[ridiqls]

I’m currently going back to school to pursue accounting (CPA educational requirement) on top of my bachelors and to take the CPA. Looks like I need 9 months – 1 year of school.

So far I have taken Acct 1&2 (principles of accounting), Federal income tax for individuals, intermediate 1. I am taking Intermediate 2 and a few ethics classes as well. But I really want to know from everyone who is more experienced than me (i.e have taken the test pass or fail, have started studying, etc.) ….which ACCOUNTING classes are highly recommended?

I will have taken before I start studying for the CPA: Acct 1,2, Federal income tax for individuals, intermediate series, Cost Accounting, Audit, Business Law (+3 more ethics classes), Excel for Accounting.

I am undecided on the following 3 classes: Corporate tax, Advanced Accounting I/II (also known as Accounting special topics & Consolidated Accounting).

I can get my CPA education requirements without these classes or maybe just 1 of them.

Do the review courses like becker prepare you enough for the CPA to where I will be fine without taking those 3 classes? Or should I DEFINITELY take those classes?

It may not seem like much, but I’m older due to the career change and those 3 classes mean a minimum of 3 months. The opportunity cost of taking those 3 classes is the cost of tuition, books and the time spent POSSIBLY studying for useless things when I can be spending 3 months studying directly for things that will be on the CPA.

3 months of classes or 3 additional months of CPA prep? I hope this makes sense.

Any advice on whether I should take these courses greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[mla1169]

Most college classes help lay a foundation on which to build. None of them to my knowledge can take the place of a review course. To be licensed you're likely going to need 150 credits. If you'll have the 150 without those 3 classes I wouldn't bother. If you're going to be short of the 150 may as well take those courses. Also check with your state board on how many of your credits must be in accounting to qualify.

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

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[ridiqls]

Thank you mla1169 for the quick response. I have a 4 year degree and the additional accounting/ethics classes I'm taking now should definitely cover 150 units.

I also did the math and I wouldn't need all of those classes to be able to sit for the CPA as I would have fulfilled my state's CPA educational requirements.

Those 3 classes, Corp tax, Adv Accounting I/II are purely for education purposes to pass the CPA exam. I certainly will regret not taking them if I prep for the CPA only to find I have a hell of hard time understanding what's going on the review because I didn't take those classes.

But on the flip side, I wouldn't want to waste 3 months taking classes and doing homework problems and paying for tuition when I can be reviewing full time for the CPA.

Dilemma, dilemma..

[LongShot]

If you'll meet the minimum accounting credits for your state without them, I wouldn't worry about it. Your CPA review course should fill in any weak areas as you study. Otherwise, I'd recommend advanced accounting. Taking corporate taxation won't help anything because it's likely not going to be anywhere close to sufficient to pass the exam.

FAR - 75
AUD - 72; 87
REG - 64; 74; 84
BEC - 88

Done!!

[Mamabear]

Ah. I see you post came up twice. Here was my response.

I didn't take Corporate Tax or and advanced accounting courses and I've passed 3 parts. The classes will go into more detail than you need to know for the exam. Your review materials teach what you need to know. There are a lot of people that met the educational requirements 10+ years ago and are just now sitting for the exam. There is a very slim chance that they remember anything from school, but I still see passing posts from people in that situation. Only take what you need to be licensed and don't waste your time/money on any additional classes. The review courses are geared towards the CPA exam so they will be your best tool for stuyding.

CPA Exam - Finally DONE (November 2014)
BEC (08/10/13) 80
AUD (08/24/13) 65 (11/13/13) 85
FAR (04/12/14) 81
REG (07/19/14) 69 (11/29/14) 87!!

[Tux]

I'm older too, and this is a career change for me too, so I understand the dilemma of time vs. knowledge.

Since you don't “need” the classes for your requirements, I say don't take them. Would they help you? Yes. But, even if you don't absorb the info from the review course right away, at least your time is spent on what you NEED to know. It may take a little more work and time to learn it, but I know that if you stay focused, you can do it.

