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Best CIA Review Course: Discovering the Right CIA Course for You
Using the best CIA review course for you is essential to passing the CIA exam. I always recommend that CIA candidates purchase a CIA review course, and getting the right one for you ensures that you have the most efficient and effective study experience. And if finding your ideal CIA review course sounds tricky, don’t worry! I have the information about the top CIA review courses on the market that you need to make this decision. My analysis of the pros and cons of each exam prep option will enable you to find the review course that fits your specific study scenario.
Your Best CIA Review Course Options
No matter how much you’ve already investigated the CIA review course industry, you don’t have to spend any more time assessing the most popular or the most obscure contenders. Instead, you can rely on my personal experience to narrow down the list and pick the course that meets your educational needs.
I’ve identified the best CIA review course for candidates in all kinds of situations. So, depending on your familiarity with the exam content and your particular mixture of learning styles, the right course for you may be:
Assessing each of these courses on their own is the only way to be sure of your decision.
Gleim CIA Review: The Best and Most Comprehensive Course
If I had to choose just one CIA review course to recommend to every candidate, I would choose Gleim CIA Review. Gleim CIA Review is one of the top CIA review courses on the market and certainly the most popular among my readers. Furthermore, Gleim CIA Review is the most comprehensive and thorough course on the market. This course gives you the most value for your money and also ensures that you’ll be fully prepared for CIA exam success. So, no matter your familiarity with the exam content at the start of your studies, Gleim CIA Review can get your knowledge where it needs to be to earn a passing CIA exam score.
Gleim has been helping candidates pass accounting certification exams for over 45 years, so they have the expertise to help you pass as well. You can get everything you need to pass the CIA exam on your first attempt, as you can see when you consider the contents of the Gleim CIA courses.
Contents of Gleim CIA Review 2025
Gleim offers two CIA review courses that you can purchase as a complete set or as individual parts. These courses are the Gleim Premium CIA Review Course and the Gleim Traditional CIA Review Course. The Premium course includes video lectures, access until you pass, and help from accounting experts, while the Traditional course does not.
So, when you purchase the Gleim Premium CIA Review Course, which is the best value, you’ll receive the following study materials and resources:
1. A Streamlined, Smart Interface
Both the Gleim Premium and Traditional CIA Review Courses include Gleim’s proprietary SmartAdapt technology. This adaptive learning technology gauges your performance on diagnostic quizzes to determine your strengths and weaknesses with the exam content. Then, the course guides you to study the topics with which your understanding is the weakest. Finally, the course serves you more practice questions about those topics until your knowledge increases. In this way, the course enables you to cut down on study time while still becoming fully prepared for every type of exam question.
Each time you study, the Gleim course learns more about your knowledge levels and adapts to create a smarter study path for you. Therefore, your study sessions are always productive. What’s more, the interactive study planner logs the study sessions you completed and missed to adjust your review schedule regularly. So, with this tool, you can make sure that you’ll finish the course before your exam date.
2. CIA Exam Video Lectures
Gleim CIA Review is the only course on the market to include video lectures. Furthermore, these video lectures are high-quality productions featuring active professors who are also CIAs and IIA thought leaders.
The Premium Gleim CIA Review Course comes with 45 hours of in-depth video lectures. And the Gleim course has divided these 45 hours up into bite-sized lessons that are easy to watch without getting overwhelmed. The structure of the videos also accommodates candidates who want to follow along in their study guide and take notes.
Finally, the video lectures also cover multiple-choice question (MCQ) answering techniques so you have the best plan for addressing real CIA exam questions. The Gleim instructors explain the answers to the MCQs in detail so you know exactly why the correct answer is right. Consequently, you’ll also see why the incorrect answers are wrong. In this way, you’ll achieve a deeper comprehension of the exam topics while increasing your familiarity with the exam questions.
3. Textbooks for the CIA Exam
Gleim has a reputation for writing very thorough yet conveniently structured books. And most importantly, Gleim always keeps the content of their books as closely aligned to the IIA’s CIA exam syllabus as possible. Therefore, Gleim has one book for each part of the CIA exam:
These books contain study unit outlines that discuss the main subject areas of the exam and include appropriate examples for additional explanation. You’ll also find practice questions within the books. But, you don’t need to work through all of these questions, as you’ll also have access to the online test bank.
