As a former CPA Exam candidate, I understand how hard it is to balance work, family life, and the CPA Exam.

I studied for the Exam with three kids.

In addition, I think I have a good feel for the amount of time it takes for each exam and how many weeks it takes to fit it all in.

I have developed a CPA Exam study plan that is customizable according to your schedule.

If you’re not a morning person, you can adjust the sheet and make up for it elsewhere. If weekends are not an option, you can change that too and the sheet will adjust.

I have also allocated one “night off” each weeknight into the plan.

These plans are realistic and represent what it truly takes to pass the Exam – BUT STILL HAVE A LIFE.

Also – if you only have 3 weeks to do a full study program for your section, you can adjust the plan.

It includes a morning, lunch, evening, and weekend study option.

If studying at lunch isn’t feasible, allocate those hours to the evening – or the weekends, wherever they will fit.

Also, each section comes with a topical checklist that allows you to chart your progress for each topic using the Video/Notes/MCQ methodology that I recommend.

This is the study method that I had success with.

Each section is $2.95, or you can buy the complete set for $7.95.

These CPA Exam study plans are now a Club 75 member benefit and people really like them.

To Your Success,

-Jeff

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Different people have their own opinions on which section of the CPA Exam they should take first. Some say to take the “easiest” section (i.e. whatever section best fits your background best) first so that you have a “quick win” under your belt.

I have a friend who is a Certified Management Accountant and a Certified Internal Auditor and he took Business Environment and Concepts first because it fit his background better than the other sections. He sat for BEC, then Auditing, Regulation, and finished with Financial Accounting and Reporting.

My personal advice is to take the “hardest” section first, which is generally regarded as Financial Accounting and Reporting. The reason behind this is the “18 month rule”. You want your 18 month clock to start after you have passed the hardest exam.

If you put FAR off until the end, and struggle with a few sections along the way, you could potentially be putting yourself in a position where the 18 month clock is going to expire and you have one shot at passing FAR before you lose Auditing or whatever section it may be.

It’s best to get FAR out of the way first, in my opinion.

This is an excerpt from 50 Things You Must Know About the CPA Exam.

Download it instantly to read more.

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Failing the CPA Exam is normal, but frustrating.

Your heart races with anxiety as the score page from NASBA loads.

Nothing.

Well, nothing except Error: Score not found. Please verify Section ID Number and Date of Birth format and re-submit, which is the same thing it has said the past five times you’ve checked in the last hour.

A few minutes of casual internet browsing pass and you come back to the score page to check “just one last time”.

Elliott, Jeffrey

71

Hours of preparation and sacrifice down the drain. Thoughts of vacation days wasted, and weekends absent from friends and family add insult to injury.

Here are some tips for dealing with failure on the CPA Exam:

1. Honest evaluation of yourself

It’s time to come clean – at least to yourself. Did you give 110% or was it more like a 65% effort? While you were “studying at the coffee shop” were you watching CPA review lectures or was it YouTube? The frantic typing on your laptop that could be heard from 2 tables away – were those CPA Exam notes or where you commenting on pictures of your friend’s weekend indiscretions that were posted on Facebook? While your spouse was watching the kids – did you turn up the heat and knock out a section of FAR or did you take a “much deserved mental break” and watch tv episodes on Hulu? Just asking.

If you started to feel a little guilty reading this…you already know what needs to be done.

2. Honest evaluation of your review materials

Are you trying to study Auditing with 2007 books that you purchased off of eBay? Are you crazy? – those were written in 2006 and you’re taking a 2009 exam. Did you go cheap when you bought your flatscreen tv? No – you just had to have a 52 inch 1080 instead of a 46 inch 720. Yet, for some reason you’re sitting there studying for this beast of an exam using 3 year old study material…ironically with your expensive flatscreen blaring in the background.

Throw that garbage away and get NEW CPA Exam review materials. You’re studying outdated information that could very well be the difference between passing and a 74. Go cheap on that engagement ring – NOT your CPA review materials. She’ll never know it’s a CZ anyway. Her friends won’t be able to get over how shiny and perfect it looks and you’ll be a hero…AND a genius because you passed the CPA Exam…which means you must be “really good at math”.

