About CPA Exam
I have seen some queries these days to ask questions about CPA examination and want to take this opportunity to share with you some information that I know. I wish this information will help people know CPA, prepare CPA, and become a CPA in more effective and efficient way.
1. CPA Examination Overview
The CPA examination is designed to measure professional competence in auditing, business law, taxation, accounting, and related business topics. Passing CPA will give you certain benefits which include higher salary, increased confidence and competence, and recognition as a member of an elite group of professionals. Most of important for our Chinese, it will provide more opportunities for getting a job and promoting to higher ladder in your career path.
The CPA examination includes four parts of tests: Business Environment and Concepts (BEC), Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR), Regulation (REG), and Auditing and Attestation (AUD). Basically, every test will cover multiple choices questions and simulation cases. Except for BEC section, all other three parts will test simulation cases on the exam. On the simulation case, you will be tested by reading the long case in a limited time, calculation, analysis of situation, research on the library, and communications (writing business memo).
Since 2005, the CPA examination was changed from paper-based test to computerized test. Quite similar as GRE or GMAT test, your performance on the previous multiple choices will decide the difficult level of following multiple choices. As a result, the harder level of questions you have the higher scores you may expect. Not all of questions will be used to evaluate your score; some of them are trial questions from AICPA test committee at all.
Thanks to Enron bankruptcy and WorldCom accounting scandals, a series of actions have been taken by AICPA to guard the competence of CPA which also reflected in the examination to be a CPA. Now, if you want to sit down a CPA, firstly, you must qualify to be a CPA candidate. The State Board of Accountancy has this administrative right to decide the qualification. Most states have implemented the “150-hour rule”, which requires a bachelor’s degree plus 30 credit hours in advanced accounting classes to sit for the CPA exam. For the person who has a foreign degree, he/she need to complete the foreign transcript evaluation with the state board first to decide if they meet the criteria. It will usually take about one month to go through this process and spend about $200 dollar evaluation fee with the confidential agencies. Check with the state board for this step.
If you don’t meet the “150-hour rule”, the following states haven’t implemented that you may consider:
The CPA test is given in the Thomas Prometric test centers in most cities nationwide. Annually, there are 8 months open for testing windows and four months close for AICPA to update the test database. The open testing widows that you can choose to take the test are: Jan/Feb, Apr/May, Jul/Aug, Oct/Nov). It usually takes about at least four weeks to get the test results for your test. The AICPA requires you to pass all four sections during the 18 months to qualify your credits to apply the certificate.
To summarize, these are steps to take CPA exam:
1. Decide when you are going to take the CPA exam
2. Determine the board of accountancy(ie State) to which you will apply to sit for the exam
3. Obtain, complete, and submit your application form, including transcripts, fees, etc.to your state board. After you board qualify you as a CPA candidate, you will receive a Notice To Schedule (NTS) from NASBA.
4. Start to prepare the test using the correct exam review materials.
5. Schedule your test with Prometric
6. Wait for the score and at the same time, prepare the next section
7. Persistently study even you fail on the first trial until you pass all, then You Are CPA
2. Prepare CPA examination
There are many CPA review materials in the market today and it is not easy to say which is good or not. It is totally up to your education background, your preference, your study habit, and your budget. However, I would like to share with you my experience.
1). Becker Conviser CPA review (www.beckerconviser.com)
They have best credits so far from the people who passed CPA exams for its materials concise and authority. However, among all the materials, they are the most expensive one. The company provides three ways to prepare: live-class, online class, and self-study package. Live class is the way like you go to class every weekend or night time, then sit down on the classroom to watch the video lectures. Online class is the way that you have access to online then watch the same video lectures on web. Self-study package include the lectures video CDs that you can watch at anytime you want. All three ways provide the same materials for you. The only difference between online class and CD packages is that online class will not charge the sales tax to you. You can buy the whole four sections at one time or you can buy section by section. One thing you should know is that they usually have a high security design on their CDs – every CD has an authorized installation key and will expire in 12 months period. The another thing you should also know is that once you enroll as a Becker student first, you will become a return student in the future purchase and will have 50% off special offer. So it is good idea for you buy section by section. Becker is good at on its FAR, AUD, and REG sections but not BEC.
2) Wiley CPA review (www.wiley.com)
Wiley has the long history to publish the CPA review. Its competitive advantage compared to other review programs are: cost-effective, very detailed, and annually update covering AICPA new released questions. You can go to the store to buy or you can borrow from the public library. The drawback of wiley is that they don’t have good CD practices bases. Most of time, people use Becker books primarily and wiley books as supplementary to dip into details knowledge. Wiley also have practical questions and simulations on the end of chapters in the book. Honestly, they are basically same questions as Becker has on its CD. I used Wiley primarily to prepare BEC section and supplementary for FAR section.
3) Gleim review (www.gleim.com)
Another good resource for CPA review. I heard lots of good comments for its materials in BEC section and Auditing section. Especially, for its BEC CD practical test, they have lots of IT questions for you to practice. The material is set at reasonable price and provide by online, CD, and text books. I used Gleim for supplementary review on AUD section and they give very good explanation for business cycle and risk factor chapter.
4) Others. Kaplan, Bisker review.
3. Some useful websites about CPA exam
AICPA webpage: www.cpa-exam.org
CPA Forum: http://www.cpanet.com/cpa_forum/default.asp
Yahoo CPA group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cpa_group2004/