4. Test Bank of CIA Questions
Gleim CIA develops the best practice questions in the industry. Therefore, the Gleim CIA Review test bank outshines the test bank in any other CIA course. Consequently, you won’t find a more effective way to test your knowledge of the exam concepts before you sit than answering Gleim practice questions.
With a little over 3,000 relevant questions, the Gleim test bank is not the biggest on the market. However, this test bank is the most comprehensive and realistic. Furthermore, Gleim provides answer explanations for every question. So, just like in the video lectures, you’ll learn why the correct answer is right and the incorrect answer is wrong. And using these explanations to learn from your mistakes keeps your review fast and beneficial.
Finally, the Gleim CIA test bank also replicates the exam testing environment better than any other CIA course. Gleim has made the effort to reproduce the real exam screens as accurately as possible so that you know what to expect on exam day and don’t encounter as many surprises. Because other review course providers don’t go to such lengths, Gleim’s exam emulation may seem like a luxury, but it is actually an invaluable aspect of their outstanding test bank.
5. Expert Help
Another distinguishing feature of the Gleim Premium CIA Review Course is access to real accounting experts. Gleim provides candidates with this type of assistance so candidates have somewhere to turn when they struggle with tricky internal auditing topics like ratios or sampling. Though these courses are self-study, Gleim doesn’t want you to get stuck in your studies, so they allow you to contact an accounting expert who will provide an answer to your question via a convenient component of the course.
Gleim also supplies all of their CIA candidates with the opportunity to interact with an exam mentor for the duration of their studies. These exam mentors will help you create a study plan, navigate the CIA exam scheduling process, and use the course in the way that suits your learning style. This additional guidance gives you the best experience with the course and the best support for the CIA exam.
6. Access Until You Pass the CIA Exam
Some CIA review providers make you pay for updates to your course materials or extensions to your course access. However, Gleim is different. With their access until you pass guarantee, you get free updates to the course as long as you’re using it. And, your access to the course never expires, so you don’t have to pay any additional fees. This no-hassle policy even lets you request a refund if you fail the exam. So, the Premium Gleim CIA Review really leaves you with nothing to worry about once you pay for it. You’ll get all the updates and access you need to pass the CIA exam as soon as you can, no matter how long the process takes.
7. Audio Lectures
The Gleim CIA audio lectures are not the audio files of the Gleim video lectures. Instead, the audio lectures are high-level discussions of the most important CIA exam concepts. Therefore, the audio lectures provide a different perspective on the exam material. And because they allow you to simply listen along in order to study, the audio lectures also let you take another approach to your review. Specifically, the audio lecture approach is flexible, so you can study while you complete another activity like chores, exercise, or travel.
8. Exam Rehearsal Mode
When you’re ready for a taste of the CIA exam environment, you can turn to the Gleim Exam Rehearsal. This timed practice test helps you pinpoint any remaining weak areas the week before you sit for the CIA exam. So, when you complete this test during the last few days of your review, you can further refine your understanding of particular topics. And in doing so, you can maximize your real CIA exam score. The Gleim Exam Rehearsal is perfect for weeding out any remaining problem areas. So, having this feature handy in your review course can really boost your confidence in your CIA exam preparations.
The Price of Gleim CIA Review
Gleim CIA Review is the most complete CIA course on the market, but it is not the most expensive. Therefore, because of all the value it provides, this course is worth the investment.
Without any discounts, the Premium Gleim CIA Review Course costs $1,249, and the Traditional Gleim CIA Review Course costs $1,099. However, with my exclusive Gleim CIA Review discounts, you can save on your course.
If pricing remains a concern, you can also finance your Gleim CIA study materials. You’ll just need a U.S. social security number to apply for financing.
Get the Gleim CIA Discount! [optin-monster-shortcode id=”bhqbp6jwuoz7rkkmagiv”]Surgent CIA Review: The Best Course for Retakers
Surgent CIA Review (formerly ExamMatrix CIA Review) is a high-tech CIA review course that uses innovative technology to help candidates strengthen their weaknesses with the CIA exam content. However, the Surgent course is not the most instructive, as it doesn’t include video lectures, thorough books, or help from experts. For these reasons, I recommend Surgent CIA Review to candidates who have failed part of the CIA exam and need to intensify their review so they can pass their retake.
