Our goal is to maximize our students' ability to pass the CPA Exam. On this page, you'll find specific study strategies that we recommend every CPAexcel student follow to achieve high scores on each of the four CPA Exam sections.

Please print this out and use it to guide you through the course material and to help you create a personal week-by-week study plan that will prepare you for exam success.

The brief time you spend up-front learning how to use the course and creating a personal study strategy plan can save you many hours of study time, help you use the course components more effectively, and can dramatically increase your exam scores. This is why we strongly urge you to read this document and follow the recommendations below.

Here is a summary of the steps we recommend every CPAexcel student follow:

In the next section we will describe each step in more detail. Although these steps will help all CPAexcel students use the course materials more effectively, we recognize that no two students are alike in terms of their current knowledge base, time constraints and preferred study methods.

Therefore CPAexcel is also customizable to meet your specific study needs. CPAexcel's Diagnostic Exams, varied course lengths, and choice of study tools (such as Video Lectures, Professor Mentoring and Self-Study Courses) enable you to create an individualized study strategy that will work best for you.

No Two Students are Alike

CPA Exam candidates are often surprised to discover how much they know - or don't know about the CPA Exam material. Some think their knowledge is limited and are surprised to discover they actually have a substantial base of knowledge. Others initially feel confident, but discover upon reviewing the material, that there are many areas where they have knowledge gaps.

To eliminate these surprises we strongly urge every CPAexcel student to begin their exam preparation by taking the Diagnostic Exams in each course section. The Diagnostic Exams are tests that randomly pull 25% of the past exam questions from the numerous lessons within the CPA Exam topics. The resulting scores are useful for shaping the order and time you spend on the course material - focusing a greater amount of time on the areas where your diagnostic scores are lower.

By prioritizing in this way, you can jump around the table of contents as necessary, letting your diagnostic scores lead you through the material in the most time-efficient manner. Since the CPA Exam covers such a large amount of information and study time is often limited, using this strategy can make all the difference in your exam success!

Create an Individualized Study Strategy for Each Exam Section

Every study strategy should contain the following components, but can be further customized using the Diagnostic Exams to determine the order and time you spend on each subject area.

• Review the Online Help Section. Visit the Resources for Getting Started located under the CPAexcel Students section of our website. Review the Mulitmedia Tutorial and the Online Reference Section for step-by-step instructions on using the various course features and components.
• Take a hands-on tour. Go through the courseware and click on all the icons and buttons in the table of contents and courseware screens. This will give you first-hand experience accessing the features you'll need and knowing where they are located.
• Learn how the performance indicators work. CPAexel provides you with detailed performance metrics to track your progress. These metrics are located within the table of contents, on your Lesson Overview page, and in the "Summary Scorecard" and "Scorecard Details" performance metrics boxes. Review the function of each of these indicators and refer to them continually as you proceed through the course.
• Access the Student Discussion board. On your course overview page, within each lesson you'll find a link to the online Student Discussion board. Here you can view discussions and questions asked by other students, read CPAexcel professors' answers, and ask questions of your own. (Professor Mentoring students may post questions to professors.)
• Take the Diagnostic Exams before you begin studying the course material. Every exam section contains a series of Diagnostic Exams that will help you pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses across the entire course section. Allocate one or more days upfront before beginning your studies to take these exams. Review your scores in each subject area, taking note of your scores from lowest to highest. We recommend you do a thorough review of the areas where you scored under 90%, following the steps listed below for studying each lesson. In areas where you scored 90% or greater, you may do a faster review of the lessons, going straight to the proficiency questions and past exam questions to confirm and reinforce your current knowledge. (Note: students with a low level of exam knowledge can skip the Diagnostic Exams and perform a complete study of all of the lessons in the order they are presented in the table of contents.)
  
  To access the Diagnostic Exams, click on the small ">" icon at the top of the table of contents. This will reveal a Study Strategy box with three choices. Select "Diagnostic Exams" and then click on the "Locate Exams" link. The table of contents will now reveal and highlight all the Diagnostic Exams in the course content. (The Diagnostic Exams are not shown in the table of contents until you follow this procedure.)
  