3. Honest evaluation of your schedule

So, you work 45 (or 65+ during busy season) hours a week and try to get in a little study time between going to the gym, the TV shows you recorded on your DVR, and seeing family and friends.

Great – at this pace you’ll be ready for FAR in 6 months. It’s time to get medieval on your study schedule.

If you’re not studying 20 hours a week…you’re not studying.

Wake up an hour and forty-five minutes earlier than normal…the first 30 minutes will be spent stumbling around, hating life, cursing the exam, and making coffee. The next 15 minutes will be spent checking e-mail and Twitter. You know you’re going to do it, so plan for it. This clears the way for a solid hour of studying.

1 extra hour a day Mon-Fri = 5 hours of studying a week

Bring your lunch to work…eat for 15 minutes…and study the next 45 minutes.

45 minutes at lunch Mon-Thurs (eat out with friends on Friday) = 3 hours of studying per week

Studying at Home:

If you’re single, your schedule is much more flexible and you could feasibly study 4 hours a night if you wanted to at home. If you have a significant other or a family – the following applies to you:

If you have kids – get them in bed by 8:30 (many times a laughable proposition with the repeated requests for drinks of water, needing one more hug, too hot/cold, and the sudden urge for them to declare their birthday wish list even though it’s still 10 months away – but still try for 8:30)…watch an hour of TV or whatever with your spouse…study from 9:30 to 11:00. This still puts you in a prime spot to get to sleep early enough that you can get up early as mentioned above.

1.5 hours studying Mon-Thurs (Friday is a night off of studying) = 6 hours of studying per week

Grand total for weekday studying: 14 hours

Saturday/Sunday:

You don’t have to kill your weekends in order to be a good CPA candidate. You also don’t have to be AWOL from your family and friends. Three hours a day each day on Saturday/Sunday is all you need to get 20 hours of CPA Exam study time per week.

If you have kids – spend time with them in the morning…study during nap time (if applicable) and you have the rest of the evening with them as well.

That’s 20 hours a week of studying for the CPA Exam and you barely had to alter your schedule or lose out on time with family and friends.

Following this study plan, you could conceivably be ready for:

FAR in 6-7 weeks

REG in 5-6 weeks

AUD in 3-4 weeks

BEC in 3-4 weeks

It sounds simple – and it is. It’s the schedule that I used to finally pass the CPA Exam and if you have failed a section and are looking for a new approach, I recommend that you give it a try.

Thanks for reading.

-Jeff

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There are many people who read this site who have already sat for at least one section of the CPA Exam. However, there are many people who are getting ready to sit for the first time and don’t know what to expect. This is a list of things that I learned over the course of my (long) journey to being a Certified Public Accountant. Hopefully you can gleam at least one useful bit of information from my experience.

-Jeff

CPA Exam Tips for Success – What to Expect on Exam Day:

1. You will find that the exam questions for the most part are not as “wordy” as the questions you have practiced and seem a little more straightforward. Chances are, the practice MCQs in your materials are a collection of the more-difficult questions that you can encounter on the CPA Exam. I’ve always left the testing center feeling like the actual exam is easier than the practice questions.

2. It will be the fastest 2.5 to 4.5 hours of your life.

3. You cannot be a perfectionist on your exam. If you get stumped and sit there stubbornly for 10 minutes trying to figure something out, that’s 8 minutes that you just cheated yourself on your second simulation.

4. If you’re stumped and can’t get any number to work out, choose B or C – you have a 30% chance of getting it right. A and D are correct 20% of the time.

5. Don’t take breaks. Exception: If you are extremely sleepy – take a break. Go into the bathroom and literally do jumping jacks. Grab a Starbucks “Frappachino” thing (store it in your locker or better yet – your coat pocket and grab it as you walk down the hall) that you get at a convenience store (cold, glass bottle) and slam it and get back in there.

6. Don’t forget your NTS and two IDs that are SIGNED. One needs to be a picture ID like a driver’s license and the other can simply be a signed credit card. Don’t make the mistake of having all of your credit cards say “see photo ID” like I did. It might be a good idea to make a copy of your NTS and stick it in your glove box. The worst than that can happen is if you arrive for check-in at the testing center and don’t have your NTS or IDs.

