Open Daily 9:30–6:00, Monday Until 8:00
Back to all Post

How Hard Is The CPA Exam: Scoring, Pass Rates & Study Tips

Competitive athletes use visualization, successful business owners, and almost anyone striving to achieve peak performance has at one time or another set a goal and visualized a positive outcome. By regularly seeing yourself achieve a goal or benchmark, you are changing the way you prioritize everything you do. Just wanting something badly is not enough to succeed at it though. Beliefs and dreams can only turn into achievements if the right steps are taken, and in the right order.

pass cpa exam in 3 months

And while the videos might be highly informative, it can be hard to keep your focus after staring at a computer screen for too long. pass cpa exam in 3 months And we tend to remember content better when we write things down. One of my best tips is to get organized and stay organized.

Why Choose UWorld Roger’s CPA Prep Course?

When someone asks you what your goals are, pull out your phone and show them your calendar. Tell them how you are working daily to https://personal-accounting.org/quickbooks-accounting-on-the-appstore/ prepare for your upcoming exam. Have deadlines for taking each exam so you can have them all completed within a 18 months or less.

  • Therefore, CPA prep groups recommend taking 90 to 110 hours to study for this section of the exam.
  • So it wasn’t even a week apart, it was in the same week, day, the same week.
  • So then I go into the practice questions and I’m still just obviously completely lost.
  • Of course, you should plan for and allow a few activities to steal small bits of your time along the way.

Even though it has very high passing rates, the only way you will pass is if you take it as seriously as the other sections of the exam. CPA prep courses recommend spending 60 to 80 hours studying for this section. CPA prep courses recommend studying for the exam anywhere from 1 to 3 hours a day depending on how recently you were in college, how much experience you have, and what job you are currently doing.

Pick Your Exam Dates

Just over half the people who take an exam part will pass, which should be good news to anyone currently preparing for the CPA exam. Each new day you’re replacing in your short term memory what you spent four hours on the day before, you know, you might remember 10 or 20 percent of it. And it gets much worse as if you look at things on a week to week basis in a or a month to month basis. So that was one of the other big realizations I had is like, okay, I need to build in rereview to my daily study process.

  • Depending on your personal learning style, Wiley offers different types of lessons and practice  exercises to prepare you for a career in public accounting.
  • Rather than noting concepts, I spent most of my time working on multiple choice and free response prompts to best prepare for the “mile-wide, inch-deep” BEC questions.
  • Be sure to reward yourself each week for staying on track.
  • For example, if you have worked as a tax accountant for years, you will most likely have a good base layer of taxation knowledge to pull from on the REG section.

Spend most of the time in reading solutions, practicing MCQs, and memorizing important facts. This is the fastest way to study and will help you get the most out of each study hour. You might think the same applies to auditing experience, but real world audit experience plays a minimal role in CPA exam knowledge.

Study All of the Modules in Your Review Course

You won’t be able to deeply understand everything on this exam, so stick to main concepts for your best chance at success in this section. If you study 1 to 3 hours per day, that will leave you studying anywhere from 7 to 21 hours a week, and prep course experts recommend 15 to 20 hours of weekly study for the CPA exam. Being ready means you will need to persevere in the face of many challenges vying for your time and attention. Friends may ask you to go out on evenings when you are planning to study. Telling your friends you will catch up after your studies means you are placing greater emphasis on passing the CPA exam in the future than you are on having fun now. You will find that when you make decisions to persevere, the people around you will recognize it.

  • Like obtaining a master’s degree in accounting, becoming a CPA is highly sought after by employers, not only in the fields of public accounting but in all areas of accounting.
  • I’ve collected reader questions about passing the CPA Exam.
  • One of my best tips is to get organized and stay organized.
  • Build Relationships – Create lifelong bonds with your fellow students and leading professionals in the Michigan accounting profession through networking events and special student-only opportunities.

So once you think you’ve studied enough, test yourself with a mock exam. Some review providers even give you analyzed feedback on your practice exams. This feedback helps you determine what content areas you still need to study. Don’t even think about skipping some of the modules in your review course. So, don’t take chances by skipping some of your study materials. Personal and career commitments (weddings, work conferences, birthdays, etc.) will affect your study plan and how long it will take you to become a CPA.

How Many Total Hours Should I Study for the CPA Exam?

Audit requires a lot of understanding and memorizing the auditing process. The more you are able to memorize, the better off you will be. It’s a good idea to spend the majority of your AUD study time working MCQs and memorizing auditing concepts. So it’s just kind of funny that my original goal was to pass the CPA in 3 months during the summer before I started the job. I mean, I got to 74, but I felt like it was kind of a major failure based on how much time I had had to study every everyday but simply out of necessity.

Add Your Comment