Surgent is not the oldest CIA review course provider in the industry, but it is one of the most determined. The founders of Surgent CIA Review have dedicated themselves to making the testing process faster and easier for candidates by enhancing their course with convenient and powerful features. Therefore, Surgent CIA Review is a great course for candidates to try if they’ve taken a hit from the CIA exam and are getting a little tired.
Components of Surgent CIA Review
Surgent offers just one CIA review course option. And, this course is not as comprehensive as Gleim CIA Review. However, the materials you get with Surgent may be enough for experienced candidates to pass with. These materials include:
1. Adaptive Online Platform
Surgent acquired ExamMatrix in 2015, and in the process, inherited adaptive technology for their online review courses. With this technology, Surgent developed a course that does the following:
- Employs an easy-to-use, intuitive interface
- Adapts to your performance on practice questions
- Reports your progress with the exam content via detailed analytics
- Adjusts the agenda of your daily study sessions accordingly
- Serves more difficult practice questions as your understanding improves
- Regularly calculates your exam readiness
Surgent’s proprietary adaptive learning technology, called A.S.A.P. technology, identifies your strengths and weaknesses with the exam content and uses this information to direct the focus of your studies and determine the practice questions you should answer.
Additionally, Surgent’s ReadySCORE technology collects figures from real-time performance analytics, study time reports, and progress data to calculate a number that indicates your current strength of knowledge per content area and topic and represents how well you would score on the real CIA exam at that time.
With such extensive and advantageous information at your fingertips, you’ll find the Surgent CIA Review course useful for bouncing back from a CIA exam failure.
2. Test Bank of CIA Exam Questions
Surgent CIA Review includes more than 2,500 practice MCQs. This number is a lot more than the amount you’ll answer on the CIA exam. However, it is not as many practice questions as Gleim has.
As I mentioned, you’re more likely to memorize the practice questions in your course if you don’t have enough of them. And memorizing questions is a bad CIA exam strategy because you won’t see those exact questions on the exam, but the exam will ask you about those concepts. So, you must save your brain space for a deeper understanding of the exam content instead. So, the fact that Surgent’s test bank is small is not ideal.
But, this test bank also comes with full-text answers to the practice questions, which you can use to ensure that you got the question right for the right reason. Or, you can determine why your answer was wrong and the correct answer was right. Learning from your mistakes in this way does make the Surgent test bank valuable, especially if you just need a fresh set of practice questions to prepare for your exam retake.
3. Digital Textbooks
The entire Surgent CIA course is online and mobile-compatible, including the textbooks. The 3 textbooks, one for each exam part, only come as PDFs. So, if you’re hoping for hard copies, you’ll be out of luck. What’s more, Surgent’s books are not the most comprehensive. Therefore, you probably won’t find them helpful for passing the exam on their own.
4. Content Updates
If you purchase Surgent CIA Review, you’ll receive 18 months of course access. Of course, 18 months is not as extravagant as access until you pass, but it might be long enough for you to pass a failed CIA exam part. And during this time, you will get free updates to your course content if the exam changes or Surgent makes improvements. So, you will always be studying with the most current and accurate course materials, even if the amount of time you have to study with them is limited.
5. Pass Guarantee
If you spend a sufficient amount of time studying with Surgent’s CIA course and fail, you may be able to take advantage of the pass guarantee. This guarantee refunds your money so long as you meet the conditions.
The Price of Surgent CIA Review
Surgent CIA Review is mostly a high-tech test bank. And thankfully, because it doesn’t meet my definition of a full review course, you won’t pay a full review course price.
Instead, Surgent CIA Review costs $499. However, when you use my Surgent CIA Review discount code, you can save on this course.
Get the Surgent Code!
Becker – The IIA CIA Learning System: Another CIA Review Course Option
Basically, Becker CIA is replacing the old IIA CIA course and is now being called Becker – The IIA CIA Learning System. By combining an adaptive learning platform, customized CIA study guides, and guidance from Becker’s auditing experts, this brand-new Becker CIA test review course will help you prepare to pass.
Contents of the Becker – The IIA CIA Learning System
The Becker IIA CIA Learning System has courses that offer the following review resources:
1. Textbooks for the CIA Exam
Becker CIA has 3 digital textbooks, one for each part of the CIA exam. However, the price of the Becker CIA Essentials course only includes digital books. So if you want printed CIA books, you should go with the Becker CIA Premium or Pro courses.
