[Bear-Bear]

For FAR, I stopped watching the videos about halfway through my studying, and stopped doing any of the supplementary questions. I would only do either of them if I was really stuck/confused. I also didn’t do any of the diagnostic tests, or practice tests. Just seems like there is too much there, and not a lot of value to be had from it. Like the Proficiency Questions for example.

The 10 days of Ninja MCQ prior to my exam helped me just as much as the 11 weeks of Wiley, I feel. Now that I’ve moved on to BEC, I am really taking a bare bones approach to Wiley…only reading the Study Text and completing the Exam Questions. As soon as I’ve finished the BEC content I intend to do Ninja MCQs until the test date, using maybe one day to practice the writing section.

Are there any other CPAExcel users out there who are skipping a lot of the content like myself? Just curious.

[Anonymous]

I am a CPAexcel user. I went through pretty much all of the material, including videos, for AUD (my first exam). Since then, I mainly have just been reading the text and doing the exam questions. I then go through the test bank MCQs in the last few weeks before the exam. I also added Ninja MCQs to my study plan for BEC. Now that I'm studying for FAR, I feel like I have been doing less and less of the Wiley material because there is just so much! I see you passed FAR already…how well do you think CPAexcel prepared you for it? Did you also use Ninja MCQs for it? I'm really feeling overwhelmed and lost with a lot of the FAR material right now.

[kingpasty]

I've used CPA Excel for BEC and FAR, so maybe I can be of some help. For BEC, I felt like the amount of material they gave you was completely manageable. I was able to watch every video and answer every question. 100% completion. Crammed the last week w/ Ninja MCQ and scored an 84. When I started FAR, it was like trying to drink from a fire hose. I stretched it out over 10 weeks and still wasn't able to complete all the MCQs, let alone any of the Sims. The amount of material is absurd for FAR that they give you. I did complete over 90% of the MCQs (PQs and EQs), not the supplimental questions. Crammed with Ninja MCQ and scored an 82. I felt more than prepared walking out of the exam….I wouldn't stop watching the videos. I found them really helpful for BEC. I also (maybe I got lucky) completely blew off the Process Costing portion of BEC. Super complicated and time consuming and I didn't see one question on my exam about it. Like I said, I probably got lucky but just my two cents. I think Wiley gives you too much sometimes.

BEC - 84
FAR - 82
AUD - 86

Wiley/CPA Excel and Ninja MCQ

[Anonymous]

From my understanding, the CPAExcel books now are what the Wiley books were before. Used to be people would get the Wiley books and Wiley test bank and use that alone to pass (I was one of those – used a bit of NINJA, but at the time NINJA was just minor supplements, no where near an actual review course like now). So, if you're using the book and MCQs and additional NINJA MCQs, sounds like a thorough study plan to me. The books were a stand-alone course before Wiley and CPAExcel merged to combine CPAExcel's lectures with Wiley's books. I find learning from books to be much more efficient than learning from lectures, and also from what I've heard the books are more thorough, so if you prefer reading the textbooks to watching the lectures, I don't see any harm in it.

Of course, everyone's results vary. If you start to feel like the book isn't explaining something well enough, definitely pop in the lecture and see if the lecturer's explanation makes more sense. But don't feel any shame in using the book to learn if that's working for you!

[Bear-Bear]

@ASUalum – I think that CPAExcel did a decent (and by that I mean “sorta OK”) job of preparing me for FAR. I got just as much, if not more, benefit from cramming Ninja MCQ for the ten days leading to the exam. Though before I indict CPAExcel, it may very well just have been the sheer amount of material in FAR. I studied over 11 weeks, and retaining the information was a huge struggle for me.

[Anonymous]

Makes sense. I've only been studying for a little over two weeks for FAR, and I feel like I've forgotten half the stuff already. 🙁

Link: Current CPAexcel Discount Codes

[Author]

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