After nearly 20 yrs out of college, I decided to get the CPA license and signed up with Becker. I utilized their live courses. If possible, I tried to review the material before the lecture (wasn't always possible). Then I would goto the lecture (so that would be 2 x I was exposed to the material). Then I would break the chapter up into 2 parts. I would study part 1 very thoroughly and then I would do the mult choice that pertained to that section. This would tell me how well I was grasping the material. I would also analyze why I missed a question. Was it because I had no clue on the material (this would mean I have to research the material) or was it something I understood and simply made a dumb mistake on and when I did my final memorization I would get correct. I would save certain questions and put notes on them. For instance, if a question was a good basic thorough review of a topic, I'd save it to rework later. If a question was really tricky I'd save it with notes so in final review I could quickly goto a problem that at one point gave me an issue.
After the entire chapter's mc were completed, I would then try the sims.
You will end up memorizing the mc answers if you see the question too many times; therefore, I didn't want to dimiiinsh their value by exposiing myself to them before I could treat them as a legitimate test of where I was at with my knowledge of a topic.
I would only watch the video lectures for a topic I didn't understand or for which the live classroom instructor was just reading me the chapter (and I had one becker instructor who did this). I would also watch Peter Olinto's lectures bc he would phrase things in a way that made them memorable. Tim's lectures I didn't find worthwhile so I'd avoid them at all costs unless I was totally lost and was desperate to try to find something to explain a topic.
I did not purchase any flashcards.
thankfully, i passed all 4 on the first attempt and averaged over a 90.
Lastly, I was never one to have the mindset of try to just get a 75. I had a college professor who advised that you are going to be putting in a lot of time even if your mindset is to try to just get a 75, but if you end up failing, you will have wasted an immense amount of time when maybe a little more effort would have allowed you to pass.
Good luck in your studies. if you put the time in, you will pass.
.