7. Once the facilitator at Prometric gets your computer up and running and you sit down – don’t assume that you have all day to start writing mnemonics on your scratch paper. One candidate who reads this site sent me an e-mail saying that he sat for BEC and decided to write out all of his formulas before beginning the exam. He found himself locked out due to time expiration (you get something like 10 minutes – READ THE SCREEN) and not only did he not get to sit for his exam that day – he forfeited his exam fee and he had to wait until the next testing window to take the exam. Talk about a nightmare exam experience.

8. When you get to the simulations – do the memo first ~ this is especially important on the 2nd simulation when time is scarce. The simulations combined are worth 30 points and the memos are 10 of those points. To put it another way – the memos are worth ten percent of your grade. Make them your number one priority on the simulations. If you have to skip something on the 2nd simulation because time is running out – skip the research tab. LEAVE NOTHING BLANK. If one minute is left on the exam and you have a tab with a bunch of blanks, fill in something – anything. A wrong answer and a blank answer give you the same number of points – zero. You may get lucky if there’s a drop-down menu for the answers and you’re guessing.

9. If you haven’t practiced the research function online at cpa-exam.org…DO IT. You will spend 10 minutes trying to figure it out on the exam if you don’t.

10. Get at least 6 hours of sleep the night before and if you’re a coffee drinker, drink your normal amount of coffee – but don’t pound a gallon 15 minutes prior to the exam. You will have to pee and you may be on question 15 of the 30 question testlet and you can’t leave until the testlet is complete.

11. Relax. People take this exam every day (or at least they do eight months out of the year…you know what I mean). Give it your best shot and to use a sports analogy … “leave it all out there on the field”. You may be tempted to get lazy and rush through your 3rd testlet because you’re bored to death or because you think you’re doing miserably. Don’t. There will be plenty of time to go drink a beer (or whatever) after the exam. Focus focus focus while you’re in there. Stay alert and work your tail off. The extra focus and extra attention to detail on the final 5-10 questions of testlet three could be the difference between you passing and having to re-take (and re-study) your exam section.

12. If you fail – congrats…you’re a normal candidate. It take an abnormally strong effort to pass the CPA Exam. The average candidate fails their exam (historical pass rate of around 45-50%). Your study prep and exam performance needs to be above average. You need to adjust something – and only you know what that is. Don’t make excuses…just identify it…change it (i.e. – starting LOST Season 1 on Netflix is not the right thing to do while you’re preparing for FAR)…and execute.

13. Good luck.

Clock photo courtesy of Flickr user Matt Callow under this Creative Commons license.

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I receive e-mails with questions like these on a regular basis, so I’ll give my $.02 on the following topics:

1. “How many MCQs should I do…”

2. “What was your overall strategy for FAR and REG since you passed them most recently?”

3. “I’m seeing MCQs not specifically mentioned in my lectures, should I be worried?…”

***

Question 1: “How many MCQs should I do…”

In short, as many as you can…but you already knew that. I’ll get more specific in question 2.

***

Question 2: “What was your overall strategy for FAR and REG since you passed them most recently?”

I realize that not everyone who reads this site uses the same study materials that I did (but if you aren’t passing with your current materials – you need to buy Yaeger HomeStudy if you scored a 69 or below previously, or Yaeger’s Cram DVD for previous scores of 70-74 – use it, pass, and move on with your life…), but it’s what I used for my final attempts at FAR, REG, and BEC.

I passed BEC using the Yaeger Cram DVD, so for purposes of overall exam strategy from start to finish, I’ll use REG and FAR as an example since I used their HomeStudy course.

The material for FAR and REG are voluminous – especially FAR. The people who take the approach of just buying a book and studying without video lectures are crazy in my opinion, but more power to them. It’s like trying to find a downtown restaurant in a big city you’ve never visited before using a roadmap when GPS is readily available.

FAR has so much material that even whittled down to the stuff you “must know” – the Yaeger FAR video set is still 13 DVDs. So – make sure you are using great materials that are up to date.