Other options for learning:

Post questions on topics that you don't understand on this forum – another71

Also search youtube for lectures of college course on topics that you don't understand. They will be great supplements to your review material.

Get into a study group so you can benefit from knowledge and college courses that study buddies have taken.

Like others have said, a college course will give you more than you need. Right now, your time is best spent focused specifically on the CPA material.

Another idea could be to buy 2 review courses. Some courses are better at explaining some topics than others. Being exposed to the same info being presented in different ways, can really help it sink it = More “aha” moments.

You may want to consider Becker because whether you do online or in class study, from what I understand, the instructors are very nice and helpful. You may find someone who will keep in touch with you and answer your questions even after the class is over until you pass the section that they taught you. It's great to have that resource and support for asking questions. Or, they also have the academic support department, which isn't as helpful but at least they don't limit the number of questions that you can ask like some other courses (I believe Yaeger limits the number of questions that you can ask the instructor)

FAR - 86 - 2/27/14
AUD - 75 - 5/29/14
BEC - 80 - 8/31/14
REG - 89 - 2/27/15
Praise Jesus! I'm done!!

Study resources:
Becker
Wiley test bank

[smeech8000]

Corporate Tax = 1.5 chapters* in REG

Advanced Accounting = ~1.5 chapters* in FAR

* Becker self-study

If you are forced to take one of the three classes I would recommend the Adv course that deals with consolidations and partnership liquidations. FAR contains so much material that having some familiarity with the material would be really helpful.

Time and money spent with quality review material is extremely valuable, especially if this is a career change and you aren't able to study full time due to family/life constraints.

B 92
A 99
R 90
F 92

Becker Self-Study

OH CPA since 2/18/14

[ridiqls]

Thank you everyone! Much appreciated.

And although adv accounting is = 1.5 chapters (As well as corp account) that makes me worried I won't understand the review materials and waste the $2000 because I don't have a foundation in it. But it looks like based on the advice here, only studying the review material is quite possible so I think I'll be doing that.

Not terribly thrilled about the test though!

[Kimboroni]

I am also an “older” student. I took all of the accounting classes that I needed for my certificate and the CPA education requirements, but then there was one more class that I debated about, Advanced Accounting. I ended up taking it, but via audit, which meant that I paid for it so that I could attend the lectures, but I didn't have to hand in homework or take tests. I also work full time and was studying for FAR, so auditing it was very helpful from a time standpoint.

My experience was that Advanced Accounting was very helpful for learning consolidation, but like Mamabear said it was way more detail than I actually needed for the CPA exam. And by the time we got to foreign currency and partnerships, I had already taught myself those from my review course.

I decided to go ahead and take the class since I didn't want to regret NOT taking it. But it didn't add very much to my studies for the CPA exam.

AUD 84 (1/9/14-Wiley books/TB + free materials)
FAR 83 (5/21/14-the above + NINJA 10 Pt Combo Lite)
REG 84 (7/9/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC/Notes)
BEC 76 (10/5/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC)

Disclaimer: My ninja avatar is not meant to imply that I have any affiliation with this site other than being a forum member. That's a pic of a T-shirt that my daughter gave me for my birthday. 🙂

[taxgeek83]

I didn't read through all of the posts, so my apologies in advance if this is redundant.

@mla1169 mentioned that you are likely going to need 150 credits, and to my knowledge, most, if not all, states require that to get licensed. If you have to take a few extra credits to meet your state's educational requirements, here's my advice:

My state requires, among other things, at least one upper-level class in each of taxation, audit, managerial accounting and financial accounting. If you think about it, each of those courses will give you a exposure to the topics of each of the four CPA exams. Again, though, if you don't absolutely have to take any college-level classes (though from your original post it seems like you are still working through a degree?), I would recommend finding a CPA review course, scheduling your first exam, and start knocking these things out.

Good luck!! 🙂

[Anonymous]

Just throwing this out there..if you don't take those 3 classes, and then discover that the review materials are hard to understand, there's nothing preventing you from going back and taking those.

