[Anonymous]

Has anyone ever used college textbooks to review for the CPA? Not just as reference material, but using it as the main source to study from.

[Anonymous]

You're crazy if you actually try it! A few reasons why it's a bad idea: your college materials are going to be outdated by the time you are ready to sit for the exam, your college texts do not cover all the topics included in the exam, you are given no guidance from an instructor, and you don't have the opportunity to practice MCQ from the actual exam.

There's a thread on this site somewhere about the statistics of people who take the exam without using a review course versus people who use a course like Becker, Roger or Yaeger. Pass rates are a lot higher for those people who use review courses!

[Herbieherb]

College texts unnecessary. I don't get why u guys are so cheap? A wiley book will cost u 35 dollars…

NEW YORK- DONE

[Anonymous]

Hahaha, no no no. I'm using Wiley & CPAExcel. The thing is, I'm also in an MST program and one of those classes is Individual taxation, and so I have this gigantic textbook which I need to study for the midterms and finals. I'm also registered to take REG at the end of May, and I was wondering if it's possible to “get 2 birds with 1 stone” studying for both my class and the Indiv Tax part of REG.

[jelly]

Some of the esoteric tax regulations and theory you learn in class are not really tested on the exam, so your giant textbook would probably be overkill. A lot of income limits and levels are though, i.e. IRA income contribution limits for individuals, filing jointly, catch-up, etc.

Keep in mind that REG also tests a lot of business law / UCC, so things like contracts, per stirpes, buyer and seller rights, FOB shipping point /destination, endorsements / indorsements of instruments, tenants and leases, etc.

Couldn't pass again!

[Herbieherb]

@Edmund Ahh ok…I was like LOL…good luck man on both

NEW YORK- DONE

[Anonymous]

Haha I figured it would be quite overkill. Thanks for the input everybody!

[firehouse]

I saved all my college textbooks with the idea that I may someday “need” them for the exam- Nope. Have not cracked open a single one. The review books cover it all. Though I still have two more sections to go, so that may change.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I kept all of my textbooks and when I took FAR BEC & AUD I was able to refer back to them if I needed additional details about a certain topic that the review books didn't fully explain.

[Liz317]

I used my college textbooks as supplemental material only. Sometimes a topic was too condensed in my review books (Pensions for example) and I remembered learning them WELL in college. So I pulled out my books to review how I learned it the first time. It helped me to recall prior knowledge and review that topic quicker. However I would NEVER suggest using textbooks as primary material. They have too much unneccessary info and they don't have relevant MCQs. If you are in a severe budget crunch, use a cheap review material (like Gleim).

FAR - 92 --- AUD - 87 --- REG - 80 --- BEC - 87
A licensed CPA in Louisiana!!!

Dear CPA Exam, You are a beast. But you WILL be defeated!

[maxisbook]

Hi…,

Always I prefer textbooks for my studies. Because we can cover every topic if we prepare from textbook, were as in college material only some topics will be covered. So I always prefer textbooks only.

College textbook
College bookstore

[Author]

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