Customer Reviews

Wiley CPA Exam Review 2010, Financial Accounting and Reporting (Wiley CPA Examination Review: Financial Accounting & Reporting)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is good/detailed CPA review book. If you're able to set your own study schedule, you can pass the exam using just this and the Wiley CD(wait until the new one is out) with multiple choice questions and simulations. It's cheaper on amazon than on Wiley's site.

Despite the many typos throughout the book, which make me question the degree and care of editing, I found this review material to overly-complicate many of the concepts for the FAR exam. I used a different study program for the first two CPA exams I took and passed both of those exams on my first attempt. I switched to Wiley as my original materials expired and the Wiley book was a cheap alternative. This Wiley CPA FAR review takes concepts that I don't deem to be too complicated and presents them in a disorganized and hard to follow manner. I felt myself becoming more confused on topics that I already had a good grasp on as I read through the book.

For the price, it is a good deal. If you want to concentrate on learning the material rather than deciphering the paragraphs, it is not such a good option. Also, there were many times when I was going through the material that I thought things could have been organized in a much easier fashion. For example, the material seems to present itself like this, "situation 'A' must follow these rules. Situation 'B' must follow these rules. But situation 'A' has these exceptions. Situation 'C' has these exceptions. Also for situation 'B', you need to do this." The confusion is continued when the book incorrectly uses its own acronyms. Bargain purchase options is at one point referred to as a PBO, and out of nowhere they begin using the term RV without defining it to identify residual value.

I run a CPA exam prep site called [...] where I answer questions from CPA application, CPA review course comparison, exam tactics to life after the CPA exam. I scored 92 on FAR back then, and I would like to share my thoughts on the pros and cons of Wiley's CPA exam review 2010 on FAR. Hope you find it helpful.

PROS

1. Well-Written. The book is generally well organized covering all the hottest topics on FAR, including the concepts and standards for financial statements, identification and calculation of various items in the statements and transactions, accounting and reporting for governmental entities and not-for-profit organizations. Wiley also includes the update on the 2011 CPA exam changes and some tactics on how to pass the exam.

2. Great Value-For-Money. This is one of the most affordable CPA review materials you can find anywhere. The book is also updated on an annual basis -- no wonder it is the best-selling CPA review books on Amazon (by the way, get this here instead of bookstore or Wiley's website -- cheaper here)

3. Competitors Are Using Wiley As Supplements. A few CPA exam review courses such as Roger CPA Review and Yaeger CPA Review use Wiley's books and CDs to complement their lectures. In fact, Yaeger's DVD course spend a lot of time going through Wiley's MC questions as a way to clarify the accounting concepts.

CONS

1. It Over-Prepares You. While I have to say this Wiley book is considerably "shorter" than the previous versions, it is still too comprehensive. There are 1,056 pages -- overwhelming and discouraging to read as you can imagine. Other study guides or lecture notes are more concise and present only the materials you need to know for the CPA exam.

2. Layout Not User Friendly. Since you may be buying the book without physically flipping through it, I think it will be helpful to describe the overall feel and layout of the book. Well, despite the colorful cover, the book is actually printed in thin newspaper print. The questions and answers are often straddle between pages so it is very annoying to flip back and forth to read the answers. It might not sound like a big deal, but many readers of my site have joined in the complaints in this particular aspect.

3. Not An Integrated Approach. If you like this Wiley CPA review book, I strongly encourage you to get the Test CD for the practice questions in computerized format. However, the Wiley book + software combo is still far from the "guided review course" with lectures and a channel for you to ask a question or clarify a concept. In my opinion, the guided reviews, be it a live class or a self-study DVD, is a more integrated and thus better approach.

CONCLUSION

Many candidates manage to pass the CPA exam with Wiley product alone, so it is a good set of review guides. What you need to do now is to determine whether you are disciplined enough to study without a guided review course, that you have the time and energy to read through the entire book, and that you won't be bothered by the relatively poor layout and format.

Please feel free to post a comment if you have any questions or suggestions. Best of luck to your exam! Stephanie

In the past, Wiley CPA exam review books were huge. They were about 50% larger than they are now. The main complaint was that I just want to pass the exam, not get a perfect on it. They had way too much material covered in them.

