A number of people have asked me how I scored as high as I have and for study tips.  I thought I'd put some general tips in one place, with links to more exam-specific information I've posted here and there.  Feel free to ask any questions; I'm happy to help.  I have greatly benefited from these forums.  I went through a very long process as a career changer whose CPA journey began over 3 years ago with going back to school to satisfy education requirements.

The short story is that I studied a lot.

Please note, though, that I am a single person with no family, which makes things easier for me than it is for those of you with family responsibilities.  I admire those of you who juggle family responsibilities with studying.  I don't think I could ever do that!

My overall strategy was to make sure I knew all the material in the review materials very well.  I read and did all the MCQs and sims in my main review book (Bisk) at least twice, once when I first started studying for a section, and then another time after I have worked through other materials.  I went through a few particularly
troublesome areas three times.  As I did each practice problem, I tried to make sure I understood why the correct choice was correct and why the others were wrong.  I reviewed any area that I felt at all shaky on.  It is important to do as many MCQs as possible, and practice sims to a lesser extent.  Practice makes perfect.

I used multiple sources to make sure I covered as much material as reasonably possible, as well as to see topics presented in different ways.  My main material was Bisk 2009-2010 edition, but I also have 2006 Becker textbooks, MCQs and flashcards, as well as free Wiley software I got from
http://www.wiley.com/college/uopcpa
thanks to someone else on this board who posted about this.

This free Wiley software has a few hundred practice problems for each section, as well as excerpts from the Wiley study books.  It is version 13, 1 version older than the current section, but a great, free supplement, especially for BEC.  There are some mistakes and outdated numbers for REG, and it does not have the SFAS 141(R) for FAR.

I also used
http://www.cpareviewforfree.com/
which has practice problems worth doing, although they are not as worthwhile as Becker Passmaster problems and Wiley, but still a good supplement if you have time.

I took the free Gleim diagnostic quiz, sample study units, and practice final exam:
http://www.gleim.com/accounting/cpa/diagnosticquiz.php
http://www.gleim.com/accounting/cpa/practice_exam.php
Gleim's exam interface is very close to the real thing.  You can get pretty good answers and explanations for the diagnostic quiz, but they don't give you the answers to the practice exam.  They only email you a score.

Here is a free Kaplan booklet you can order.  It has some useful general exam tips and a few good practice problems and explanations for each section:
http://www.schweser.com/cpa/resources/exam_book.php

CPAexcel periodically gives a few free practice problems here
http://www.cpaexcel.com/popquiz/cpaexcel_popquiz.html

Occasionally, I would look up in my old textbooks certain topics that I felt were inadequately explained by the review materials.  My old textbooks were up-to-date because I had just completed my accounting coursework in mid-December of 2008.  Because I work in tax at a CPA firm, I was also able to look a few topics up in RIA Checkpoint for clarification for REG.

It is also important to be in the right mental state.  Your mind needs to be 100% focused on studying when you are studying, with minimal distraction, or you won't be studying efficiently.  The CPA exam was my main mission in life for most of this year.  For me, in order to avoid eating away my time and distracting me from my focus, this meant no social life (except chatting with people like you folks who are also studying for the CPA exam, and keeping in occasional email and phone contact with a couple of close, supportive friends), and trying not to do anything besides working and studying and other unavoidable life necessities (eating, sleeping, running - yes, running is a necessary activity for me!).  If I go out and socialize, it's hard to get back into study mode when I come back.  After the exam, there will always be more opportunities for fun than I'll ever have time for, especially since I am in New York, so fun can wait.  Oh, and try not to be discouraged if people around you are not supportive.  Most people who are not studying for the exam or who have not take the exam in recent years have no idea how much dedication this exam takes.

I studied very thoroughly, but I did encounter a few questions on all the exams that I did not know that well.  Some of my FAR sims were on topics that I had never seen before.  But you don't need to be perfect to pass, so have faith in your preparation and don't panic if you encounter topics you are not familiar with.  Between the experimental questions and sometimes generous grading for FAR, AUD and REG, you don't even need to be perfect to get perfect scores.  From my experience and that of many other people, I think BEC is graded most harshly, but I was still able to pass by a wide margin.

