[1skibum]

Hi everyone! I began my CPA journey about 14 months ago and as of right now I’ve passed BEC and am waiting on my AUD score. Last night I found out that I failed REG for the 3rd time with a score of 73…I received a 72 and 74 in my prior times. I am now supposed to be studying for FAR and am wondering if Becker maybe isn’t for me. Would I be better off picking up a different class since my Becker license is about to expire? Or should I just pick up Ninja MCQ to complement my Becker materials? Thoughts? Opinions? Thanks!

[1skibum]

I think the difference between Becker is that they teach you via MCQ and give very little detail in the book. I think I like that.

[Jay]

@1skibum – depends… what do you think isn't going right for you? After answering that- figure out what other review courses offer.

My story: I got Becker for free because I got into the big 4 and they were nice enough to give me the review course for free. I tried it until it expired, in 8 CPA exam attempts with it I only passed REG with it (came close with FAR – 73) but no dice. For me, what I did poorly with on Becker was their long lessons so I switched to Wiley (also got that review course for free) and it worked better for me, in 3 CPA exam attempts with Wiley I scored: AUD: 73, BEC: 85, FAR: ?? (I'll get my score back September 19th)..

Is it the review course? Are you putting in enough effort? If you are putting in enough effort are you getting distracted easily or is it effective studying time?

[1skibum]

@Jay – I definitely am distracted with both Becker and Wiley. Becker seems to make more sense to me because i'm use to it. I did about 10 lessons on Wiley for FAR and I had a hard time connecting with what I was learning. I'd understand what was said in lecture, then do the T/F questions, other questions and then an assessment in study mode. I found myself wanting to do more questions to make sure I really knew the topic as the T/F were a complete joke and sometimes the assessment only had 2-3 questions, then when I'd get a question wrong the explanations sucked. Maybe I was using it wrong? My other gripe was I had multiple issues with their website being down so I couldn't watch lectures, take assessments, etc. I'm pretty sure I could reverse my return as I haven't dropped the books off at USPS yet. Any help would be appreciate!

[Jay]

@1skibum – I had the same issue with Wiley (site being down) or error messages and always got “switch browsers” from their support reps, it frustrated me big time. Thats why I've turned my attention towards Ninja material now. I really like how organized they are and I didn't like in Wiley the extreme lack of explanations for the answers which most of the time just repeated the answer (as if thats helpful…..)

Being distracted has a big, big effect on your studying- you don't learn the material as well AND it takes you longer to get through the material. What I did was what I call the “45-15 rule”. 45 minutes of studying, NO DISTRACTIONS no matter what, then 15 minutes of relaxing. I also bought (pretty expensive, but well worth it IMO) a pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones which are amazing (wearing them as I type this).

Also, worth noting… I never watch the lectures for the exams I've scored well on. I've also found that spending 50% of my time reviewing material and 50% studying new material was important. Once I started reviewing material while I was studying new material everyday I started getting significantly better scores (trust me, you don't want to see what my scores looked like before I started doing this). But that is to compensate for a weakness of mine-memory. It works for me. What works for you might be different. You have to identify your weakness first, then figure out a way to resolve that weakness.

[1skibum]

@Jay I'm going to try your tactics and see if they work for me with Becker. I do have Ninja bought for FAR too so I can use both of them for my last exam at least. After that point if I'm still struggling, I'll buy Wiley or whoever course I feel is best. Thanks!

[Jay]

@1skibum – happy to help! Good luck!!

[1skibum]

@Jay What headphones did you get? I currently have V-Moda M100s but they don't cancel sound the greatest. They've seen better days so I may pick up a new pair 🙂

[Jay]

Bose Quiet Comfort QC35

They're great. They dont block everything out but they sure do block out quite a bit, especially if you have something like “nature sounds” playlist on Spotify playing (thats what I sometimes do). Again, expensive, but I think they're worth it.

[JMG]

For those that used Becker and Ninja MCQs, how much time did you put in studying? I know the Becker FAR section is like 160 hours, and then to do Ninja on top of that would be a lot.

[1skibum]

@Jay Thanks man! I just picked up the Sony MDR-1000X. Time to focus and do this.

[Jay]

Those look nice! Good luck man, you got this!

[Author]

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