Once you have your materials in place and you’re ready to go – this is what I would do (again, using Yaeger as an example)…

1. Watch the videos, but don’t read the book.

This probably doesn’t go for all review courses, but it does go for Yaeger: if you watch the DVD lectures – you don’t need to read the book. Do you need the book? Absolutely. You don’t have to read the book, but you do have to follow along with the instructor page by page and mentally absorb what they’re saying.

Personally – I hate reading textbooks – one of the reasons why Yaeger “clicked” with me.

2. Take INSANE notes

Highlighting in a book doesn’t work for me. For one – highlighting requires coming back to that particular page in the future in order for highlighting to do any good (and when your book is a monster like FAR ~ revisiting every page is a chore). Two – you’re highlighting text that is written in GAAP-ese…it means nothing to you. You need to take the particular fact sequence in question and make it your own so that you understand it and write it in such a way that you will understand it 5 weeks from now when you’re doing your final exam review.

Is it a chore? Yes.
Will you start to gag as you pull your third legal pad from the pack and you’re only on DVD 3 out of 13? Yes.
Will it pay off in the end? Yes.

An added benefit of doing this is that CPA review material, which is very boring by nature, will not seem as boring because you’re actively learning – you’re participating while you learn – you’re “doing” instead of mindlessly staring at the screen wishing you were watching something from Netflix instead of a CPA review course.

I was never a big note taker until I realized that it helps to pass the time much quicker. It makes you feel like you’re “happening” to the material instead of it happening to you while you furiously try to keep up with the lecturer. By the way – it’s ok to hit “pause”. I probably halved the useful life of my space bar by hitting it to pause the video as I took notes.

3. Save all MCQs until you’re finished with all of your lectures.

Take this one with a grain of salt. If you’re a Phil Yaeger student – this goes against what he teaches you to do. He’s an expert on the exam – and his way is the “best” way because the more MCQs you do over the course of studying – the better you will be. He tells you to work the assigned MCQs after each Module in Wiley. For me, it was a motivation thing. I felt that as long as I had a mountain of DVD lectures ahead of me, I lost motivation to study. SO ~ my solution was to charge ahead full steam and finish the DVDs as quickly as possible (but still take insane notes)

What worked for me was to wait until I had finished all 13 DVDs (using FAR as an example) and then work the MCQs starting from the first Module. For one, it’s the motivation thing as I mentioned and second, you’re going to have to do them again anyway after you finish the lectures, and I didn’t want to do them twice.

Again – Phil Yaeger is the guy with the CPA, PhD, etc. I’m the guy who sat for the exam 14 times…so take this with a grain of salt. Phil is the driver’s ed instructor telling you to keep your hands at “10 and 2″. I’m the stupid guy driving down the interstate going 80 mph eating a McDonald’s value meal, talking on the phone, and adjusting my iPod all the while steering with my knee. Both methods will get you there…but one is much riskier than the other.

4. Take INSANE notes over the MCQs

Yaeger has a list of “minimum” questions to do in the Wiley book and if you’re a Yaeger student – don’t even think about heading to the exam without doing all of them. They hand-picked this list that gives you your biggest bang for your buck. It’s an “if you do nothing else – do THESE” sort of thing.

As you work the Yaeger-assigned MCQs – take excellent notes over every question that you either miss (do the question and flip to the answer…or just tear out the answers and staple them together)…or think you might forget. This is key: it isn’t what you can answer in week one – it’s what you can answer in week 5,6,8…whatever week you sit for the exam.

If you think you might forget that financial capital maintenance concepts are GAAP, but physical capital maintenance concepts are not GAAP – WRITE IT DOWN.

After you work your assigned “minimum” MCQs, work mini twenty question testlets over each topic using your practice software. After you’re done, if you’re still not sure about which accounting changes are treated prospectively vs restatement, work a 20 question testlet over the topic doing random questions assigned by the software. Again – take notes.

5. Take a week and re-write your notes

It sounds crazy, and it does take a lot of time, but it WILL pay off. I did this for REG (92). I did not do this for FAR (76). You be the judge. Also – as you re-write your notes, there will be things that you wrote initially as you furiously scribbled away that you don’t find relevant for your final review, or is a redundant item. If you take the time to do this, the end result will be a comprehensive set of final review materials that are written in a way that you understand and are devoid of any excess or non-essentials. Also – you will absorb the material better by re-writing it than you would merely reading it again.

