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Wiley CIAexcel 2023: Latest Pros & Cons & Big Wiley CIA Discounts
Wiley CIA Review (Wiley CIAexcel) is one of the most popular review courses for the Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) exam.
However, at this time, Wiley doesn’t have a course with videos, audio lectures, or individualized coaching/support. So, if you feel like you can’t pass the CIA exam without these features, then you may want to check out Gleim CIA Review. On the other hand, if you are a very knowledgeable exam candidate or are simply looking for a course supplement, then Wiley CIA Review may be perfect for you. To help you decide, let’s see what this course is all about!
Disclosure: The I Pass Team may earn a small amount of compensation (at no cost to you) if you purchase CIA review courses from our links.
Contents of the Wiley CIA Review Course
Wiley CIAexcel has several options for sale, but most candidates opt for the full package of supplements. Again, none of Wiley’s CIA courses include CIA video lectures, access until you pass, or help from experts. Therefore, Wiley CIAexcel is not a comprehensive course option and is likely only best for candidates supplementing another course.
1. Wiley CIAexcel Review Books
Wiley CIA Excel has 3 books, one for each part of the CIA exam:
- 1: Essentials of Internal Auditing
- 2: Practice of Internal Auditing
- 3: Business Knowledge for Internal Auditing
Each book begins with an introductory chapter covering the CIA exam format and basic study tips. The subsequent chapters cover the domains in accordance with the CIA exam content specifications (i.e., the IIA syllabus).
The CIA exam itself is primarily theoretical. In Parts 1 and 2 in particular, the exam rarely presents computational questions. Therefore, the books for these parts are mostly full of text. However, Wiley tries to make things easier by using as much as possible subheadings, bullet points, and highlight boxes. Additionally, the end of each chapter contains a handful of sample questions for your review.
Wiley ships the CIA study guides to you as part of your purchase, but you can also elect to receive the e-book instead.
Most CIA candidates begin their studies by reviewing the study guides first, as they contain foundational content. And depending on your learning style, you may benefit from understanding the concepts before attempting the multiple-choice questions.
2. Wiley CIAexcel Test Bank
The Wiley test bank is only available online. However, the other course components are all physical products Wiley ships to you (unless you choose the e-book option).
In their test bank, Wiley CIA includes more than 6,800 multiple-choice questions, all of which Wiley has arranged to emulate the real CIA exam. Wiley’s test bank does its best to mimic the Pearson Vue testing environment, so it lets you get familiar with exam experience in advance. And CPA candidates may already be familiar with the Wiley CIA test bank interface because it runs on the same platform as the Wiley CPA Test Bank.
Using the Wiley Test Bank
As you answer questions within the test bank to quiz your knowledge, you can also flag questions you aren’t sure about. Flagging questions allows you to identify your weak areas and return to them throughout your review. Furthermore, you can also track your performance with charts and statistics. You can use the test bank to take unlimited practice exams to increase your comfort with the exam and ensure you’re effectively learning the content.
You can take notes on any of the questions within the test bank. For instance, if you are unsure how to remember the turnover ratios, you could add a note to the question. And this note might simply say, “Take what the question is asking you for and turn it over,” to jog your memory.
You can set up your quizzes in any way that you like. To most accurately replicate the CIA exam testing conditions, you should turn the answer explanations off. Going into test mode like this forces you to focus on choosing the best possible answer for all the questions and doesn’t give you access to the answers until the quiz is complete.
When the answer explanations are on, you get immediate feedback on each question that you answer.
The course provides you with a summary like this once you finish your quiz. At this point, you can see all your metrics and review the questions and answers in-depth.
Number of Questions in the Wiley CIA Test Bank
While the complete Wiley CIAexcel course test bank contains 6,800 questions, you’ll find most of those questions in CIA Part 3. But, more specifically, the practice multiple-choice questions, answers, and explanations break down like this:
- Wiley CIA Part 1: 750+
- Wiley CIA Part 2: 1,500+
- Wiley CIA Part 3: 4,500+
Part 3 holds more practice questions because Parts 1 and 2 are more theoretical. In contrast, Part 3 requires more computation, so Wiley adds more practice questions to give you additional exposure to quantitative topics.
3. Wiley CIA Focus Notes
Wiley has designed their focus notes to supplement review materials from Wiley or other providers. The focus notes aren’t as high-level as flashcards, so each individual card with the Focus Notes deck contains quite a bit of information. Therefore, these cards will help you remember important mnemonics and checklists and are extremely helpful for the final review stage. You can also use these cards to study on the go or to drill yourself quickly in order to improve your retention.
Also, Wiley offers 3 spiral-bound decks of CIA Focus Notes in total, 1 for each exam. And while Wiley ships these decks to you, you can also elect to receive them as an e-book instead.
Reasons to Consider Wiley CIA Prep 2023
1. Wiley CIA Is a Strong Brand
Wiley proudly has one of the most established and reputable brand names in the accounting and finance exam prep industry. The Wiley CPAexcel course is a popular choice for studying for the CPA Exam. Also, the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), the administrator of the CMA exam, officially endorses the Wiley CMA review book. Finally, the Wiley CFA review course is highly recognized and best-selling for CFA candidates.
