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Hi All,
I’ve been reading this forum for a few weeks now, but this is my first post. I just took my first exam (AUD) this afternoon and wanted to give some feedback regarding my study materials. I work for a private company that doesn’t really value the CPA license and does not cover any exam costs or materials. Because of this, I decided to go the cheapest route I could…Wiley Books, hahaha.
After my first exam, I’m happy with my decision for two reasons. First, the cost cannot be beat. Paying over $1,000 for the exams is enough. I don’t want to pile on thousands more in review courses. Second, Wiley provides EVERYTHING you need to know. This is a blessing and a curse, depending on how you view it.
I was very nervous going into this exam based on what I had read on this forum. So many people had posted about encountering MCQs on topics that they had never heard of and SIMS that were impossible. I did not come across either of those situations. Every MCQ topic was covered in Wiley with enough detail to know the answer. Now, I didn’t always know the answer off the top of my head, but I was familiar enough to make an informed guess. I was never “caught off guard” by any question or topic. It was all there in the book I had been studying for 5 weeks.
The SIMS I had (and I realize these can vary from test to test) were not nearly as terrible as expected. Again the topics were all covered in Wiley. More importantly, the structure of the SIMS had also been covered. I had been dreading these, and kept expecting the next one to be one of those really insane, impossible SIMS people talk about. It never came. Every SIM was no harder than the practice ones in the book.
Please don’t misinterpret this post – I’m not trying to brag and discuss how well prepared I was. I won’t receive my score for weeks, and there’s a chance I didn’t pass. All I’m trying to convey is that Wiley may be a better resource than most people think. One major criticism is that it over prepares you and contains too much information. Yet how many people have failed an exam because they were tested on topics never covered in their study materials? Or they weren’t provided enough detail to determine the correct answer? While these materials/programs that focus on the “most important” an “need to know” topics will generally allow you to pass, the actual exam could easily include questions and SIMS on the information that was skipped over.
So here’s the conundrum. Wiley is hard to study. Very hard. It is essentially reading a text book the entire way through, and that’s how you have to use it. You have to read every page. I actually read the module sections for a second time. But if you have the discipline to do that, you should have no problem. To me, the answer is clear. Why let someone else decide what is important to know, when EVERYTHING is fair game on the exam? Especially when they charge so much more.
Anybody agree/disagree with me? I’m not directly familiar with other study materials, but my understanding is that they tend to leave out the minute/obscure information that Wiley is known for.
And feel free to disregard my entire post if I end up failing, lol. Wish me luck!
AUD - 95
FAR - 92
REG - 79
BEC - 93 DONE!
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