2. Practice Questions
The Becker CIA course contains thousands of interactive practice questions. However, Becker doesn’t publish the exact number of CIA questions included in the course, so we don’t know if the course includes as many questions as Gleim CIA Review. So, there is a chance that you will come across the same practice question more than once as you work through the course. And answering repeat practice questions increases the likelihood of memorizing the questions rather than understanding the concepts. This issue, in turn, reduces your chances of experiencing CIA exam success.
The practice questions appear in the pre-test, section quizzes, post-test, and CIA practice exams. And, the course does supply some analytics on your performance with the practice questions.
3. Study Planner
The Becker CIA course comes with a study planner that the course fills out for you using the results of your performance on some pretests. The study planner targets the areas you struggled with so you can review more efficiently and effectively. Therefore, this tool is helpful.
4. Flashcards
Finally, all of the Becker CIA courses will feature flashcards in the future. Becker specifies that these flashcards allow you to review key internal audit terms and definitions, but they don’t say how many flashcards you get. And, these flashcards seem to only be available in a digital format, not a printed format.
Elements Missing from the Becker – IIA CIA Learning System
As you can see, the list of materials in this course is pretty short. Sadly, the list of what this course doesn’t contain is longer than what it does have. Becker CIA is lacking:
1. Professor-led Video Lectures
For now, Becker CIA is lacking videos that cover the exam concepts. However, they are being added soon.
2. Audio lectures
Becker CIA doesn’t include audio lectures. So, if you learn best by having someone explain information to you, you’ll struggle to grasp and retain the exam concepts when using Becker CIA. And, of course, you also won’t have the option of studying while accomplishing other tasks.
3. A Vast Test Bank of CIA Questions
Yes, Becker CIA does come with practice questions. But, as mentioned, the number of questions is limited. So, this test bank is not as strong as the one offered by Gleim CIA.
4. Access Until You Pass the CIA Exam
If you purchase 1 part of the Becker – IIA CIA course, you’ll get access for 1 year. And if you buy the 3-part CIA Essentials course, you can access everything within for 2 years. However, if passing the CIA exam takes you any longer than that, you’ll have to pay for your Becker course again. You won’t receive any extended course access for free.
For that reason, we recommend the Becker CIA Premium and Pro courses. Because unlike the Essentials course, the Premium and Pro courses have unlike access, so you can keep studying until you pass the CIA exam.
5. A Complete Course Demo
If you’re wanting to see this course for yourself before you buy it, you’re out of luck. Becker does not let you demo this course in any way. You can read sample textbook passages, but you can’t get into the course at all unless you pay for it.
The Price of Becker CIA
So, what is the price of the new Becker CIA? The price of the course for all 3 exam parts is $899. However, we often have Becker CIA coupons to share.
Final Thoughts about Becker CIA/IIA CIA Learning System
In conclusion, what is our ultimate suggestion about the IIA CIA Learning System and Becker CIA exam review? It goes without saying that Becker has an excellent reputation for helping students pass their accounting examinations. Additionally, the Becker CIA Premium and Pro courses will provide you with all the resources you need to pass the CIA exam, including a flexible and personalized study planner, a large number of practice questions, and mock CIA exams.
Nevertheless, remember that you can use any of the top CIA exam review courses to prepare for the IIA CIA exam; studying with Becker is not mandatory!
Help Finding the Best CIA Review Course for You
As mentioned, I believe candidates should always use a review course to prepare for the CIA exam. Studying with CIA exam prep gives you the best chance of earning a passing score. However, I don’t believe just any CIA review course will do. You need to find the right one for you, and that process will require some research. So, use the information provided here and my CIA exam site to learn more about your review course options. And if you want a more specific suggestion, you can also ask me for a personalized recommendation.
Finally, you can learn more about the CIA process and how to pass the CIA exam on your first attempt by signing up for my free CIA e-course. Then, you’ll have everything you need for CIA success!
About the Author Stephanie Ng
I am the author of How to Pass The CPA Exam (published by Wiley), and I also passed all 4 sections of the CPA Exam on my first try. Additionally, I have led webinars, such as for the Institute of Management Accountants, authored featured articles on websites like Going Concern and AccountingWeb, and I'm also the CFO for the charity New Sight. Finally, I have created other accounting certification websites to help mentor non-CPA candidates. I have already mentored thousands of CPA, CMA, CIA, EA, and CFA candidates, and I can help you too!
