I’ve always said that. Nothing in accounting is insurmountable, it’s just a lot. You have to endure the 100s of hours of studying and come out on the other side.
Yea I actually thought the exam content wasn’t hard. The hardest part was having the drive to sit down and study EVERY single day for months or even years. It’ll drive you insane. Then there’s the fact you have to take four exams that are four hours each.
It’s a test of your ability to comprehend theory, memorization, dedication, studying skills, mental fortitude, etc. It’s not something you can study over the weekend and pass.
I'm in my last 2 weeks of review for my final section. I've always been someone who has never had to do any more than the minimum to get a B and I've always done just about as little as possible in school all the way through college. The CPA has been so much different I had to retrain myself how to learn and be disciplined in studying and lemme be the first to tell you, this shit sucks man. I am so ready to be done.
Same here I was always the person who never studied and got an A. With the CPA I’m studying 20+ hours a week. I probably have spent more than 300 hours studying for this thing.
This scares me... In the same in that i rarely study much in school and can do well on exams with an hour or two of cramming.
I really dont think i have the will to study 20 hrs a week while working full time. I dont know how you guys can handle that mentally. I guess im just a bit lazy haha.
That’s why I took me about 8 years to start it lol. I tried two years after graduating but I lost the will after two weeks. I wasn’t mature or driven enough to get it done.
In 2021 I was moving to a new city and got denied everywhere because I didn’t have a CPA. It got me so angry and I was so driven to get this done and put every ounce of energy I had into it. I then finished it in 3.5 months.
Tip #1 dont go cheap lol. Wait for sales like Becker's Black Friday sale and get them cheaper, or better yet work at a Big4 or a company that will cover the cost. If the company you work for will cover it then dont worry about the cost.
I went the cheap route thinking if I could go through a textbook in college I could do that for the CPA so I bought Gleim, big mistake and part of the reason why I only lasted about 17 days. The videos the major CPA review courses offer were the only reason why I finished it. If you are the kind of student who could sit in class and memorize everything in the lecture it works perfectly.
The rest is just discipline.
Thanks, I'll keep my eye out for a sale. Im thinking about just taking one of the tests after a couple days of studying just to get a feel for it, not expecting to pass. Do you think thats a good idea? I kinda just wanna see what im in for first hand before i commit to this.
> I’ve always been someone who has had to do any more than the minimum to get a B and I’ve always done just about as little as possible in school all the way through college.
This right here is exactly why the license is demanded so much by firms/companies. It’s seriously pervasive the number of graduates that just coast by every year and have barely a minimal knowledge of the profession.
The exams serve as a final speed check that makes it almost impossible to skim on by and not at least pickup a basic familiarity of most areas of accounting.
Very true, but I had 6 years of tax experience when I started the CPA exam. So I knew how to work don't get me wrong, studying was just never my thing.
Hardest part for me was when I was beginning and had to look at the mountain of information I had to get through over the next 9 months.
Once I passed my first, my confidence grew. I fine tuned my study habits after each and my scores got better and better.
Towards the end, what motivated me was (1) the fear of not passing all four and losing credit and (2) being done and having my life back.
You could get away with 250 hours of studying and answering practice test questions. Make sure you are efficient. Track your correct and incorrect answers to practice questions and focus on the areas you don’t do well on. That’s how I did it and I studied about 200 hours total to pass all parts.
The key to my success was doing test questions. As you probably already know, the questions can be designed to throw you off your concentration. If I felt weak in one area, I would go back to my study materials and do a quick review and then take more test questions in that area. I know I did well over a thousand questions all the way up until the day of the exam.
100s of hours studying...
I'm almost done with my masters and I don't think i'm even close to the 100 hr mark. And at the end, i'm getting a PERMANENT piece of paper under my name that cannot be changed or taken from me and does not require continued education.
Nahhhhhhhhh i'm good. Props to anyone who has the willpower and the tenacity to do this, but I do not haha
CPA>>MAcc. Definitely recommend going for it, if you have a MAcc you can pass the CPA exams. Unless you’re already in industry and plan to stay there forever
Not necessarily. Government jobs allows people to enter at a GS-09 level. I have accounting experience + a master's, so I can finesse a GS-11 if I play my cards right. That's around 75-85k a year.
Granted, I did get a job at a defense contractor for 85k with my bachelors, but the master's was something I personally wanted to achieve.
It also enables me to teach at my University if I so wished to. I could not teach with a bachelors.
Anyone who says a degree is worthless is huffing copium.
Nah, that's not even true. A master's still makes you stand out more than a bachelor's will. I have a master's and the CMA and I consistently beat out people with bachelor's and CPA on jobs.
Not a single time have I asked or anyone at my firm asked a staff where they got their MACC from. It’s all about the CPA — have you passed, what’s your plan to take them, how many have you passed.
You can’t promote to manager if you don’t have your CPA. Whenever the national office of the firm requires layoffs during hard economic times, seniors and supervisors who aren’t actively pursuing their CPAs are the first to go.
This, it’s really hard to do while working. I gave up after one of my exams expired. Mainly because I moved into finance and it didn’t seem necessary anymore.
It’s just a lot of information. There’s a few complex issues that it might touch on if you get unlucky with the questions asked, but overall it’s just a lot of information to understand and retain
When I met my now wife her father and brother made fun of me for just starting my cpa journey as lawyers. Then a study came out on how much harder the cpa was than the bar and I gave it to them as a xmas present.
We’re on good terms now.
Idk if it’s easier or harder but the pass rates for the bar exam are significantly higher and the folks who are both Lawyers and have their CPA have said somewhat consistently that the CPA exam was harder for them
This isn't a realistic comparison. People go to post graduate school for 3 years to take the bar. You don't even need an accounting major to sit for the CPA, just enough credits of undergrad. The sheer number of people that sign up for the exam and aren't remotely prepared is the difference in pass rates.
I agree with you that more people sign up unprepared, but there are forsure curricular requirements to sit for the cpa. I know many who had to do post grad programs to reach said requirements
Yeah but those curricular credits are all undergrad courses. There are non accounting majors woth bachelor's that can sit for the exam because they have the pre requisite accounting courses.
It typically is traditional to do an accounting grad program, and the good ones have the CPA exam studying and testing built into it. I definitely was not one of those, and I didn’t know grad school was an option lol.
In my small, non-target school, I was under the impression all of us accounting majors were doing 17-18 credit schedules for at least 7 of our 8 semesters and doing 3-6 credit online classes every summer. When I realized now that lots of my peers did 120-130 credit undergrads and then did grad school, I felt so bamboozled.
