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UWorld vs Becker CPA
Our in-depth comparison of the UWorld (formerly Roger) and Becker CPA review courses
Choosing between Becker CPA and UWorld CPA Review isn’t easy, as both courses provide a thorough curriculum with a great digital platform and lots of top-end resources. UWorld has gone through some pretty significant updates since acquiring Roger and Wiley, while Becker maintains its reputation as one of the most trusted names in CPA prep. So what’s the difference between these programs – and how do you know which one is right for you? In this in-depth comparison, we explore both CPA review courses’ features, strengths, and weaknesses so you can chart out your path to CPA success.
As this is a detailed comparison, above find helpful jump-to links for easy navigation.
Video Review: UWorld Or Becker For CPA Prep?
In the video above, John from the Test Prep Insight team (who passed all four sections of the CPA exam on his first try) provides a head-to-head look at the CPA review courses from Becker and UWorld Roger. Of course, you can continue reading our full written comparison below for a more detailed analysis.
To understand which of these CPA review courses is best for you, it’s important to first identify the strengths that Becker and UWorld bring to the table. With that in mind, let’s start by covering the advantages of using Becker to help prepare you for the CPA exam.
Becker Pricing And Course Options
Becker offers four different course options, each with ascending levels of features, content, and access. These four prep offerings are as follows:
Advantage
Pro
Pro+
Concierge
The Advantage course is Becker’s most basic offering, providing just the essentials. This includes video lessons, practice problems, and 24 months of access to your content.
This package lacks some of the more important features of the upper tier packages, but it comes in at a fairly reasonable price point of $2,500.
At the next level up, the Pro Becker course is the most popular. It offers the same general features as the Advantage course but adds in hardcopy prep books, live sessions, private tutoring, as well as unlimited access.
These additional features raise the price tag to $3,845. This is just slightly more affordable than UWorld’s best-selling course, making Becker the more ideal choice from a pricing perspective. If you want the tutoring and valuable element of in-person classes, this may well be worth it.
Unlike UWorld, Becker provides an even higher end course with its Pro+ and Concierge packages. The Pro+ adds in a Financial Accounting Foundations self paced course, and Concierge adds in a money back guarantee and success coaching.
Course options and pricing current as of date of publication.
Our Evaluation Of Becker’s Study Materials
Becker has one of (if not the) most thorough and comprehensive curriculums in the CPA review space. Their student study plan is incredibly detailed, covering every aspect of the CPA exam.
Not only that, it covers the material from a multitude of angles, including on demand video lessons, live classes, textbooks, flashcards, and more. Essentially, Becker presents their material in a variety of ways to accommodate just about every learning style.
Their instructional material is led by some very good video-based lectures. These prerecorded lessons take the form of an onscreen, interactive textbook and verbal lesson overlaying it.
The instructor takes notes in the margins, circles key points and generally highlights all the most crucial details that you need to pay attention to in a graphic form. These videos are excellent, and the combination of verbal lessons with visual text is a powerful learning tool.
One of Becker’s video lectures
Just as useful as the video lessons, Becker also offers live class sessions. More on these below, but basically, they’re a huge benefit.
In addition, when you sign up with Becker, you will receive copies of their textbooks in both digital and print format.
These books are thoughtfully crafted and have been clearly revised time and time again over the years, resulting in an exceptional book set. In our team’s opinion, these prep books are better than UWorld’s (and Yaeger’s for that matter).
Finally, Becker also offers some very high-quality practice questions, both multiple-choice and simulations. True, they don’t provide quite as many multiple-choice questions or simulations as UWorld, but the numbers are close, and the quality is definitely there.
The biggest selling point of the Becker CPA Review course has to be their live classes, which are almost exclusive to Becker. I say “almost” because other CPA prep companies do offer live classes, but not nearly to the same extent or with the same depth that Becker does.
Becker offers 90+ hours of live sessions, all taught by experts with years of teaching to the CPA exam under their belt. These class sessions cover generally the same material that is contained in the prerecorded video lessons.
If you have the Premium course, these classes are live online, while the Pro package gives the additional option of taking them in person.
Either way, Becker’s classes offer students who need commitment and accountability in their studies an extra nudge to keep their prep moving along. This is something that UWorld CPA just doesn’t provide.
Now that you have a better idea of what Becker brings to the table in terms of CPA study materials and features, it’s only fair we now discuss the major pros of using UWorld to help you prep for each section of the CPA exam.
UWorld Pricing And Course Options
UWorld CPA Review offers three prep packages to students: the Premier Course, the Elite Unlimited Course, and the Elite Unlimited+ Course.
The Premier Course is their basic package. Carrying a price tag of roughly $3,500, this package offers the basics of most every CPA review course. This includes video lessons, digital textbooks and practice problems, and 18 months of access to your content. Compared to Becker’s starter-level offering, the UWorld Premier Course has a higher MSRP.
