[Anonymous]

What hours are people putting in daily/weekly with Becker? I’m still in the deciding stage of going through with the review and aiming for the CPA. The catch is I don’t want to kill myself trying to do it. I’m willing to study 2-3 nights during the week, and then 5-8 hours on the weekend. I’m just not sure if I’m mentally prepared, or even want to be, to study every night after work like some people are saying they do. What kind of hours are working people putting in? How many months is it taking to complete all 4 reviews and passing the tests? I would just like to hear some different strategies and paces that people are using. I understand you have to pass all exams within a certatin time frame. So I know time isn’t completely on my side.

[readyforlife]

I personally studied on your suggested schedule, but never really received the results I wanted. It wasn't until I decided to drive to the library each night (with Friday being the only exception) that I started passing the exam. 6-8 weeks per section was typical for me for that schedule. It took a lot of wasted time and energy to realize that I had to put life on hold to knock this thing out for good!

AUD - 51, 80
REG - 84
FAR - 15, 29, 55, 80
BEC - 65, 72, 69, 76 (expired), 83

[Anonymous]

So you would study 2-3 hours each night after work Mon – Thurs, then take Friday eveing off. How much studying do you do on Saturday and Sunday? After completing 1 exam (8 weeks of studying), do you take a couple of weeks off before starting again? It sounds like for the first exam I can take as much time as I want to review, but once I pass that then I need to make sure I have a good plan going to finish the rest in 18 months. Though I don't imagine I would want to take that long to complete the whole thing. If it takes 6-8 weeks per section, then that's a helpful timeframe for the big picture.

[readyforlife]

Correct. 2-3 hours Mon – Thurs after work and 4-5 hours each day on the weekends. I never studied in the mornings or at lunch like some of the all stars on this site 🙂

You can take a week or two off in between, but in my past experience, that made getting back into the groove even harder.

AUD - 51, 80
REG - 84
FAR - 15, 29, 55, 80
BEC - 65, 72, 69, 76 (expired), 83

[Onmyway82]

I would study 4 hours every night during the week, and then 8 hours on Sat. and Sun. Once I started allotting a week per chapter that's when I started to pass. So for example with BEC there were 5 chapters I believe so I would take like 6 weeks to study, one week per chapter and one week to review. FAR of course took a long time since it is so many chapters and I took 2 weeks to study that one. But I was able to pass them all with about 4 months to go before my 18 month cut off.

It is definitely a committment and I had to say no to a lot of things my friends and family were doing. But now that I am done, it was TOTALLY worth it.

FAR- 70, 68, 90
AUD- 72, 85
REG- 74, 83
BEC- 81
ETHICS- 90

CA CPA
CMA

[Surf CPA]

I studied 2 hours a night after work and 4 – 5 hours on Saturday and an hour or 2 on Sundays. I tried to leave Sunday as an off day to keep my sanity. I would study for a month for each section and then take the test right away. I gave myself a break in between sections as long as I had a month to study before each test I took. Some people need longer or shorter study times for each section but this worked for me.

Don't try and take a test during busy season. You will wear yourself out and not retain any information. Take each section one at a time and pass one before moving on to another. Once you pass one you will have the momentum and drive to pass the next. You will also have figured out a study pattern that works best for you.

Aud - 83
Far - 84
Bec - 83
Reg - 79

[Author]

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