6. Review

I recommend spending the day before your exam doing nothing but reading your final exam review notes. I wouldn’t do questions…you’ve already done hundreds (thousands?) of them by now. Try to read through your notes at least three times. If you’ve done it right, you have an impressive stack of notes and the material is dense. It could take the better part of a day to do this, so consider taking the day off of work. I would also read through them one more time 1-2 hours before your exam on exam day.

7. PASS

***

Question 3: “I’m seeing MCQs not specifically mentioned in my lectures, should I be worried?…”
No, you should not be worried…just realize that working exam problems is part of your review course. Your instructors simply cannot cover every topic and every angle of a topic. Their goal is to cover the material in-depth enough to where you can score a 75.

No one knows exactly what will be on the exam, but your instructors should have a good idea of what will be on it and put you in a position to win with a combination of what they teach on the lectures and the questions that they assign.

The lectures give you the foundation. The questions give you the application. Another reason why I liked Yaeger so much was the hundreds of MCQs that they work as they lecture over a topic. They teach a concept for 3-4 minutes and then work three or four MCQs to reinforce what they just taught. It’s the best of both worlds.

Good luck everyone.

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There were two people who asked about this in the REG discussion for this month, and I found it worthy of a post. Time management on the CPA Exam is critical for REG and FAR. AUD and BEC? – not as much.

REG is probably the worst exam in terms of time management. They only give you 3 hours to cover 72 MCQs and two sims.

Ideally, you would have 50 minutes per sim, which only leaves you a little over a minute per MCQ. This is not reality.

In all likelihood, you’ll spend about 35 minutes per MCQ testlet, 50 on your first sim and about 25 on your second sim. It took me 4x to get through REG and I was consistently left with 15-25 minutes to finish the last sim and I never fully finished it. I got close this last time…I left one tab unanswered.

You can plan all you want, but you will encounter frustrating questions that leave you seeing red because you can’t get any of the answers to work out and before you know it – you’ve spent 5 minutes on ONE question. After you hit the 3 minute mark – you have to move on. Guess B or C and keep going. If you nit-pick every question, you’ll fail for sure.

Realistically for REG…

Testlet 1: 35 minutes
Testlet 2: 38 minutes
Testlet 3: 40 minutes
Simulation 1: 50 minutes
Simulation 2: 18 minutes

…is what you will encounter, give or take. You will probably fly through the 1st testlet…the 2nd will be harder because you’re doing well and the 3rd will take longer due to difficulty (if you’re doing well still) and fatigue. You will hit a wall somewhere in the early 3rd testlet and you have to “push” on through it so to speak.

They key is to move on physically and emotionally after encountering difficult questions. If you keep thinking “I didn’t know that last one…I’m going to fail” – you will have a self-fulfilling prophesy.

If you get into your 2nd simulation and discover that don’t have near enough time to finish it, you need to score your easy points. First, write the memo. It’s worth 5% of your overall grade (10% total between the two sims). Second, do the research tab. This should only take a few minutes and it’s a few easy points. Take it from someone who scored 74 twice on REG – those easy points could make a difference when it’s graded.

Finally, answer all of the tabs that you can. If there is a tab with some simple answers based on fact patterns that you know without reading the whole drawn out simulation case facts, answer them. If you’re down to 1 minute left on the exam – don’t leave anything blank. You get points for what you answer correctly – not what you got wrong.

The key is to be cool under pressure and remember: if you find your exam to be brutal – it’s probably because you’re doing well. Take a deep breath and work your way through it.

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One of the advantages of a program like Yaeger that will work on any DVD player (home or computer) is that you can control how fast the DVD plays. In the case of Yaeger DVDs, I have found that I can watch the video, take notes, and work the questions with the instructor and cut out 1/3 of the time.

I haven’t gotten Windows Media Player to do this effectively for me yet, but my laptop comes with a program called WinDVD by InterVideo that has a time stretch function that allows you to choose how fast the DVDs play. I typically watch the videos at 1.3x to 1.5x, depending on how fast the instructor speaks naturally.