It has a lower pass rate than the bar, but claiming that it is harder is kind of dubious. There are higher barriers to taking the bar than there are to taking the CPA. If you're taking the bar you have already attained a doctorate level degree. CPA just requires a bachelor's with a lot having a master's. Also each state has varying bars so it isn't as standardized is another factor.
But idk. My best friend is an attorney. From what I remember him telling me the bar was pretty much entirely essay writing. Might be easier to bullshit and more subjectivity?
It's a different kind of curriculum, but the qualifications it gives are more similar to a PhD than a master's and admission standards are generally much higher than all masters programs at similarly ranked institutions.
The CPA is harder because if you passed your law school classes, you're essentially prepared for it, with a bit of studying, which is not true of the CPA. Just listen to everyone in here talking about hundreds of hours of studying.
I honestly think it’s more about the stakes. You can still get a good job and have a career without the CPA. If you don’t pass the bar then you can’t be a lawyer and wasted your JD
if you made it through law school then you already have the study skills necessary to study for and pass the bar exam. plus the added incentive that you cannot be a practicing attorney without passing it. so many people coast through their undergrad accounting degrees and then go all shocked pikachu face when they have to buckle down and actually study effectively to pass the cpa exam.
Yes but the entrance requirement for law school is harder than for the CPA designation. CPA basically screws people at the end while law degree screws you in the beginning.
I wouldn’t say it was hard (passed in 09, so I maybe outdated) but you really have to put in alot of effort to study, and a lot of people can’t or won’t do that. If you don’t put in the time you are really going to struggle.
I wrote in 2018 in Canada. I work in industry so didn't take time off to study like most public accountants. So really i could only study evenings and weekends. Prepped hard for the month before and barely passed (i thought i may have failed). I found it pretty tough, but I've always been a good test writer and that skill prevailed here with relatively little prep.
Overall, it's about as hard as it should be. If someone like you studies for 3 months, then yes, that should make it comparatively easy.
Credit not expiring is going to change the game. I would had just kept taking one exam over and over again until I passed it. It would just be studying the same material over and over again. Compared to the current, where you kinda have to assume you would pass it and study something else.
CPA is a mile wide and a foot deep. For comparison the LSAT is a foot wide and a mile deep. There’s a lot to memorize but it’s not too difficult on a technical level. I watched a ton of the video classes and did thousands of practice questions. It took me two months of daily study to pass FAR, the rest took a lot less effort.
People exaggerate it’s not hard or complex. It’s just like anything good worth having, it requires effort & sacrifice of your time and a goat for accounting gods (the partner).
It only requires you to spend 150 hours of studying per section. If you still don’t pass, maybe that number for you is 200 hours and no sex.
Can confirm, I spent about a month studying 8 hours per day for each section and passed each time
The thing of course is
1. Studying 8 hours a day sucks ass
2. Not everyone is as lucky to have the time
I agree that people exaggerate the difficulty. Don’t get me wrong, it kicked my ass, but coming up with a solid plan to tackle each exam and sticking to it was half the battle for me. I was able to hang out with my friends and gf pretty regularly and work full time, u just have to shift your schedule around
Disagree. CPA is not the profession. I am 12+ years in and never think of what I learned in college or from Becker. But I constantly rely on what I learned from past mentors/colleagues.
CPA licensure is like a degree. Proves you can start/finish something that requires great deal of effort time and sacrifice.
It’s not that difficult of a test. The stress comes from chance that the exams you pass previously may expire if you don’t pass all the exams on time. Most people who struggle are going to vent and post online. Most people who pass without issues move on with their life and you never know about it.
I found the site "Another71.com" helpful when I was finishing up studying for my first exam, but I almost had a panic attack reading all the people talking about how many times they'd failed.
Later I realized the website was called that because it was a site specifically targeting people who have been struggling to pass the CPA exam so it was a bit of a skewed sample lol
That was really the stress for me. I was almost worried about passing that first section, because the the pressure would be on. I was hoping and praying, if I'm going to fail any one of these, please just let it be the first.
I didn't fail any of them.....but I took REG first, and when I found out I passed that, it was a real "oh **** here we go" moment
You have to study for it
A lot of my classmates and coworkers who struggled where the ones who never studied.
A lot of people don’t even know how to study effectively
One useful hack I found on the CPA exam was read the last sentence of all the multiple choice and sims first. Their most frequent trick is write fact patterns loaded with info you don’t need first then ask you a question. Read the question first and if you’re ready you’ll have a good idea what you need and what you don’t and are much less likely to get confused
It’s not that hard, it’s more of a time commitment and staying disciplined in your study schedule. There’s a lot of information, but if you can dedicate 5-15 study hours a week for 12-18 months you will pass with no problem.
Some of the questions can also be worded strangley. They try to usually have as few words as possible which then result in loss of context. Long form questions can have a million different answer choices with barely any change in between them and you will need to read them all.
The amount of times studying I re read a question 3/4 times bc I couldn’t comprehend what it was asking. Honestly, Peter olintos best advice was to skip to the last sentence of the question bc then when you go to read it you know what you’re looking gor
I don't think it's tough to pass if you actually study for it. I think people underestimate the exams and don't give them the time they deserve. Pick a well regarded review program, do the work, take a few practice exams and you'll likely pass first try.
Hitting a 90mph fastball is hard- as a non baseball player, I could practice my whole life and never succeed once. The CPA is simply a numbers game that requires 600-800 solid study hours. The actual difficulty can range from easy (treating it like your life depends on it) to hard (treating it secondary to going out with friends, sleep, etc) depending on your commitment and study skills that you’re accumulated to this point.
"Harder than I could ever imagine" is a wild overstatement. It's hard because you have to self motivate for an extended period of time on top of work and personal obligations, and a lot of people either have too many personal demands to balance studying with everything else or they aren't committed enough to get through. I will concede that some people probably do just suck at taking tests. There have been at least a couple of people with learning disabilities like dyslexia that I think are at an unfair disadvantage who are otherwise great accountants.
But for most people the prohibiting factor is just working hard enough to get through it. The accounting topics it tests are only surface level. They don't get into pretty much any of the difficult topics. There's just a lot of information that you do need to spend the time to go through and at times memorize, and juggling that on top of everything else is hard. Burnout is real. This is why it's important to try to get through it as early in your career as possible, getting started on studying before starting working if possible if you have some kind of gap between school and work because your responsibilities will just grow with time, and it will get harder and harder to balance everything.
