[dleonard1991]

Hey everyone, I’m a senior currently expecting to graduate in the spring with a finance degree. Next year I plan to go for a Masters in Forensic Accounting so I will be eligible to sit for the CPA exam. During undergrad, I took the Intermediate Accounting courses as well as some Cost Accounting. My biggest problem is that I will be weak in the areas of taxation and auditing as I was unable to pursue any courses in these fields during undergrad and the Masters program won’t get too far into these topics.

My question is, has anyone used the LSU online courses and know if the taxation courses are enough to get a good jump on self study or can recommend another online course? I know I should probably go for a two year Masters in Accounting program but that is likely not in the cards for me. If anyone can recommend a way to attack tax courses by myself it’d be appreciated. Thanks

[Anonymous]

I took my accounting courses online through UC Berkeley Extension (I was a history major with zero business background too). The curriculum consisted of reading the book and emailing questions when necessary –in short, it gave me a reason to study but not much else. Nonetheless, they were adequate for the audit portion of the exam and so far (I'm halfway through REG review) more than adequate for the tax portion. I had zero confidence with AUD material prior to reviewing but found found it to be 99% memorization anyway. REG seems to be the same thing so far.

In short, I'll bet your LSU online classes will be sufficient if you're just trying to get a jump on self-study.

[dleonard1991]

How does UC Berkeley handle testing? I know through LSU you take tests via a webcam and was wondering if Berkeley does the same thing. I also saw that the course at Berkeley only goes over corporations, is that sufficient?

[Anonymous]

UC Berkeley extension gives an online mid-term (no web-cam last I checked) and a proctored in-person final exam. I live right around the corner so I took my final at their offices in Berkeley. If you're out of state they give you a list of “certified testing centers” (ie other universities) you can take your final exam at depending on what state, city, etc. you're in…

Hmm…. I checked, you're right, UC Extension is only offering taxation for corporations online right now. I suppose to get the jump start you want the ideal would be to take a taxation for individuals course, and MAYBE a corporate taxation course if you had time. Individual taxation seems to make up more of the exam than corporate though.

I think ANY online course in basic taxation will give you the jump start you want. The whole point is just to have some exposure to the material so your CPA review isn't the first time you're seeing it. Honestly REG seems to be just a lot of memorization and not much else.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

How difficult were the final exams for the online classes through Berkeley Extension compared to the actual CPA tests. I am taking Auditing through UNEX and have the final exam this week.

[mla1169]

Not even possible to compare any type of school exams (final or otherwise) to the CPA exam. Its apples to oranges but I can tell you after 8 years of college the CPA exam was more tedious and covered far more information than any final exam I ever saw.

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[Anonymous]

@mla1169 – More like apples to ballistic missiles!

[Futile]

You could try UWF online. They only give some classes each semester, but the tax professor there writes for Gleim, so yeah, you'll be well prepared. They have individual, corporate, and pass-through tax classes.

Alternatively, you could do UNA PAPP. They use CPAexcel material, so it's not really learning like in school but then you'll only be going over what's on the CPA exam. Completely self-paced, except it's semester-based, and it's comparatively cheap ($400 per class).

CPA exam: Done!

Thank You, Lord.

[Author]

Replies