Here are some notes on how I used Becker (a CPA exam prep service) to study for the CPA exams. The Big 4 firms pay for each incoming employee to have access to Becker’s test prep materials. As I recall, there were several options to choose from including a weekly class in person, but I opted for the pure self-study option because my schedule wasn’t very flexible and I prefer to learn on my own.
Becker provides an overwhelmingly large number of tools. I’ll walk you through what each is and how I made things work for me. Heads up, this post will not make much sense unless you also have Becker and are walking through the different features of it with me.
Quick overview of Becker’s layout:
Becker breaks up each exam (FAR, AUD, BEC, REG) into chapters and each chapter into modules (subchapters, if you will). FAR has 10 chapters (it’s the longest/covers the most material), then REG has 8, and AUD/BEC both have 6.
Each module has:
Each chapter has:
- Outlines: key concepts discussed in that chapter
- Pre-annotated e-book: pdf copy of that chapter of the textbook with the red lecture annotations already on it
- Personalized review session: MCQs from the chapter to review (note: these are not new questions—they simply recycle the original MCQ from each module)
- Flashcards
Each exam has:
- Three practice exams
How I initially used Becker:
The first exam I studied for was FAR and I had no idea what I was doing for the first little while. I worked my way through everything on Becker for the first two modules of FAR 1 (the first chapter of FAR). I think I ended up spending about 15 hours per module. That was insane and totally unnecessary if you have a degree in accounting and you've seen some of the material before. Don’t do that.
How I used Becker after I got my head on straight:
For each module:
- Pre-assessment: I tried doing these for a while but didn’t love them. I ended up always skipping this because I wanted a quick refresher on the material even if I technically knew it deep deep deep down inside my brain somewhere.
- Lecture: I did not have near enough patience to endure the painfully long lectures. I also disliked having to go at the lecturer’s pace. So instead of listening to those lectures, I studied the pre-annotated e-book instead (the version of the textbook with all the lecturer's red markings and notes in them). As I read the pre-annotated e-book, I made flashcards on Quizlet for the things I didn’t know or didn’t remember from my undergrad. I created one set for each chapter of each exam. For topics that were harder to throw in flashcards, I created hand-written summary “cheat sheets” to help me remember what I was learning (e.g. I had a one-paged cheat sheet for leases, for pensions, for nonprofits, etc).
- Skills practice: I never got much value from the videos in the skills practice, so I’d always skip to the problem. The problems were helpful so I continued to do those.
- MCQs: this is where a lot of study time is usually wasted if you try to do it all. After I figured that out, I never did all the MCQ problems. Depending on the topic, I’d do about 1/3 to 1/4 of the problems because so many questions test the exact same concept in very similar ways. If there was a topic that I was really struggling with because I knew nothing about it (I’m talking to you, governmental accounting!) I’d do anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4 of the problems. Another thing I found is that similar questions are frequently bunched together, so instead of doing the first 25% of questions, I’d simply do 1, skip 3, do 1, skip 3, etc. until I made my way through the set. Side note: many people find skipping straight to the MCQ and learnings from those the most helpful. I didn’t end up doing that because I didn’t find Becker’s answer key particularly helpful in learning the material without seeing it before. But this is all just personal preference.
- Simulations: these are so tempting to skip. They’re long and hard. But do NOT skip these! Half of the exam is simulations. It’s important to get the hang of them. Don’t skip them. I did all the simulations and was glad I did.
For each chapter:
- Outlines: I rarely used them—didn’t find them particular value adding.
- Pre-annotated e-book: my lifeline. See my note above about lectures.
- Personalized review session: see my note above about MCQs. The personalized review sessions were just a compilation of existing MCQs for a topic, so I never used them.
- Flashcards: I didn’t find them helpful so I never used them.
For each exam:
- Practice exams: I always took the first two. They recommend taking the first one about three weeks before your exam date, which I find ridiculous. My entire exam timeline was less than 3 weeks for BEC and REG. I usually took the first practice exam about 3-4 days before my exam and the second 1-2 days before. These practice tests were helpful in getting me used to the layout of the exam (Becker’s practice exams look pretty much identical to the real one in terms of layout/visuals), but I wouldn’t rely solely on the practice exams for review. Because so much material is testable, there are many concepts that aren’t tested on the practice tests that may show up on the exam.
Exam | Mock Exam 1 Score | Mock Exam 2 Score | Actual Score |
FAR | 90 | 90 | 94 |
AUD | 81 | 86 | 90 |
BEC | 74 | 82 | 99 |
REG | 75 | 78 | 90 |
I hope this is helpful. Good luck!
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