Becker CPA Review + NINJA: How to Pass the CPA Exam in 5 Easy Steps
A step-by-step study plan for Becker CPA Review users who want an edge on exam day with NINJA CPA Review.
Becker® is a registered trademark of its owner. NINJA CPA Review is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Becker.
This page is for the CPA candidate who already has Becker and wants an edge on exam day.
You’re keeping your Becker lectures.
You’re keeping your Becker test bank.
NINJA CPA Review plugs in around them: a second test bank with fresh wording, condensed notes, audio for the car, and a final review that goes after your weakest topics first.
This is the NINJA Supplement Path, and it’s how most NINJA subscribers study.
Follow the five steps below for each section, and you’ll always know which tool to open, which test bank to use, and when to switch.
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Table of Contents
What Is the NINJA Supplement Path?
The NINJA Study Framework is a five-step cycle you run once for each CPA Exam section.
On the Supplement Path, Becker handles the teaching.
NINJA handles the practice, the reinforcement, and the final review.
Every letter in N.I.N.J.A. is a step:
Nail the Concepts (2.5 weeks)
Intense Notes (ongoing through Steps 1 and 3)
Non-Stop MCQ (2.5 weeks)
Just Rewrite Your Notes (1 week)
All Comes Together (1 week)
The big idea: learn first, test second.
Becker lectures and your notes come first.
Then, heavy question work starts in Step 3, when you actually know the material and every question teaches you something instead of just exposing what you haven’t covered yet.
Your Becker + NINJA Toolkit
Here’s what each study weapon does and where it shows up on the Supplement Path:
Becker CPA Review lectures are your main teacher in Step 1. Your Becker test bank covers Step 3 on a first attempt.
NINJA MCQ is your second test bank. It takes over for final review in Step 5, covers Step 3 on retakes, and gives you a second set of simulations.
NINJA Notes are condensed notes you read in your downtime from day one, and a backup set to rewrite in Step 4.
NINJA Audio turns your commute, workouts, and chores into study time through every step.
NINJA Sparring is your backup teacher. When a Becker lecture doesn’t click, join a live session and ask your question, or watch a replay on that topic.
NINJA Book is there if you’d rather read than watch, and as a reference when you need an extra example.
NINJA CRAM and NINJA Flashcards are your final review firepower in Step 5.
NINJA Study Planner puts dates on every step so you always know which week you’re in.
Becker + NINJA Study Plan Timeline (20 Hours a Week)
At 20 hours a week, one section takes about seven weeks from your first Becker lecture to exam day.
| Step | Time at 20 Hours a Week | Tools | Goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nail the Concepts | 2.5 weeks | Becker lectures (or NINJA Book), NINJA Sparring, NINJA Audio, NINJA Notes | See every topic once |
| Intense Notes | Runs alongside Steps 1 and 3 | A notebook and a pen | Build your own review material |
| Non-Stop MCQ | 2.5 weeks | Becker test bank or NINJA MCQ | Learn from every question |
| Just Rewrite Your Notes | 1 week | Your notes or NINJA Notes | Lock it into memory |
| All Comes Together | 1 week | NINJA MCQ, NINJA CRAM, NINJA Flashcards, NINJA Audio | Get weak topics into the mid-70s |
Twenty hours a week is the floor. Below that, you aren’t really studying; you’re dabbling.
One way to hit it with a full-time job:
- Two hours a night Monday through Thursday
- Take Friday off
- Six hours each on Saturday and Sunday
- NINJA Audio in the car counts as part of the 20
Your Becker lectures don’t care what day it is, and that flexibility is what makes this framework work.
Want Sunday off instead? Add an hour Monday through Thursday, study in the morning and at lunch on Friday, and take the rest of Friday off.
Don’t forget: NINJA Audio counts toward your 20, and so does a Becker lecture on your lunch break. Turn down time into study time.
Becker Test Bank or NINJA MCQ?
This is the question Becker users ask most.
The answer depends on where you are:
| Your Situation | Step 3: Non-Stop MCQ | Step 5: All Comes Together |
|---|---|---|
| First attempt | Becker test bank | NINJA MCQ |
| First attempt, but you’re memorizing questions | NINJA MCQ | NINJA MCQ |
| Retake | NINJA MCQ | NINJA MCQ |
| Simulations (any attempt) | Alternate Becker and NINJA | Alternate Becker and NINJA |
Why switch at all?