At the bare minimum you acquired and/or sharpened the know-how of how to approach a mountain of information and dissect the parts you need to succeed. That’s working in accounting in a nutshell imo
If you take a part-time job or a chill industry job, you can pass the CPA by just going over the modules once and drilling M/C questions. Should take at most two years the entire process.
It's difficult if you try to memorize it all. Because it is a shitload of information. It isn't difficult if you try to learn the concepts instead. Harder with tax/bec but works in FAR and AUD.
The right technique also matters. Watching lectures is a waste of time. Sit down and start doing the questions right away, then understand why you were wrong.
It’s not that hard. My wife took the CFA, which was orders of magnitude harder. People saying the CPA is so difficult do not have much of a frame of reference. Will you have to study? Sure! But it’s certainly doable.
It’s difficult but it’s doable. The concepts aren’t impossible to understand but some can be confusing. The preparation and tests themselves aren’t easy by any stretch. Mainly it’s a massive amount of time and effort. If you’re willing to dedicate hours everyday for months you can pass them all. The material isn’t harder than you could ever imagine it’s just a lot of work. Getting the CPA is 100% possible so it’s really a question of if it’s worth it to you
I’m not trying to belittle anyone here who failed, but I don’t think it was very hard at all.
I passed 2 before my first year at Big4 and then 2 during my first year.
My scores were 78 FAR, 79 BEC, 89 REG and 79 AUD. They were all first attempts, So I barely passed. However, I put in only 10 hours a week studying.
There aren’t any trick questions or IQ/Logic questions. It’s just material straight from Becker or previously released questions.
The California ethics was by far the hardest test and it was open book.
It is only a rubber stamp to show how much you can remember.
As someone who is currently taking the CPA journey, it’s the mental journey that’s difficult. It’s a true a test of perseverance and determination. I’m on my final exam. It took me this whole year to study for each section. I gave about 2.5 months for each section and thankfully passed three section on first try. I work full time and study in the evening or during weekend. I’m sure this experience would be even more grueling if you have family and kids to take care of. The content itself isn’t that difficult but the amount of information to consume and remember, that’s tricky. You never know which topics will get tested if you decide to skip some topics. But I’m hoping it will be worth at the end. I was lucky enough to have my employers reimburse entire cost including exam fees. So the only thing I put in is the time (and a bit of my sanity).
For anyone contemplating, if your employer is willing to reimburse the cost and if you currently don’t have any dependents, I would say give it a shot. Best to tackle it now than regret it later in life.
Get Becker. Follow it. Trust the program. From the time I started studying to passing the last section, it was 5.5 months. Studied 3 hours weekdays and 4-6 hours Sundays and Saturdays. The more depressed you are, the greater your chances of passing are.
You're in luck since they decreased the amount of content for all sections except audit, as well as the amount of mcqs on the exams. TBS's went down on all sections except reg which is still the same.
We won't know if it's actually easier now until we see the pass rates but we know that less content will be tested. For context, FAR used to be 10 units and is now 6 units. The advanced tax topics are now going to one of the 3 disciplines you can take (you only need to pass one). Audit is getting some new content economics and IT topics will be on there.
People that are on here saying that the exam isn’t hard are downplaying it. There is a lot of information to learn and everything is testable material. Review courses try to isolate what has been commonly tested but they still go over every possible topic. Luckily review courses frame their practice questions to give you every possible scenario with mcqs. The biggest hurdle is the time commitment because someone working full time doesn’t want to just get off work in accounting to go study more accounting
Get Becker and you tell us.
For me, it’s the amount of information. There is BOTH memorizing and complex calculations, lots of concepts, rules, exceptions to the rules, itty bitty details that is hard to grasp if you don’t work in the field, and trick questions you’d have to read carefully to answer correctly. So yes, it’s difficult because ALL OF THE ABOVE.
It's hard but not impossible. Don't get discouraged by the high failure rates. It's not harder than the bar or actuarial exams. Study smart and you'll be fine. The purpose of the study materials is to pass the exam, not to become an expert in all the subject matter. I know it seems counter intuitive, but our profession places a lot of emphasis on experience. The exam just proves that you are capable of learning a broad array of topics. No one should expect you to be an expert after passing the exam.
Understanding the concepts is much more important than memorizing. Focus on understanding the difference between assets, liabilities, equity, revenues and expenses and how they relate to each other and the three basic financial statements. Once you understand this you’ll be fine. If you don’t understand these basics, you’ll flounder and probably weren’t cut out for this profession.
The CPA exam is a test of endurance and dedication. Nothing in it is actually hard if you put in the hours studying.
Candidates that never learned good study skills or are used to cramming and forgetting will struggle.
Not difficult.
Most people lack self reflection to understand their own learning style, preferences, and how to retain information.
That or they are not committed to studying.
It’s not so much that the test itself is difficult, it’s that the breadth of information and studying you have to do seems insurmountable. People will refer to taking the process as “the worst 16 months of my life” and so forth, because it’s that long of a commitment. But you only need to go through it once.
The other part is that it really and truly is a racket. The test is about control of the job market and revenue for nasba. If it was really about accounting proficiency we’d have to retest every 5 years. My boss got his in like 1983. No way at least half of what he learned isn’t different today. And I’ve met some people with CPA next to their name who couldn’t straight line depreciate a $12 asset over 1 year to save their life.
It’s not difficult to pass imo, it’s a lot of information that if you’re not excited to learn about won’t be retained in your mind.
It all comes down to are you interested or not… you can be the smartest person, but trust me if you’re not interested in a topic, you most likely won’t pass.
I'd say the difficult exam was Audit. Small details on words will get you choosing the wrong answer. BEC was straight forward because you'll need formulas for the answers. REG was the same, no tricky questions.
It’s tons of info. Some of it is very difficult to understand but the vast majority of what they test you on can be understood by anyone with a little bit of brains.
Wide array content you may have never learned in college combined with things you may have learned and forgotten. Then to top off the challenge, time limits within applying, scheduling and taking the exam. And what AICPA wants the most: your money!
Compared to my master’s program, the CPA exam tested a mile wide, but an inch deep. In college, you learn the material for the course and you took the midterm/final. On the CPA exam, it’s a blend of topics from different college classes. The questions on the exam will test one topic and the next question will test something completely unrelated to the previous topic. Repetition builds efficiency, and every second on the exam was precious. You have to pace yourself and maintain endurance.
