[jess4657]

Hi everyone,

I am beginning on the CPA journey and since I may soon work only part time and my company dosen’t reimburse/pay for exam materials/taking the exam, I am leaning towards giving Wiley a shot for my primary material. I am 1 yr out of school with my Masters, and am wondering if this will be enough for me to pass using Wiley alone?? (I would most likely do the book and the software). I am also leaning towards Wiley because I do have some review software from Gleim, Bisk, and Becker from 2009-2010 but have heard that outdated material hurts you rather than helps.

My primary question for you all is: Has anyone had success with using mainly Wiley to prepare themselves for the exam? Do you think it would be worth it for my to try with just my methods (including Wiley 2011) for the first go round and see how I do? I am between doing this or purchasing one of the “bigger guys” products.

Thanks in advance to everyone who read and gave advice.

[limey]

I used Becker mainly, and Wiley (just the book) as a supplement. They share about 85% of the same test sample questions, which are AICPA-released questions. (The other 15% are self-developed test questions; developing test questions for teaching and learning is very expensive for companies) I found Wiley to be helpful for BEC, b/c there was lots of short topics that Becker didn't cover, that ended up being on my section, i.e. computer systems and technology.

Becker was helpful with mnemonics. I heard about other local test prep programs, but I didn't know about Yaegar at the time, which seems to be quite popular on here.

I really can't pass again!

[Anonymous]

I only used the Wiley books to prepare, however I supplemented with Gleim MCQ. Fingers crossed for REG…, but it worked for the other three.

The main criticism for Wiley is that the book goes into such incredible detail, which is clearly time consuming. As I was doing it ‘on my own' (i.e. no study buddies, guidance from tutors on what's most important, etc), I probable wasted a good amount of time on the details as I didn't know what was crucial info versus ‘Wiley excess'. Having the Gleim questions to compare was a good gauge.

Other than the detail, I would recommend Wiley.

Good luck to you!

[Author]

Replies