This time around, it seems they took that advice to heart, and the books are arranged in modules, grouped so that it's easier to study. Whew! Finally, they figured it out. I'm going to purchase the review software, v15, when it comes out. Practicing the exam, especially the questions, is probably the best way to prepare for the FAR.

I've tried the Bisk book last year, but I just didn't feel it as good as Wiley's. I sat for the FAR in January 2007, to see what it was like (without preparing). Didn't go well, and now that things are slowing down, I have the time to really focus on getting this done.

My overall complaint about Wiley's FAR review book is that it is so poorly organized. Other CPA review books that I have used have presented a topic and then presented questions to allow you to evaluate how well you have learned the material on that specific topic. Using the results of your performance on these questions, one could identify the weak areas where they need additional study work before the exam.
The questions in the Wiley book that follow the modules do not necessarily evaluate how well the reader learned the material in that module. Wiley's questions seem to be made up of past CPA exam questions that use concepts from multiple accounting topics. Therefore, there are many questions that cover topics that the reader has not yet gotten to. This makes the questions useless in determining how well they learned the material in the specific module that they just covered.
A better way of organizing the book, specifically with regard to the review questions, would have been to arrange the book by topic and make sure that comprehensive questions that cover multiple topics relate only to topics that have already been covered by a user going through the modules in order from first to last.
The FAR section of the exam covers a lot of complex material, and to successfully review this material, one needs to break it into manageable sections. I don't think that the review questions in the Wiley book are organized in a way that allows a user to review and evaluate their knowledge of the material in a methodical way that makes the amount of material manageable.

I felt the course material to be overwhelming in content. The lay out is also a bit confusing and sometimes I couldn't follow the topics in a logical order. What I do like about this review book are the summary charts that summarize key concepts, the multiple choice questions and simulations that give detailed answers to questions, and answers why the wrong answers were wrong. The explanations were always concise and to the point, and never confusing. The MCQ/explanations in this review is what makes the series. It also gives insight on the 2011 changes, strategies for taking the exam and other important things.

I purchased both Bisk and Wiley. Wiley is very systematic and well written. I also got the test bank CD and it has a wealth of questions. I would definitely recommend Wiley over Bisk. Whereas Wiley is modules oriented with an organized and understandable approach to studying for and taking the exam, Bisk falls short with run-on sentences galore, and basically a confusing read. I am confident that with careful study of either text, one should be able to past the exam, however, the Wiley software makes an already challenging exam, less stressful to prepare for. Once again, I fully recommend Wiley over Bisk.

I used the Wiley CPA Review Books for all 4 parts of the exam and I passed. The only reason why I'm not giving them 5 stars is because there are errors in the material so you have to stay on your toes. For the first test I took an online class from another vendor in addition to the Wiley books. I realized somewhere along the way that I was learning the most from these books and used them as my primary study tool. It does take perserverance but it can be done. I prayed a lot too! Good luck!

As some of the other reviews note, there are some typos and the organization of the book could be improved. Plus, it's a really boring read (but it's CPA review, so I pretty much expected that). However, I was able to pass the exam of the first try (with a high score) studying only from the Wiley book so I don't care too much about that stuff...much better than paying for one of the expensive review courses.

I don't think that relying solely on this book would work for most people, but if you're good at taking tests, have pretty good knowledge of GAAP, and are able to stay motivated to put in a lot of studying time it can work. Oh and you have to be able to pick out what you should focus on for yourself - the book doesn't typically tell you "make sure you know this!" or "just have a general familiarity with this, but don't worry about memorizing all of the details".

Overall I thought the Wiley problems were more difficult and involved than the CPA exam.

I passed FAR on my 1st attempt, and this book was the only study material I used. It covers every possible topic that could be on the exam, so when you take the exam, you will have at least seen every topic you are tested on. If you set aside enough time to adequately study the material, you will do great! Make sure to read it from cover to cover and to complete every sample question. It is a fantastic, inexpensive option for studying for the exam!