How to Study for The CPA Exam
"How should I study for the CPA exam?" Is a question that I get frequently from students and young professionals. The CPA exam is one of the hardest professional exams out there and it should not be taken lightly. However, many people don't know where to start when it comes to preparing for the exam. So today, I'm going to share the entire studying process and the strategy I used for passing the exams with a high score of 99 on my last test.
Step 1: Purchase a Review Package
The CPA exam is a professional license exam that is consistently updated with new content and formats. Having a review course that is updated timely with the latest materials will be key to your success. Here's a list of some of the more popular review packages:
It's important to remember that anyone can pass the exam using any top rated review course combined with a lot of hard work and dedication. However, you should do your own research to see what review course is best for you because every review course has a different price point, resources, and access limitations. Make sure to pick the one that best supports your learning style and budget!
Step 2: Develop a Long-Term Plan and Tentative Calendar
Understanding the level of commitment and coordination that the CPA exam requires is the critical next step to effectively studying for the exam. It is very difficult to effectively study for the exams if there isn’t a plan or a sense of urgency that comes from a scheduled exam. The best candidates will have the following planned out:
Test order (Trying to decide the best order for you? Click here!)
Test dates
Study time (number of hours per day, and number of days on the calendar)
Backup plan (what happens if I don't pass a section?)
Step 3: The Actual Studying
Once you have your review course and calendar lined up, it's time to start studying. Before I share the strategy that I used to get a 99, it's important for you to understand two things:
The CPA exam will cover material that you have not learned in school.
Passing the exam is just as much about understanding how to take the test as it is about the content
The exam introducing new content to the candidate as well as a steep learning curve when it comes to test-taking strategies can be frustrating to many. This frustration is totally normal and can be overcome through consistent studying, but many candidates lose momentum because of it. While keeping these things in mind, let’s take a look at my strategy for studying for the CPA exam broken out into steps (for reference, I used Becker in 2015-2016).
Lectures / Homework – The first thing I recommend doing is all the lectures and homework for a section of the CPA exam that you are studying for (AUD/FAR/REG/BEC). This is the first pass of the material that will get you familiar with the content on a basic level. Doing the base assignments to completion will ensure you get the initial exposure you need.
Practice Tests & Simulations #1 - Start doing practice tests of randomly generated multiple choice questions (MCQ) for each module (no less than 10 questions) and task-based simulations (TBS) as they are available. This is designed to mix up the material in a given area so you can assess yourself quickly and get feedback on areas where you need to improve. If you get anything wrong, physically write down the question and the correct answer and read it out loud while doing so.
Practice Exam #1 - Take a practice exam that comes with your chosen review package or find another means to access a current practice exam. This step will put you in a testing environment so you can see how you perform under realistic time constraints and pressures. For everything you get wrong, physically write down the question and the correct answer and read it out loud while doing so.
Practice Tests & Simulations #2 – After taking your practice test and examining your results from previous practice tests and simulations, you will need to identify areas where you are weak and create practice tests for those sections specifically. Focus on these areas until you are comfortable on the content. For everything you get wrong, physically write down the question and the correct answer and read it out loud while doing so (see a pattern here?).
Practice Tests & Simulations #3 – Once you are generally comfortable on every part of the exam you are taking, start increasing the number of practice MCQ test and simulations until you are at or above the amount you will see on the real exam (31-38 MCQ, 3 TBS). While at this step, make sure that the entire pool of topics is available to emulate the actual test. For everything you get wrong, physically write down the question and the correct answer and read it out loud while doing so.
Practice Exam #2+ - Take a practice exam that comes with your chosen review package or find another means to access a current practice exam. At this point, you should be practicing for the actual test and developing the test-taking stamina needed to get through a 4-hour exam. As if every other step in the process, for everything you get wrong, physically write down the question and the correct answer and read it out loud while doing so.
Repeat As Necessary – if you have made it this far, you are likely far more qualified than you were when you started. However, you may realize your relative skills in some areas are falling behind. Repeat any of the above steps as necessary to continue to reinforce the required knowledge in the targeted areas.
I believe this strategy was so effective for me because it directly addressed the two key things mentioned above. There was plenty of material on the CPA exam that I did not get proper exposure to in school, and by physically writing down that content when I got a question wrong, I was able to reinforce the areas where my knowledge was lacking. Additionally, this process exposed me to a large number of questions and allowed me to see the differences between a right and wrong answer, especially on a multiple choice test. The sheer volume of practice allowed me to get comfortable with the test format to a point where I was no longer intimidated or distracted by the exam itself, and repeating this process allowed me to pick up many useful test-taking skills that helped me pass the exam.
The Don'ts
In addition to my strategy that I highlighted above, I also want to share with you some common mistakes that people make when studying for the CPA exam. Here's my top five list of things to not do when studying for the CPA exam:
Don't try to study seriously until you are ready to sit - I have had students ask me in their junior year of college what they can do to start preparing for the CPA exam right now and they are sometimes shocked when I tell them not to study. Because the exam material is constantly changing and the nature of the exam requires dedicated focus and a knowledge dump, studying for the exams before you were eligible to take them is almost certainly a waste of time. The best thing you can do at that point is to plan out your life and finances for the next couple of years so you can plan to take as much of the exam as possible while studying full-time.
Don't underestimate the difficulty of the exam - I was a straight A student and failed the first CPA exam I took. Many people working today I'm thinking that the CPA exam will be easier for them because they got good grades in college. This is simply not the case. In fact, some aspects of the exam can be harder for good students because they never needed to utilize some of the test taking strategies that are essential to passing the CPA exam.
Don't pay for a review course without checking with your employer first - review courses are expensive, but many employers (particularly public accounting firms) will pay for them as an employee benefit. If you have a job offer from a company, be sure to ask about this before paying for a review course yourself.
Don't lose track of time - outside of the exams themselves, the hardest thing about passing the CPA exams is getting everything done within the required 18-month window. Once you factor in the time required to schedule, study, and recharge, you may realize that you don't have much room for failure.
Don't partially commit to studying - most people will not be able to pass the exam if they do not commit most of their free time to studying. When I took the exam, I studied for it full-time outside of my other commitments (graduate school) and did not take any vacations. This dedication paid off because I was able to focus on the exams for 8 months and never have to worry about them again. On the flip side, I know people who have been trying to pass the exam for years because they aren't able or willing to commit enough time to studying effectively.
To those of you taking the CPA exam right now, I hope this helped you! If you are interested in other content related to the CPA exam and your career as a CPA, be sure to check out my other content!