[PJ004]

Hi All,

I am hoping I can get some basic guidance on this forum. I am a full-time working mom of a 1 year old and I have wanted to study for the CPA exam for a while. Time is just passing by and if I don’t do it now, I never will. I was hoping people that have been in a similar situation can guide me. I want to know more about what strategy worked for you. In my situation, I will only be able to maximize my weekends (5-6 hours per day) and review during my commute to work/home (2 hrs/day). Maybe I can squeeze in time at lunch and before bed (already functioning on 4.5 hours of sleep) So what I want to know is:

1. On average, how long can I expect it to take to study per section with my limited schedule? I am hoping to go through the book in about a month (probably more), and then just focus on the practice DVD.
2. Are the practice test DVD’s exactly like the exam?
3. I am planning to get the Jan 2016 Wiley study book. Should I just wait for 2017?
4. I usually make my own notes but this is time consuming. If there are good notes you recommend out there, please let me know.

Any tips welcome!! I really want to give it my best shot to pass this exam!!

Thanks a lot!

[DISLCPA]

Hi I 40yrs old with 2 kids and I work full time. my honest opinion is to wait until your child is older. mine are 10 and 13 and it is hard enough for me to find time to study. I tried the exam about 8 years ago when my son was 2 worst experience of my life. This is an honest opinion from someone who knows.

BEC(8/12/16)
AUD
FAR
REG

[Anonymous]

I think I might agree with the above. My kids are almost 13 and 7, and while it's hard to study, I can study at night and on the weekends, for the most part, and I only get about 2-3 hours during a weekday at the most because frankly I sleep 5.5 hours as it is any less would kill me. I think having a 1 year-old is very demanding unless you have someone that can totally absorb childcare after you come home from work and can study 8-10 for example, every night…. If you do decide to pursue it after all, I would recommend something more portable than DVD. I have Becker online and what I like about it, is that I can access all my materials on my smart phone which has allowed me to study wherever I am-train, waiting for my kids' soccer game to start, etc. super convenient.

[PJ004]

Thanks for the above comments. I feel if I wait longer I won’t attempt it later when kids are older and a lot more is going on in terms of activities. I also want to give it an honest shot before having another child.
I guess, I just want to know if this is even doable to complete in the 18 months window if I only have time to study over the weekends, or am I kidding myself.
Thanks for the tip on the online material, I will look into it.

[Anonymous]

Anything is possible-you are a mom-you are a superhero-don't you forget it:) LOL I think 18 months is plenty of time. I would give yourself at least 2 months for the first one you try. This is what I am doing.

[DISLCPA]

@pj I have been told on here that my 25hrs a week is not enough to pass

BEC(8/12/16)
AUD
FAR
REG

[bucknell39]

I am not a mother but I am a father of 2 and 3 year old boys. I work full time and so does my wife. I generally get the kids ready in the morning and take them to daycare. My wife and I try our best to split the duties of getting the kids fed and ready for bed but sometimes she won't get home until 7 at night. If you have other family that live around you I would ask if they could help a few hours here or there so you can get some study time. If not, I would show up to work an hour early, study on our lunch break and try your best to study when the baby is sleeping. I would purchase ninja mcq, ninja plus and ninja audio since you have a long commute. It will be difficult. You will be stressed but find your true motivation for wanting to be a CPA and you will succeed. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

DISLCPA-i think it depends on how much time you have to prep for each section… you could do the prep faster if you have more time in my opinion. I can't do more than 12-15 hours a week. We will see what happens on 1/21… I know that if I scheduled my exam sooner I wouldn't be ready but hope that another month of prep will do the trick…

[aaronmo]

I don't think there's a set “it takes this long to pass.” It depends on what you know going in, how quickly you learn concepts, how long it takes to memorize…and how well your prep material matches your learning style. I'm an incredibly fast, intuitive, conceptual learner for most things, but memorization is brutal for me if I can't relate it to a logical process. I'd guess I had far less applicable class work than most for FAR and BEC. I felt well prepped for Audit and OK with MOST of REG.

Audit took me maybe 10 hours a week of study for 5 weeks. Finance ranged from 50 hour weeks to 10 hour weeks, depending on the topic and if I'd ever seen it before. My first few weeks of FAR were solid 30-40+ hours of week in prep, but I had never seen most of the concepts.

REG and BEC also ranged depending on how much memorization was required.

[DISLCPA]

@anyatver that is all the time I have. not to be mean or nothing but after your first test let me know how your time prepared you. If you haven't taken a section yet it is hard to tell someone else what to do

BEC(8/12/16)
AUD
FAR
REG

[StudyNowCPA]

I just passed my first exam. I am a single mother of 5 kids ages 17, 13, 10, and 3 year old twins. If this is something you want to do you should do it now. I always think I should have done this a few kids ago!
It took me 3-4 months of studying because my time is very limited. You definitely have to find the time to study hard. Every minute you have to spare. I used Yaeger’s full course. I watched the video lectures and then studied the material afterwards. I also did the multiple choice questions in the back of each chapter. I made sure to understand the concepts over anything else and all of the exceptions. I found that the exam tested all of the exceptions more than the actual rules.
It is recommended to study about 200 hours for FAR. I’m pretty sure I hit that. Good luck!

[PJ004]

@bucknell39, @anyatver, thank you for the encouragement!!

@aaronmo – memorization is brutal for me as well!! I don't think its possible for me to put in so many hours a week, so I think I will need at least 2-3 months per section. Each are going to be equally hard for me, so it doesn't matter where I begin. I am most experienced in Financial reporting, so I am starting here.

@Dislcpa – yeah, I figured 25 hours are not going to be enough, but my thought process is that it doesn't hurt to at least try rather than always wonder could I have done it?

For those who use the Ninja notes, can you tell me more about them? Can I use this as my “review” for the commute/lunch hour? Is it worth spending the extra $70 on, on top of books/test dvd?

[PJ004]

@Studynowcpa – OMG, you are a supermom!!

[NeedsA75]

DISLCPA, 25 hours a week is plenty to pass. I probably put in 20-25 hours a week and have passed 3 exams in 4 attempts. The one that I failed I pulled a 74

[Texasmom]

I think it all depends on you. I'm 31. I started my CPA journey back in 2012 before i had my son and to be honest i didn't know what I was doing or the amount of time needed to pass these exams. I failed 3 exams, got pregnant with my son and postponed the test until last year before my son turned 2. I will tell you it is not easy. I was waking up at 4am every day during the week, studying until 5:30 or 6, leaving for work, coming back home in the evenings and going straight to sleep after putting my son in bed around 8:30 or 9. I don't function well when I am deprived of sleep and I retain stuff better when I'm fresh in the morning. Anyway, my strategy was do the lectures in the morning. (I used Wiley) get the Ninja Audio for the commute to and from work and try to hammer out MCQ's any chance you get. The ninja notes are awesome as well. I had Wiley flash cards, test bank too. Saturday was my main study day. My husband would take my son out in the mornings and come back after lunch. Sundays were mostly to go to church and catch up on housework. It was a grueling time, there are a lot of functions I missed. FAR was the longest, it took me about 3 months to study for it. Luckily i passed it on the first try November of last year.. I was finally able to knock out BEC, AUD and REG (after 3 times) all in these last 2 quarters of the year and got my final passing score last week. It is possible. It all depends how committed you are to it.

FAR - 84
REG - 72, 73
AUD-
BEC - Sept 2016

[PJ004]

@Texasmom, thanks for sharing your experience. It definitely motivates me to work towards my goal!

[Author]

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