Below are links to section-specific tips I've posted, and my experiences (for some of them you'll have to search for kj_nyc to get to my posts)

My BEC Study Tips
http://www.cpanet.com/cpa_forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=28154&am p;PN=1
My BEC experience
http://www.cpanet.com/cpa_forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=25839&am p;PN=1&TPN=7

My Audit study tips
http://www.cpanet.com/cpa_forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=22180&am p;PN=1&TPN=7
http://www.cpanet.com/cpa_forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=22180&am p;PN=1&TPN=8

My REG study tips
http://www.cpanet.com/cpa_forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=22181&am p;PN=1&TPN=4
My REG experience
http://www.cpanet.com/cpa_forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=24483&am p;PN=1&TPN=3

My FAR experience
http://www.cpanet.com/cpa_forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=24187

Finally, I'll say this quote describes my philosophy:

"I'm not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be outworked. You may be more talented than me. You might be smarter than me. And you may be better looking than me. But if we get on a treadmill together, you are going to get off first or I'm going to die. It's really that simple. I'm not going to be outworked."
- Will Smith

About 300 hours each for AUD and FAR, and 180 hours each for REG and BEC.

Yes, I used Bisk as my main material because it was the current version and I was able to get it at a discount through my employer.  Becker is much too expensive for me, but I was lucky that a very nice former coworker gave me his Becker 2006 materials.  I did use the Becker textbooks, passmaster questions, and flashcards extensively as well, so I did more than look over certain sections in Becker.  I also did all the Wiley problems in the software for FAR, REG and BEC, as well as reading and doing all the problems in the Wiley BEC book.

I think Becker explains many things very well, often with great mnemonics, and usually concisely.  Bisk is more long-winded and sometimes less clear, and Wiley even more so, but they sometimes contain details not covered in Becker.  Note, though, that I read the Wiley book and did all the problems only for BEC, and only used the software mentioned above for FAR and REG, so I can't comment on Wiley for AUD, FAR or REG.

I find I understand and retain the material better when I use more than 1 source, especially if the sources explain things in different ways.  I don't know if it is necessary for you to supplement Becker with Bisk.  There is a fair amount of overlap in the practice problems.  And which material works best also depends on the person.  Many people have done quite well with Becker only, while Becker did not work at all for others.  I'm sure many people would say my study habits were overkill, but the stakes for me were very high, as I will explain later.

I would say see how Becker works for you for now.  If you later feel you need to supplement, consider Wiley or Bisk.

Back on the topic of study time, keep in mind that the hours you will need depend on your background and your life circumstances.  I have absolutely no audit experience and was least interested in that subject; I am a former IT person with a few years of tax experience and a BA in economics, so a lot of the REG and BEC material was more interesting and familiar to me.

I spread my AUD study out over almost 4 months because it was the April tax season.

FAR I think is most difficult because of the large volume of material, not because any particular topic is that difficult; I studied for 9 weeks.

Although I had a pretty good tax background, the REG exam tests a lot of details and special cases that are either calculated by the software or that we tax folks look up in a research tool.  Plus, I did not have much of a business law background, so I still had to study a fair amount for REG; I studied for 5 weeks.

I studied for BEC over 9 weeks, during the 9/15-10/15 tax season.  I had a good IT and economics background, decent finance background, and a very weak cost accounting background.

I'm sure many people think I overstudied unnecessarily, and yes, given my scores, I could have gotten 75s with less study time.  But as I mentioned before, I am a former IT person who had to quit because of the horrible job market and pervasive offshore outsourcing after the dot com crash.  I did taxes on the side for 3 tax seasons before throwing in the towel to go full time with tax.  I had also become an Enrolled Agent by that time, but all the CPA firms were displeased with me for not being a CPA.  I finally found a firm that would hire me, but they also were unhappy with my lack of CPA license and put a lot of pressure on me and other non-CPA staff people to become CPAs.  I had to spend over $40,000 and 2.5 years going back to school to fulfill education requirements.  With that type of investment, in addition to the exorbitant exam fees, I decided right from the beginning that failure would not be an option and that I would fight tooth and nail to get the CPA license.