Non-Accounting Major Studying for CPA. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

CPA Exam Review Forum » General CPA Exam Forum » Study and Exam Strategy

Non-Accounting Major Studying for CPA. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

14 posts from 12 voices

Started 4 months ago by windmill090
Latest reply from FrenchToast

Tags:

No tags yet.

windmill090

offline
Member
Hi everyone,

I graduated with a finance degree a few years ago and have been working in financial control. I'm planning to start studying for the CPA, and I want to really understand the material well, not just superficially or the minimum to pass the test. What would you recommend?

How long do you think I should study for/quanitity of material I should cover considering I only had 2 accounting courses in college (101 and managerial). I know I'll have to take more classes before I can get the actual license.

Thank you very much,
Dmitry
Share this on Facebook
Tweet This!
Posted 4 months ago #
See Pee A

offline
Member

I would check requirements for your state. Per my knowledge, you have to have an undergrad degree in Accounting in order to be eligible to sit (even more requirements in some states). You can figure that out.

Regardless, you will need to spend some serious time learning the basics of accounting. Most review courses are just that, reviews. They do not TEACH the material as if you have never seen it. The 18-month window after you pass a section will be a serious constraint for you since I don't imagine you being able to learn that material for the first time and do so very quickly. I don't know anyone else who has done this, so I would imagine maybe you would benefit from taking a few financial accounting, tax and business law courses at a local community college or something. Anyone else have some more tips? This is a tough one! Good luck

BEC 86 (08/30/11)
FAR 84 (10/13/11)
REG 88 (11/08/11)
AUD 86 (11/29/11)

Exam prep - Becker self-study

Posted 4 months ago #
CPATerminator

offline
Member

acg is no joke.......if I hadn't seen topics such as pensions, factoring,gnfp, etc, etc, I would probably be running out of my house the moment I opened my review book.

FAR|2/27/12|PASS
AUD|4/16/12|PASS
BEC|5/31/12|I PROMISE I WILL PASS!!!!

Posted 4 months ago #
Marivy22

offline
Member

Hi windmill090,

You are part of my club. I have a bachelor in Finance + a Master in Accounting. Unfortunately, when I got my master the program was not CPA oriented, so I had to take 2 more accounting courses last year to be able to sit for the exam (under VA requirements). In order to sit for the CPA under FL rules, I still have to take 2 more accounting courses and 1 business law......so you can imagine that for now I am not going to spend that amount of money......So my recommendation will be to check with your board of accountancy all the requirements, and find a master program that will help you to get what you need, so you can either submit that for reimbursement with your current employer, take a student loan, or something like that (unless you can afford to pay all the classes).

As for the review courses, as See Pee A mentioned, they are just reviews, I think I have learned new things, but not at the level of detail that you may want.

Good Luck!!!

AUD – 8/15/11 79!!!!
FAR – 11/7/11 74 1/16/12 81!!!! Thanks GOD!!!!
BEC – 2/19/12 80!!!
REG - 4/29/12 70 :(

Posted 4 months ago #
That Cartoon Mouse

offline
Member

Ditto See Pee A. For California you have to have a certain number of units in accounting and a certain number in business-related stuff and you'll need a Bachelor's degree but it needn't be in accounting.

I have a degree in Political Science (which is not even a real science) and I took classes at my local university extension to get enough accounting and business units to sit for the exam. I took a bunch of the classes while I was unemployed and some when I was working -- they were nights and weekend classes so that worked out well. This was over the course of a couple years so it was not a cram on the weekend type thing.

Long story marginally shorter, I sat for the exams and passed them, so it is possible to pass the exams without a degree in accounting, you just have to take the equivalent of a degree's worth of accounting courses on your own. Since you have a degree in finance, you probably have enough business related units (if you were applying in California) and may have a couple accounting classes, but you'll probably need to take additional ones to meet the requirements. Again, check your state's board of accountancy for the minimum requirements to sit.

