[Anonymous]

Surgent CPA Review Ratings? Anyone on here using Surgent? I had a coworker who was using Bisk (now obsolete, Ninja acquired them) and she got like 50% off after showing them a copy of her receipt for the Bisk membership plus copies of her failed exam scores. She’s now on a passing streak. If anyone is using Surgent, could you bulletpoint the strengths/weaknesses of this program? They claim to be the panacea for CPA exam blues… Just curious if anyone is using them and succeeding. The coworker never really elaborated on what she liked about Surgent. But, I think she knew that the other vendors had their respective flaws and she liked that Surgent gave it to her for cheap. Since I had a less-than-favorable experience with Roger, I could go the same route. IF I knew that Surgent was going to help me pass.

 

 

[Anonymous]

Surgent is new into the market I think…..not as much history as many others out there. I'm sure their salespeople are probably even slicker than the ones at Becker.
I'll give them a call and see what they have to say. What I want to know is what they offer, if anything, that the other vendors don't.

[Anonymous]

I have surgent, not real impressed. Should have went a different route. Videos arent great, personally im not a fan of the way the program is set up where it bounces around. If i had been through all the material before and just needed a refresher i could see it working but ninja is cheaper and accomplishes the same thing.

I started far with surgent and was completely lost. Watched rogers videos and learned much more. Maybe if i was right out college and everything was still fresh it might have worked better.

[jenpen]

The Surgent test bank is essentially the same as Ninja.

AUD - 56 - 68 - 61 - 9/8/16
REG - 75
FAR - 7/15/16
BEC - TBD

Wiley CPAexcel and NINJA 10 Point Combo

[itooshallpass]

@Bizzle99 I'm with you. I started out with Surgent and got a refund after like 2 lessons. Their non-linear system really didn't work for me. I can definitely see how it would be great for someone really fresh out of school who knows a lot already and wants to focus on problem areas, but for me I needed the big picture from start to finish, so I switched to Roger.
Also, their interface and customer service weren't great in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately I stuck with it for too long to get refunded so I have an expensive test bank to use.

[PNS2CLT]

Surgent and the team behind its CPA review is well respected (many of them were involved with Bisk). They offer a free trial, and I suggest you take advantage of it to determine if it's right for you. When I began my CPA journey, I thoroughly researched all of the major review courses. Surgent was my #1 choice but I went with Wiley because it was several hundred dollars cheaper and I liked the app better (test bank can be used without an internet connection). I ended up supplementing FAR with Ninja — a decision I don't regret because I feel the Ninja Plus videos are best on the market.

I'd give some consideration to the mid-tier Ninja package. The only negatives are it's not integrated, the videos are slightly dated (NOT a deal breaker, but something you need to be aware of) and Bisk provided a viewer's guide for the videos, which Ninja doesn't offer. Not having the viewer's guide wasn't a big deal for most of the videos, but became an issue in Government, when the presenter kept referring you to look at portions of the guide that weren't displayed on the PowerPoint. Also, if you go with Ninja, the questions are broken down into sub-categories, so if you watch a video on inventory, you won't be able to pound inventory MCQ.

[jeff]

“Also, if you go with Ninja, the questions are broken down into sub-categories, so if you watch a video on inventory, you won't be able to pound inventory MCQ.”

I didn't quite understand this…if you want to work inventory questions, you can go to Category 2C: Inventory (57) and only work inventory questions.

I am probably missing something.

[PNS2CLT]

@Jeff — thanks for pointing that out — I didn't realize you could break the sessions down further! Wish I would've known that, it would've came in handy during my FAR studies!

[Tncincy]

I enjoy the ninja plus videos for far. I agree about not having the viewers guide makes following a little annoying I just make sure I am understanding what's going on, and take good notes, so I won't need the viewers guide for that section. The videos also has made following the ninja audio easier as well, even though the videos maybe out dated.

Has anyone used the power points as notes?

