Utpal writes in, “I am frustrated with Gleim CPA Review because the questions are very hard and I feel that no mater how many times I've read the outline, I do not get the magical score of 75 on any of my units. I have the NINJA Monthly subscription for FAR. Do you have any suggestions or tips on how I could successfully supplement Gleim or should I just go full NINJA mode?”

Now whenever I read a question like this, and someone has a complaint about a review course, sometimes I omit the company name but I left it in here because Gleim is a good company, and they have a good reputation and I have a great relationship with them and respect them a lot. They have good products and I've said before when people talk about a course in the forum, 20% love a course, 20% hate a course, and 60% are kind of in the middle. But more people tend to have glowing praise for Gleim versus…eh. So, Gleim customers seem to be very happy with it.

Now with that said, I have an editorial disagreement on some of their questions because for instance, enrolled agent. So at least they used to, and I'm pretty sure this is still the case, they include enrolled agent questions in the Regulation material. So, this is not really applicable for FAR but I'm gonna use enrolled agent in Regulation as an example. Enrolled agent questions are beyond the scope of the CPA exam, I believe.

And so, there's something to be said about, just going through brutal, sparring sessions so the actual fight seems a lot more doable and there's something to be said about that. However, I also think that questions are beyond..I mean you get some nuanced corporate tax questions, you're gonna feel like you're just dumb and it's gonna make you not want to study and really doubt yourself going into exam day and then you're like, oh well maybe I guess I do know this stuff and I do think it can impact your morale. And so, but this is for FAR. And, I don't know of any extra, I don't think they'd put CFA questions in FAR or anything like that.

So it might just be that it's AICPA released questions that are just kicking your butt and has nothing to do with editorializing or anything, and so all of that to say, keep using Gleim, especially their SIMs. People seem to love their SIMs so keep using their SIMs. And then, for NINJA Monthly, so go to another71.com/pass, which is a post sticking at the top of another71.com. It's how to study with NINJA and it's how to use a review course and NINJA Monthly, so you can read how to use your Gleim materials with NINJA Monthly, how to incorporate the NINJA Book.

So you have two books, which one do you go with? You have two sets of software, which one do you go with? And just for our purposes of this question, I would do your learning, so your “N,” your “Non-stop Multiple Choice,” I would do that with your Gleim materials and your Gleim questions and then for your review, the “A,” it “All Comes Together,” I would switch to NINJA MCQ. Then obviously you're using the NINJA Notes all the way through from the beginning, you're using NINJA Audio all the way through from the beginning, going back to the “N,” “Nail the Concepts.”

I don't know if you have their videos or not but you can decide if you want to watch those and we obviously have the NINJA Plus, the Bisk videos. If it were me, I would switch to the NINJA Book. I would read the NINJA Book, take notes over that, use Gleim for the “Non-stop MCQ” and use NINJA MCQ for the “A” phase, it “All Comes Together.” I mean, kind of mix and match, however, you feel comfortable.

You likely paid a lot of money for your course, you should use it and it's a good course but that should help give you a feel for how to incorporate both Gleim and NINJA Monthly. Again, I'm a big fan of the folks at Gleim CPA anyway so no issues there. If I didn't like them, I wouldn't have mentioned the name. Because sometimes I omit the company name.