REG 82 (10/07/11)
BEC 88 (11/01/11)
FAR 86 (11/21/11)
AUD 82 (11/30/11)
----------
Roger CPA Review, live & cram course

Posted 4 months ago #
makinthemagic

offline
Member

Being a non accy major can be helpful. There is very little pure accy on BEC. A lot of that test is econ. I was an econ major as an undergrad, which I thought was a waste of time, until I nailed BEC. As for the other 3, I recommend taking some hard core accounting classes to bring you up to speed - intermediate and advanced financial, tax (corp + individual) and audit.

Bec 4/11/11 91
Aud 7/11/11 75
Reg 8/31/11 80
Far 5/24/11 86
Ethics - 98

Posted 4 months ago #
wat

offline
Member

Windmill, I was in your boat a year and a half ago. I had a Finance degree and had been out of school for 6-7yrs...been selling real estate. I had taken Business Law and Intermediate 1, both of which counted towards my 30hrs of upper-level credit. I went back to school and obtained the remaining hours to hit the 30 required of upper-level accounting. As well I now have 150 total.

I began studying for the CPA exam in mid April once my internship ended. I bought Yaeger and passed FAR, REG and BEC. Failed AUD the first time, and just took it again last week...hopefully passed it this go round.

As some have said you will be fine in BEC. It is a lot of financial ratios that you used in Finance, and several other "general business" topics.

First things first, you need to see what your state requires to sit for the exam, and then usually what it requires to get licensed once you pass the exam, as I know in GA these two are different. Allow yourself about 2mos to study for FAR, and probably 1.5mos for REG and AUD, and BEC can probably be done in a month. I have definitely been in your place. I think you are making a wise choice. This process from start to finish seems like it takes forever, but I personally cannot be happier with the choice I made. I am sure you will be as well.

FAR - 82
REG - 84
BEC - 88
AUD - 68, awaiting score from retake.

Posted 4 months ago #
75

offline
Member

I took all 24 accounting credits required in IL at a community college. If your state doesn't require upper level accounting classes, I'd recommend you doing that. Also check the 150 credit rule before starting.

I did struggle with some FAR topics and would advise you to start with FAR and budget lots of time for it. The other 3 exams are manageable if you've taken at least one class for every subject.

Finally a CPA :)

Posted 4 months ago #
windmill090

offline
Member

Hey Everyone. Thanks so much for the really supportive comments. I'm in NJ...it requires 24 accounting credits (and 120 credits total, with a few other rules I beleive...) to sit. My plan is to 'sit for' the Maine test, because Maine only requires a bachelors to sit. Then once I passed the test I can have it count my NJ license once I get my classes/ect. Below is a quote about this from NASBA that I'm going by.

(http://www.nasba.org/licensure/gettingacpalicense/howtogetlicensed/)
Where you take the exam is not dependent on where you intend to practice. CPA exam test scores can be transferred to any state for the purpose of getting a CPA license.

Was that also your guys/girls understanding that you can 'sit for' any state, then use that exam to fulfull the test requirement of any other state?

I'm planning to use Yaeger videos and Wiley books. I'm kind of nervous about not knowing what I'm getting myself into, but I'm very serious about it. The responses say to take classes in college, but I'm thinking I can probably swing it with the Yaeger videos and learning the Wiley book thoroughly. Wiley FAR is just over 1000 pages, I feel like if I understand that and can not only mechanically do the problems, but have some understanding about it, which I'm hoping Yaeger videos (I think over 50 hours for FAR) will provide, that I will be in decent shape. What do people think?

Thanks
Dmitry

Posted 4 months ago #
Hitemup27

offline
Member

@OP

I was a physiological science major in college, and I spent six months in dental school before I decided that route wasn't for me. I had ten quarter units of non-accounting classes when I started this process. Believe me, as someone who came from a background completely devoid of accounting experience, I felt that I needed to really learn the material, rather than just "pass the class".

