CPA Preparation Course - Some Considerations Before You Purchase
Go to: Previous Article Next Article
Many accountants studying for the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) exam use a CPA review course to help prepare. A good review course reduces study time as well as maximize the chances of successfully passing the exam. The most difficult choice to make with a review course is which one increases the likelihood of success the most. The following factors will help you discover the best CPA exam review course to ensure success.
1) Course Materials
Although all courses cover similar accounting theories, every teacher describes things differently. Great review courses are only taught by engaging teachers that are capable of explaining challenging ideas in an easy-to-understand manner. Also, a good teacher will spend more time on key theories and just touch on the more self-explanatory ones to ensure lectures are more relevant. Leading CPA review courses normally make sample lectures freely available so you can get a glimpse of how the course is structured. A further way to examine the quality of a review course is by visiting CPA exam preparation forums and review sites to see what other people are saying about the quality of other courses.
The highest quality courses also make their lectures available on a number of media platforms, including DVD, CDs and recorded or live webcasts. The portability of how course materials are delivered should be taken into consideration when evaluating a review course.
Also, when shopping around for a review course, be sure to note any expiry dates for the course materials. Some questions and simulation software will 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 ideal course materials and software is the kind that does not require access to the net to use, and therefore does not expire. If you must purchase the type that expires, ensure you have ample time to absorb the information prior to expiration.
2) Practice Questions
Practice questions are a great way to make sure students understand concepts and retain knowledge. They help make it easy to retain through use of practical examples in case studies.
With practice questions, a few CPA review courses take the exhaustive approach by making the student do every question that has any chance of appearing on the CPA exam. While this may be a safe route to take, it can also be quite time-consuming. Plenty of students usually run out of either time or patience, or both, and rarely get around to completing many of the sample questions, meaning they are not fully prepared for the exam.
Other courses take different approaches and keep practice questions to a minimum. This also results in students not receiving ideal preparation. It is far from ideal.
The ideal CPA review course will contain popular sample questions normally appearing on the exam. This can be done by checking past exams to identify questions which appear frequently. This approach ensures students use their time efficiently and have a better chance of learning questions most likely to appear in an exam.
3) Student Support
Different CPA review courses provide different levels of customer support. If you normally make use of phone support services, it is critical you check the course provides this service before signing up. On the other end of the spectrum are courses with limited support, and in the middle are courses that allow students to email questions to the teachers. Other courses provide online message boards and forums to allow students to interact with instructors and with each other. Obviously, you should check whatever review course you decide to buy offers the right type of support suitable for your requirements.
4) Frequency of Updates
CPA exam materials are regularly updated due to accounting legislature changes. The update frequency of course materials can impact on your level of success as courses that fail to update regularly may teach obsolete procedures.
One factor that many people take into account, that has not been discussed, is cost. 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 support from the tutors, rather than 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), failing one or more sections is not unlikely. The cost of failure the first time is normally due to selecting a lower quality review course or lack of application on the part of a student.
Article Source: Articlelogy.com
- Credit Cards A big selection of Cards in all flavors: Bad Credit Cards, Secured Cards, Prepaid Cards, Credit Cards for Canada, Low Interest Cards, etc -
Word Count: 782
Reduce Your Debts Without Bankruptcy. See How Much You Can Save. Free Debt Analysis
