How To Pick an Exam Date
Key Points:
You need 100-120 hours of study
Plan out your study schedule before determining an exam date
There’s no perfect date. Just pick one
Picking an exam date is a vital part of your study process. Pick one too early and you risk not leaving yourself enough time to study. But pick one too late and you will have to spend too much time studying and cut into time where you could have been preparing for the next exam. So here are a couple things to consider when scheduling your exams.
Most CPA Review courses recommend about 100-120 hours of study for each section of the exam. This is just a rough estimate and is obviously different for each person and each exam but a nice framework to keep in mind.
You have to decide on how many hours you think you will be able and willing to commit to studying everyday. If you can only do 2 hours, then you would need about 2 months of prep. If you can do 4 hours then you only need 1 month.
I would recommend taking a look at your review course contents and trying to plan out a general schedule for completing it. You don’t need to go down to the day by day detail but if you can estimate when you will finish each module and then plan to give yourself a week or 2 for final review then that should give you a pretty good idea of when to schedule your exam.
This is where having a good study pan comes into play. If you already have a study plan laid out you can just look at that and determine around what time you will be ready to sit. To learn more about creating the perfect study plan see here.
But ultimately, listen to yourself. You know yourself and your situation better than anyone else. If you think you might need a couple extra days for whatever reason make sure to factor that in.
And remember, just set the exam date. There is no perfect date or amount of study time. Once you have the date set you will have a more complete view of what you have to do and when. You will adapt and adjust to that. But getting that exam date set ensures that you actually will take the exam, and also makes sure you don’t need to worry or stress about it further down the line.