  Click on each highlighted Diagnostic Exam within the table of contents, and take the exams. After you complete each one, you will see a breakdown of your scores. By clicking the "Details" button, you can review each right and wrong answer, including the rationale behind each answer. If you want to repeat the Diagnostic Exams at a later time, click "Reset My Diagnostic Scores" to clear your scores on all Diagnostic Exams.
  
  
• Create a week-by-week study plan. Based on the results of your Diagnostic Exams and the amount of study time you can allocate per week, determine how many weeks you will need to cover all of the course material before scheduling your exam date for each section. (Note: The amount of time you need to study may vary between exam sections.) We strongly recommend that you include in your plan at least one week to perform a final review, plus a few extra days during your studies for holidays, vacation, and possible emergencies.
  
  In general, we recommend you allocate the following number of hours to study each exam section. (However you may need more or less time depending upon your current knowledge level.)
  • FAR: 90-115 hours to cover the course material.
    (Add an extra week for the final review.)
  • REG: 80-105 hours to cover the course material.
    (Add an extra week for the final review.)
  • AUD: 60-85 hours to cover the course material.
    (Add an extra week for the final review.)
  • BEC: 60-85 hours to cover the course material.
    (Add an extra week for the final review.)
  Students enrolled in a CPAexcel Guided Seminar Course: Choose your Guided Seminar course length based on the results of your Diagnostic Exams. We recommend that most students start with the 60-day course to allow for the most study time per lesson, but if you obtain high scores on your Diagnostic Exams, or prefer to cover the lessons at a quicker pace, you can select either a 40, 30, or 15-day course. You may transfer to a shorter or longer Guided Seminar at any time. (Each Guided Seminar covers the same material, regardless of course length.)
  
  Students enrolled in a CPAexcel Self-Study Course: We recommend that you create your study plan based on your Diagnostic Exam scores in each exam area, giving first priority to your weakest areas. Based on your scores and the amount of study time you can allocate per week, determine how many weeks you will need to study - before scheduling your exam date for each section.
  
  CPAexcel's Study Pace tool will help you track your progress by displaying the number of lessons you have to complete per week to finish all the course material before your chosen exam date. To access the CPAexcel Study Pace tool, click on the "Details" button in the Scorecard Summary box, located on your course homepage. The Study Pace tool is located in the bottom section of the Scorecard Details box on the right of the course screen.
  
• Read the Welcome Message in each exam section. Written by the authors of the course material, these welcome messages describe the content you will be covering and its weight on the CPA Exam. The authors also make noteworthy study recommendations specific to the material covered in different subject areas.
• Review each lesson using the recommended step-by-step process:
  Lessons typically take 30 minutes or more, depending upon the lesson length, number of exam questions included in each lesson, and your prior knowledge.

• Use the Exam Tutor. After every 20-25 lessons, use the Exam Tutor to practice answering a mix of exam questions from all of the lessons you have covered to date. By doing so, you will be reviewing exam questions from every lesson you have covered at the 25%, 50% and 75% completion mark.
• Practice the Simulations to get comfortable using the CPA Exam - identical AICPA simulation interface, the Research and Authoritative Literature section, and in answering the various questions within each tab.
• Perform a Final Review - allocate one week.
• Use the Exam Tutor to answer questions from every lesson in the course. (Set the Exam Tutor to ask you 100 questions from all lessons, and check the box that reads "Prefer frequently missed questions.")
• Take the Simulated CPA Exams until you achieve consistently high passing practice exam scores.
• Confirm Course Completion. Course completion is defined as earning a combined score of 90% or above on the past exam questions within the course lessons and the Simulated CPA Exam. (Both are weighted as 50% of the total.) This means you can achieve course completion by achieving scores such as the following combinations:
  
  Exam Questions 80%
  Simulated CPA Exam 100%
  
  Exam Questions 90%
  Simulated CPA Exam 90%
  
  Exam Questions 87%
  Simulated CPA Exams 95%
  
  Note: You are not required to reach course completion before taking the CPA Exam , however the closer you are to obtaining high scores, the greater the probability of passing!

Best wishes and welcome aboard!