Because memorizing questions feels like progress.
Work any test bank enough times and you start recognizing questions instead of solving them. You click the right answer from memory, and your practice scores climb into the 90s. Then exam day hands you the same concept in different wording, and you score a 65 without knowing why.
Fresh questions from a second test bank show whether you understand the concept or just remember the question. That’s the job NINJA MCQ does on the Supplement Path.
A quick test: if you know the answer before you finish reading the question, you’re memorizing. Switch to NINJA MCQ.
5 Steps to Pass the CPA Exam with Becker + NINJA
Step 1. Nail the Concepts (2.5 Weeks)
In Step 1, your job is to watch your Becker lectures and get through every topic in the section once.
Not master it. Get through it.
Prefer to read? Use the NINJA Book instead of the lectures.
Give yourself two and a half weeks, then move on to Step 3, finished or not.
The deadline matters for three reasons:
- Nobody feels ready after the lectures. If you wait until you do, you never move on.
- Lectures expand to fill whatever time you give them. A hard stop keeps you moving.
- Step 3 is where the material starts to stick. Every question you work fills a gap the lectures left behind.
When a Becker lecture doesn’t click, don’t rewatch it three times. Join a live NINJA Sparring session and ask your question, or watch a replay on that topic, then keep going.
While you’re in Step 1, keep the background tools running:
Play NINJA Audio every time you drive. A one-hour round-trip commute is five hours a week toward your 20.
Read NINJA Notes during downtime at work or at lunch. It’s fine if the topic is brand new to you. By your third pass through the material, it starts clicking.
Step 2. Intense Notes
Intense Notes don’t get their own weeks. You take them the whole time you’re in Steps 1 and 3.
While you watch your Becker lectures, write notes by hand.
Focus on:
- Formulas and the steps to work them.
- Thresholds, deadlines, and lists.
- Rules and their exceptions.
- Anything you had to rewind.
First attempt or fifth retake, the rule doesn’t change. Take the notes.
Struggling to keep up while the lecture plays? Pause it. Or use the NINJA Notes as your base and add your own comments in the margins.
Step 3. Non-Stop MCQ (2.5 Weeks)
Now the question work starts.
Two and a half weeks at 20 hours a week is about 50 hours, or roughly 1,500 questions at two minutes each.
Use the test bank that fits your situation. First attempt with no memorizing problems? Stay in Becker. Retake, or you’re recognizing questions from memory? Go 100% NINJA MCQ.
Either way, keep your notebook open:
- Missed a question? Write down why: a concept gap, a misread, or a calculation slip.
- Guessed right? Count it as a miss and write it down anyway.
- Read every explanation, even on questions you got right. The wrong answer choices often test a related rule you’ll see on exam day.
Skip the Mock Exams
Most review courses include full-length practice exams, and NINJA MCQ has mock exams too. We recommend skipping them.
Here’s why:
The score doesn’t translate. The CPA Exam’s 75 is a scaled score, not 75% correct, so a mock score tells you very little about exam day.
The feedback comes too late. You don’t find out you missed question 12 until three or four hours after you answered it.
The time cost is huge. Those three to four hours could go to 20-question sets in your weakest topics, where you learn from every question as you go.
Put those hours into study mode instead. Better ROI.
Step 4. Just Rewrite Your Notes (1 Week)
Rewrite your notes by hand. All of them.
We know you took killer notes over your Becker lectures. Rewrite those.
If note-taking didn’t happen this round, rewrite the NINJA Notes instead.
Writing forces your brain to process the material again. A well-known 2014 study in Psychological Science found that students who took notes by hand understood concepts better than students who typed.
Make your rewrite shorter than the original. Cutting what you already know forces you to decide what you don’t, and that decision is its own form of review.
Yes, it’s tedious. Do you know what’s more tedious? Studying for this section again after a failed exam. Just do it.
Step 5. All Comes Together (1 Week)
Final week. If you used the Becker test bank in Step 3, this is where you switch to NINJA MCQ. If you already switched, stay there.
Build 20-question sets on one topic at a time, starting with the one that keeps you up at night. Work that topic until you’re scoring in the mid-70s, then move to your next weakest.
Don’t chase 90s. You have one week. Getting every weak topic to passable beats perfecting three and running out of time on the rest.