My method of watching the Yaeger DVDs is as follows:

1. Turn up the time stretch to 1.3x and get used to it.
2. Turn it up to 1.5x
3. Hit pause to take notes (I hit pause to take notes regardless of how fast the video is going so that I don’t miss anything).
4. When the instructor says to do MCQs ___, ___, and ____, I hit pause, work the problem and then hit play again to see if I was right, then hit pause again and work the next problem.

How much time does this save? About 14 minutes per lecture on 1.3x and 20 minutes per lecture on 1.5x. I don’t go any faster than 1.5x.

This method of viewing cuts down on time spending viewing the lectures, but I haven’t found any decrease in comprehension. I used this method for REG and it was effective. When Cindy lectures I cut it down to 1.3x because she’s a faster speaker than Michael (both are Yaeger instructors), who I watch at 1.5x.

Over the course of 13 FAR DVDs, this will save you 13-17 hours of viewing time. It’s something to consider if you can handle the faster conversation speed.

Important: If you try it and you don’t feel like you’re processing everything – drop the speed back down to 1.0 if you need to.

Everyone is different. Some people can comprehend everything at 1.75x, but that’s beyond my comfort zone. I will throw out the disclaimer that this is not for everyone, but since I am using this method and like it – and have had success with it, wanted to pass it along.

If your DVD player doesn’t have a time stretch feature, then WinDVD is $60. Like I said, I can’t get Windows Media Player to work properly with it because the audio doesn’t play – just the video.

For what that’s worth…

Thanks for reading.

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Studying for the CPA Exam is time consuming and it seems like it’s all one can do to just get through the material once and do the requisite MCQs prior to sitting for their exam. However, if you slow down and take notes while studying (in lieu of highlighting), I think it will pay big dividends.

When I highlight something, I rarely come back to it. For one, it requires flipping back through the book material, which I am not likely to do. Once I’m done with a section, I’m doing MCQs over the material and moving on to the next chapter. What I have found is that I am likely to forget what I learned, save for some nuggets that I pick up or remember/reinforce via multiple choice questions.

For Regulation, this go-around I ditched the Excel method of taking notes and went old schoool with a legal pad. I wrote down every little blurb and nuance that I thought I would forget 4 weeks from now when I was doing a final review. I did this for tax only (Yaeger has a great Law and Ethics handout that they give you…taking notes isn’t necessary for this part). Before I knew it, I had over fifty pages of notes.

A week prior to my exam, I re-wrote my notes and condensed them using sheets of graph paper with 2 columns on each page. I separated them by section (Indiv, Corp/S Corp/, Gift/Estate, Partnerships) and stapled each section together. They served as an excellent cram tool as well.

I took them with me to the testing center and read them one last time prior to walking in the door…it was very effective for short term memory purposes. Using Yaeger’s HomeStudy and taking notes in this manner was instrumental in scoring high on REG. I highly recommend it. This was the first time I had taken notes this way and will be doing it again for FAR.

If you’re trying to conquer a section that has thus far been a thorn in your side (BEC anyone?) or are taking a section for the first time, give this method a try. It’s a throw-back to college days, but I’m convinced that it works better than highlighting alone.

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I spent the last week on vacation with my family in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. We only had one DVD with us (“Cars”) and my boys were sick of watching it at night, so we bought “Meet the Robinsons”. It’s a great movie as far as animated flicks go, but as I tuned in here and there, I came across a scene about failure and the theme of “Keep Moving Forward” that was derived out of a quote by Walt Disney long ago.

I immediately thought of the CPA exam, as I often do since it’s plagued my memory for the past 3 years and I found it very applicable to the process of studying for and taking the Exam. Then, I read about a CPA Exam candidate who had scored in the low 60’s and they were wondering if they should throw in the towel or if maybe there was still some hope for them.

My initial motivation for creating this site was because I was extremely frustrated with myself that I had failed BEC yet again and felt like venting. At the time, I felt like the dumbest person in the world. I was 30 and still hadn’t passed the stupid CPA Exam and I was wondering if I in fact was cut out for accounting.

I considered quitting the CPA Exam altogether. I was sick of the time. I was sick of sending NASBA money. I was sick of exam day anxiety. I was sick of the ridiculous 4 week minimum to get your results back. I was ready to move on. Surely I could get a job in…marketing?