Wiley CIA Review, also called Wiley Efficient Learning CIA, is under the same organizational umbrella as the courses above. And while Wiley CIAexcel isn’t quite as popular as its accounting certification exam counterparts, the course is steadily growing. We believe candidate reception of Wiley’s CIA course would increase if Wiley added video lectures, access until you pass, and help from experts to the course. However, as Wiley hasn’t released these features yet, we prefer Gleim CIA Review over Wiley CIA.
2. Some CIA Candidates Find Wiley CIA Easier to Read Than Gleim
A noticeable number of readers have told me they actually prefer Wiley’s CIA books to Gleim’s. They’ve said they feel this way because Gleim uses an outline format for its books (which seems polarizing), whereas Wiley uses standard textbook formatting. Consequently, because the format of the Wiley books is simple and the reading level seems a bit lower, we can agree that gleaning the important information from Wiley books is easier than doing so with the Gleim books.
3. You Might Be Able to Enjoy Big Wiley CIA Discounts
As a way to grow its CIA presence, Wiley offers big discounts to CIA candidates from time to time. But if one isn’t available, you can still find discounts for another comprehensive CIA review course.
Things Wiley Doesn’t Want You to Know About Wiley CIA Review
Each review provider has things about their course that they don’t want candidates to focus on. But, to ensure you have all the facts, I’ll share why you may want to consider another course.
1. Wiley CIA 2023 Isn’t a Comprehensive Review Course
Wiley CIA is just a test bank and study guide for all intents and purposes. It’s not a full course, as I’ve indicated several times. So, if you’re wondering why a comprehensive course is so important to have a comprehensive course, consider these benefits:
- A comprehensive course teaches you the concepts you need to know to learn the material.
- Such a course comes with access until you pass, which is essential for the exam undergoing major IIA changes (like it did on January 1, 2019). Candidates with a full course don’t have to worry about exam changes because they get free updates, and their access doesn’t expire.
- A complete course also includes help from exam and accounting experts. So, whenever you have a question about the exam content or the exam process, you don’t have to figure out the answer independently. Instead, you can use your course’s support resources, saving you precious study time and ensuring you get the right information.
- Finally, a full course will develop a specialized study plan for you. You need a study plan that tells you how many days, nights, and weekends to devote to your review, and thankfully, your course study planner will figure this plan out for you!
2. The Answer Explanations Aren’t Top-Notch
While many of the answer choices in the Wiley CIA test bank have explanations, these explanations are usually only a sentence or two. And sometimes, the Wiley CIA test bank only provides an explanation for the correct answer choice. But at still other times, the test bank doesn’t give you any explanation at all! So, if you learn best from practicing questions and reviewing the explanations, Wiley’s course may really disappoint you.
3. Memorizing the Answers to the Questions Is Incredibly Easy
The #1 reason candidates fail the CIA exam (apart from using outdated or inferior materials) is that they memorize the practice questions and answers. Consequently, these candidates take the CIA exam expecting to see the questions they saw in the test bank. However, the CIA exam doesn’t work this way. You can’t predict which questions you’ll see, and you have very little chance of seeing any of the questions you saw in your test bank. And rather than requiring you to rely on memorization, the CIA exam makes you apply your knowledge. Therefore, the exam serves very specific questions you can’t answer simply by regurgitating a pat response.
So, how does this information have to do with Wiley’s test bank? Well, in going through the course, I took several quizzes. And I found that when I saw a question for the second or third time, the answer choices were in the exact same spot. I saw the same question with the same setup so often that I could read the question and remember the correct answer was C without having to read the answer choices. Consequently, this test bank was encouraging me to memorize the questions rather than the concepts, which isn’t helpful for passing the CIA exam.
Gleim CIA vs. Wiley CIA
My comparison of these two courses is lengthy. Therefore, you should check out my dedicated article to see who wins Gleim CIA vs. Wiley CIA matches.
My Conclusions About Wiley CIA
Having finished my assessment of Wiley CIA, I recommend this course as a supplement to a stellar review course like Gleim CIA. Wiley’s course is a great source of additional practice questions, and we do like the textbook layout. Also, the CIA Focus Notes are helpful for your final review and are unlike anything else on the market.
But, if you only have the funds to purchase 1 review course, we do not recommend using Wiley as your one-and-only CIA exam preparation resource. Unfortunately, this course is missing too many CIA review course must-haves. So, while we would love to give the Wiley course a 5-star rating, we must hold off until Wiley adds more critical learning tools.
Your Thoughts on Wiley CIA Exam Review (CIAexcel)
Please leave a comment on this post to let us know what you think about Wiley CIAexcel!
About the Author Stephanie
I am the author of How to Pass The CPA Exam (published by Wiley) and the publisher of this and several accounting professional exam prep sites.
