I understand that it is totally devastating not to pass the CPA exam, after countless hours to study and hundreds (it not thousands) of dollars wasted.
Why Didn’t I Pass The CPA Exam?
Instead of agonizing over this, let’s move on and evaluate what went wrong. Typically, people fail the CPA exam because they have…
- Not Enough Time
- Not Enough Effort
- Not Enough Understanding of Materials
1. Not Enough Time
You may be working full time, busy taking care of kids, plus many other commitments that eat away the valuable time for the CPA exam preparation, and this is totally understandable.
Did you fail to complete all the coursework before the exam? Or did you finish but it’s more like skimming without real understanding towards the later chapters?
If the answer is yes, then great — you’ve identify one of the reasons of the CPA exam failure.
What you can do to
- Finish the coursework. Start studying where you left off, or backwards if you think you didn’t really understand the concept in the later chapters.
- Evaluate using the diagnostic test. Most CPA review software comes with features that identify your weakest areas. Make sure you work hard on them and get every single MCQs right this time.
- Create more study time. Let’s be creative — wake up an hour early, study between children’s naps, bring a lunchbox and study during lunch hour, use a Lambers ipod course to maximize your study time… the list goes on and on.
2. Not Enough Effort
Let’s be honest — did you put in your best effort in your CPA exam preparation? Seriously, did you go right to the CPA review software, or did you kind of check your email, grab a coffee, then go to facebook… and wasting the most valuable, freshest morning time to “warm yourself up”? You get the picture.
3. Not Enough Understanding of Materials
Let’s see if one of the following applies to you:
- I took the sample test from the AICPA website. That’s it.
- I relied on the Wiley Book as my only resource.
- I took the Becker course.
- I took a course (other than Becker) but somehow it didn’t work.
Oh no. What makes you think that’s enough? You may be a A+ student in accounting, but the CPA Exam is not simply a test in accounting… you need TACTICS to succeed.
Did you know: all major CPA exam review courses have a 85%+ passing rate, vs a passing rate of <50% for the Uniform CPA Examination overall.
It looks like the chance of another failure can be drastically reduced based on this statistics. Please consider signing up to a CPA review course – they work! You can check out the pros and cons of all major CPA Exam review courses here.
Yes, getting the Wiley book is the cheapest option of a review course (if it can be called a “course”) , but did you actually study (vs flip through) the entire book? Most of us find the Wiley book overwhelming.
The book is very comprehensive but this perceived “strength” is a weakness for exams — because it over-prepares you. A normal human being is unable to memorize all this stuff in one go. That’s why I only recommend the Wiley CPA Software and not the book.
Anyway, please ask yourself: Did you understand all the accounting concepts covered in the book?
If the answer is yes, good for you! The solution is simply to lock yourself up and bury yourself in practice tests from either the Wiley or Gleim CPA review books (click link for discounts)
Keep working on the practice questions until you are 100% correct (repeat those that you did wrong — TWICE — to make sure you get it). If you are done and still have time and energy, redo all. I can guarantee that you will pass (with good grades!) following this advice.
If the answer is no, then taking a guided review is a worthwhile investment for you. Maybe price is the reason why you picked Wiley? Well, Becker is not the only option out there — there are great review courses that considerably cheaper than Becker. For example, Yaeger CPA Review, the one I believe has the best value for money, is a whopping 4649% discount to Becker!
Just think about the cost you need to retake the exam — you can avoid further unnecessary cost if you pass the exam in your next attempt.
I feel for you. You paid $2,890 $3,065 and failed the exam. Then Becker asks you to pay $1,000+ to retake something that obviously didn’t work out for you. Something isn’t right.
I tried Becker myself and I knew the live classes, at least, could be boring and ineffective. There are alternatives that work much better, I promise you.
Same as above, I’d like to ask you a question. Do you think you grasp all the concepts in the course? I have to say that the Becker lecture notes are pretty good and chances are that you only need to do more practice test to get that extra 10 points or so.
If this is the case, get yourself the Wiley CPA software (or Gleim, if Wiley isn’t your style) and work it through until you get 100% right. Yes that’s a lot of work but it is the most effective way to tackle this exam. And you don’t need to regret spending another 4-digit on something that’s not necessary for you.
But if you think you need to clarify some accounting concepts, you might want to consider other review courses that’s more suitable for you. Take a look at Yaeger CPA Review (my general recommendation) or other CPA Exam review courses — you can click this link to find out the pros and cons of each program.
4. Other Courses That Didn’t Work
This is obviously too general for me to present a solution, but you can either check out the CPA Exam review courses comparison and give another course a try, or write down about your situation in the comment section and I will try my best to be helpful.
Don’t worry — Accounting is not rocket science, and CPA exam is the type of exam that everyone can pass with the right knowledge and right tactics. Please feel free to share your story below (just use an alias if you want privacy) and I’ll try my best to help.
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{ 9 comments }
I failed the FAR section for the third time using beckers, every time landed in 71′s or 72′s. Thinking of getting the wiley software but some of the reviews say that they have lots of errors in the software.What is your opinion.
thanks,
(hope I can get through this time,wish me luck!!)
I failed the bec section 2 times one time I had use becker, and second time I use wiley. I did all the question 4-5 times until I made 90% or above but still failed. Can anybody please give me your opinion.
its obvious that you got use to the questions in the test bank , try doing the questions blindly never look back to the correct answer. try Gliem software it will give you a good practice but try to do all the questions in the test mode and review the weak parts.
damn, that applies all to me… ive learnt the pain of failing those public exam, not gonna make the same mistake again. It really did get me back the momentum, thanks!
i tried the beckers material and failed FAR 2 times and BEC 2 times and i gave up completely..but nw after 1 year i feel i should give it a try again..but i dont want to spend lots of money and end up in a miserable situation..how should i go about this..after the 1 year gap i am not sure hw much of the preparations i did i remember nw..where to start and hw to get prepared..do we have to be working in the field to be on track with this..is it better i not try again?
I am currently using Gleim failed AUD and BEC; totally frustrated. For AUD I felt like I did everything you mentioned above. I did MCQs many many times. I even felt confident during the exam as many questions were similar to what I did in practice… To my surprise I got less that 60, I almost collapsed….I don’t wanna give up on this but I need to change the strategy. Any suggestions please
I used CPAexcel and took AUD and BEC..failed both. I was confident enough during my preparation that I’ll pass both but didn’t. Though I came across ques on exam to which I didn’t know the right answer and had to guess the closest possible. Please let me know if I should re-prepare from new review courses or should I add supplement material to CPAexcel.
I failed all parts of the exam with Becker. Part of the reason was because I did not study enough and when busy season hit averaging 70-75 hrs a week I was just not studying at all. When I thought I studied well I did better but did not pass. So now that my Becker material is expiring I am moving to CPAExcel. I think it will work better with my schedule. I am past the point of being sad about failing because I want this. Thanks for the reviews it really helped in my decision.
Hello, thanks for your note. CPAexcel is a great program. You can do it! Stephanie