A lot of people who take the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam gain success by using a CPA review course to aid their preparation. A good review course lowers study time as well as maximize the chances of successfully passing the CPA exam. The most difficult decision to make with a review course is which one improves the chance of success the most. The following factors will help you find the best CPA exam review course to ensure success.

1) Course Materials

Although all courses cover similar accounting concepts, every instructor explains things differently. Qualified instuctors will ensure the simple ideas do not waste lesson time. Instead, they will use lesson time effectively to tackle the difficult concepts. The best value CPA review courses include free lecture samples which you may evaluate prior to buying. A further way to evaluate the quality of a review course is by checking out CPA exam preparation discussion boards as well as review sites to see what people are saying about the quality of other courses.

Always keep in mind, access to course materials expires and you must make a note of the expiration date before making a purchase. Important simulation software may become unfunctional when access terminates and this can reduce your chances of success in the exam. As well, some courses have materials which are only made available to a student for a certain duration before they become inaccessible. Access expiration is normally only relevant when you access materials on the net, but the material can become redundant as subjects may alter. 2) Practice Questions

Having revised the materials, the student normally receives practice questions to help absorb the knowledge into their memory and apply the concepts they have learned to real world examples.

When it comes to practice questions, a few CPA review courses take the comprehensive approach by making the student do every question that has a low probability of showing up on the CPA exam. While this may be a safe route to take, it can also be extremely time-consuming. Again, this situation is far from ideal.

This can be done by checking past exams to identify questions that appear the most frequently. This approach ensures students use their time efficiently and have a high probability of learning questions most likely to show up in an exam.

3) Student Support

Many CPA review courses provide different levels of customer service. If you prefer to make use of telephone support, it is important to check the course provides this service before signing up. On the other end of things are courses with limited support, and somewhere in between are courses that want students to email queries to the instructors. 4) Frequency of Updates

Due to changes in accounting-related legislature amongst other things, CPA exam study materials need to be updated quite regularly. Something to consider, that has previously been mentioned, is price. The cost of failure the first time is frequently due to opting for a lower quality review course or lack of commitment from the student.


Find out about how David Bryant finally managed to pass three previously-failed sections in ten months, with flying colors, in his Yaeger CPA Review Review.