What I was told is that with accreditation comes with a requirement to provide a certain level of courses.
The CPA Exam Review courses would not fit this. The CPA Exam is broken into 4 parts plus an Ethics exam once you pass the first 4. The CPA Review course focuses specifically on CPA exam type information that they have taken from past exams. A true story about this - I studied for the Audit section a lot (probably to much), the morning right before I left to take the exam I took a 100 question multiple choice quiz that was part of the study materials. I did the quiz in 20 minutes and only missed 1 question. I get to the test site and start taking my test. The questions I am answering are almost word for word what I had on the quiz, I was conflicted whether I was being tricked or if it was really happening. I ended up getting a 93 on the Audit test and passing. That should be a good indicator of how the Review Courses spoon fed you what you needed for the Exam.
While I agree the CPA Exam is a hard test to pass, it should be. With your CPA you can pretty much get any Accounting job you want so you need it to weed out those who are not serious. However, the memorizing aspect of the exam is a huge fault (and quit frankly of all tests). In real life there is a lot of information I don't know or forgot, but I am able to research it and get the correct answer. Almost every day there is something I have to research for a client and tests should be the same way. They should be testing your skills to find the correct answer and not just have you memorize it.
Accounting is a wide area and the exam tests that ENTIRE are, and that is the part that makes it tough. But most CPA's specialize in an area (Accounting Law, Tax/Booking/Consulting, Cost Accounting, etc.). I personally have never liked Cost Accounting and it would take some major studying for me to re-familiarize myself with that. Which is the reason why most people take the exam right out of college.
