Hello and welcome welcome!
Today we're going to be talking about the CPA Exam game plan.
What does that mean?
We're trying to figure out how to help you conquer the CPA Exam in 3 months, or 6 months
or 12 months...whatever works best around your study schedule, what works best around
your life.
A little bit of background on myself.
My name is Roger Philipp of Roger CPA Review.
I went to college in Los Angeles and then worked at Deloitte & Touche in downtown L.A.
where I got my CPA certificate.
Left there over 20 years ago and started teaching CPA review.
My job is to take accounting and give it life, energy, passion, focus you into the key information,
help you accomplish your goal, which is to one day sit for and successfully complete
the CPA Exam.
A little bit about Roger CPA Review.
We are still the fastest growing CPA review course in the country, we have over 20 live
locations, we have contracts with over 100 firms and governmental entities and private
businesses, and that number keeps growing day by day by day.
We'll talk a little bit later about how to prepare for the exam using the Roger Method
where we the most up to date textbooks, and we also include free updates as they are needed.
We also get the highest verified pass rate in the industry, which is over 86%.
And finally, unsurpassed value.
Our prices are about 40-50% less than most of our competitors.
What we're going to talk about today is your CPA Exam game plan.
What does that include?
First of all, learning the basics of the CPA Exam and what is included in the CPA Exam
and what's covered.
Understanding the exam study process.
So, sitting down and saying, "Rog, I'm excited and motivated, almost as excited as you.
How can I start from today and get through the entire exam?"
Setting up your CPA Exam goals, and finally, applying for and scheduling for the actual
CPA Exam itself.
So, the first step we're going to discuss is learning the basics of the CPA Exam.
Now, the CPA Exam, there are 4 parts of the exam, and I like to start off by letting people
realize, hey, this exam is not an IQ test.
You do not have to be a genius to be a CPA.
For those of you that are currently working, look around the office.
Those people you see that are CPAs.
Are they geniuses?
I don't think so.
But, it's a test of discipline.
If you study, you will pass.
My job is to motivate you for the 3 to 400 hours of prep time it's going to take in order
to get through all 4 parts of the exam.
Now, as far as the exam itself, it's a 14 hour adventure.
It consists of 4 different parts - auditing, FAR, regulation and BEC.
Now, with the audit exam, the audit exam, that basically includes things like planning
the audit, it includes things like internal control, substantive testing, audit reports,
SSARS - Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services, it includes more global
information, global auditing standards.
It also includes global ethics standards.
So, it's gone much more global as the exam changed back in 2011.
So, that's the audit exam which is a 4 hour exam.
Now, financial accounting, that includes your intermediate 1, intermediate 2, advanced,
government, non-profit.
So, what I've done is taken all that material and squeezed it into 1 book just to focus
you on the key information.
So, what does that include?
Leases, bonds, pensions, deferred taxes, contingent liabilities...it also includes IFRS - International
Financial Reporting Standards.
So, what I do is I'll walk you through and talk about how we account for leases or property
plant equipment, fixed assets...this is how we do it under GAAP, then I've got to say,
okay, under IFRS, it's a little bit different, we're going to have a revaluation account
and so on because that's what they're currently testing as far as comparing and contrasting
GAAP versus IFRS.
Regulation is tax and law, that's a 3 hour exam.
With tax, it includes individual tax, 1040, it includes your corporate tax, 1120, 1120S,
partnerships, 1065, 6252 installment sales, 1031 like kind property exchanges, estate,
trust, gift tax, and exempt organizations are on the exam.
That's all part of regulation.
Then we have professional responsibilities and business law.
Business law basically being UCC - Uniform Commercial Code Contracts, it includes sales
of goods, it includes all these different areas that, again, are in business law, which
a lot of us took a business law course in college, pfffft, but it was years ago and
you may not remember it.
Don't worry about it, I'll cover it.
Then we've got BEC which is also a 3 hour exam.
That includes your information technology, financial management, microeconomics, macroeconomics,
corporate governance is a big area now, also, a favorite for a lot of us, cost and managerial
accounting.
So, that's the way that it's set up.
Once you pass a part, you have 18 months to pass the rest.
But, believe you me, those 18 months go by quickly.
That's why it's important to set up a study schedule and a schedule, so that way we can
get through all 4 parts in a timely manner.
