How long to study for the CPA Exam

You can pass the CPA Exam after studying for 4 weeks.

Yup, you can.

Or you can pass after studying for 4 months. Or even 4 years.

So the question of “how long do I have to study to pass the CPA Exam?” is a tricky one. 

As I always say, there is no secret formula. There isn’t any particular what, when, where, and how to study that will get you to pass the CPA Exam like a walk in the park. Or is it does exist no one ever told me. 

My goal is never to tell you exactly how you should go on your exam journey. Everyone’s situation is different. I prefer to tell you what I did, and my rationale behind that, and have you take that information and use to (or don’t) to make decisions that work for your specific situation.

Here’s how long I studied for each exam, and why.

FAR: 181 days

This is overkill. I did not need 181 days. Yes, there’s a lot of material covered in FAR but this was waaaaay too long. 

I had some issues that forced me to study for so long. I had application issues and test site issues. So the 181 days was not my choice, but it was my situation and I had to deal with it. Much of this time was also during COVID lockdown so I had plenty of free time to study. On average I was probably doing 2-4 hours a day.

I repeat, this was overkill. I did not need that long or that much studying. I was also scared to take the exam, especially after studying for so long. However, once I took the exam, before I even knew if I’d passed or not, my fear of all the exams went down so much. Because now it was a known evil, rather than an unknown one. 

If I did it again and had my way I probably would have studied for 4 months. And that’s still a bit long for most people I’d guess.

AUD: 81 days

Much more reasonable this time. About 2.5 months. And even the 2.5 months was a bit longer than I needed. But I had the time to study and felt comfortable with that so I don’t regret it. 

At this time I was working part time so I did not have as much time to study each day. I probably still made sure to do at least 2 (more like 3) hours everyday. 

If I could go back I don’t think I’d change anything.

REG: 66 days

This was my shortest time studying for an exam and it was also the second hardest (I really hated tax). So the fact that I did such a difficult one in the shortest time shows me I definitely could have done the other ones in shorter time periods as well. 

With that being said, I was convinced I failed. I wanted to start studying again the next day but thankfully decided to wait until the score release where it turns out I’d passed. 

I did this one in such a short time because I was racing against the clock of my job start date. I ended up taking it about 2-3 weeks after I started at my job. I would highly recommend trying to do the same if possible because studying while working is not very fun (surprise surprise). 

If I could go back I would not change anything. And this one I also probably did about 2-3 hours a day.

BEC: 110 days

I ended with BEC and for an exam that is considered “the easy one” (false, none of them are easy) I took a pretty long time to study for it. I think that is just a testament to what I said previously about studying and working a full time job. It’s not super easy so if you can get it done beforehand try your best to do so. 

I was doing about an hour before work and then whenever I had free time during work I’d study as well. And then I’d do another 1-2 hours after work. It was a grind but that’s what you got to do to get through these exams.

With this exam I don’t think I’d change anything either. It wasn’t fun but it worked for me. 

As I said before, this is not advice for you. It is just a perspective to keep in mind as you create your study plan. Everyone’s path is different. You got this!

Notes:

• This past week I released a free “CPA Basics” course on cpaexamplanners.com. This 45 minute course explains many of the questions you may have about becoming a CPA, such as ; how to do it, why to do it, and what your future career may look like.

• Have a great weekend! I hope you’ve been adjusting to the time change well 😄