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lelik
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Joined: 21 Mar 2006
Location: United States
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Posts: 1396

Posted: 19 Mar 2010 at 15:47 \| IP Logged

JulzCPAhopeful, it's painful to fail, but it appears that you might not understand the underlying concepts very well. Instead of using review courses only, get your regular college accounting books and re-read some chapters. When I was preparing for FAR, I went over a lot of chapters in general accounting books. It all made sense, and the exam seemed just way too easy. Consider that I wasn't an accounting major, I had never taken any Advanced Accounting classes, and English was/is not my native language.

For the government accounting part, I bought

http://www.amazon.com/Governmental-Accounting-Made-Warren-Ru ppel/dp/0470411503/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=12 69027103&sr=1-1

This book is very easy to read, and it gives all the basics you can ever need.

The general approach I would advise you is the following:

1. Do one chapter at a time. Don't rush. Don't get scared if you don't know something. Concentrate on today.
2.Select the part that you believe would take you the longest to prepare for and take this part first. It will save you time once you move to the other parts and have only 18 months for them.
3. Try to take two parts during one testing window. Select one easier and one more difficult part. My personal comfort level allowed me to take FAR and BEC in one window and REG and AUD in the second (I failed AUD and retook it a couple of months later).
4. Nobody can tell you how much time you need to prepare. It took me almost 9 months to prepare for FAR (at first, I studied on my own, but at the last moment I chickened out, rescheduled the exam, and took the in-class review course at a local college). I had to read all advanced accounting books on my own (had no clue about any of the topics). And I did not know a single person who passed the CPA, so I couldn't ask anybody for advice (I didn't discover this forum until later). Usually, I spent studying 4 hours each day during the week (I worked full-time) and 6-8 hours on Saturday and Sunday.
5. Be careful with AUD. It seems very easy when you read it, but it's pretty tricky when you take the actual exam. There are just too many details to pay attention to.

Good luck! Don't get discouraged. The CPA is an easy exam if you put enough effort into it and use the right (for you) approach. Don't forget: it's all about the concepts, and real life experience in this case doesn't help.

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JulzCPAhopeful
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Joined: 27 Feb 2010
Location: United States
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Posts: 4

Posted: 22 Mar 2010 at 13:40 \| IP Logged

Thank you lelik for the kind and motivating words! That is a good idea about re-reading chapters from old accounting textbooks, I knew I kept a bunch of them for a reason, this just might be the reason. I am currently about half the way through my study materials for BEC then am going to try and add some extra overall review time after I finish all of the lessons. I got positivity and motivation back after about a week after I got my last failing score. It's still hard to hear about friends and old classmates passing when I'm not but everyone is different right!

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lelik
Major Contributor

Joined: 21 Mar 2006
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1396

Posted: 22 Mar 2010 at 14:39 \| IP Logged

Julz, don't obsess about others passing or not passing. You have to find what works for you. A lot of people fail first time they take this exam. Now, at least, you have certain experience and know what to expect from the exam. You have to admit that this "monster" is not as scary as some people make it to be. The questions on the actual exam are not much different from ones offered by any review program. Time is an issue only for FAR. Essays can be written using "library" (pronouncements) part of the simulation. So, all you need to do is to relax, to try to enjoy that you are doing (believe it or not, but it improves your understanding and memorization of the material), and to set up some schedule to keep you on track.

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