As far as the exam format, the way it's set up is for FAR, audit and REG, it's about 60%
multiple choice and 40% what we call TBS - Task-Based Simulations.
This is kind of the way it was set up back in the day when I took the exam, back in 19brrbrrbrr,
back in the '80s, the exam was 60% multiple choice and 40% long problems.
We had a blue book and you had to write them all out from scratch.
Now what it is, it's back to 60 40, 60% multiple choice, where you have 4 choices, and then
you've got 6 or 7 of what we call task-based simulations.
For FAR and audit, they're the 4 hour exams, they give you 7, of which 6 are graded.
For regulation, it's a 3 hour exam, so they only give you 6 of which 5 are graded.
Of course, you never know which one is or is not graded.
The one that's not graded is being pre-tested.
Now, as far as FAR, audit and REG, you're going to have 6, generally 6 problems and
1 research question.
Although, the pre-tested question could be a research, so you could take an exam and
have 2 research questions where 1 of them is pre-graded, and then the other 5 are going
to be problems.
The problems could be on a myriad of topics.
They could be on leases or pensions or bonds, consolidations, governmental accounting, non-profit
organizations, so it's a whole smorgasbord of accounting.
It's fun and exciting.
As far as BEC, it's 85% multiple choice and 15% written communication or essays.
The written communication isn't something to be afraid of.
There are 3 of them, of which, again, 2 are graded, and 1 is just pre-tested.
Now, as far as the written communication, they look for a beginning, a middle and an
end.
Is it a professional business letter?
And I was just talking to a couple of CPAs at a meeting where I was giving a presentation,
and the same thing...they were trying to impress upon the kids how important your written communication
is in the real world.
That's why they're testing it on the exam.
Now, in the olden days, it was tested on FAR, audit, REG.
They realized, you know what, we're testing the same thing 3 times, let's move it over
to BEC.
So, I want you to realize what they're really looking at is, it doesn't have to be correct,
but it has to be relevant, on topic and it has to be written correctly...clear, concise,
complete, use of standard English, appropriateness for the reader.
Did you stay on topic?
So, consider it a pretty easy 15% of your score.
I will talk about how to prepare that in class as far maximizing your points.
Now, when can I sit for this exam?
The way the exam is set up, basically, you could take an exam 8 months a year.
So, there's 4 months that are called a blackout month, and you'll notice they're months Jun...March,
June, September and December, or months 3, 6, 9 and 12, blackout, no exam.
The other 8 months you can take 1 part or 2 parts or 3 parts or all 4.
So, it's totally up to you.
And one of the things I'm going to talk about are study schedules...3 months, 6 months,
12 months...it's a matter of how you want to set up your life for the next several months.
If you want to just focus on the exam and put your life around it, maybe the 3 or 6th
month.
If you want to still run your life and then fit the exam around it, maybe that's the 12
month schedule.
Back in my day, when I was your...I sound like your parents, "When I was your age..."
I had to study for all 4 parts, I had to take all 4 parts at once, you had to pass at least
2 parts, and the parts not passed you had to get at least a 50% on.
So, back in my day, we all studied all 4 parts simultaneously.
It was...I mean, it was a big deal, but it was just expected.
We would spend about 4 months studying all 4 parts and then taking all 4 parts.
In today's day and age, because you can sit for 1 part at a time, some people say, "Well,
I guess I'll just prepare that way."
Sure you can, although there's a lot of overlap between all the different topics.
That's why I always encourage people to study for maybe 2 parts at a time because of that
overlap.
It helps you not only to understand it but then also to apply the information.
The second step is understanding the exam study process, which means, "Rog," and I can
feel it, you're excited, and you're like, "Rog, I'm so excited about this exam.
What is it going to take for me to get through all 4 parts?"
Basically, it will take you about 3 to 400 hours of prep time.
And that's not a number I'm making up, it's what the AICPA says the average successful
candidate will spend, about 3 to 400 hours.
So, that means you want to budget your time wisely.
My course, whether you do an online course, whether you do my really popular USB course
where you can just plug it and play it, whether you come to one of my live locations, basically,
my course is about 110 hours.
So, for about 110 hours, I'm going to walk you through all the different topics, I'm...and
since I teach all 4, and I call it a review course, but there's a lot of stuff you're
not reviewing because you've never seen it before, but I will teach it to you step by
step by step, and because there's so much overlap in the topics, I will try to explain
it so you're not just memorizing it...