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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?…”

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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.

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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

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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.

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.

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.

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.

Update 2010: I consider this one of the best posts I’ve ever written. It captures what I was feeling when I was neck-deep in the CPA Exam and wondering if I would pass. I was trying to balance family, work, the CPA Exam, and trying to maintain some semblance of a “life”. “Failure is an event, it’s not a person” as Zig Ziglar says. So true.

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).

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.