While that price point may be attractive to some students, UWorld’s more popular option is their Elite Unlimited Course. In addition to everything you get with the Premier package, you also get access to live bootcamps.
These additional resources add roughly $400 to the total, pricing this course out at around $3,900, which is slightly more than Becker’s premium offering.
Lastly, we have UWorld Roger’s Elite Unlimited+ Course, which costs about $4,100 and includes a similar Pass Guarantee to that of Becker. That’s the big difference between their Elite and Elite Plus prep packages.
If you are looking for a lower priced CPA course, you may want to consider Surgent or Gleim for your CPA review needs.
Course options and pricing current as of date of publication.
Evaluation Of UWorld CPA Coursework
At the heart of UWorld CPA’s study plan is the video-based instruction. This is generally what you are paying for when you sign up with UWorld CPA Review. There is nothing truly remarkable about the practice questions or textbooks with Roger – it’s all about the lessons.
Company founder Roger Philipp and legendary accounting professor Peter Olinto (who joined UWorld after 25 years at Becker) lead all the video lessons, and they do a masterful job conveying otherwise dry and complex topics. They both bring nonstop energy to each lesson as they convey concepts through anecdotes, mnemonics and jokes.
They are downright entertaining, making them among the most engaging videos in the industry.
UWorld CPA instructor Roger Philipp
Beyond the video lectures, the UWorld CPA Review is rather average in a lot of ways. That is not to imply the course lacks in any regard, but it is more or less on par with other CPA prep providers in most respects.
UWorld offers 9,000+ multiple-choice questions and 500 simulations, which is somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of quantity (fewer than Gleim). That said, the quality of these practice questions and simulations is pretty good.
They very closely mimic real CPA exam questions, and we were quite pleased with the accompanying text explanation for each problem as well.
They do offer a few unique features. Their SmartPath predictive technology tells you exactly how you stand compared to successful candidates and your likelihood of passing each section. It’s definitely reassuring, especially if you struggle with test anxiety.
UWorld also provides cram courses for last-minute review. I really liked these intense review sessions for helping to lock everything in right before the exam. In my opinion, both of these tools go a long way towards helping you feel ready for exam day.
Otherwise, UWorld CPA Review boasts a pretty standard prep course buoyed by its fantastic video lessons.
Course Highlight: Engaging Video Lessons
UWorld CPA Review’s video lessons are the number one highlight of the course. Roger Philipp and Peter Olinto are constantly in motion, drawing notes on the whiteboard, gesticulating wildly to emphasize points – their passion is contagious.
You can tell by watching the lessons that they really care; they want you to succeed. These lively lectures are permeated with jokes, anecdotes, mnemonics, and more (unlike the lessons from Surgent, for example).
Basically, if there’s a memory aid Roger and Olinto can use to improve your retention, they use it. All of this together makes it difficult to look away, which is a very good thing when it’s 10 pm and you’re trying to study some nuanced FAR lesson.
One other aspect of the video lessons that we particularly like is that the accompanying portion of the UWorld CPA review textbook is displayed on screen to the right of the video portion of the lesson.
This allows you to track along in written format, though UWorld’s verbal lessons go into much greater detail and provide context that you just don’t get through the book. All in all, these video lessons are absolutely top notch and are what sell this course.
Becker and UWorld CPA Review both offer a comprehensive curriculum and a sleek digital platform, making both of them good options. Still, to me, Becker is clearly the winner,as they offer the stronger overall course – despite charging less than UWorld.
I do still have to give UWorld some credit. Their engaging video lectures are hard to beat, and the last-minute cram sessions and SmartPath technology are both helpful for anyone who struggles with test anxiety and needs that extra reassurance that they’re ready for exam day.
Overall, however, Becker provides the more thorough course. In addition to top-notch video lessons, they offer live class sessions, which provide both real-time feedback and accountability. Their review books are detailed yet easy to skim, and it’s hard to beat their realistic simulated exams. Bottom line, if you simply want the best CPA course period to help you pass, Becker is the answer.
Which CPA review course costs more – Becker or UWorld CPA?
On average, the CPA review courses from Becker are slightly cheaper than those from UWorld. Plus, Becker seems to be more aggressive with sales and discounts as well.
What’s the main difference between the UWorld and Becker CPA review courses?
The primary difference between UWorld and Becker is the instructional style. UWorld is known for their awesome and engaging video lectures with founder Roger Philipp, while Becker has the beneficial feature of live classes (online or in-person).
Which company provides more study material, Becker or UWorld?
Becker provides more task-based simulations than UWorld. On the other hand, UWorld CPA offers slightly more multiple-choice questions than Becker.
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