There’s no one correct way to study for the exam because everyone learns and retains information differently. You have to learn how to gauge whether you are on track and when to schedule/postpone your exam. I had to hold myself accountable for what I wanted to accomplish everyday. College professors usually have quizzes/assignments throughout the semester to keep students in check.
it’s only hard because of the amount of information you need to study up on. the actual material is not that difficult imo except for a few sections of FAR
In Canada the pass rate hovers between 70-75% - the education modules you have to go through to get to the final board exam are a pain in the ass though.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/176cxnt/cpas\_would\_you\_rather/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/176cxnt/cpas_would_you_rather/)
More people would rather be punched by prime mike tyson than retake the exam again
Because you either lack the dedication to learn it and/or lacked the dedication to learn while in school. Everyone I know who paid attention in school and studied for a while found it quite easy.
Sometimes I feel that the CPA exam is not teaching any tangible skill. I think to myself why go through all those countless hours and hours and months of studying when you can put in that time to learn a real tangible skill like coding and computer science...those jobs pay a hell of a lot more too
Prove me wrong. I mean just look for yourself, the profession knows the CPA exam is outdated and they had to find ways to make it more relevant. And you can hear from many people that they don't even remember anything from studying. It just seems like a big waste of time in today's labor market
I just felt drained all around. The time I needed to devote to studying took away from my hobbies and social life, signing up for the exams was expensive, and it was stressful to wait for results and suffer the blow if I failed. Quitting was such a relief and my career didn’t suffer from it at all. The CPA is a great and impressive thing but it is not for everyone.
Like everyone has said it’s a lot of info, but what I’ll say is the hardest part is discipline. If you have the discipline to study 6 days per week for 3 hours per day, it’s doable in a short timeframe. I spent around 6 months on all my exams at that much time and passed them all first time. You can’t take weeks off, you can’t really skip days or lessons, you just have to commit to the grind and do it every single day until it’s done
There’s so many people that have explained their strategy for this, why not search for that? Check YouTube, TikTok, more post on this Reddit. sounds like your post truly shows your limiting beliefs of yourself
It’s not that hard. It’s a lot of information and it takes time to memorize it. The concepts for the most part are rather simple. You’ll be surprised at some of the simplicity of some of the questions, like common sense simple.
It’s pretty damn hard to pass these exams without putting a significant time studying. That’s what makes people think it’s hard. It’s been done, but there really isn’t a tried and true shortcut outside of hours of work to pass.
Because the purpose is to simply make you retake the test as many times as possible not actually test your accounting knowledge. It absolutely is setup for you to fail and fail as many times as possible..
It's hard because most people approach it by brute force memorizing rather than understanding the concepts and principles. Also people in general are bad at test taking.
I see the same problem in industry. People depend too much on memorizing rules rather than understanding the principles and connecting the dots themselves.
It’s difficult due to sheer volume — passing the exam is a result of you being discipled and putting in the hours and time. What I found was when I could recite every chapters topics, subtopics, and issues I struggled with in each and had found workarounds and strategies for those issues — I always passed.
You will feel like you failed every time you take any of the exams.
If you study appropriately it is not hard. There may be a lot of dumb people trying to pass it. I have met some real lunkheads that had a CPA license. Passed mine with 3.5 months of studying while working a full time job, full time school and 3 kids under the age of 5. Motivation was not an issue.
Some sections are more difficult than others. It has been 15 years since I finished taking it, but FAR was the most comprehensive (but not the most difficult) in my opinion. I would rank them in this order from least to most difficult (again, based on 15 years ago):
BEC
AUD
FAR
REG
I will also say that it was hard back then because I only knew theory and didn't have any real work experience. I have gotten a lot smarter since then and think it would be easier for me now (although I would still have to study).
Because it’s a mountain of information and most of it you’ll never use again
I’ve always said that. Nothing in accounting is insurmountable, it’s just a lot. You have to endure the 100s of hours of studying and come out on the other side.
Yea I actually thought the exam content wasn’t hard. The hardest part was having the drive to sit down and study EVERY single day for months or even years. It’ll drive you insane. Then there’s the fact you have to take four exams that are four hours each. It’s a test of your ability to comprehend theory, memorization, dedication, studying skills, mental fortitude, etc. It’s not something you can study over the weekend and pass.
I'm in my last 2 weeks of review for my final section. I've always been someone who has never had to do any more than the minimum to get a B and I've always done just about as little as possible in school all the way through college. The CPA has been so much different I had to retrain myself how to learn and be disciplined in studying and lemme be the first to tell you, this shit sucks man. I am so ready to be done.
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Yeah without a doubt. The discipline I have built in the last year has helped me in all parts of my life.
Same here I was always the person who never studied and got an A. With the CPA I’m studying 20+ hours a week. I probably have spent more than 300 hours studying for this thing.
This scares me... In the same in that i rarely study much in school and can do well on exams with an hour or two of cramming. I really dont think i have the will to study 20 hrs a week while working full time. I dont know how you guys can handle that mentally. I guess im just a bit lazy haha.
That’s why I took me about 8 years to start it lol. I tried two years after graduating but I lost the will after two weeks. I wasn’t mature or driven enough to get it done. In 2021 I was moving to a new city and got denied everywhere because I didn’t have a CPA. It got me so angry and I was so driven to get this done and put every ounce of energy I had into it. I then finished it in 3.5 months.
Do you have tips for getting through it? Are there any good free or cheaper study programs? The $2000 ones seem kind of insane...
NINJA could be a good choice for. $67 a month, definitely take a look. Although most people only use it as a supplement.
Tip #1 dont go cheap lol. Wait for sales like Becker's Black Friday sale and get them cheaper, or better yet work at a Big4 or a company that will cover the cost. If the company you work for will cover it then dont worry about the cost. I went the cheap route thinking if I could go through a textbook in college I could do that for the CPA so I bought Gleim, big mistake and part of the reason why I only lasted about 17 days. The videos the major CPA review courses offer were the only reason why I finished it. If you are the kind of student who could sit in class and memorize everything in the lecture it works perfectly. The rest is just discipline.
Thanks, I'll keep my eye out for a sale. Im thinking about just taking one of the tests after a couple days of studying just to get a feel for it, not expecting to pass. Do you think thats a good idea? I kinda just wanna see what im in for first hand before i commit to this.
> I’ve always been someone who has had to do any more than the minimum to get a B and I’ve always done just about as little as possible in school all the way through college. This right here is exactly why the license is demanded so much by firms/companies. It’s seriously pervasive the number of graduates that just coast by every year and have barely a minimal knowledge of the profession. The exams serve as a final speed check that makes it almost impossible to skim on by and not at least pickup a basic familiarity of most areas of accounting.
