[Adam]

Overall: C (Average)

Comprehensively, the Becker CPA Exam review program is good and the materials obviously work, because I passed the entire test on the first try (4 parts, 4 attempts). However, if I had needed to re-take a section or more, I would have graded the entire course an “D” or maybe an “F” based on the breakdown below. Becker is the “gold” standard in CPA review courses, and pretty much takes gold bars to obtain. Being the most expensive doesn’t mean it is the best. Read on.

Price: D

The cost for Becker is prohibitive for most people. There are other review courses out there that are much less expensive and probably just as good in quality (I say probably only because I did not experience those to be sure). I would highly recommend the Ninja review materials or the new Ninja Plus comprehensive review program.

The only reason I didn’t grade the price as a “FAIL” was because I was fortunate enough to have my employer reimburse the cost for me. If I had to pay for this out of pocket, it would have been an “F.”

Lectures: F

The Becker lectures were completely worthless to me. They are simply an instructor sitting and reading the book to you and telling you to highlight literally everything. First, my time is better spent actually reading the book for myself. The lectures provided no analysis or additional lecturing beyond the sentences in the book. Second, highlighting has been proven not to be an effective study method. You are better served by reading the book and writing your own notes.

The lectures are quite boring, but I guess in the end it depends on your learning style. However, if you do learn well by watching lectures, I would recommend the Roger CPA review course.

Textbook: A

The actual textbook and study material Becker offers is very good. The textbook is very comprehensive and contains good material based on the actual tested material. They offer hard copy books and online e-books for each section that further underline key points. However, as mentioned above, depending on your learning style, it may be best to write out notes for yourself and not get lazy depending on the underlining in the e-books.

Software/Design: A

The Becker software and design of the questions are a good indication of the layout of the exam, and this is very good. It gives experience for the basics of the exam interface prior to exam day so there are minimal surprises.

One caveat: don’t let this be the factor in paying full price for the Becker program. For the price, there are other review courses that I am sure have the same design and layout to their programs.

Question/Practice Banks: A

The Becker multiple choice question banks and simulations practice questions get a grade of “A.” There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 7,000 questions to practice and the explanations on why the answers are right or wrong are mostly very good.

Miscellaneous: B

Updated Materials: A. They do well to keep the material updated based on the changing areas of the exam (or updates to yearly tax thresholds, for example).

Big 4 Endorsement: Don’t be fooled by this claim. While it is true, it is most likely some corporate deal or kick back that was worked out between the Big 4 and DeVry (Becker parent company), as routinely happens in the business world. Nothing inherently wrong with the endorsement, just don’t fool yourself into seeing stars.

Course Access: C. The Becker online access lasts for 18 months before you have to re-purchase the program (full or discounted price, I am not sure). This window will hopefully be enough to pass the entire exam. However, there are some courses or programs that give access “until you pass.” Do some research to find these and work backwards with what they offer vs. what they don’t.

Live Classes: F. They do offer live classes (which I did not attend – I did the self-study program), but from what I can gather, these are way overrated and involve an “instructor” playing a DVD and/or reading the book to you and having you highlight the book. See my notes above on lectures.

Flashcards: C. Take it or leave it depending on your learning style. I ended up not using them much, if at all. They do add $99 (digital) or $179 (paper) to the program cost. My recommendation is, again, to make your own based on the notes you take from the books.

Mobile Access: A. If you want to read or review “on the go,” they did have a good app that worked on both my Android phone and iPad. Not really good for the calculation questions, but what app/mobile device is?

Final Recommendation: While OK, there are most likely better alternatives

Final thoughts: I judged the entire Becker course as “average.” The program obviously worked for me as I passed the exam and my employer paid for it, but if you have to invest the entire cost yourself, I am sure there are just as good programs out there for much less. Also note, there is no program or review course that will pass this test for you. A large part of why I passed on my first try is that I wanted it and I invested the time and the effort to get it done.

Basically, with my learning style, I ended up buying the textbook, multiple choice questions, and the test prep software design to study on my own time at my PC for over $4,000 (I also purchased the “final review” product, which is a summary textbook with more review questions – and that was good for me). As I mentioned, the lectures are worthless and the flashcards did not work for my style.

So, if I had to do it over again, I would have done more research and found a less expensive program for what I needed with my learning style. Or, since my employer was kind enough to cover all the costs, I may have done Becker again, but that is the only reason.

Do your research and find a course that will maximize how you learn best.

[aaronmo]

I think I spent $3500ish for Becker? I got the course with live classes, no extra questions. Overpriced vs. what? I'm not in the position to compare it in terms of value or quality to any other courses, but it did get me through without any retakes. I certainly have my issues with some Becker chapters and hiccups, but from what I've read here, they all suffer similar problems in similar areas. Namely the MCQ all have some questions that don't track, they all have areas we think could be better explained for us and all have some organization deficiencies.

I think, on balance, that the last chapter format Becker uses…that acts as a catch all…is really unfair to students and lazy. That would be my biggest complaint. Many pieces of that last chapter would easily have fit better in other areas and with other subjects instead of getting caught in the drain.

Frankly, I see a lot of people whining about the costs involved with this process; whether the exam prep fees, exam fees…etc. Admittedly my perspective might be skewed because I'm coming at it from a perspective of law school…but these costs have been LOW given the value of the cert. $3500 for around 30 classes of 4 hours, with books? That's a bargain compared to most colleges. I don't think $3500 makes it un-affordable to most people…it just may require sacrifice of LUXURIES that people take for granted. Don't they also have financing options? I am by no means rich, and I had little issue saving/paying for it with a modicum of sacrifice. Compared to most education expenses…it's frankly a throw away.

Whether it's overpriced compared to other services, I don't know…but $3500 for around 30 live classes, software with tech. support, a fairly liberal warranty and 4 texts doesn't seem unreasonable to me based on life experience.

The flash cards were, for me, a total waste of money.

[aaronmo]

My Becker grades would probably be…

Overall…A. I passed, what else matters?

Software…B. There were some things about the ap that annoyed me, I had a few cases where things froze and I lost work/progress and they did have service shut down at times.

Texts…B. Generally I felt things were pretty well designed…but I thought there were too many things they TAUGHT in the MCQ without backup in the text…and some text topics were a bit vague and they then drilled it down with MCQ. I also found too many areas that lecture skipped as unimportant…well, if it's that unimportant, summarize more.

Live classes…B. They were highly variable…one instructor was pretty blahhh, the rest were damned good. The blahhh one taught most of my classes though.

General structure…C. Some sections…especially REG and BEC…could definitely benefit from restructuring. I didn't like the last chapter dish drain approach.

Preparation…A. I did the work, I passed the tests. Most of what I got on exams was well covered.

Organization and customer support…B-. I got texts late, had shipping issues, received the wrong text, but found the Becker phone support to be pretty good. I Felt they could have done a better job with WHAT TO EXPECT orientation, though the in class instructors did a lot of that.

Flash Cards – F-. Useless.

[Author]

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