Before I started the CPA exam, I thought REG (Regulation) was the toughest part for me because I am an international student and I don’t have much experience with it. Therefore, while taking Federal Taxation class, I asked Professor Harris what the tip for REG is, and his answer was hard work.

During that semester, I read all chapters in the required textbook. Then in the class, the content, which I understood from reading the text, was strengthened, and the professor clarified anything I was confused about. Moreover, Professor Harris would point out essential information for us to know. Furthermore, I did all the problems for each chapter, and as a result, I got a score of 105 on the final exam for Federal Taxation. This was very helpful for the CPA exam because right after I finished the semester, I prepared one month for the CPA REG, and I passed it with a high score of 88. The harder parts of the exam according to the CPA exam center were questions about Taxation on Entities and Taxation on Property Transactions, which are chapters that were covered in our Federal Taxation class.

Then, within four weeks, I took another CPA exam BEC (Business), which covers almost all the classes in the MBA program: Economics (micro & macro), Management, Accounting, Finance, Quantitative Analysis, and Management Information Systems. Even with less than four weeks, I still passed it with score of 83. The reason for passing so quickly is that I already had a strong foundation from all of the MBA courses I took and received an A.

I would like to give advice to students planning to take these exams. Only reading CPA review books is not enough to fully understand the theories that will be on the exam. The readings from the textbooks assigned by the professors and studying for exams in the class were more beneficial in preparing for the CPA exam.

This semester I am taking Auditing and Governmental Accounting, again, I would read all the chapters required by the professor and do all homework, then I am confident I would pass the rest two parts AUD and FAR right after finishing this semester.