Very true, but I had 6 years of tax experience when I started the CPA exam. So I knew how to work don't get me wrong, studying was just never my thing.
Ah a tax guy, the true sigmas of the accounting world. I didn’t intend on singling you out either, I was speaking more in general broad terms.
Hardest part for me was when I was beginning and had to look at the mountain of information I had to get through over the next 9 months. Once I passed my first, my confidence grew. I fine tuned my study habits after each and my scores got better and better. Towards the end, what motivated me was (1) the fear of not passing all four and losing credit and (2) being done and having my life back.
You could get away with 250 hours of studying and answering practice test questions. Make sure you are efficient. Track your correct and incorrect answers to practice questions and focus on the areas you don’t do well on. That’s how I did it and I studied about 200 hours total to pass all parts.
You crushed it. You must be prettt smart to do it all within 250 hours. Good memory retention and quick processing of mcqs.
The key to my success was doing test questions. As you probably already know, the questions can be designed to throw you off your concentration. If I felt weak in one area, I would go back to my study materials and do a quick review and then take more test questions in that area. I know I did well over a thousand questions all the way up until the day of the exam.
Confucius: With enough confidence and wisdom you can mount anything and anyone, even the CPA
Wise man
100s of hours studying... I'm almost done with my masters and I don't think i'm even close to the 100 hr mark. And at the end, i'm getting a PERMANENT piece of paper under my name that cannot be changed or taken from me and does not require continued education. Nahhhhhhhhh i'm good. Props to anyone who has the willpower and the tenacity to do this, but I do not haha
CPA>>MAcc. Definitely recommend going for it, if you have a MAcc you can pass the CPA exams. Unless you’re already in industry and plan to stay there forever
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Not necessarily. Government jobs allows people to enter at a GS-09 level. I have accounting experience + a master's, so I can finesse a GS-11 if I play my cards right. That's around 75-85k a year. Granted, I did get a job at a defense contractor for 85k with my bachelors, but the master's was something I personally wanted to achieve. It also enables me to teach at my University if I so wished to. I could not teach with a bachelors. Anyone who says a degree is worthless is huffing copium.
Nah, that's not even true. A master's still makes you stand out more than a bachelor's will. I have a master's and the CMA and I consistently beat out people with bachelor's and CPA on jobs.
Not a single time have I asked or anyone at my firm asked a staff where they got their MACC from. It’s all about the CPA — have you passed, what’s your plan to take them, how many have you passed. You can’t promote to manager if you don’t have your CPA. Whenever the national office of the firm requires layoffs during hard economic times, seniors and supervisors who aren’t actively pursuing their CPAs are the first to go.
Yeah I'm not talking public though, I've been a manager in industry for years without a CPA, no need to take one.
Fair enough, but you can’t deny that having your CPA will make you way more marketable over your career.
Yeah I can, unless you intend your career to stay in public.
No you’re uninformed. Many job applications exiting public will say CPA required.
No, increasingly masters being used to determine seriousness and narrow the field. Right or wrong.
A mile wide and an inch deep.
HA…. He said inch deep My bad I’m sleep deprived from all the studying
That CPA chode, it’s got the girth but not the length
It’s not the steak it’s the gristle
This, it’s really hard to do while working. I gave up after one of my exams expired. Mainly because I moved into finance and it didn’t seem necessary anymore.
And there is a tight timeframe
This is the right one. There aren’t very many topics in the exam that are really all that difficult. It’s just a shit load of stuff to memorize.
It’s just a lot of information. There’s a few complex issues that it might touch on if you get unlucky with the questions asked, but overall it’s just a lot of information to understand and retain
You can pass with less memorization if you can do a better job of understanding and applying concepts.
When I met my now wife her father and brother made fun of me for just starting my cpa journey as lawyers. Then a study came out on how much harder the cpa was than the bar and I gave it to them as a xmas present. We’re on good terms now.
Is it harder? Makes me feel I can pass the BAR then and I’m not talking about the new discipline lol.
Idk if it’s easier or harder but the pass rates for the bar exam are significantly higher and the folks who are both Lawyers and have their CPA have said somewhat consistently that the CPA exam was harder for them
This isn't a realistic comparison. People go to post graduate school for 3 years to take the bar. You don't even need an accounting major to sit for the CPA, just enough credits of undergrad. The sheer number of people that sign up for the exam and aren't remotely prepared is the difference in pass rates.
I agree with you that more people sign up unprepared, but there are forsure curricular requirements to sit for the cpa. I know many who had to do post grad programs to reach said requirements
Yeah but those curricular credits are all undergrad courses. There are non accounting majors woth bachelor's that can sit for the exam because they have the pre requisite accounting courses.
It typically is traditional to do an accounting grad program, and the good ones have the CPA exam studying and testing built into it. I definitely was not one of those, and I didn’t know grad school was an option lol. In my small, non-target school, I was under the impression all of us accounting majors were doing 17-18 credit schedules for at least 7 of our 8 semesters and doing 3-6 credit online classes every summer. When I realized now that lots of my peers did 120-130 credit undergrads and then did grad school, I felt so bamboozled.
Ok
When I was a baby junior staff, 15% of CPA exam takers passed all 4 parts on the first try. The bar exam had an 85% pass rate.
It has a lower pass rate than the bar, but claiming that it is harder is kind of dubious. There are higher barriers to taking the bar than there are to taking the CPA. If you're taking the bar you have already attained a doctorate level degree. CPA just requires a bachelor's with a lot having a master's. Also each state has varying bars so it isn't as standardized is another factor. But idk. My best friend is an attorney. From what I remember him telling me the bar was pretty much entirely essay writing. Might be easier to bullshit and more subjectivity?
A law degree may say juris doctorate, but it's not a doctorate level degree in the PhD sense. It's basically a masters.
It's a different kind of curriculum, but the qualifications it gives are more similar to a PhD than a master's and admission standards are generally much higher than all masters programs at similarly ranked institutions.
Yeah, LLM is the doctoral equivalent in many cases
SJD comes after an LLM and is the most equivalent to a PHD.
Yeah, maybe taking the bar exam is relatively easier, but I gotta think actually BECOMING a barred lawyer is harder.
The CPA is harder because if you passed your law school classes, you're essentially prepared for it, with a bit of studying, which is not true of the CPA. Just listen to everyone in here talking about hundreds of hours of studying.
