2009 AICPA Released CPA Exam Questions: Should Candidates Spend Time Studying Them?

20. Apr, 2009 38 Comments

The AICPA recently released their list of 2009 CPA Exam questions, which is something that they do on an annual basis. They release fifty questions or so per section, which is in addition to the questions that they license to the various CPA Review courses to use in their books.

Should candidates spend valuable study time going over them?

To answer this, I asked Phil Yaeger of Yaeger CPA Review.

His response is as follows:

“While I realize that there is some buzz about the 2009 AICPA Released Questions, I do not recommend that my students (or any other CPA candidates) spend time studying them. The reason for this is two-fold:

1. The questions that they released are old, retired questions that they have decided not to use on future exams. Candidates who spend time tryng to answer these questions are not only wasting their time on them, but also risk becoming frustrated because their review material hasn’t covered these topics. At a recent meeting with the AICPA they told us that these questions have been purged from their exam test bank and won’t be used in the future.

2. In our course we use the Wiley CPA Review textbooks and Practice software. There are several thousand good multiple choice questions and simulations to work on and study from. Within our DVD lectures, we go over close to a thousand questions and simulations. WHY go over Released Questions that you’ll never see again? There are more than enough good, worthwhile, questions to study from. We carefully choose questions that we believe best represent how to apply important concepts. We teach concepts and use questions to reinforce solid understanding.

I do not recommend that my students spend their time and energy on the 2009 AICPA Released Questions. Their time would be much better spent reviewing their notes or working the Yaeger-assigned questions in the Wiley books. The questions that we assign and review in our DVD lectures will appear on the CPA Exam, wheras the AICPA Released Questions will not be on the Exam.”

I’m always here to help,

Phil Yaeger, CPA, CFP, PhD

Yaeger CPA Review 1-800-824-2811

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Daniell Blue under this Creative Commons license.

Big Z 29. Jun, 2009 at 5:59 pm

It can't hurt to look at them but then again I think any time you are studying you will walk away a better person

i think the worse thing you can do is ……to not work problems and just read the solutions
Big Z 29. Jun, 2009 at 7:59 pm

It can't hurt to look at them but then again I think any time you are studying you will walk away a better person

i think the worse thing you can do is ……to not work problems and just read the solutions
procrastinator 15. Oct, 2009 at 8:20 am

ahhh…in the time spent reading all this back and forth I could be done with the stupid questions.
Keva 02. Dec, 2009 at 12:16 pm

I have read all the posts, there are obviously two extreams, and i think candidates need to know this. Now follow me: Questions are released for the following 2 reasons:
(1). They are retired and will not be used again; or
(2). They are duplicated and one needs to be removed.

The idea is, if we study the released question we will have a better shot as to how exam questions are structured. Listen to Jeff as to the questins in the Text – they are liscence questions from AICPA. But u need to go through as much as u can.
Ashley 28. May, 2010 at 3:02 pm

I would definitely suggest CPA candidates study these released questions. I have seen questions on the exams almost identical to many of these questions. Many of them have different names or numbers, but studying the released questions ensures your understanding of how to work these problems. That is what is important-that you understand the concepts, not memorizing. I always studied these questions a day or two before my exams.
Sven 20. Jul, 2010 at 3:41 pm

I think it is beneficial to review these questions – at least to get an idea of the question structure and see how you are going with the material you have already reviewed. No harm done in reinforcing/ confirming your knowledge and understanding.
Jeff - another71.com 21. Jul, 2010 at 4:52 pm

It’s up to you…I think I made a pretty clear case for why it’s a waste of time, but everyone should do what they feel is best.

Thanks for leaving the comment, btw…appreciate it.
Kathy 29. Jul, 2010 at 9:44 pm

I took BEC today and one of the problems that were released and given as hw in the becker software was on my test today so these questions do help. Practicing them gives you an idea of what you need to know.. better to be safe than sorry and just practice