello,

I am currently working full time as an accountant and will be starting my MSA in July. I am currently studying for BEC which is scheduled 2/27/15. My goal is to have passed two parts of the exam by the time school starts. I am worried because the window is only 18 months after I pass the first exam and that I will need to juggle work, school and CPA all at once in order to pass the last two exams. Is this too much to handle? Should I postpone the my exams until after school?

[Anonymous]

I am currently doing this. I can't say I would necessarily recommend it but as long as you have a good support system it is definitely possible. I recently started studying for the exams and sat for FAR on 1/5, so I guess I'll find out in a few weeks how its working.

Use it to your advantage, I took an “Accounting Theory and Research” course last semester that walked through a lot of FAR concepts on a higher level (as well as a lot of advanced use of the codification) which I felt hopefully helped with my retention of FAR material for my exam. I studied for a bit through the semester and then crammed pretty hard over winter break for my exam. During this semester I was taking 9 hours (3 courses), got married and bought a house, so it took quite a bit of discipline but if I passed this exam it will definitely be a nice confidence boost for the rest.

This past semester I also took an advanced audit course and I am currently studying AUD, planning to sit on 2/27. I took the course hoping I would have a nice level of base knowledge before I began my studies for this section..

This semester (my last) I am taking a Business Law elective course as well as a Corporate Taxation course. I plan to squeeze BEC in before the end of the semester and then hammer through REG after the end of the semester with the tax and law concepts hopefully in my mind.

I'm hoping this strategy is working for me as I start at a B4 in September and would like to have all parts (or as many as possible) passed before then. So… plan your courses to your ultimate advantage, make sure you have a very solid support structure and dive in. Don't forget you will have winter/summer breaks for exam studying.

[mla1169]

Yup, throw 2 kids, a girl scout troop and a weekend p/t job in the mix and thats how I did it! Very stressful not going to lie, and it was a lot of very late nights and very early mornings but I worked 8-5 and took 2 classes for my masters while sitting for the exams.

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[ScarletKnightCPA]

Possible? Yes… I did it, but everything suffered a little bit. GPA dropped from 4.0 to 3.6, was tired at work and would have trouble staying late to finish stuff up and time that could have been dedicated toward the exam was lost.

Far: 76 (Wiley Test Bank)
Aud: 77 (Wiley Test Bank)
Reg: 61, 76 (Wiley book, Wiley Test Bank)
Bec: 86 (Wiley Test Bank)

MBA in progress

[TNCPA16]

Like others have said, it can be done, but it's tough. I wasn't able to pull it off when I was in grad school. I had passed Audit (for the first time) right before starting my grad program, and I was working full time. My plan was to keep going and get the rest done, but that didn't happen. I'm too much of a Type A person when it comes to school and work, so I just couldn't let either slack enough to keep going with the CPA. I did take the CISA exam during a semester when I only took one class, so I was able to at least get that out of the way…which even that was a challenge. I only got about halfway through the review material and barely passed. But even now, just working full time and trying to do the CPA exam is a challenge. Mad props to those of you who can pull it off!!

[mcdonm12]

Thanks for the responses.

@ARCPA2B How did you study all the material in 2 weeks for FAR? I understand you were taking similar courses that helped but the Wiley CPA review courses are 500 pages thick or more. Did you study slowly along as you went through the semester and cram a bunch at the end?

[Anonymous]

I probably under-exaggerated the “studied for a bit through the semester” part… I studied for like 2 months for FAR, but I crammed for the couple weeks of break I had between classes and my exam. I still went through all of the videos, took detailed notes, reviewed my notes and chapters independently, did progress tests and tracked averages throughout and worked all of the SIMS in Becker. During the final weeks I mainly reviewed sims and took as many progress tests as I possibly could. After each progress test I took the time to read through every question (right or wrong) and the explanations to each. I felt like I had a pretty good understanding of most concepts, I was very strong in Gov't and NFP as I had taken an advanced summer course on that topic and covered a majority of the other things in the Theory and Research course. I still learned A LOT of new stuff through my review but I had a pretty good level of base knowledge didn't struggle with many computations / formulas that kind of stuff. But… we will see.

[knicks92]

i work part time, have one semester left in my MS, and am studying for the CPA full time. What I did was generally, people consider REG and FAR to be the two harder sections and AUD and BEC to be the easier ones. So when the semester is in session, I study and take the easier sections and when i have breaks, i take the harder sections. Ex: I took BEC while taking 5 classes last semester and working 3 days a week. Since my last break, I am trying to finish REG before the second semester gets busy/serious. Hopefully, if i pass REG, i plan on studying for AUD the rest of the semester and than take FAR in the summer. It is very difficult and you have to learn to manage your time efficiently, especially if you have children or other important things going on in your life like a lot of people on this site. But it is possible. Just stay motivated and dont quit. I like to keep a countdown clock on my computer with a rough estimate on when i would like to be done with all 4 sections to remind myself that although it may seem like i have a lot of time left before this journey is done, it will all be over soon. Plus, everyone i talk to who can relate with me says doing what i am doing now is a lot better than working full time while studying full time. I would rather not have to think about accounting at all once i leave the office at the end of a day

Tough times don't last. Tough people do.

B: 88
A: 77
R: 89
F:

[Author]

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