As noted in the title, I have worked on the tax side of the public accounting business for over twenty years. The part not in the title is that I am the second generation of my family to work in public accounting. My father has been in the business for over forty years. Therefore, between the two of us, we have seen decades of tax and audit staff passing and failing the exam.
Although there are plenty of places to learn about the subject matter of each exam section, I wanted to pass along a few points you might not hear from other people.
1. Plan to pass the entire CPA exam within two years of starting your career.
My apologies if this seems a little blunt, but there are no exceptions to this rule. (i.e. spouse, family, kids, parents, tax season, audit season). Get it done. Once you move beyond two years, you are going to have too many responsibilities in your personal life and at work to devote the time needed to pass the exam. I know outstanding tax preparers that would make great tax managers that are tax seniors because they did not pass the exam in their first two years.
2. Take the hardest part of the exam first.
Which part is hardest? Each person is different. That decision is up to you. But many people that I have seen never pass the exam fall into the same trap. They want to pass a couple of “easy” parts first to learn how the exam works. They will get to the hard parts “later”.
In theory, that sounds like a good idea. But the current exam rules are set up that you lose parts of the exam you have passed if you do not get through the whole exam within a certain period of time. Therefore, if it takes you two or three attempts to pass your hardest section then you will lose credit for some of the earlier sections that you passed. Nothing is more heartbreaking for a manager than to see one of their staff go from three parts of the CPA exam passed to zero. Don’t let this happen to you.
3. Take a review class for auditing.
Maybe as a tax person I am a little biased. But from my experience, most staff do not feel that their auditing course in college came close to preparing them for the CPA exam. My belief is that you should take a review course such as Becker or Kaplan for all of them (Why risk five years of college by being cheap on your review course?) but at least take one for auditing to learn what memorize for the exam.
4. Use index cards for notes.
No, I don’t mean the preprinted ones you buy from a CPA review course (although no review material is bad). I am taking about plain 5 x 7 index cards on which you can write lists/notes on topics that you need to learn or memorize for the exam. There are going to be times that you do not want to lug out the books or your eyes are tired from staring at a computer screen. But you can pull out your index cards while watching TV or sitting outside and slowly learn key pieces of information. Also, I think you will be surprised by how much you learn from having to summarize the key information from your review materials on the cards.
Good luck on the exam.
If you found these tips helpful please consider sharing this post with your friends on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Thanks.
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Thank you for these insightful tips. As an accounting student that is just about to graduate and begin preparing for the exams I found this very helpful.
I am glad to know that you liked the tips. If you have any others topics that you would like covered on the blog let me know. Good luck on the exam!
Great Post Again.
To be honest, I’m following each & every point you mentioned in the article. Thanks for sharing…very helpful article
Hello Bill,
Thank you for sharing your experience! I am a student planning to devote the summer after graduation (next year) to studying and taking the test. Do you have any advice regarding taking the text in a relatively short amount of time (3-4 months)? Is it a good idea to try to take one section/month, or is that too tight?
Thank you!
Tiffany,
I am glad that you liked the tips. This blog has been a fun project.
Let me start with the easy answer (heh). If you start taking the exam in the summer and take one exam a month then it is going to take until November for you to take the whole exam. The reason is that every third calendar month (in this case June and September) are blackout months where the test is not given.
Keep in mind as well that you have some flexibility in the exam dates. For example, you might decide to take the first test on July 10th, but not take the second test until August 30th. Therefore, you have the ability to widen the gap between the dates depending on your schedule.
Your ability to take two exams in October and November might depend on your firm and whether you decide to be in audit or tax. For example, most tax departments are going to busy through the October 15th deadline. If you are working overtime during tax season you might not have much energy to study for the exam from late September to October 20th (you need a little post Oct 15th recovery time). If you are an auditor then you might get put on an assignment that takes you out of the city which can make it very hard to study.
As a general rule, I think the basic idea of taking one test per month is reasonable. But you need to keep in mind what factors in your life (tax season, audit season, family, friends etc.) might make it such that you can’t count each day between exams as a potential study day.
I think that covers the basics of your question, but let me know if you have other questions. Since my blog is new, I will make a shameless request that you share the blog with your classmates, professors and social media. But I will keep writing posts regardless of how many people come to the blog (heh).
