It’s devastating to fail the CPA Exam. Countless hours to study and thousands of dollars wasted.
I know, and I hope this post can help!
3 Most Common Reasons to Fail the CPA Exam
Instead of agonizing over this, let’s move on and evaluate what went wrong. People fail the CPA Exam because they have:
1. Not Enough Time
You may be working full-time, busy taking care of kids, and other commitments that eat away at the time for proper CPA Exam preparation. Totally understandable.
Did you fail to complete all the coursework before the exam? Or did you finish, but it’s more like skimming without really understanding the later chapters?
If the answer is yes, then great — you’ve identified one of the reasons, and you can work on this to greatly improve your odds in the next attempt.
What you can do to pass the CPA Exam next time
- Finish the coursework in your CPA Exam review course. Start studying where you left off, or backward 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 MCQ 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 the mobile version of the review courses to maximize your study time… the list goes on and on.
2. Not Enough Effort
Let’s be honest — did you put in the best effort in your CPA Exam prep? Seriously, did you go right to the test bank, or kind of check your email, grab a coffee, then go to Facebook… and waste 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:
A. Sample Test Only
Hmm. What makes you think that’s enough? You may be an A+ student, but the CPA Exam isn’t just a test in accounting. It would help if you had TACTICS to succeed.
Did you know: all major CPA exam review courses have an 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 these statistics. I strongly suggest you sign up for a CPA review course — they work! You can check out the pros and cons of major CPA review courses here.
B. Online Self-Study Course
I feel for you. You paid a lot of money for an online self-study course and still managed to fail the CPA exam flat out. Then your course wants you to pay even more money to keep your access to online study materials for learning content that obviously didn’t work out for you. Something isn’t right.
Same as above, I’d like to ask you a few questions. Did you work through the entire course, or just hit the highlights? Did you watch all of the videos and work through all of the simulations? Do you think you grasp all the concepts in the course? Did you take several timed practice tests or take a cram course?
And even more importantly, did you choose the right course for you to begin with? That is, did you go with a comprehensive course with an adaptive e-learning platform, textbooks, plenty of practice tests and sample questions, live classes or webinars, videos that show you how to work through problems, success coaching, and a final cram? Or did you just go for a test bank and half-heartedly take a few mock exams?
If this is the case, get yourself a more comprehensive and proven course like Becker. Follow the program, as Becker suggests, because it will help you improve your higher-order analysis skills. Review the textbooks, watch the videos, and then work through the questions. And keep working until you get 100% right. Yes, that’s a lot of work, but it is the most effective way to tackle this exam.
Use this code on the Becker site to save on your CPA review course!
C. Wiley Book Only
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?
The book is very comprehensive, but this perceived “strength” is a weakness for exams — because it could be hard to read. My opinion is that the book can be a great learning tool, but some of us need to take another step or two to take good advantage of it.
Instead, I suggest checking out one of the best CPA Exam review courses and studying with materials from companies like Becker, Gleim, or NINJA CPA.
(i) Writing your own notes may be the only solution you need
You will like this because it won’t cost you any extra. Write your own notes based on the book content, either in notebooks or 3×5 flashcards. Not only does it help retain the material during the read-copy-and-reread process, but the notes will be presented in the format you are most familiar with.
Give it a try on at least one section and see if it works.
(ii) Did you get the Test Bank as well?
The exam is in 100% computerized format — studying is one thing, but if we are to practice only with pencil and paper, i.e., not on a platform that closely mimics the actual testing environment, it’s pretty hard to pass the CPA Exam.
With that, I very strongly recommend you get the test bank, too. You might think this is an unnecessary cost (since some Q&A are in the book anyway), but it can make or break your chance of success in your case.
Once you get the Test Bank, keep working on the practice questions until you are 100% correct (repeat those 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.
Final Thoughts
Some of you may be thinking about walking away and giving up. This is the last thing you want to do. The score doesn’t reflect your ability — it could simply mean a lack of study time and quite likely some luck. If you keep going and push a little bit harder on your next attempt, I am sure you can nail it! Just remember that phrases like “Why some people can’t pass the CPA Exam” are just myths – you can pass if you have good study plan, you use the right CPA study course for your learning style, and you stay dedicated to your studies.
Please take a good break, devise a solid study plan, and face it head-on again. Best of luck!
Hello Stephanie, I really hope I pass the CPA on the first try. I am using Gleim. How do I know whether I studied and prepared enough?
Hii I have the study material of becker 2015. Will that work to clear the exam of 2017 or it is outdated one. Pls suggest. As I purchased that material last year only.
If i purchased book now e.g Business January 2017 edition, will this books helpful for April or onward exam?
Kindly advice.
hi Riaz, I believe publishers are putting off publishing the latest version later this year because of the change. At least this is the case for Wiley. In any case, the content itself doesn’t change much, it’s the format that’s going to be changed. So I guess it is ok.
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
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 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 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?
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!
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.
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.
Smita,
I passed BEC exam on my second try using Becker. First time I scored 67 so I knew I have to put a little bit more effort the second time. Second time I did not leave a single topic and got a 76. Still close but every single point helps. Leave nothing.
Good luck.
Naveen
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!!)