I would say you need around 8-10 classes at a good extension program to cover enough areas to prepare you for what's on the test (or rather, what I've seen being tested so far). Make sure you have a good tax class (individual and corporate), an introduction to accounting course, a good auditing class and a good goverenmental/not for profit course.

I'm in California, so I was obviously required to take a whole slew of extra classes just to qualify to sit for the exam, but for the most part, they haven't helped me much. Then again, I haven't seen the FAR or BEC sections yet, so I may change my tune this summer.

A - 93 - 10/25/2011
R - 92 - 1/17/2012
B - 5/31/2012
F - TBD

"Can't you just remove the number on the AMT line?"
-Most memorable client quote from 2011 tax season

Posted 4 months ago #
mla1169

offline
Member

If I were you I would check with the state of NJ on transferring the requirements from Maine. Ultimately it is up to the discretion of the state and they may stll insist on additional requirements even though you may have a license in Maine. You may be correct but be sure you've researched it entirely (and as good as this message board is, still get it straight from the source). Ive read about many people who thought they understood certain requirements only to find out after suffering through the exam that they were mistaken.

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

If I can do this, YOU can do this! Hang in there :)

Posted 4 months ago #
That Cartoon Mouse

offline
Member

@windmill090 I've heard great things about Yaeger. One of my great accounting crushes used it and passed (though I used Roger and beat her by 2 points -- take that for not liking me!). Anyway, Yaeger, like all of these courses, is a review -- it does not teach as much as it reminds you what you have already learned. 50 hours on FAR sounds like a lot but that's because FAR is HUUUUGE and there is a lot to get through.

That said, there are some things it will teach you that might not be particularly well-covered by a typical college course -- government and nonprofit accounting, dollar value LIFO, IFRS, say -- but the primary purpose is review of material you've seen already.

I would think you need some facility with the language in order to understand the review, but if you're properly motivated you might be able to pull it off; it certainly doesn't seem impossible. The 18 month thing is what might get you -- Studying for FAR without prior courses will take forever (I took 32 hours of Roger for FAR but that was building on top of 200 hours in accounting classes and it still wasn't a cakewalk) and once you pass that the clock is ticking for the rest of them. Like I said, I don't think it'll be impossible -- you seem pretty motivated -- but you've chosen the hard route.

REG 82 (10/07/11)
BEC 88 (11/01/11)
FAR 86 (11/21/11)
AUD 82 (11/30/11)
----------
Roger CPA Review, live & cram course

Posted 4 months ago #
dianepage

offline
Member

I have an economics degree and got all my required accounting credits by taking low-cost online community college courses.

Worked really well for every course except the two federal taxation classes -- only one professor taught those online and he was not helpful, there were just canned quizzes and tests, no homework feedback, no explanations of concepts. The other professors were all just excellent in terms of responding to questions by email, etc.

Most helpful for me as applied to the exam were the Advanced Accounting and Accounting for Government & Non Profit courses.

Posted 4 months ago #
FrenchToast

offline
Member

I did the community college route over the last couple years (Illinois member, checking in). I'd agree with the others who have said this is the best route. Frankly, the classes I took were no joke. In many respects, the two intermediate accounting courses I took were definitely in my top five hardest classes ever -- and I graduated from a fairly respectable private university in 2009. The 3 exams per class were each about 20 difficult FAR sims, with a small section of IFRS true/false thrown in -- I honestly think I might have been able to pass FAR after those two classes alone (except for NFP and Government). After you spend three and a half hours, per test, drawing pension spread sheets, cash flow statements, and bond amortization schedules -- by hand -- anything multiple choice seems easy!

To that end, I certainly wouldn't underestimate community colleges from a knowledge-transfer standpoint, and frankly, they are a great value! I paid, literally, less than 10% of the credit hour cost my under-grad alma mater would have charged.

Posted 4 months ago #

RSS feed for this topic

CPA Exam Review Forum » General CPA Exam Forum » Study and Exam Strategy

Non-Accounting Major Studying for CPA. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Reply