Say you’re taking FAR and bonds is your worst topic. Work bond sets until you hit the mid-70s, which might take three or four rounds. Then move to leases, then inventory, and so on down the list.
When a topic won’t budge:
- Watch the NINJA CRAM. The whole thing fits in a weekend, which makes the days right before your exam the perfect time for it.
- Hit it with a NINJA Sparring session and put that fear to rest.
- Read the topic in the NINJA Book, paying close attention to the examples.
- Drill NINJA Flashcards in the gaps between sets.
Between MCQ sessions, every spare minute goes to NINJA Notes and NINJA Audio. In the car, at the gym, while dinner’s in the oven.
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Exam Week and Exam Day
Schedule your exam for Monday at 1:00 p.m.
You get a full weekend of study with your exam date keeping you laser-focused, plus Monday morning for one last push.
Set aside part of that weekend for simulations, alternating between Becker and NINJA Simulations.
On exam morning, keep going. NINJA MCQ, NINJA Notes, and NINJA Audio on repeat, right up until you park at Prometric.
What if three extra minutes on some nuance of corporate taxation is the difference between a 74 and a 75?
Then walk through those Prometric doors confidently, put everything you know on the screen, and go home and sleep (for three days).
Once you’ve caught up, fire up the Spotify playlist you’ve been missing and sing with the windows down.
After that, all that’s left is checking the CPA Exam score release dates more often than you’d like to admit. 😀
Not Using Becker?
The NINJA Study Framework works with any CPA review course.
Use your course lectures in Steps 1 and 2, then add NINJA Notes, NINJA Audio, and NINJA MCQ on top.
Find the study plan for your course:
- Becker CPA Review + NINJA
- UWorld CPA Review + NINJA (including former Roger CPA Review students)
- NINJA Only (no other course)
Don’t see your course? The Supplement Path works the same way with any of them.
Compare the two NINJA subscriptions and choose the one that’s best for you.
To Your Success,
Founder, NINJA CPA Review
Becker + NINJA FAQ
Can I use NINJA CPA Review with Becker?
Yes, and it’s the most popular way to use NINJA. Keep your Becker lectures and test bank, then add NINJA Notes, NINJA Audio, and NINJA MCQ for practice, reinforcement, and final review. NINJA doesn’t use its own acronyms or a rigid sequence, so it fits around the course you already paid for.
Should I use the Becker test bank or NINJA MCQ?
On a first attempt, use the Becker test bank in Step 3 and switch to NINJA MCQ for final review in Step 5. On a retake, or if you’ve started memorizing your test bank questions, use NINJA MCQ for both. For simulations, alternate between the two.
How do I know if I’m memorizing my test bank?
If you know the answer before you finish reading the question, or your practice scores are in the 90s but you can’t explain why the wrong answers are wrong, you’re memorizing. Switch to NINJA MCQ so fresh wording tests what you actually understand.
Do I still watch Becker lectures if I have NINJA?
Yes. On the Supplement Path, Becker lectures are your main source for Step 1. Use NINJA Sparring when a lecture doesn’t click, or the NINJA Book if you’d rather read than watch.
How long does the Becker + NINJA study plan take per section?
About seven weeks at 20 hours a week: two and a half weeks of lectures, two and a half weeks of Non-Stop MCQ, one week rewriting notes, and one week of final review. Note-taking runs alongside the lectures and question work.
Should I take full-length practice exams with Becker?
We recommend skipping full-length mock exams in any course. A practice exam score doesn’t translate to the CPA Exam’s scaled 75, the feedback comes hours late, and each one costs three to four hours. Instead, spend that time drilling your weakest topics.
How should I practice simulations with Becker and NINJA?
Alternate between Becker simulations and NINJA Simulations, whether it’s your first attempt or a retake. Seeing two sets of simulation wording makes the real ones less of a surprise on exam day.
What if I’m retaking a section with Becker?
Run all five steps again, notes included. Use NINJA MCQ for both Step 3 and Step 5, and start your final review with the weakest content areas from your score report.
How much does NINJA cost as a Becker supplement?
The NINJA supplement subscription is $67 per month, and there’s a free trial so you can try NINJA alongside Becker first. If your Becker access runs out and you want NINJA as your full course, the Course subscription is $87 per month.
Is NINJA CPA Review affiliated with Becker?
No. NINJA CPA Review is independent and isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by Becker. This page explains how candidates use the two together.