Question

I want to know if a prep course increases passing rates for the CPA exam. I will compare passing rates of people that had a prep course and those that didn't. Should I run this as a between participants deign or repeated measures? Describe the advantages and disadvantages of your choice.

Answer 1

Prep course serve as preparatory training that provides effective test preparation to meet the stringent scholastic requirements for passing the CPA course.

As a CPA candidate, one must be thorough and familiar with the examination journey. It requires commitment, discipline, and planning all of which will lay the groundwork for a rewarding career opportunity. Studying for the CPA test without any study materials is not worthwhile because there are chances that one is going to miss the mark. It's a test that measures one's ability to study, understand, and apply difficult concepts. Putting about consistent study hours will help in passing the test. When one is preparing for the test without the help of a prep course, one should definitely be willing to put in the work. The use of podcasts, video lectures, or classic textbook readings to understand difficult concepts helps facilitate the process. Staying focused and not letting fear of difficulty take over you is important.

Depending on whether an individual is self-motivated or need some competition to push him or her, they can choose either the study yourself books/online courses that are offered. In either situation, one will have to be completely dedicated to reading and understanding the material. If one chooses a prep course that that doesn't meet their learning needs, then it absolutely can be a difficult process for the learner. Proper research work regarding a prep course is necessary because if one course worked for one person may not work for another. However, in the end it can be said that "if you study, you will pass" . CPA test is not a test of intelligence rather it is a test of discipline.

Comparison of passing rates of people that had a prep course to those that hadn't can be done using various experimental designs. In the between participants design test, different participants are used in each condition of the independent variable while in the repeated measures design, the same participants take part in each condition of the independent variable.

The experimental design that can be used here can be the independent measures design also known as between groups. Different participants are used in each condition of the experiment. Here one group would be people who went for the CPA prep course while the other would be the ones who didn't take the prep course. The advantages here are that it avoids order effects as people participate in one condition only but at the same time, the disadvantage may be that more people are needed than with the repeated measures design which is more time consuming. Between participants design also have an advantage of being conceptually simpler and requiring less testing time per participant.