How Long Should I Study for the CPA Exams?
Kyle Ashcraft, CPA · 2019 CPA Exam Scores · 95 FAR · 98 BEC · 91 REG · 90 AUD
Every CPA candidate asks the same question early on: how long is this actually going to take? The honest answer is that the CPA exams are a long-term study journey — there's no shortcut, only a decision about how aggressive or forgiving you want your timeline to be.
What should each study session include?
Regardless of your timeline, use the same four-step approach on weeknights: review the prior night's material, learn new material, apply it with MCQs, and write down why you got any MCQs wrong. On Saturday and Sunday, don't learn new content — spend the weekend reviewing everything from that week instead. That way Monday starts with the prior week's material still fresh, instead of needing a review pass a few weeks later.
Which study path should you choose?
Three timelines tend to work best, depending on how aggressive you want to be:
| Path | Total timeline | Time per exam | Weekday study | Weekend study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aggressive | 6–8 months | 6 weeks (4 new + 2 review) | 3–4 hrs/day | 5 hrs/day |
| Standard | 12–14 months | 10–12 weeks | 2 hrs/day | 4 hrs/day |
| Flexible | 18–24 months | 12 weeks (10 new + 2 review) | — | — |
The standard 12-14 month path is the most common. Two hours on weekdays plus four hours each weekend day works out to 18 hours a week — inside the 15-20 hour weekly goal — and gives you 10-12 weeks per exam, which leaves room to fail one and still finish on schedule. Failing an exam costs more than just retake time, too: budget for the extra time it takes to reapply for a new NTS (Notice to Schedule).
The aggressive 6-8 month path only works if you don't plan on any retakes: 6 weeks per exam, with the last 2 weeks reserved for review rather than new content. It demands more daily hours — 3 to 4 on weekdays and 5 on weekends — to compress the same material into a shorter window.
The flexible 18-24 month path uses the same 10-weeks-new-content, 2-weeks-review split per exam, but spreads those four exams across a much longer calendar window. That extra slack allows for multiple retakes or a pause in studying if life gets in the way. I don't recommend spending more than 3 months on any single exam even on this path — motivation tends to drop once an exam starts to feel far away, which makes it easier to stop pushing.
When should you finish learning new material for each exam?
Aim to finish all the content 10 to 14 days before your exam date. That buffer gives you time to:
- Take 1-2 full practice exams
- Review your outlines five times
- Work through at least 500 MCQs and 50 simulations (SIMs)
There's no single correct timeline — only the one that fits your situation. Whichever path you pick, try not to spend more than 3 months on any one exam. If you fail one, that's fine; once you're licensed, you never have to take these exams again.
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Kyle Ashcraft, CPA scored 90 or above on every section of the CPA exam in 2019. He is the founder and sole instructor of Maxwell CPA Review, a complete CPA review course covering all six sections, where he creates every lecture, textbook and study outline himself.