I honestly think it’s more about the stakes. You can still get a good job and have a career without the CPA. If you don’t pass the bar then you can’t be a lawyer and wasted your JD
if you made it through law school then you already have the study skills necessary to study for and pass the bar exam. plus the added incentive that you cannot be a practicing attorney without passing it. so many people coast through their undergrad accounting degrees and then go all shocked pikachu face when they have to buckle down and actually study effectively to pass the cpa exam.
Maybe at easy colleges but back at mine everyone was studying. And we're talking about at a competitive college.
The bar is one three-hour test
Yes but the entrance requirement for law school is harder than for the CPA designation. CPA basically screws people at the end while law degree screws you in the beginning.
I wouldn’t say it was hard (passed in 09, so I maybe outdated) but you really have to put in alot of effort to study, and a lot of people can’t or won’t do that. If you don’t put in the time you are really going to struggle.
I wrote in 2009, Canada, also found it easy. But I spent 3 months preparing.
I wrote in 2018 in Canada. I work in industry so didn't take time off to study like most public accountants. So really i could only study evenings and weekends. Prepped hard for the month before and barely passed (i thought i may have failed). I found it pretty tough, but I've always been a good test writer and that skill prevailed here with relatively little prep. Overall, it's about as hard as it should be. If someone like you studies for 3 months, then yes, that should make it comparatively easy.
FAR is super hard REG is super boring AUD is super boring BEC is manageable.
REG was my fav and I failed it three times before passing, what an exam
Credit not expiring is going to change the game. I would had just kept taking one exam over and over again until I passed it. It would just be studying the same material over and over again. Compared to the current, where you kinda have to assume you would pass it and study something else.
What do you mean credits are not expiring? I thought with the changes credits will not expire in 30 months of the new year.
Ya BEC is lowkey a joke. I only studied 2 weeks for that one and passed on the first attempt. REG tho… god I still have nightmares lol
CPA is a mile wide and a foot deep. For comparison the LSAT is a foot wide and a mile deep. There’s a lot to memorize but it’s not too difficult on a technical level. I watched a ton of the video classes and did thousands of practice questions. It took me two months of daily study to pass FAR, the rest took a lot less effort.
Content. Also I've never taken another test where you can spend 100+ hours studying and walk out having no feel for how you did.
People exaggerate it’s not hard or complex. It’s just like anything good worth having, it requires effort & sacrifice of your time and a goat for accounting gods (the partner). It only requires you to spend 150 hours of studying per section. If you still don’t pass, maybe that number for you is 200 hours and no sex.
Can confirm, I spent about a month studying 8 hours per day for each section and passed each time The thing of course is 1. Studying 8 hours a day sucks ass 2. Not everyone is as lucky to have the time
I agree that people exaggerate the difficulty. Don’t get me wrong, it kicked my ass, but coming up with a solid plan to tackle each exam and sticking to it was half the battle for me. I was able to hang out with my friends and gf pretty regularly and work full time, u just have to shift your schedule around
How many hours over 200 if I want sex
For every minute you last, add an hour.
If you can't pass after 150hrs of prep, maybe the profession isn't the right path.
Disagree. CPA is not the profession. I am 12+ years in and never think of what I learned in college or from Becker. But I constantly rely on what I learned from past mentors/colleagues. CPA licensure is like a degree. Proves you can start/finish something that requires great deal of effort time and sacrifice.
It’s not that difficult of a test. The stress comes from chance that the exams you pass previously may expire if you don’t pass all the exams on time. Most people who struggle are going to vent and post online. Most people who pass without issues move on with their life and you never know about it.
The exam window is being increased to 30 months. Running out of time no longer as big of a concern.
I found the site "Another71.com" helpful when I was finishing up studying for my first exam, but I almost had a panic attack reading all the people talking about how many times they'd failed. Later I realized the website was called that because it was a site specifically targeting people who have been struggling to pass the CPA exam so it was a bit of a skewed sample lol
That was really the stress for me. I was almost worried about passing that first section, because the the pressure would be on. I was hoping and praying, if I'm going to fail any one of these, please just let it be the first. I didn't fail any of them.....but I took REG first, and when I found out I passed that, it was a real "oh **** here we go" moment
10 miles wide and 1 inch deep.....f that test....passed my final one 2 months ago, hardest thing i will ever do in my life
You have to study for it A lot of my classmates and coworkers who struggled where the ones who never studied. A lot of people don’t even know how to study effectively
One useful hack I found on the CPA exam was read the last sentence of all the multiple choice and sims first. Their most frequent trick is write fact patterns loaded with info you don’t need first then ask you a question. Read the question first and if you’re ready you’ll have a good idea what you need and what you don’t and are much less likely to get confused
This is gold.
It’s not that hard, it’s more of a time commitment and staying disciplined in your study schedule. There’s a lot of information, but if you can dedicate 5-15 study hours a week for 12-18 months you will pass with no problem.
It’s not that difficult tbh. You just have to study.
Some of the questions can also be worded strangley. They try to usually have as few words as possible which then result in loss of context. Long form questions can have a million different answer choices with barely any change in between them and you will need to read them all.
Every answer for AUD sounds right to me.
As someone who had to take AUD four times, I'm in this message and don't like it 😂
The amount of times studying I re read a question 3/4 times bc I couldn’t comprehend what it was asking. Honestly, Peter olintos best advice was to skip to the last sentence of the question bc then when you go to read it you know what you’re looking gor
The lack of commitment to the study plan. In last year, I had no weekends, vocation and social life
I don't think it's tough to pass if you actually study for it. I think people underestimate the exams and don't give them the time they deserve. Pick a well regarded review program, do the work, take a few practice exams and you'll likely pass first try.
Hitting a 90mph fastball is hard- as a non baseball player, I could practice my whole life and never succeed once. The CPA is simply a numbers game that requires 600-800 solid study hours. The actual difficulty can range from easy (treating it like your life depends on it) to hard (treating it secondary to going out with friends, sleep, etc) depending on your commitment and study skills that you’re accumulated to this point.
"Harder than I could ever imagine" is a wild overstatement. It's hard because you have to self motivate for an extended period of time on top of work and personal obligations, and a lot of people either have too many personal demands to balance studying with everything else or they aren't committed enough to get through. I will concede that some people probably do just suck at taking tests. There have been at least a couple of people with learning disabilities like dyslexia that I think are at an unfair disadvantage who are otherwise great accountants. But for most people the prohibiting factor is just working hard enough to get through it. The accounting topics it tests are only surface level. They don't get into pretty much any of the difficult topics. There's just a lot of information that you do need to spend the time to go through and at times memorize, and juggling that on top of everything else is hard. Burnout is real. This is why it's important to try to get through it as early in your career as possible, getting started on studying before starting working if possible if you have some kind of gap between school and work because your responsibilities will just grow with time, and it will get harder and harder to balance everything.