It begins with a 75
Been here too long as a cheerleader....ready to pass

[kay]

I have surgent, I like it. Sounds like ninjas adaptive software is very similar. Even down to Jeff's comment about drilling down to topics 2c to work questions only over inventory. As far as having to jump around from topics and surgent being nonlinear. You can bypass the “assessment” phase and then follow the material in a linear fashion. What I've found works for me is skip the assessment, do 60-70% of the questions in each topic area while reading the book and watching the videos, spending no more then a week per chapter/ subsection of the aicpa blueprint. Then during my review phase use the softwares adaptive feature untill I've covered all the multiple choice questions available.
I will say the thing I like most is that the material is laid out like the blueprints, I found that when studying FAR This was helpful because topics we're covered for multiple angles and I didn't forget things as I progressed through because each chapter covered a different area of a topic. That may not make much sense now, but I was thankful to see some not for profit and governmental concepts in every chapter rather than having one chapter at the end cover only governmental.

[Booner17]

bump

[Anonymous]

Thanks to y'all. It seems that Surgent is about like all the other vendors, in that it doesn't have anything special that sets it apart in terms of quality.

I had never heard of Bisk until the coworker mentioned it to me. She said that she bought it, and after her multiple failures, she just let it expire or maybe her subscription ran out before she was done using it. But, at least Surgent gave her a discount.

I probably won't bother with Surgent then, and will just get Ninja when I resume my studies next month or in January. I have 7 more months of Roger access as of December. I actually stopped getting emails from Roger quite awhile ago. I think they figured I just quit. Usually, if someone hasn't logged into a subscription thing for awhile, a sales rep will be in touch to ask what's going on or if there's anything they can do. Not that I care that Roger hasn't done that, but it just kinda proves that they're more focused on profits than on customer service (which I've known all along.)

[PNS2CLT]

@crazyleon,
I wouldn't put much emphasis on other people's testimonials. You need to find the review program that fits YOU, not somebody else. For example, you're struggling with Roger, yet there's a perpetual number of testimonials that swear by it, including many that swear by it (e.g. people that failed multiple times using several other programs, but passed without problem after using Roger). There's a dozen or so major review programs, so you WILL find one that matches you're learning style. Every single review program offers either a limited trial and/or a sample of their course — spend some time exploring them. Use testimonials to “feel out” the program, but avoid recommendations. And most definitely ignore the recommendations of “review” websites, since they're heavily influenced by commission dollars.

[Anonymous]

@PNS2CLT – I looked at Becker (blahhh, and overpriced), Gleim (looked very difficult and the textbooks looked like they were written in about 1975, but price was good), and Roger (looked like the best) last year when feeling out the situation. After failing FAR and AUD with Roger, I turned to Gleim for BEC, but only used the textbook. I think Gleim would have worked well for me for all four. But, it's too late for that now.

At this point I really just need a test bank of questions. I've studied the topics, I know the stuff well enough despite not passing. My scores were not extremely low, in the 60s, which just suggested “need to work more practice problems.” I was under the impression that Surgent was pretty much just a test bank with some added features that made it more appealing. But, I've pretty much decided to just forget about my Roger subscription and go with Ninja. I've never heard anyone say anything bad about Ninja and there are people who pass using only that.

BTW you are correct, I have not placed emphasis on what others say about their review courses. I know Roger has followers-a-plenty and I've been criticized on here in the past for pointing out the faults of his program even though I do think Roger is an awesome guy. If I really hated Roger Philipp, I would not have sat through like 48 hours' worth of videos! I liked his videos – I just didn't learn much from them. Picking a program that's right for you is just one aspect of the CPA process, and for some of us, it's a costly adventure. I shouldn't complain. I've read posts on here from people who dropped $10,000+ on the exams plus 2-3 different review courses. I'd just…rather not spend $10,000 on those things if I don't have to.

[Anonymous]

Since your familiar with the material, id try ninja for the test bank. Thats what im doing with my bec retake. Just hammering mcq through ninja, about to clear 4500 lol.

[Author]

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