Bill
Hi Bill,
Thank you very much for your thorough reply! I am planning to be in tax, so I’m glad you brought up the tax extension deadline- that will be something to keep in mind.
I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for new blog posts and sharing the blog with my classmates. Thanks again!
~Tiffany
Tip 3 is definitely the best tip. Speaking from personal experience; the auditing class I did at College was good, however, brushing up on it by doing a review course made it easy for me to pass. It just freshened everything up in my head and made me confident that I would breeze through it.
I am glad that you liked the tips. Thanks for adding your comments to the discussion.
These are great tips especially the time period suggested for passing the exam. In 1988 when I started taking the exam (original format), one had to take all four parts at one time until they passed at least two parts (the exam was four parts over 2.5 days then). It was only offered twice a year (May and November). The first four times, I passed one part at each sitting. I then bit the bullet and took Becker for 16 weeks. On the next sitting, I passed all four parts.
I highly recommend Becker right after graduation. Make the commitment and get it done.
This is a very helpful blog spot.
I am undergrad in my final year. I am planning to do the CPA. What is the review course (Becker/Kaplan). Is is like a mock exam you take before doing the actual CPA exam?
I am planning to enrol in another University after undergrad, to start the CPA classes.
What is the best order to take the papers in? and what is a reasonable interval between exams.
Becker and Kaplan and separate companies that offer several week courses to prepare people for the CPA exam. Both places offer sample exams and test questions and in class instruction on the material covered in each section of the exam. My view is that these classes help not just with learning the material, but an understanding of what material is not relevant for the exam.
You only have so much time to study for the exam (especially when you start working for a firm). Therefore, you need to be able to focus your time on the material that is important to the exam.
As for which test to take, my view is covered in Tip #2 that I think that you should taking whichever sections you think will be harder for you first. This method help you to avoid losing easy sections if you take too long to pass the whole exam.
Finally, most people seem to prefer to take only one exam per month. But keep in mind what I noted in an earlier reply that you may need to adjust when you study/take the exam based on the federal tax deadlines and the busy season workload requirements of your CPA firm.
I live in a state that requires 2 years of experience before taking the exam. The problem is that my work background is retail and it seems that many of the entry level accounting positions want 2 years of experience, also. I have a 3.833 GPA, but have not had any response from the jobs and internships that I’ve applied for. I’m getting worried because I only have 8 classes remaining. What can I do???
Gwen, I think you might want to check again on the rules and with the state board where you live. Many states require that you have experience working under the supervision of a CPA to get the CPA license. However, the work experience requirement normally does not apply to being able to sit for the CPA exam itself. If after taking another look you still think the work experience rule applies before taking the exam then leave another comment or send me an e-mail on the state where you live and I will look into the issue for you.
On the jobs issue, it is always hard to get an internship versus getting hired. For example, I was not able to get an accounting internship in college, but I was still able to get hired by the Big 8 when I was ready to be hired full time. If you did not see it then take a look at my article on how to get a job by building up your LinkedIn connections. In many cases, it is much easier to find a job through a contact (even if it is a casual acquaintance) than your resume being one of a stack on the human resource person’s desk. Let me know if that helps and if you have other questions. Thanks.
This post is worth reading.It is easy for some people to pass exam because of their family background.You are sharing awesome tips.I would be thankful to you.
Best Regards
Ms Ritu
After passing my first two CPA exams something hit me like a tom of bricks I was wasting a TON of time studying the wrong material and studying the wrong way.
Great post sir.
Unfortunately when you begin to tell others you are taking the CPA, your friends and family may want to become involved find out when you are taking the exam.
This is a very informative and helpful post, very honest and practical advise. Thank you so much for a detailed post. It’s very helpful for all .Specially this complete information will be helping to all. Thanks
Wow! Thank you for sharing awesome tips and your experience! This post is a very useful, informative and helpful. This post will help to prepare for the CPA exam much more efficiently as well as increase your focus and motivation.
Nice and informative article. Thanks for sharing the information with us. I find all the tips very helpful. This article definitely will help people who want to become a CPA professional.