I’m writing my first CPA exam next week. Do people usually take the full four hours to complete the exam?

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It’s all personal. I finished Reg 1.5 hours early, and took the full time for BEC, FAR and Audit

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Similar for me, REG I had 20 mins to go & the rest took the 4 hours.

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For me FAR and REG took almost the full time. Has about 15 - 10 minutes left when I finished. AUD and BEC finished in about 2 hours

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I finished all mine in 2 hrs or less, although I’ve always been a fast test taker

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Took all 4 hours on all of them. I'm a careful, check and recheck kind of person. Passed all first try, 88 avg.

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I’m paranoid so I took all 4 hours for all of them. Just depends on how well you take tests.

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FAR took 2 or 2.5 hours, the rest took the full 4. FAR was so short because I didn’t study half of the material so I didn’t spend much time on the questions I had zero clue on.

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Interesting.

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It absolutely varies, but no one gets extra points for finishing the exam early, so just go at your own pace.

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I finished reg an hour early. The rest took the full time.

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Yep

One thing I learned taking the exams is that everyone’s process is different so what works for me might not work for you. That being said, the only exam I failed was the one that didn’t take me all 4 hours

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All tests except reg I did in 2 hrs ish. Reg I took 3,3.5 because I hardly studied and am not in tax lol

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I took the entire time for REG and AUD and took bathroom breaks every time lol and it kept me calm. I plan on doing that for BEC this weekend too

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I’ve usually taken longer on tests and I took the full time. You should be good, just make sure to pace yourself so that you have enough time.

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Some even take 6hrs or more 😅

(they give testing accommodations for almost everyone - not talking about people who actually need it so lower the pitchforks)

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I always finished with 1-2 hours to spare. I figured out when taking the mock exams that I got a lower score taking my time, because I would overthink them. I also jumped around a lot which would sometimes jog my memory.

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Fair warning (though my sample is very limited) I know several people that have not used full time and missed the mark by only 1 or a few percentage points. If you haven’t studied much like I hadn’t I would def use the full time—I would flag ones I wasn’t 100% sure about and review them again at the end (which was like 1/3 of them lol)

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I always had hour + time left. You can leave early or use it to review your answers taking your time

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Full time for only FAR. BEC and AUD like 2 hours. Can’t remember for REG. I’m also a fast test taker though.

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Down to the last seconds every time tbh. I’ve passed all 4 now

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You’re writing the exam?

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Thanks for the context! Was quite curious

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Finished all with about 30-45 mins extra

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for me it varied by exam - I finished AUD with 2 hours left, REG with 1 hour left, and the other two I took the whole time

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