Passing the CPA examination

The CPA examinations comprises four major sections;Business Law,Auditing,Financial Accounting and Accounting & Reporting.To receive a pass grade, you have to score at least a 75 out of 100 in any of the sections.If you pass two sections in one sitting, you can carry the results over,that way, you only have to sit for the remaining two sections.In college, you get to take a lot of Accounting courses that will cover most of the material that will appear in the examinations.Business Law,was probably the section that I received the least exposure to while at Howard University.I did Business Law 1&2,and that was it.When you do a little bit of research, you will come across a lot of advise on how to pass the examination.The most important one is probably, to begin by enrolling in a review course.I had to take the exam twice before passing all four sections.The best review course at the time was offered by Becker CPA Review.I would not be surprise if it is still the best CPA review course out there.In college, you are taught on how to be good in Accounting.Becker CPA review teaches you how to pass the CPA examinations.I first enrolled for all four sections in the fall of 1997,planning to sit for the exam in May of 1998.The fees for the four sections amounted to about 1200dollars.This included all the reading materials and practical worksheets that is provided to you.You get to choose between attending classes during the evenings;from about 6pm to 9.30pm two days a week or to attend classes all Saturday and Sunday.Most people that sit for the exams are already working people.They have jobs to go to.That is why most of the review courses will be scheduled late in the evening.The classes consisted mostly of a brief lecture on the subject matter and then you get down to some practical work.You get to do a lot of past questions.Home work is assigned at the end of each class.Any particular area of difficulty on the homework, is first taken care of before you move to a new topic.During the period that you are preparing for the examination, you are advised to study daily.Stick to the advise.Spend at least three hours daily,preparing for the exam.In order not to get bored,pick up a different section,when you feel a little bit overwhelmed by a particular section.I used to start each preparatory session,by doing a little bit of reading.Later on I will switch to either doing homework or practising on past questions.I can not place enough emphases the importance of past questions.There are only that many questions that could be asked in the examination, in one form or the other.So the more past questions you practised on the better your chances of passing the examination.Also try and attend all the classes.When I was in college, I had to work full time and attend school to keep up with my financial obligations.The only way that I survived college was to attend all my lectures.It is amazing how little reading you have to do when you keep up with all your lectures.The same rules apply for the review classes.Try and attend all of them.Becker,s CPA review had a section for Monday and Wednesdays and another for Tuesdays and Thursdays.Do not panic if you miss a class.Just attend one of the other classes.They are flexible.They will allow to attend any of the sessions.The actual review classes run for about three months.They take you until about a week into the examination.You are given a week off for final home review.By this time,you should have completed all the material.The day before your first exam section,get a lot of sleep,do not bother trying to master any more material.All your studies should have been done by now.Even during the four days or so that you sit for the exam,do mainly light review,do not panic,all the material that you had mastered will not disappears from your memory.It will be all there when you sit for the exam.When I took the exam for the first time, I was living in Hyattsville,Maryland.My grades I believe were;70,71,70,72 in no particular order for the four sections.A number of reasons accounted for my not passing the exam the first time.One,I did not take the review courses seriously enough.I did most of the homework,but not all of them,I attended most of the classes, but not all of the classes.To cap it all, i showed up late the first day of the exam.I got stuck in traffic, on I-95 going towards Baltimore.This totally threw my concentration off and I was not the same throughout the remainder of the other sections.If it is possible,during the three days or so that you sit for the exam,try and arrange for accommodation close to the examinations site.Or,plan on arriving very early everyday as I did during the November section and spend the extra time doing some light review before the morning exam.After coming so close the first time around,I was determined to make it the next time.I attended all the review classes,did all the homework and showed up on time for the exam.The week prior to the exam,I spent doing many light review.Also throughout the exam period, I did not spend a lot of time studying.I got a lot of rest,did very light review and everything feel into place.As a matter of fact, once the exam started, it was very boring for me to master any new material.I found out that once I opened the examination questions,all that I had studied came back to me.My passing grades were; Business Law80,Auditing81,Accounting & Reporting80 and Financial Accounting85.I remembered the day I got the results in my mail box.I called Agbor,my brother in Atlanta, and I said"guess what Agbor,I passed the CPA examination.