Wiley CPAexcel | Everything You Need to Know

Wiley CPAexcel is one of the top CPA review courses on the market. Their CPA review course is best known for it’s volume of learning material and innovative teaching style centered around Wiley’s FocusMe technology and bite-sized lessons that maximize learning in a short amount of time.  

While there are other courses designed around an efficient-learning style, Wiley has been a pioneer in this field for years and has some nice features to its course that some of the other providers don’t.

In this review I’ll take a deep dive to teach you everything I know about Wiley CPAExcel so you can decide if it’s the course for you!

Background

Wiley CPAexcel is one of the biggest names in the field thanks to its long and diverse history. Wiley Efficient Learning offers prep courses in over a dozen different certifications in the accounting and finance industries and has long been at the cutting edge of innovation in the test prep field. This experience in the test prep space has earned it endorsements from accounting firms big and small, including all of the Big 4 accounting firms.

Course Planner / Adaptive Learning Technology

Wiley’s CPAExcel course features a nifty Exam Planner, which helps you establish a realistic study plan. Answer a few quick questions about your expected study schedule and voilà, the software spits out a customized study schedule. You can even update your responses at any time during your exam prep journey and the software will update accordingly.

After setting your initial study schedule you’re then free to the rest of the course. Wiley’s dashboard provides a great birds-eye view of your overall course progress, which lessons are up next and your upcoming study schedule. I found it easy to navigate to the next lessons as they were easily accessible from the dashboard view. There’s also a Syllabus view, which organizes the course content according to the AICPA blueprints and allows you to check your progress based on content category.

Wiley CPAExcel’s lessons are well organized. Most lessons are summarized in a single page and include an overview of the course content, bite-sized lectures to watch and the corresponding study guide. You also have the ability to take digital notes and you can also print the lesson content for later use offline if you’d like.

After completing each lesson you can then take an assessment of the material you just learned. Wiley’s FocusMe technology then assesses how comfortable you are with the material so you can address any issues on the spot.

While Wiley’s program is well organized, I found it to be a bit more complex and confusing out of the box than some of the other CPA review courses. However after spending a little bit of time with the program I found it was easy to navigate to the different sections of the course. For anything you can’t figure out on your own, Wiley makes it super easy for you and has created a Product Tour page that you can check out for more info.

Other Cool Features

Wiley also sells many individual components of its course separately by individual exam section (FAR, AUD, BEC, REG), or in a bundle at a discounted price, including:

Virtual Classroom Series – Featuring a combination of pre-recorded lectures and live instruction (NOTE: This product comes with the Pro and Platinum level review courses)

Online Test Bank – Comes with 6,000+ multiple-choice questions and 200+ task-based simulations.  

Study Guide – Available in eBook or print format (NOTE: This product comes standard with Wiley’s Essentials, Pro and Platinum level review courses)

Focus Notes – Reinforces key concepts, mnemonics, and other exam tips (NOTE: This product comes with the Pro and Platinum level review courses)

Flash Cards – Originally created by one of Wiley CPAexcel’s AICPA Winners, these 1,000 printed flashcards (250 per exam section) cover and reinforce the most critical exam content (NOTE: This product comes with the Pro and Platinum level review courses)

11th Hour Final Review – Includes a series of videos and focus tips covering the areas most likely to be tested on exam day and includes one full practice exam for each section.

Lectures

Wiley’s course features its “bite-sized” learning format and lectures, with over 140 hours of lecture content and 60+ deep-dive lectures averaging about 30 minutes each. This means you can easily knock out an entire lesson or two whether you’re studying early in the morning, during your lunch break or late at night.

If there’s one knock on Wiley’s lectures it’s that the professors can be a bit dry compared to other courses like Roger or Becker. I know, accounting isn’t exactly the most exciting subject in the world, but given a company of Wiley’s caliber I hold them to a higher standard in this area. Less-than-engaging video lectures might not be a deal-breaker for you when picking a review course, but if it is then Wiley CPAExcel might not be your top choice.

Textbooks

Wiley’s textbooks cover each of the four sections of the exam and total 2,200+ pages of content. The guides cover the complete AICPA content blueprints so they’re comprehensive, and they align well with the lectures and other course content in Wiley’s “bite-sized” learning format.  

Wiley’s textbooks are available in both hard-copy and e-book formats.

Flashcards

I’ve always been a believer that the best flashcards are the ones you make for yourself, but Wileys 4,000+ digital flash cards certainly help make things easy. Their compatible on PC/laptop and mobile devices and I find that they do a good job capturing the key terms and content of the course. Wiley’s Digital flash cards are included with all course options.

If digital flashcards aren’t your thing, 1,000 printed flash cards come along with the Platinum and Pro bundles or they can be purchased separately by individual exam section or as a 4-part bundle. 

Multiple Choice Questions

Multiple choice questions are the most valuable part of any CPA review course, and Wiley doesn’t disappoint here! With 12,000+ unique practice questions available, Wiley CPAExcel offers the largest test bank there is. You likely won’t need his many during your own exam prep but having the extra firepower is nice to have in case you end up struggling in a few areas. Wiley’s Test Bank comes standard with every Wiley course package, or you can purchase it separately if you’re using another provider.

