CPA Review Course - How Should One Choose?
CPA Review Course - How Should One Choose?
Many accountants studying for the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) exam use a CPA review course to help prepare. A high quality review course will minimize study time and maximizes the chances of successfully passing the exam. The toughest choice to make with a review course is which one improves the chance of success the most. The following list of factors will help you discover the ideal CPA exam review course to ensure success.
1) Course Materials
Every course will cover the same subjects likely to come up in the exam, although teachers use their own methods. Good review courses are only taught by engaging instructors who can explain difficult concepts in a simple way. Also, a great teacher will spend more time on key ideas and skim the more self-explanatory ones to ensure lessons are more relevant. Top CPA review courses usually make sample lessons available for free so you can get a glimpse of how the course is laid out. A further way to assess the quality of a review course is by visiting CPA exam preparation forums and review sites to see what people are saying about the quality of other courses.
As well, the lessons can be available through a variety of media, such as live webcasts, CDs, DVDs, or USB. If accessibility to materials is restricted, it limits how you can benefit. It is therefore worth considering how the material is delivered before deciding which course to buy.
Also, when shopping around for a review course, make note of any expiry dates for the course materials. Some questions and simulation software will become disabled at a certain time after activation. Some courses only allow access for a set period before closing access entirely. The access expiry is usually only relevant when you access materials on the net, but the material maybe become obsolete as subjects may alter. If you decide on a course with no access expiration, you need to make sure to make use of the material before it becomes redundant.
2) Practice Questions
Practice questions offer an alternative way to make sure students understand key concepts. They help make it easy to retain through use of practical real world examples.
Each of the CPA review courses take different approaches with practice questions. A lot of courses aim to tackles every question likely to turn up in the CPA exam. While this may be the safest approach, it can also be extremely time-consuming. It is not unusual for students to run out of time and not succeed in covering some of the key questions. This severely impacts on their exam preparation and ability to succeed.
On the other hand, there are those review courses that do not provide sufficient example questions to adequately prepare the student for the exam. It is far from ideal.
The best CPA review course will concentrate on the most likely questions to come up in the exam. This is possible through checking past exams to identify questions which appear frequently. This ensures the highest rate of return for the student's study time by allowing the student to focus on the most important areas.
3) Student Support
Many CPA review courses provide different levels of student support. If you prefer to make use of telephone support, it is important to check the course provides this service prior to subscribing to it. On the other end of the spectrum are courses that have minimal support, and in the middle are courses that allow students to email questions to the tutors. Some review courses offer message boards and forums to enable students to interact with teachers and with each other. Before buying a review course, make sure that it will provide the level of support you need.
4) Frequency of Updates
Due to changes in accounting-related legislature amongst other things, CPA exam study materials need to be updated on a regular basis. Some review courses update more frequently than others, so be sure to take this into consideration when choosing a course.
Cost is something else to consider as it varies from course to course. However, substantial pay rises experienced by many accountants after gaining CPA certification, it is advised that you choose a CPA review course based on quality and assistance from the tutors, rather soley on price. Considering that the average pass rate for the CPA exam is only 47.49-49.10% (pass rate for Uniform CPA Examination in 2008), failure in one or more sections is not unlikely. You will not want to re-study for and re-sit the exam simply because you wanted to save a few bucks by purchasing a lesser quality review course.
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