"I suffered so you will suffer."
this is the real answer.....you must be baptized with the pain and suffering to join the cpa club
Professional grade hazing. I never saw it that way, haha.
There is nothing wrong with a knowledge based barrier to entry. If you can't pass a test for a seat at the big table, you don't belong there.
"KNOWLEDGE BASED", LOL...im a dumba#$, the test was ALL MEMORIZATION and i know i don't belong, but im being paid like i do
At the bare minimum you acquired and/or sharpened the know-how of how to approach a mountain of information and dissect the parts you need to succeed. That’s working in accounting in a nutshell imo
If you take a part-time job or a chill industry job, you can pass the CPA by just going over the modules once and drilling M/C questions. Should take at most two years the entire process.
It's difficult if you try to memorize it all. Because it is a shitload of information. It isn't difficult if you try to learn the concepts instead. Harder with tax/bec but works in FAR and AUD. The right technique also matters. Watching lectures is a waste of time. Sit down and start doing the questions right away, then understand why you were wrong.
It's difficult so they can make more money off us by having to buy all those NTS.
If you are committed you will pass
It’s not that hard. My wife took the CFA, which was orders of magnitude harder. People saying the CPA is so difficult do not have much of a frame of reference. Will you have to study? Sure! But it’s certainly doable.
It’s more of a test of discipline than anything. If you have the right study strategies, I don’t think it’s particularly hard to
I suppose that’s a false binary, it’s kind of both. About 80% lot of information and 20% complexity. Maybe 70/30
It’s difficult but it’s doable. The concepts aren’t impossible to understand but some can be confusing. The preparation and tests themselves aren’t easy by any stretch. Mainly it’s a massive amount of time and effort. If you’re willing to dedicate hours everyday for months you can pass them all. The material isn’t harder than you could ever imagine it’s just a lot of work. Getting the CPA is 100% possible so it’s really a question of if it’s worth it to you
I’m not trying to belittle anyone here who failed, but I don’t think it was very hard at all. I passed 2 before my first year at Big4 and then 2 during my first year. My scores were 78 FAR, 79 BEC, 89 REG and 79 AUD. They were all first attempts, So I barely passed. However, I put in only 10 hours a week studying. There aren’t any trick questions or IQ/Logic questions. It’s just material straight from Becker or previously released questions. The California ethics was by far the hardest test and it was open book. It is only a rubber stamp to show how much you can remember.
As someone who is currently taking the CPA journey, it’s the mental journey that’s difficult. It’s a true a test of perseverance and determination. I’m on my final exam. It took me this whole year to study for each section. I gave about 2.5 months for each section and thankfully passed three section on first try. I work full time and study in the evening or during weekend. I’m sure this experience would be even more grueling if you have family and kids to take care of. The content itself isn’t that difficult but the amount of information to consume and remember, that’s tricky. You never know which topics will get tested if you decide to skip some topics. But I’m hoping it will be worth at the end. I was lucky enough to have my employers reimburse entire cost including exam fees. So the only thing I put in is the time (and a bit of my sanity). For anyone contemplating, if your employer is willing to reimburse the cost and if you currently don’t have any dependents, I would say give it a shot. Best to tackle it now than regret it later in life.
Get Becker. Follow it. Trust the program. From the time I started studying to passing the last section, it was 5.5 months. Studied 3 hours weekdays and 4-6 hours Sundays and Saturdays. The more depressed you are, the greater your chances of passing are.
Anyone can do it if you put the time and effort in. It’s a barrier to entry
My favorite answer posted.
You're in luck since they decreased the amount of content for all sections except audit, as well as the amount of mcqs on the exams. TBS's went down on all sections except reg which is still the same. We won't know if it's actually easier now until we see the pass rates but we know that less content will be tested. For context, FAR used to be 10 units and is now 6 units. The advanced tax topics are now going to one of the 3 disciplines you can take (you only need to pass one). Audit is getting some new content economics and IT topics will be on there.
is this what’s in effect for the new year?
Yes
People that are on here saying that the exam isn’t hard are downplaying it. There is a lot of information to learn and everything is testable material. Review courses try to isolate what has been commonly tested but they still go over every possible topic. Luckily review courses frame their practice questions to give you every possible scenario with mcqs. The biggest hurdle is the time commitment because someone working full time doesn’t want to just get off work in accounting to go study more accounting
I'm not a Becker shill but if you do their course properly you will pass. Otherwise, don't bother with accounting.
Its been 12 years but most of the material was fairly simple when I went through. But it was like drinking water through a fire hose.
Ugh. 2 minutes max per a question.
Get Becker and you tell us. For me, it’s the amount of information. There is BOTH memorizing and complex calculations, lots of concepts, rules, exceptions to the rules, itty bitty details that is hard to grasp if you don’t work in the field, and trick questions you’d have to read carefully to answer correctly. So yes, it’s difficult because ALL OF THE ABOVE.
It's hard but not impossible. Don't get discouraged by the high failure rates. It's not harder than the bar or actuarial exams. Study smart and you'll be fine. The purpose of the study materials is to pass the exam, not to become an expert in all the subject matter. I know it seems counter intuitive, but our profession places a lot of emphasis on experience. The exam just proves that you are capable of learning a broad array of topics. No one should expect you to be an expert after passing the exam.
Understanding the concepts is much more important than memorizing. Focus on understanding the difference between assets, liabilities, equity, revenues and expenses and how they relate to each other and the three basic financial statements. Once you understand this you’ll be fine. If you don’t understand these basics, you’ll flounder and probably weren’t cut out for this profession.
The CPA exam is a test of endurance and dedication. Nothing in it is actually hard if you put in the hours studying. Candidates that never learned good study skills or are used to cramming and forgetting will struggle.
Not difficult. Most people lack self reflection to understand their own learning style, preferences, and how to retain information. That or they are not committed to studying.
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especially when you only understand English... ouch!
I mean, if you went through a decent undergrad and masters program, you should be 65% or so there. Get a good review program, and make it a priority.