Personally, I took Adv. Acct 1, but don't think it really helped me much. It was a tough class and due to a not-very-useful professor, I didn't learn much through it. I only took 1 tax class which was about 80% individual, 20% corporate, and 100% a joke! I didn't learn hardly anything from that class, but I did work in tax accounting (almost all individual focus) for about a year.

If you study your CPA materials thoroughly, they should be sufficient to get you through the exams.

[ridiqls]

So I'm hoping I'm making the right decision here. I have been working out possible schedules for my classes and if I take 18 units this fall (which is a LOT in my opinion), I can finish all of my CA CPA requirements. I've taken 3 this summer and they are 6 week courses. A bit challenging due to the fast pace nature.

During Fall, it will be 6 courses but they are somewhat staggered. Some of them are 8 week course ending in Nov, others are full 17 week courses that go through december.

Reading the advice above, it looks like my time might be better spent taking a good review course than going out of my way to take advanced or consolidations if I dont need to.

I'm going to be omitting Accounting 6 which is advance (Part I) and also Accounting 7 (part II) which is consolidations. Other topics covered would be non proft and government tidbits if I remember the course description.

I'm hoping I'm not missing out too much on this. I'm also hoping this won't affect my job in some way or getting a job.

I am very anxious to complete all my classes. The original plan was to take 3 classes this fall, then however many I can during the short winter session (usually they offer nothing, just the basics) and then 2 more in the Spring. But if I can double up this Fall that means I can finish a whole 6 months sooner. Spring semester ends in June.

Who knows, maybe those 6 months means passing 2 parts of the CPA..

[Monkey Wrench]

As a person that did not have advanced accounting in college, I would advise taking it if you can fit it in. Like others have said all the review courses will teach it, but sometimes its harder to learn something from a review course in an hour lesson compared to having feedback from a college professor.

[rfc63]

I recently did a post-baccalaureate program like yourself. No college course will help prepare you for the exam like a review course will (I took Roger). Therefore, if your goal is only to get certified then you should take only enough credits to qualify for the exam. However, it seems as though some of those classes (corporate tax in particular) would be required to get the certificate/degree. If you've come this far, why not take the classes necessary to get the paper? I had to take an additional two classes and now have my Accounting Certificate framed and hung up next to my Undergrad Diploma.

[ridiqls]

Update:

I need to take 3 more courses but have 5 to choose from. I will have to omit 2. Which of the following courses should I take and which should I skip?

– Corporate Tax/Taxation II (already took Individual income tax)

– Advanced Accounting

– Accounting Consolidations

– Cost accounting

– Audit

I am thinking Audit, Cost and Corporate Tax. I definitely think Audit is a must because there's an entire CPA section devote to it.

Which means me 2 options. I'm leaning toward corporate tax because I kind of want to work in Tax and maybe open my own practice one day but I have also heard that the tax classes don't really prepare you for actual tax work, they just teach you the concepts. I have already taken Individual Income Tax. I would prefer to omit this class if it's not going to be crucial for my advancement in breaking into tax work because a) It's freaking long. The longest class offered at a whooping 16 weeks duration. b) dry. boring. may be repetitive to what I've already taken

I have a lot of combinations I can work but ultimately I have to take 3 classes and have 5 to choose from. Please help me prioritize which ones are the most helpful primarily for the CPA exam. Then for career education (probably nothing since work exp is probably the best way to learn?)

[Anonymous]

I would take the courses you mentioned: Audit, Cost, & Corp Tax. These are heavily tested topics, which are very different from one another. Also, these are three separate fields of accounting you can pursue. I think that it would be very beneficial to get experience from these courses, not only for the exam, but for which career you may choose. And yes, you will learn more from working, but you will need the foundation.

My audit professor once told me (after I had already fulfilled my electives) that I would never pass the exam if I didn't take Consolidations & Partnerships…she was wrong.

[Author]

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