Wiley’s practice questions come from prior exams, so they’re about as good as you can get in terms of quality. Wiley’s course also does a good job of providing detailed explanations behind every single answer. Pro-tip: Be sure to take the time to read through these explanations, as they reinforce the lessons covered in the course and go a long way to improving your retention of the material.

As mentioned earlier, Wiley’s FocusMe technology will track your stats from prior quizzes as let you create custom quizzes to focus on the areas you need to practice the most. Overall, Wiley’s multiple choice question bank puts it near the top of the pack.

Simulations

Task-based simulations are another critical part of the CPA exam, and Wiley provides another huge library of task-based simulations to prep you for exam day. Each course level comes with 500+ task-based simulations and 40+ written communication tests.

Simulation topics and layouts can vary widely on exam day. I found Wiley’s simulation bank offers a nice variety of TSBs modeled off of prior exams, and include the same standard tools you’ll see on exam day (research tool, calculator, excel spreadsheet, etc.)

Practice Exams

Wiley has a nifty exam simulator that allows you to generate an unlimited number of practice exams yourself, with the software dynamically pulling questions from the test bank and simulation bank. This is obviously a great feature, but the downside here is you may inevitably get questions and simulations that you’ve seen before.

To counter this, Wiley’s practice exams consist of three 30 multiple choice testlets along with task-based simulations that are timed just like the actual CPA exam.

At the end of each practice exam you’ll get to see which areas you performed well on and which ones you did not. Similar to the MCQs and TBSs, this is a huge opportunity to refresh yourself on the material and improve retention so don’t pass it up!

Course Access

Wiley’s course can be accessed from any computer or device and is mobile friendly, and they even have a dedicated app for iOS and Android devices. You can access all of the lectures, multiple choice questions, digital flashcards and even create and take quizzes on any device, giving you plenty of options while you study.

The mobile app automatically syncs with the online course, so your progress will always be up to date. You can also download lectures to view offline later if that’s more convenient for you.

Wiley gives you unlimited access to the course and free updates until you pass the exam*, hassle free. Most other courses limit access to 18 or 24 months or only offer unlimited access to their most premium level course, so this is a huge upside to going with Wiley.

*NOTE: Wiley’s Access-Until-You-Pass guarantee is limited to their CPA review courses and does not apply to their supplemental CPA materials that are sold separately. Access to those materials only last 1-2 years from the purchase date, depending on the product.

Customer Support

Wiley’s customer support is available via phone or their 24/7 live-chat function, however these options are mostly for tech support issues and to help you use the course software.  

For actual accounting and exam prep related questions, you have a few options:  

• The first is Wiley’s Student Forum and CPA study group on Facebook, which have frequently asked questions and allow you to post a question that someone else may hopefully answer.  
• The next option is Wiley’s Expert Mentoring (Pro and Platinum levels only), in which a Wiley professor will answer your questions directly. This option isn’t particularly fast (average response time is 24-48 hours), but is still a nice resource in case you’re truly stuck on some of the material and can afford to wait a few days.

For International students, Wiley’s Platinum level course offers 1-on-1 support to walk you through the process of becoming a CPA, assess your eligibility and help you determine which state to obtain your license. 

Pricing and Course Packages

Wiley has three course packages: Essential, Pro and Platinum. Each course comes with some of the most critical exam prep material, including:

• Digital study guides and 2,200+ pages on online study material
• Massive multiple-choice, task-based simulation and written communication bank
• Unlimited practice exams
• Digital flashcards
• Unlimited access and course updates until you pass
• Wiley’s FocusMe efficient learning technology

However, the Pro and Platinum packages offer quite a bit more than the Essentials course. For example, the Pro and Platinum courses comes with 140+ hours and 60+ deep dive video lectures and task-based simulation videos. If you learn well or could benefit from video lectures then you should only consider the Pro or Platinum courses.

The Platinum course offers the same benefits as the Pro course but includes a few additional resources like Wiley’s 11th hour Final Review and 1-on-1 exam eligibility support (international students only).

Let’s have a look at Wiley’s different course packages in more detail and see which one is best for you:

Financing and Discounts

Wiley offers financing through Citizens Bank, which is a huge plus and makes the course more accessible to people who don’t have thousands of dollars sitting around. 

Wiley also offers some nice discounts that can save you lots of money, including discounts for college students (either currently enrolled or within 90 days of your graduation date) and other special promo codes. 

Free Trial

If you’re interested in Wiley’s course then I recommend you try it out for yourself. Wiley offers a FREE 14 day trial that gives you access to most of the course content you can expect from the full program.

Bottom Line

Wiley CPAExcel is one of the top CPA review courses on the market. It has pretty much everything you’ll need in a review course (tons of practice questions / simulations / exams, full digital access, detailed study guides and flashcards), and it’s Access-Until-You-Pass Guarantee provides great peace of mind while preparing for the exam.  

That being said, Wiley’s non-linear study format is designed to focus your time and attention on the areas you need to improve the most, which may not be for everyone. Also, the Platinum level course is pricier than many of the other providers.

I think Wiley is perfect for folks who may be working a full-time job and/or who may not have loads of free time to study for the exam in between their other commitments.