I am studying for BEC, and I'm using RogerCPA.  So far, I am not too pleased with the structure of the course.

1. Roger's lecture book does not cover many of the questions in the Wiley Book.  After watching the lecture and reading the chapters, I found that doing the questions for some of the Modules (subjects), I would miss 40% of the questions.  I was getting the questions wrong because Roger does not cover the topics needed to answer it correctly.  I have absolutely no clue what the answer would be for many of the questions because Roger never went over the concept in his lecture or book.  I feel that watching his lecture and reading his book was a waste of time.  Maybe, I should have just gotten the Wiley Books and software to save myself the time and money.

2. As mentioned above, BEC is broken up into 8 modules in Wiley.  Since all the practice questions are from the Wiley book and Wiley software, I found that Roger's structure for BEC is inefficient.  For example, two of the subjects are covered in lecture 3,7, and 8.  Basically, you can not really do the practice questions for these two subjects until after you watch the last lecture (#8), if you follow his schedule.  Otherwise, you would have to skip alot of questions that have yet to be covered in lecture 7 & 8.  There are also two other subjects that are covered in lecture 5 & 8.

Long story short, his schedule makes it so that you are taking more practice questions toward the end of his study course, and the material will get confusing since you are jumping from multiple subjects without actually finishing some of it.

Now, I am watching parts of lectures that correspond to the different modules in the Wiley book so that my studying time is more consistent.  It is a pain to do because, as I mentioned above, some modules will span to 3 different lectures.  This means I have to fastfoward, rewind the lecture until I get the the right subject.  Having only 3 allowed views of each lecture doesn't help either.

Again, I want to mention that I have only seen the BEC portion of RogerCPA.

Chowder,

I am using the Roger online course (you don't mention whether you are taking the live, online or USB course) for all 4 sections of the Exam.  If I may, I would like to address your issues,  First, let me say that I am not an employee of the Roger course, and my musings are just my opinion.  Further, I have not yet studied for BEC through Roger yet, so my experience is based solely on the AUD, REG, & FAR sections.

1.  Your claim that Roger's book do not cover most of the Wiley MCQ is incorrect.  There are a few topics in the Wiley book that are a bit foreign, but most of the MCQ's can be found in the Roger text.  The ones that aren't can be quickly reviewed in the Wiley text itself.  Try re-reading the Roger book before dong the Wiley MCQ's & sims.

2.  I agree with you that Roger does seem to jump around in the course, and doesn't plow through the Wiley module by module.  He has his reasons and hopefully, someone from the Roger camp could address this to us all.  I have found that after a lecture section I will do the Wiley questions specified in the Roger, and then after I have reviewed all of the lectures for the sections, I will do a second pass through the Wiley book again, module by module.

I would suggest that you contact the Roger office and discuss your issues with the staff there; perhaps they can help you with a study method that suits your style.

Cheers,

Jay

Thanks Jay—And you’re right, Roger does cover the material in the Wiley Book but sometimes it will take a second pass to pick everything up. (There’s a lot of material!)

To address the questions about the structure of the course, we’d like to start by saying that Roger has been doing CPA Review for years and helped 80,000 students prepare for the CPA Exam with 86% pass rates. We don’t mean to imply that because of his track record you should have no questions about his method, but instead to assure you that he does in fact have reasons for the way the course is structured.

Roger has designed his lectures to maximize the amount of time he has to present the material in way that can be retained by students; part of this is a ‘cross pollination’ of ideas. The various subjects tested are not isolated subjects—many of them relate to each other. Roger’s teaching style incorporates these relationships in order to reinforce the student’s understanding of the subject(s). Other review courses have instructors who read directly from the book. While this method makes the material fit into a specific mold, we do not find it a dynamic way of teaching the material.

And finally, the Wiley book is provided for homework and review—Roger’s course was not designed around the Wiley materials. Wiley is a well respected publication and by using Wiley instead of reinventing the wheel, we have been able to keep our course effective and affordable.

In response to changcpa, we’d like to say that we definitely have no intention of nickel and dimming our students. We are currently looking into ways to make the In Class Course more flexible for students who miss classes. Comparing the Roger Course to other courses, you’ll find our courses are not only more affordable for what you are provided, but that our policies are also more flexible.  Unfortunately, sometimes our system cannot be 100% flexible, or they may be minimal fees to offer these affordable options.

Sorry for the long winded response but we want to make it clear why Roger does what he does and why it has proven to be successful for so many candidates.

Chowder—we truly want you to be satisfied with our product and successful on the exam. Our staff and other resources for students (the message board is a great one, as well as the blog and other free resources) are here to help you and answer any questions you have or assist you with your study plan. Don’t hesitate to contact us.

First let me say that I have mixed feelings about Roger.  I passed (barely!) using Roger for BEC and REG.  You are definitely right that he doesn't cover a lot of the intricate details that are in the Wiley book.  But, I feel like he gives a good overview of the material, so that it makes it easier to teach yourself the Wiley book.  Some of the concepts were so foreign to me that if I were to just try to read the Wiley module I would be completely lost.  But, after watching the corresponding Roger lecture, I am able to understand the Wiley book a little better.

I know it's frustrating when there are a lot of things in the Wiley book and you are thinking "Roger didn't go over any of this!!!!!" Chances are, it's not that important.  There are lots of unnecessary things in the Wiley book.  Focus on the sections that are more heavily tested (FYI: spend no more than 30 minutes in the economics module!).

If I remember correctly, BEC had 20 hours of lecture.  If you would rather watch 40+ hours of lecture with someone going over every cotton-pickin' word in the Wiley book, get the Yaeger home study course.  Warning: Yaeger is about as interesting as a mud fence.  At least Roger is somewhat entertaining..even though he talks super fast and sometimes acts one fry short of a Happy Meal.