CPA Exam

CPA Exam - Why Most People Fail

Did you know that the majority of people who take the CPA exam fail on their first attempt even though many graduate from top accounting schools? This may come as a shock to you, but it is the truth. In fact, more people fail than pass the CPA test on their first try. Needless to say, this is something you want to avoid. You want to have every advantage in your corner when you walk into the Prometric test center on your test day. We will discuss some of the top reasons why many people fail the test and what you can do to avoid becoming one of those people so that you can become a Certified Public Accountant on your first try.

Believe it or not, several of the main reasons people fail the CPA exam can be attributed to small mistakes. One of the most common is not being ready for the research function portion of the test. Being unprepared for this can eat up a huge chunk of valuable exam time. Make sure you familiarize yourself with the research function on the official CPA exam website before the test. A second seemingly minor mistake that can easily turn into a disaster is spending too much time on any single question or problem. You have a limited amount of time to finish the test, and your time will be up before you know it. Do not obsess over a single problem or question and spend ten minutes on it. If you are stumped, move on. The third seemingly minor mistake is not guessing when you do not know the answer. A wrong answer does not hurt you any more than a blank answer, so it is to your advantage to guess, as you will get some right by chance. Never leave anything blank.

Another huge problem is that prospective CPAs worry too much about knowing the material and not enough on knowing how the test works. Like all standardized tests, the CPA exam is, in many ways, predictable, and knowing what to expect can give your score a significant boost. The final, and probably the biggest, mistake is thinking that spending a thousand dollars or more on a cram course can result in a high score. Cramming usually does not work. A good CPA exam study guide is much less expensive, and if you get one well before the test and systematically review and test yourself, you will be far ahead of those test takers who spent thousands on a cram course. A good study guide will also explain the test taking strategies, not just the material. Get one, and you will be far ahead of the pack.

A CPA Course - Is It a Good Investment?

If you are a graduate of an accounting program and preparing to take the CPA exam, you have probably stumbled upon ads offering a CPA course to help you get your certification. There are several of them, and they advertise heavily on the Internet, so it is rare if an aspiring CPA has not seen one of these courses advertised. You have no doubt noticed something else about these ubiquitous courses-they cost a lot of money. Starting at several hundred dollars, packages can sell for nearly three thousand dollars. That is a huge amount of money to spend on a CPA prep course. Is it worth it?

Frankly, spending that kind of money on a CPA course is not necessary to pass the CPA exam; for the most part, these courses are a huge waste of money. This is not to say that purchasing any kind of CPA study aid is not a good idea; it is an excellent idea. In fact, anyone who walks into the testing center without taking advantage of a good CPA preparation program is asking to fail the exam. However, it is not necessary to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to study for the exam. There are very good CPA study guides available that do not even come close to costing that kind of money. Anyone who would pass the test with the help of a CPA course that costs several thousand dollars could do the same thing with a good CPA study guide.

So why do some CPA preparation programs cost so much? There are a lot of reasons. For one, many companies are aware that the average person suffers from the illusion that the more something costs, the better it is. While this is sometimes true, it is certainly not true across the board. Millions of people think it is, though, so companies price their products accordingly. Do not fall for this marketing strategy. You will also notice that none of these high priced companies offer a money-back guarantee if you fail the exam. The best they will do is let you take the CPA course again. However, if the course did not help you pass the first time, what is the point of taking the course over again? If you have made it through accounting school, you have proven that you are smart; with a good, inexpensive study guide, you are capable of passing the test without shelling out thousands of dollars.

CPA Test - Start Preparing Early to Pass It

The key to passing the CPA test is to start preparing for it much earlier than most people do. The test is very difficult, as most prospective CPAs are well aware, yet far too few of them grasp how truly difficult it will be. As a result, over half of all first-time takers fail the CPA test and must either give up their dreams of becoming a Certified Public Accountant or wait a long time, pay another test fee, and take the test all over again. Even then, many people go on to fail the test two and three times.

Why do so many people fail the CPA exam? One reason you rarely hear discussed is that quite a few of the people who are on the CPA career path are not really cut out for it; they simply lack the aptitude or intelligence to do well on the CPA test. These are individuals who were most likely studying accounting for the wrong reasons. For these people, failing the CPA exam is actually a blessing in disguise because it keeps them from embarking on a career for which they are not well suited.

However, many people fail the CPA test every year in spite of the fact that they have both the aptitude and intelligence required for a successful career in accounting. Their problem is that they failed to start preparing for the CPA exam far enough in advance. Many of them purchase expensive CPA cram courses at the last minute, hoping to make up for lost time, but this is not usually a successful approach. It is far better to get a reputable (and inexpensive) CPA study guide several weeks before the test and use it a couple hours a night to prep for the test well in advance in order to absorb all the material.

CPA Questions: Tips & Secrets You Should Know

Have you ever wondered what is so hard about questions on the CPA test? Every year in America, tens of thousands of people take the CPA examination, and every year, thousands of these people fail to achieve a passing score. At first glance, this seems like some sort of anomaly. Yes, the test is difficult, but the people taking it generally have four or more years of accounting education, along with two or more years of actual experience. Therefore, it would seem as if CPA questions would not be that difficult to answer. Unfortunately, there is more to it than that, and unless you know certain tips and secrets, you stand a strong likelihood of failing the CPA exam yourself.

The problem is that there is much more to being ready for these questions than just knowing their content. Format and structure are also important, and if a person does not know how to take advantage of the format and structure of CPA questions, he or she is going to be at a huge handicap when it comes test time. Here is one secret that can help boost your own score: do not leave any blank answers. On some standardized tests, blank answers do not lower your score as much as wrong answers, so test takers leave the question blank when in doubt. On the CPA exam, however, there is no penalty for guessing, which means that a wrong answer is no worse than a blank answer. If you are clueless about an answer, always venture a guess. When guessing, split your answers-half should be B, and half should be C. In 60 percent of multiple-choice questions, the correct answer is B or C.

Similarly, many people do not seem to realize that some questions are much harder than others, and they spend way too much time trying to figure one particular question out, losing precious minutes on the timed CPA test. Do not let this happen to you. Keep an eye on the time remaining, and if a question stumps you, either guess or mark it so that you can come back to it later. Do not spend ten minutes trying to figure out one question. That is a recipe for failure. These tips can help you get a much higher score, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. A good CPA questions study guide will have plenty more secrets and tips to help you pass.