[Liiyum]

Hi All,

I recently just passed the CPA and just wanted to share my journey/tips to what helped me pass this beast of an exam. I definitely could not have passed without the support of this forum and hope one day you guys all pass as well!

So my CPA journey began immediately after college (September 2016) and lasted a little more than a year (January 2018). I took the exam a total of 7 times (FAR, BEC, REG, AUD, REG, AUD, AUD) and while not the best scores, they were passes nonetheless. I prepped myself using solely Becker for my first 3 exams and supplemented with Surgent CPA and Ninja for my last attempt at AUD. My study routine was do one section a week (to really know the material) and that was done by: watch the lecture, do the MCQ and then re-do the wrong MCQ until I got it right. Then once finished I would give myself 2 weeks to review and do all the MCQ in one chapter a day (I always reviewed full-time). I only studied SIMS on the first exam because I wanted to get used to how the software worked. HOWEVER, take this with a grain of salt because I scored weaker on SIMS on ALL MY EXAMS except for REG (and that’s because I work in tax). When I took the tests, I never ran out of time and always had 1 hour, maybe 2 hours leftover because my thought process was “If I don’t know it now, then I probably won’t know it later” (probably not the best advice, but hey it worked for me)

So I chose to do FAR first because I heard it was the “hardest” exam and because I had not yet started work, I was able to study this full time. I gave myself 2.5 months for this one and still didn’t think it was enough time. FAR was the one I honestly don’t know how I passed because I completely skipped F10 (back when it was just a bunch of miscellaneous topics) and had no idea how to answer any of the SIMS. I did however scored “stronger” on all the MCQ, except for one which was comparable. For FAR, my motto is “Know 90% of the material 100%, rather than know 100% of the material 90%”. With FAR being so long, the chances of getting a smaller question is very rare as is, so it’s more important to focus on the main topics (Government, Pensions, Leases, Cash Flow, Revenue Recognition, Depreciaton, etc). Took FAR November 2016 and coming out of the exam, I felt terrible, MCQ were super difficult and SIMS I had no idea how to do any of them. I was expecting a score well below 75, but came out with a 79.

Next I studied BEC and originally wanted to cram it in 3 weeks (because I saw it as the easiest), but ultimately postponed to have a total time of 5 weeks. BEC was really easy for me to study because I had a strong economics and cost accounting background. Coupled with not having any SIMS and just WC, this test for me was a breeze. BEC is not like FAR or REG as you really need to make sure you know everything 100% (even the little topics). So I took this exam January 2017 right before I started work and came out of the exam feeling great and thought I got every question right. However, when scores came out, got another 79 which was puzzling to me. Scored stronger one 3 parts of MCQ and weaker on other 2, while Written Communication I got weaker.

I began studying REG in January 2017 and gave myself a little over 2 months to study for it. I studied well into busy season and seeings as I took no breaks, my brain was mentally tired from 4 months of non-stop studying and busy season. I completely skipped business law due to time constraints and focused solely on the tax portion. I took the test March 2017 and came out of the exam feeling in between how I felt for BEC and FAR. Scores came back and got a 69 (comparable on MCQ and weaker on SIMS). This was devastating for me because I had not yet failed an exam yet. So I decided to chill out until May 2017 before I started studying again. I re-took this exam in October 2017, again still skipping a good portion of business law and this time passed with an 83. Because I work in tax, I did not have to study that hard for this portion the second time around because a lot of the stuff I did in my first year translated to this portion of the CPA exam. REG being one of the longer exams, you can get away without knowing everything 100% like FAR. I would make sure you know tax 100%, ethics 100% and BLaw 70%. Ethics for this exam is mostly common sense, so that should be fairly easy in my opinion. I scored stronger in both MCQ and SIMS (only time) for this one. The SIMS were really close to what I did at work, so it was nice that the CPA exam had some realistic events of what you do. I think the difference between the fail and pass was because of my job and getting the experience.

Next up I started studying my Kryptonite, AUD in May 2017. In my opinion, I thought AUD was the easiest for me to study and never thought it would have been the test I’d have to take 3 times. This exam is very tricky due it being highly subjective and having to really have knowledge. I originally planned to take this exam in Q2, but it was hard for me to get back in to the study grind, so I didn’t take this until September 2017 (3 months). Coming out of the exam, I felt super confident and was expecting a score in the 90s, got a 69 (weaker in both) I was so confused because I felt confident in every question I answered. I reviewed for 2 months (definitely cut corners) and took it December 2017 and felt horrible coming out. This was the first time I ran out of time for an exam. The first fail scarred me, so I was literally double checking every MCQ to make sure I got it right. Because I never had time issues on any other exams, I didn’t even pay attention to the clock and ran out of time while on my second set of SIMS (most were blank). Ended up getting a 68 (weaker on both again). This exam in particular crushed me and really made debate whether or not I could pass this exam. I was expecting a fail because of literally leaving 6 SIMS blank, but when I saw I scored weaker on every portion of MCQ section, I realized Becker wasn’t prepping me well enough for AUD. I digged through the A71 forum and read good things on Ninja and Surgent CPA. I decided to get both because I really did not want to fail again. However, don’t get both, I recommend only Surgent CPA because they have the test bank, but better SIMS explanations. Anyways, I reviewed for 4 weeks (it was still fresh in my head) and took monster notes on everything that confused me. I studied MCQ and every SIM in the Surgent CPA test bank. Took my final exam January 2018 and finally came out with a pass of 79. I still scored weaker on SIMS but stronger in every portion of the MCQ. For AUD, make sure you know everything and in particular WHERE you are in the audit. Also, AUD is the one with no one clear direct MCQ answer. So when doing a MCQ, try to explain to yourself WHY the other answers are wrong, opposed to why yours is right. If you can poke a hole in any answer, that means it’s wrong!

So that was my CPA journey, I apologize for the long post, but hopefully my experience could help out at least one person! Opposed to what I did, I highly recommend practicing SIMS because I got lucky that my MCQ was able to carry my score for each exam so that way you don’t have to cut it so close like I did. This will probably be one of my last posts, but will monitor this post if any questions arise! This was quite the journey and couldn’t have passed without this forum, best of luck to you fellow Ninjas!