Then, I thought about the future. I have 3 boys ages 5 and under. When times got tough for them…when life didn’t quite go their way, how could I look them in the eye and tell them not to quit and to get up and try again if I myself packed it up and quit the biggest challenge of my life? I don’t work in public accounting anymore and passing the CPA Exam is more of an aside on my resume because I don’t plan on using it in an official setting ever, so continuing with this exam is for 1. my pride 2. my boys and 3. my wife won’t think that all of those weekends where she kept the boys out of my hair so that Dad could study would be all for naught.

The purpose of this site quickly found an identity in that it exists to tell other candidates that hey – if you’re struggling with this exam, you’re not alone. The only stories you really ever hear are about your smart classmate or co-worker who aced the exam on their first try. You don’t really hear too many people admit that they didn’t pass the Exam the first…or second…or third try. I’ve been open about my failures on this exam so that maybe other people would be spurred on to keep fighting and would hopefully realize that they are not alone.

Which brings me back to struggling CPA Exam candidate…

If you have the intellectual wherewithal to qualify and meet the prerequisites to take the CPA Exam, then you can pass the CPA Exam. I believe that the Thomas Edison quote “Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration” is very relevant to the CPA Exam taking process. I have never found myself being too-dumb to pass the Exam. I’ve always left the testing center kicking myself for not working harder.

If you’re a bad test-taker…work on being a better test taker.

If you have 3 kids and work full time and don’t have the time or energy to study…change your schedule…stay up later and get up earlier…that’s no excuse (I’m preaching to myself here).

If you’re working your tail off, but are getting bad results on practice tests…either get new material or figure out where you’re going wrong.

The bottom line is: everyone who is studying for this exam can pass it.

There is no score that can’t be overcome and there are no character weaknesses that can’t be beaten. The point is – STICK WITH IT.

Forget your co-worker who looks down his nose at you for not passing (no one likes him and he never gets invited for beers after work anyway). Forget your uncle who passed the exam back when they had to walk uphill both ways through the snow to take the old paper and pencil edition (this version of the exam is much broader and you have to know more information…thank you SOX and BEC).

Finally, forget the fact that you didn’t pass REG or FAR or whatever the last time you took it. Your performance last time has zero bearing on your success this time around.

Whether you scored a 60, 71, or a 74 – KEEP MOVING FORWARD. Keep fighting. Keep making progress.

Sometime in the future, you will have 3 letters by your name and these temporary setbacks will all be a distant memory.

(If not…there’s always marketing).

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Note – this CPA Exam strategy tip is no longer valid. NASBA has since corrected this glitch. It adversely affected me at the time, but has since been corrected.

-Jeff

Note – someone left a comment that said that NASBA has fixed the glitch that won’t allow you to retake a section when you have other sections left on your NTS. I hope that this is the case.

As a jaded veteran of the CPA Exam process, I’ve learned a few quirks and tricks along the way and want to share them in hopes that people can learn from my mistakes.

Tip for Success: Don’t register for more than two sections on your initial NTS

I learned this one the hard way. It was Fall 2005 (3 years ago?…yeah, I know…insert excuse here_______) and I had just gotten back the word that I failed FAR – my first section, with a 70. I felt like the most worthless person in the world, but I was going to persevere and get right back on the horse and take FARE again in the next window, right? Wrong.

When I sent in my initial application and then my subsequent Notice to Schedule, I paid for all 4 parts because I was going to pass all four parts the first time obviously, so why go through the redundancy and hassle of getting more than one NTS?

Well, what they don’t tell you in the non-existent fine print and what will garner little more than an “oopsy” from the NASBA customer service rep is that once you get an NTS, you must sit for all parts on your NTS before you can re-take a failed section on that same NTS.

The NASBA rep explained that it’s a glitch in their software that causes this ridiculousness. “Is anyone going to get around to fixing it?” I asked. “uhhhh…I don’t think so,” she said.

Nice.

SO – if you pay for all four sections and don’t pass the first one, kiss your short term memory of the subject goodbye and we’ll see you in 6 months when you sit for it again.

Even if you’re going to knock the exam out in 1 attempt for each section (weren’t we all?), it still makes sense to get an NTS for a maximum of two sections at a time – that way you’re not chained to AUD, REG, BEC when all you want to do is re-study some cash flow statements and not for profits and go take FARE again.

