[Bear-Bear]

Hi guys!

I haven’t posted or even logged on since I got my final passing score last week. As I wait for all the paperwork to finalize (fingers crossed!), I wanted to make a post on here about what I learned during the process of studying for the CPA Exams. Maybe my methodology will help some folks out. I certainly hope so. I’ll also try to address some of the common questions people like myself used to ask about the exams. I am tremendously grateful for all the support and advice I received here, and wanted to kinda pay it forward. Feel free to ask questions.

First, the facts – I began studying for my first section on the first week of December. I sat for my final section the first week of September, nine months later. I passed all of them on the first try.

How much time did you spend studying? – I estimate a total of 900 hours spent studying on all sections combined. FAR took me 11 weeks to study for (more about this later), and the other sections 8 each. It’s hard to quantify, but I studied at least 3 hours every weeknight and at least 5 hours on Saturdays and Sundays.

Which materials did you use? – Wiley CPAExcel Gold, Wiley Test Bank, Ninja MCQ and Ninja Notes

What was your studying method? – My first section, FAR, took me 11 hellish weeks to study for. But I really had no idea what I was doing, and was pretty inefficient with my time. I truly believe that it could have been done in 8 weeks like the other sections. Once again, everyone is different, but I wanted to share my methodology. I gradually refined my personal 8-week study process as follows:

First 5 weeks – Complete the CPAExcel section. Read the lecture notes and complete every MCQ and SIM in the material as you go. Answer every one correctly. Don’t waste your time watching the video lectures or doing any supplementary material unless you are struggling particularly hard on a topic.

Last 3 weeks – Do Ninja MCQs like CRAZY. Do whatever it takes to get to the review stage, and try like heck to have your trending above 85% and your average above 75%. Want to speed up this process? Do more sets of New questions as opposed to random ones. If you accomplish this with days left to spare and are starting to memorize the Ninja questions, do MCQs from other test banks. Point being, you should be doing at least 200 MCQs every day during these three weeks, if not more. Any time not spent on MCQs should be spent reading and re-reading Ninja Notes. Read them 5 times during these three weeks, if not more. You should be absolutely SICK of looking at all Ninja products by the time exam day rolls around (no offense, Jeff!).

Take the day before the exam off. No studying at all. Clear your mind and go rock and roll!

In what order did you take the exams? – I took the exams in this order: FAR, BEC, REG, AUD. Everyone is different, but I highly recommend this approach and wouldn’t have done it differently. My rationale was as follows:

FAR – Had the reputation of being the most difficult. When I passed it on the first try, it gave me a TREMENDOUS confidence boost. Plus, I didn’t want the 18-month clock to be ticking while I tackled this beast.

BEC – I needed a “break” after FAR and wanted to take the “easiest” section so that I could have the psychological advantage of being halfway done.

REG – Took this one next because it is considered the second hardest exam, and because it was changing in 2017

AUD – process of elimination 🙂

Which exam was the hardest? – That’s a tough one. To me it’s between FAR and REG. FAR has an insanely large amount of material. Nothing will prepare you for the sheer volume of topics. None of it is really too brutal in and of itself, but it makes up for that with volume. The challenge will be retaining all you have learned. REG has a much smaller amount of material, but what’s there is absolutely horrible, brain-melting stuff. Thought you were studying to be a CPA, right? Well REG wants you to pretend you are studying to be a tax lawyer. Don’t like legalese and tax? Then you are in for a struggle. Because I scored slightly higher on REG, I’ll go ahead and say FAR was the hardest.

What would you have done differently? – I think I would have purchased the Ninja Ten Point combo instead of Wiley CPAExcel. Nothing against Wiley, because hey, I passed. But I think about the INSANE amount of benefit I got from Ninja MCQ/Notes relative to their price and I can’t help but think that I would have benefitted even more from the full Ninja materials.

Any other advice? – Yes. Let me ask you this, do you want to pass these exams? If so, then you need to eat, sleep, and breathe them. They demand respect, and will punish you with a fail if you don’t give it to them. Don’t rest each night until you have hit your benchmark (200 MCQs, 2 topics, etc. etc.). If you sleep 8 hours a day, then you have time to study! Sleep 5 hours instead! Do you want to be rested, stress-free, and relaxed or do you want to pass the CPA exams? Study until you are sick of it, and then study some more. If you are doing it right, you should genuinely HATE studying for the rest of your life by the time you are done. Best of luck.

[Wannafree]

Great details ! Thank you.

[Bear-Bear]

Forgot to mention regarding SIMS:

I still don't believe there is really any way to prepare for the SIMS specifically. In doing MCQs, you gain the knowledge necessary to answer SIMs. You get more bang for your buck spending 10 minutes doing 10 SIMS, which can potentially help you learn 10 different topics, as opposed to 10 minutes on 1 or 2 SIMS. That being said, I still did every SIM in CPAExcel, but it was more out of a sense of obligation than anything else. 🙂

[Anonymous]

Great stuff, but I disagree about the sleeping. Getting enough sleep is a bigger priority for me than studying. Studies show performance by those who don't get enough sleep is similar to those who have been drinking. Are you really going to prepare for the CPA by studying drunk? (Maybe you will! Heck, I've done it a couple of times because I was so miserable studying. But not all the time!)

Get enough sleep, at least most of the time. It is important to your health, and it will help you concentrate harder, comprehend more, and retain information longer.

[Author]

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