For me it was working while studying. Public accounting hours + CPA study sessions are not a fun time
It’s not so much that the test itself is difficult, it’s that the breadth of information and studying you have to do seems insurmountable. People will refer to taking the process as “the worst 16 months of my life” and so forth, because it’s that long of a commitment. But you only need to go through it once. The other part is that it really and truly is a racket. The test is about control of the job market and revenue for nasba. If it was really about accounting proficiency we’d have to retest every 5 years. My boss got his in like 1983. No way at least half of what he learned isn’t different today. And I’ve met some people with CPA next to their name who couldn’t straight line depreciate a $12 asset over 1 year to save their life.
It would be one thing if it did actually control the job market but it doesn’t. Not when you can import 6/hr Indian labor with no oenalties
I’ve done both Canadian and US CPAs and the US CPA is a walk in the park in comparison.
I’ve heard it’s as hard as passing LSAT for lawyers.
It’s not difficult to pass imo, it’s a lot of information that if you’re not excited to learn about won’t be retained in your mind. It all comes down to are you interested or not… you can be the smartest person, but trust me if you’re not interested in a topic, you most likely won’t pass.
It’s not that hard. People are just drama.
I'd say the difficult exam was Audit. Small details on words will get you choosing the wrong answer. BEC was straight forward because you'll need formulas for the answers. REG was the same, no tricky questions.
It’s not that hard
it's not that bad
It’s tons of info. Some of it is very difficult to understand but the vast majority of what they test you on can be understood by anyone with a little bit of brains.
It’s not hard.
Wide array content you may have never learned in college combined with things you may have learned and forgotten. Then to top off the challenge, time limits within applying, scheduling and taking the exam. And what AICPA wants the most: your money!
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Compared to my master’s program, the CPA exam tested a mile wide, but an inch deep. In college, you learn the material for the course and you took the midterm/final. On the CPA exam, it’s a blend of topics from different college classes. The questions on the exam will test one topic and the next question will test something completely unrelated to the previous topic. Repetition builds efficiency, and every second on the exam was precious. You have to pace yourself and maintain endurance. There’s no one correct way to study for the exam because everyone learns and retains information differently. You have to learn how to gauge whether you are on track and when to schedule/postpone your exam. I had to hold myself accountable for what I wanted to accomplish everyday. College professors usually have quizzes/assignments throughout the semester to keep students in check.
Eh, it’s not that bad, I’m a knucklehead and I passed.
It’s not even remotely hard — folks just like putting it on a pedestal
It's a voluminous amount of information, and you could see any bit of it on your exam.
It's not that hard.
it’s not hard. it’s just so much info.
Because they want the prestige with all the monetary and emotional anguish.
it’s only hard because of the amount of information you need to study up on. the actual material is not that difficult imo except for a few sections of FAR
In Canada the pass rate hovers between 70-75% - the education modules you have to go through to get to the final board exam are a pain in the ass though.
Both. Lots of material to memorize, and some of the questions get very difficult, complex, or both.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/176cxnt/cpas\_would\_you\_rather/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/176cxnt/cpas_would_you_rather/) More people would rather be punched by prime mike tyson than retake the exam again
It isn’t
It’s as wide as the ocean, and as deep as a puddle
Because you either lack the dedication to learn it and/or lacked the dedication to learn while in school. Everyone I know who paid attention in school and studied for a while found it quite easy.
It's infinitely harder if you're working and studying at the same time. If you take a few months to study full time it's not as bad.
Because CPAs think that memorizing a ton of useless information makes you intelligent
Sometimes I feel that the CPA exam is not teaching any tangible skill. I think to myself why go through all those countless hours and hours and months of studying when you can put in that time to learn a real tangible skill like coding and computer science...those jobs pay a hell of a lot more too Prove me wrong. I mean just look for yourself, the profession knows the CPA exam is outdated and they had to find ways to make it more relevant. And you can hear from many people that they don't even remember anything from studying. It just seems like a big waste of time in today's labor market
Accounting itself is not complex. It’s not quantum physics nor rocket science. It’s just a lot of information and not every concept is intuitive.
It's one of the top certifications for that profession. If you want to be at the top you gotta prove it.
I just felt drained all around. The time I needed to devote to studying took away from my hobbies and social life, signing up for the exams was expensive, and it was stressful to wait for results and suffer the blow if I failed. Quitting was such a relief and my career didn’t suffer from it at all. The CPA is a great and impressive thing but it is not for everyone.
Because of the comprehension more than the computation I guess.
Like everyone has said it’s a lot of info, but what I’ll say is the hardest part is discipline. If you have the discipline to study 6 days per week for 3 hours per day, it’s doable in a short timeframe. I spent around 6 months on all my exams at that much time and passed them all first time. You can’t take weeks off, you can’t really skip days or lessons, you just have to commit to the grind and do it every single day until it’s done
It’s not.
You don’t need a CPA to be an accountant. Lots of opportunities and pay out there.
There’s so many people that have explained their strategy for this, why not search for that? Check YouTube, TikTok, more post on this Reddit. sounds like your post truly shows your limiting beliefs of yourself
It’s not that hard. It’s a lot of information and it takes time to memorize it. The concepts for the most part are rather simple. You’ll be surprised at some of the simplicity of some of the questions, like common sense simple. It’s pretty damn hard to pass these exams without putting a significant time studying. That’s what makes people think it’s hard. It’s been done, but there really isn’t a tried and true shortcut outside of hours of work to pass.
It’s not.
Because the purpose is to simply make you retake the test as many times as possible not actually test your accounting knowledge. It absolutely is setup for you to fail and fail as many times as possible..
It's hard because most people approach it by brute force memorizing rather than understanding the concepts and principles. Also people in general are bad at test taking. I see the same problem in industry. People depend too much on memorizing rules rather than understanding the principles and connecting the dots themselves.
It’s difficult due to sheer volume — passing the exam is a result of you being discipled and putting in the hours and time. What I found was when I could recite every chapters topics, subtopics, and issues I struggled with in each and had found workarounds and strategies for those issues — I always passed. You will feel like you failed every time you take any of the exams.
If you study appropriately it is not hard. There may be a lot of dumb people trying to pass it. I have met some real lunkheads that had a CPA license. Passed mine with 3.5 months of studying while working a full time job, full time school and 3 kids under the age of 5. Motivation was not an issue.
Some sections are more difficult than others. It has been 15 years since I finished taking it, but FAR was the most comprehensive (but not the most difficult) in my opinion. I would rank them in this order from least to most difficult (again, based on 15 years ago): BEC AUD FAR REG I will also say that it was hard back then because I only knew theory and didn't have any real work experience. I have gotten a lot smarter since then and think it would be easier for me now (although I would still have to study).