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I’m working my way through Yaeger CPA Review’s Regulation HomeStudy program and I’m finding that I need to make notes of rules/exceptions so that I won’t forget them when I take the Regulation Exam in a month.

This practice will work with any section of the CPA Exam, but is especially helpful I think with Regulation due to the nature of taxation and rules and exception to the rules.

As I watch the video and work my way through the book, instead of taking notes on a piece of paper or writing in the book, I pause the video and type the note in an Excel workbook and make a tab for each module.

If you don’t already have a system for taking notes, consider this as a helpful option.

***Update Post***

How I took notes for Regulation…

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Yaeger CPA Review is offering this site’s readers an exclusive discount on their materials. Click here for details.

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For all of the NTS renewals I’ve done over the last couple of (gasp) years, I have yet to subscribe to the professional literature access offered by NASBA. I’ve paid enough $$ in exam fees that they should give me a lifetime subscription.

If you have a good study package, this is probably just a distraction, but it could interesting to mess around with and it’s yours free for six months if you have an NTS.

Get the subscription here from NASBA.

A description from cpa-exam.org:

“CPA exam candidates can get a free six-month subscription to professional literature used in the computerized CPA Examination. This online package includes AICPA Professional Standards, FASB Current Text, and FASB Original Pronouncements. Only candidates who have applied to take the CPA exam, and have been deemed eligible by state boards of accountancy, will receive access to this package of professional literature.”

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I had a question on which section to take first and wanted to address it. You’ll find different opinions on this subject and here is mine:

Take the hardest section first.

The reasoning for this is very simple. Once you pass a section, your 18 month window begins (from the date you sat for the exam, not the date that you received your results). You don’t want to pass the easiest section (Auditing) and then struggle with FARE 5x and lose AUD.

I say that Auditing is the easiest section, but “easiest” is a relative term. Each section of the exam is very hard, I just think AUD is the less-hard section of the CPA Exam. If you think Auditing is the hardest section because you’ve passed the others but have failed Auditing 3x, then I understand. I’m just speaking in general terms.

Ranking of CPA Exam sections from hardest to easiest:

(This is my opinion only)

1. FARE – There are so many topics to cover in this section that it is just a beast of an exam. Inventory, Bonds, Pensions, Cash Flows, Governmental, Not-For-Profit…etc. This section is very difficult. It took me 3x to pass it and when I finally did, I took a year off from studying to celebrate. I felt like I had passed the CPA Exam. In reality, I had only passed mile 6.5 of a Marathon.

2. BEC – I flat out hate the BEC Exam, though in some ways I love it because it has forced me to confront weaknesses in my skill set as an accountant – i.e. Financial Management. There are no sims on this exam and it only lasts 2.5 hours. It seems like a harmless little pop quiz compared to the others, but if you take it for granted, the BEC exam will humble you. Most people couldn’t care less about in-depth IT topics, haven’t given econ a second thought since early in their undergrad studies and would rather do ANYTHING but study holder in due course and commercial paper questions. Most people take this section more than once.

3. REG – When was the last time you studied up on Trusts or Estates? Agency? Accounting Ethics? Filled out an M-1? REG is tough, but if you put in the time and don’t cut corners, you should be rewarded for your efforts.

4. AUD – I saved AUD for last because I feared it the most. I have never done auditing and I didn’t want to learn it. As it turns out, if you learn auditing from the ground level up and built a solid knowledge foundation and understand the concepts, you can answer any question on the exam. I wrote previously about how I passed AUD on the first try. I’ve never left an exam positive that I had passed it before. I did with Auditing.

Everyone has their preference on Exam order and opinions on which section is most difficult, this is just my take. I hope it is helpful.

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According to the Uniform CPA Examination Alert, students who took two sections in a testing window were more likely to pass one section of the CPA Exam than those who took just one.

Thought: Makes sense…

Students who took two sections were also more likely to pass both of them than pass just one.

Thought: Ok, finally something to chew on.

Students who took all FOUR sections in a window were more likely to pass all 4 than they were to pass 3, 2, or 1 section.

Thought: Weird.

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