[Lianetleal]

Hello all:

My name is Lianet and i just decided to take the CPA exam. I am in need of advise as I have no idea how to start. I have so many questions that Im sure you all can help me with. First a little bit about my background. Arrived 2006 from Cuba and I graduated 2011 with s Masters in Accounting. I’ve been out of school since then. I got married, had twins and I feel that I need to finish what I started. I need some encouraging words since I’ve heard is so hard and I am not going to lie. I feel somehow scared about not having enough time because of the kids. Anyways here comes my first question:

Which part should I start studying first?
How may hours a week is a reasonable amount of time to succeed?
How many months I should get prepared before sitting for an exam?

I appreciate all your input…

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Welcome!
First thing to keep in mind, its a marathon, not a sprint. 🙂

I'm Spanish, have been out of school for 25+ years, run my own business (not in the industry) AND have a family so yeah, I hear you.

I did REG, AUD, BEC and then FAR (mostly because I went back to redo an advanced accounting course since I didnt feel ready for FAR)

As to how many hours a week, thats really going to depend on you. I studied every day, around 2-4 hours per day for about a year (not including the class) I used Becker for my study guide, watched ALL the videos, highlighted ALL the parts they said to highlight. I did NOT do ALL the questions but I would say I did about 90% of them. Also, I did my own flash cards – writing them out is part of the process of learning (vs just using beckers cards) and I also had the becker app on my phone so when I was in the car, I could listen to lectures and when I was waiting in line (bank, store) I would do their flash cards.

Again, how many months is going to depend on you. Do you learn quickly? Do you review easily? Do you test well? I would say I studied the longest for FAR and the least for REG and BEC. AUD took me a while to figure out that on the SIMS, you could reference the literature so….

[Goingallin]

I highly suggest taking FAR first. Not so much bc it is supposedly the hardest, but bc by taking FAR first you will better and more easily under the other subjects. It's sort of like the technical foundation for the cpa exams.

I put in 150+ hours for each exam so far. However if you're young and have a great memory you might be able to get away with 100 hours or even less for all aside form FAR. FAR covers a lot!

[Anonymous]

If you can start right now and sit for the exam on the first week of March I would highly recommend you take BEC. The exam is going through heavy changes starting in April, and BEC is one of the exams that changes the most. If you have not started the application process already then it is possible you will not be able to take an exam this quarter since it can take 5 weeks for the board of accountancy to process your application.

If you are unable to to sit for BEC for Q1 then I agree with goingallin and you should take FAR first.

It is a difficult exam, but it is not impossible. The dedication to study consistently is probably the hardest part about the exam. It could take you half a year or it could take you over a year. And since you have two kids it may be even tougher. But it is not impossible! I befriended a mother of two who was also studying for the exams at the library and she passed all 4 scoring very high scores in the 90s. I think they can be a source of motivation for you. I believe anyone that is qualified to sit for the exam can pass if they don't give up. You can as well!

If you decide to take the exams I think it is important to pick up a review course. I think studying for 30-40 hours a week is enough and each exam can take people 1-2 months to study for. However it is most important to feel ready for the exam. Do not feel pressured into taking the exam as fast as everyone else, but also don't take too much time studying because a lot of it comes down to memory retention and if you take too long studying for a section you will forget the material you went over when you first started. Best of luck! It is worth pursuing in my opinion.

[Author]

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