CPA Preparation Course – How Should One Choose?
A lot of people who take the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam gain success by using a CPA review course to aid their preparation. The ideal review course reduces the risk of failure in the CPA exam and significantly reduces the time required to take in the key concepts. With plenty of different courses on the market today, it can be challenging to choose the best one. The following factors will help you find the best CPA exam review course to ensure success.
1) Course Materials
Each course covers the same subjects likely to appear in the exam, although lecturers use their own methods. Good review courses are only taught by absorbing lecturers who are able to explain hard concepts in a simple way. Also, a great tutor will place more emphasis on key theories and just touch on the more self-explanatory ones to make lessons more efficient. The better CPA review courses include free lecture samples that you can examine before deciding to buy. There are plenty of forums and sites that offer valuable insight to the most valuable courses. Feedback given on those sites will help you make the right decision.
As well, the lessons can be obtained from a variety of media, such as live webcasts, CDs, DVDs, or USB. If access to course material is restricted, it limits how you can benefit. It is therefore wise to consider how the material is delivered prior to deciding which course to buy.
Also, when looking for a review course, make note of any expiration dates for the course materials. Access to question and simulations can become disabled at a certain time after activation. As well, some courses have materials which are available to students for a set periods before they become inaccessible. The best type of course materials and software does not require access to the net to use, and therefore does not expire. If you must purchase the type that with access expiration, ensure you have ample time to absorb the information before it expires on you.
2) Practice Questions
Having studied the course materials, the student normally receives practice questions to drill the knowledge into their memory as well as apply the key ideas they have learned to actual case studies.
Each of the CPA review courses take varying approaches with practice questions. A lot of courses aim to tackles every possible question likely to come up in the CPA exam. While this may be a safe route to take, it can also be extremely time-consuming. Many students simply run out of either time or patience, or both, and rarely get around to completing many of the sample questions, leaving them ill-prepared for the exam.
On the other hand, there are those review courses which fail to provide sufficient example questions to adequately prepare the student for the exam. It is not ideal.
The ideal CPA review course will focus on the most likely questions to come up in the CPA exam. This is possible through analyzing past papers to identify questions that appear the most frequently. This will ensure the highest rate of return for the student’s study time by enabling the student to concentrate on areas that will probably matter the most.
3) Student Support
All CPA review courses offer some form of student support. If ask questions and prefer speaking to teachers over the phone, then be sure to choose a review course that has that kind of service. Some courses provide limited student support while other courses carry out support via email. Other courses offer message boards and forums to enable students to interact with teachers and with one another. Before deciding on a review course, ensure it provides the level of support you require.
4) Frequency of Updates
CPA exam materials are regularly updated due to accounting prodecure changes. The frequency of updates to course material can impact on your level of success as courses that neglect regular updates may teach antiquated methods.
Cost is something else to compare as it varies between courses. However, considering the typical substantial pay-raise that is experienced by many people after becoming certified, it is advisable you choose a CPA review course based on quality and support from the lecturers, rather soley on the cost. Considering that the average pass rate for the CPA exam is only 47.49-49.10% (pass rate for Uniform CPA Examination in 2008), failing one or more sections is not unlikely. You definitely don’t want to re-sit sections of the exam just because you decided to save some cash by buying a lower quality course.
Find out which CPA review course is the most highly recommended amongst the many CPA exam review courses on the market today.
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