[tbstew]

This is a topic that has been covered before, but not for almost a year, from my search. I wanted to see if the consensus is still the same as it was a year ago.

I have both Gleim and Wiley. Those who use Gleim know that they throw in a lot of “Publisher Adapted” questions, which I gather are NOT previous exam questions, but rather questions that take you well beyond the tree trunk out on to the tips of the branches. The questions are clearly much more challenging (sometimes you can’t even answer them by using the Gleim book…is it just me, or is that stupid?). My questions are these:

1. For those who have used Gleim and taken the exam, do you find that the Publisher Adapted questions actually helped you prepare? Or did spending time on them actually detract from time that would have been better spent on the core aspects of the topics?

2. Have you ever said to yourself after taking the exam, “Wow… if it weren’t for those Publisher Adapted questions, I would never have answered that question right.”

3. In your opinion does studying those questions provide you with a worthwhile “return on investment?”

Pretty much the same question, asked three different ways. You get the idea, though. 🙂

Thanks!

Created with Compare Ninja

AUD - 79
BEC - 88
REG - 87
FAR - 86 - Woot, all done!
Ethics - 100

[nolifecpa]

i'm also using wiley and gleim as well. last, last time i took REG got a 70 (stronger in mcq and weaker in sims). i added gleim 2012 mcq for my retake cuz i was starting to memorize the wiley questions and also cuz my wiley material was from 2011. took REG again and got a 74 (stronger in mcq and weaker in sims).

i wouldn't look too much into the publisher adapted questions, they are good for additional practice but its just a question that someone from gleim made up, not old questions from the actual exam…but on the same token don't just blow them off (any practice is good practice)

one thing for sure, they are a confidence killer

REG-65,71,74,73,70,74,79
BEC-60's,60's,69,71,76*,78
FAR-67,66,65,79
AUD-54,60's,65,83*,69,80
*expired

DONE

[Anonymous]

I started out with Gleim and the “Publisher Adapted” questions confused me to no end. I like Wiley better. But that is a personal choice derived out of my own personal learning style. It is not meant as an affront to Gleim in any way.

[nextstopCPA]

I used Gleim for all parts so far and I love Gleim. The questions are more difficult but you get a wide variety of questions. The first time I took REG, I failed with a 68 using Gleim. I was so mad and thought Gleim did me in. But I realized that I didn't go though all 2000 questions that had material that I needed to know on my actual exam. I took three weeks and did all 2000 questions in Gleim and retook my exam and passed with 78 using only the Gleim testbank and I didn't practice SIMS either.

I have failed AUD twice with 70 and 74 using Gleim but supplemented with other material. I think the other material distracted me. Gleim is very good if you like the teach yourself approach meaning no lectures or abridged notes.

FAR Passed
REG Passed
AUD Passed
BEC Passed

All aboard, this train's leaving. Next stop, TBD!

[porschify]

Im using Gleim for my retake of BEC. I do the publisher adapted questions because they are alot harder. I believe that it helps with not only technical content but also MCQ answering ability. Answering difficult questions helps train me to RTFQ, and try to eliminate other answers that are similar but not correct.

REG- 81
BEC- 72,76
AUD- 67,88
FAR- 78

Done!

[tbstew]

Good input, thanks everyone. Like everything else in this world – some people like it, some don't, heheh. Gotta love diversity.

AUD - 79
BEC - 88
REG - 87
FAR - 86 - Woot, all done!
Ethics - 100

[senbi575]

Love Gliem, owe all my success with this and other exams to them. Their publisher questions are harder than non which is great practice, but they were clunky sometimes and the correct response explanation was goofy sometimes, but I just took that with a grain of salt and didn't try to spent too much time on them if I couldn't understand what they were saying.

[splinter1643]

Gleim questions are great……the way I've been doing my studies is to get really solid on one review (Becker) and then do another, in this case Wiley or Gleim. Generally if you know Becker in and out you'll be able to get 75-85% of Gleim questions right (maybe more). Gleim covers some stuff that never gets covered in Becker or Wiley. From what I've seen in the forums online, Gleim really helps to boost your score, because it covers everything-from the most common questions to the rare ones that come out of left field.

@tbstew: You prob won't need my advice on this, as I see you've already passed 3/4 of the exam, but for other candidates, if you're strapped for time, I highly recommend using Gleim especially on any hard sections you're not solid on.

CPA license in progress....

[KEMcpa]

Gleim has served me well. 3 for 3 and waiting on score from Audit. I haven't seen the other materials to compare to, but Gleim books cover a LOT and the questions and sims were very similar to actual tests.

Licensed Texas CPA!

[PhDCPA]

I think the publisher questions are worthless. It seems like the reason they have to come up with these questions themselves is because they are on topics that are very unlikely to ever be on the exam (so there are no previous exam questions to pull from). Also, many of them were poorly written or ambiguous. I started skipping all the publisher questions.

[jeff]

You also have to watch for questions that are beyond the scope of the CPA Exam – like Enrolled Agent questions in REG. They can unnecessarily frustrate candidates into thinking they don't know the CPA Exam material.

[tbstew]

Since I'm the OP here, and I see that this thread was bumped, I figured I'd weigh in after two months.

I've used Gleim now for REG and FAR. Here's some equations & inequalities for you, from my personal opinion:

Gleim MCQs = Wiley MCQs + lots of rarely-tested and frustratingly obscure questions
Gleim audio = Gleim textbook, read by someone who makes Ben Stein sound like a motivational speaker
Ninja Audio > Gleim audio
However – Gleim SIMs > Almost any other products' SIMs that I've seen (Wiley, etc…)
Gleim price < Most other review courses Overall, decent bang for your buck, but not something I'd do again. There are better (even better + cheaper) options out there. I attribute my passing scores so far more to Wiley than to Gleim, hands down (except for AUD, which I used CPAReviewForFree exclusively... still can't believe I passed that one...).

AUD - 79
BEC - 88
REG - 87
FAR - 86 - Woot, all done!
Ethics - 100

[Author]

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