“Best” really depends on how you learn and what criteria you're using to measure the curriculum. For me, being inexpensive was a must and basically my first criteria, since I didn't have the cash flow for anything else. So, I got Wiley books. For my study style, video lectures are hard to pay attention to, but books are a good study source, and repetition in practice questions is great…so Wiley books fit this, and I added Wiley test bank (which kinda messed up the “cheap” goal, since it's way more than the books, but it was very necessary!). I discovered Ninja Audio when I was looking up the WTB, and bought the Ten Point Combo. I love the audio, which was a real surprise to me, since I've never before studied with audio recordings. So, for me, Wiley books + Ten Point Combo is the best solution. If I had one of these lecture series (Roger, Yeager, etc), I'd probably never finish half of the DVDs, just because it's not my study style…or I'd play through all of them, but be so distracted while listening that I didn't retain anything.
So, if you're looking for the best material, my advice would be to sit back and try to think how you learn best. If you decided you want to get certified to be a HAM radio operator, I'm guessing that right now, you'd have no clue about any of it. So how would you try to learn? Would you find a HAM operator and sit down with him to learn? Would you see if you could find a class? Would you Google information to read? Or would you drill the 350-or-so question pool until you knew them by heart? Figure out how you learn best, and then look for a curriculum that suits that. The majority of CPA exam students opt for lectures, but I suspect even within that, there's a lot of room for differences in learning style. Like, do you need a speaker to tell jokes to keep your interested? To repeat things using the same words, or to tell things in different ways? Etc. If you don't know how you learn best, then as crazy as this sounds, I'd suggested taking a break before the CPA exam and studying for something else so that you can figure out how, without a teacher, on your own, you learn best. Like…study for the HAM exam. It's just $10, but would give you an idea what materials you like to use for learning. I'd rather take a $10 exam for a test, than buy a curriculum and find out it doesn't work for me. 😐 And hey, who knows, you might someday come across a HAM radio and get to actually test out your certification. 😉 (My boyfriend actually wanted to be HAM certified to use special remote control vehicles, so that's why I know about this random test lol.)
I believe wholeheartedly that the material I have is the best study material for me. But, I also know that for others, it'd be the worst possible study material! And I have to admit that I'm stepping outside my study-comfort-zone and taking advantage of the free week for the NINJA Blitz videos…FAR is just about 170 minutes, so I'm trying hard to stay focused that long. I think short videos like this will be helpful for my studies…but it's definitely reinforced that if I had solely a video curriculum, I'd never focus long enough! lol. My point is don't close off to all other methods once you determine your best; just your best for your main material, but stay open to others. (Especially when they're temporarily free! 😉 )
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