NJSCPA Exam Cram Blog

Study-Fest Weekend

Well first...thanks guys for all of your comments (and support). It really does help to know I'm not going through this alone! Some of the people I talk to (who have never taken it, or any other certification exam for that matter) look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them about all the hours studying. It's even harder for them to understand making the choice to skip all the fun pre-summer events "just" to study...

I named this post Study-Fest because I think there must of been at least 20 different "fests," of one type or another, going on in the tri-state area this weekend. My friends were scattered about at many of them, and I was sitting here studying. I'd really been wanting to go to BayFest this weekend in South Jersey - according to Facebook, a whooping 24 of my friends attended. I had purposely scheduled my original exam the weekend BEFORE BayFest...but when I had to reschedule last week, that plan went down the drain. So here I am.

My other two exams are conveniently scheduled the week BEFORE Memorial Day weekend and the week BEFORE Fourth of July weekend. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all goes as planned, because I think I'll cry if I have to hear about another awesome weekend from my friends that I missed out on. :-(

On a happier note, tomorrow is Regulation!! I'm oddly excited. I feel good about the material at this point (scoring between 78-85 on the practice exams) and it will feel really good to simply get it over with no matter how I do. The anticipation for those few hours spent at Prometric - after all the fun and friends and hours sacrificed to studying - is intense.

P.S. Even my dog, Burton is mad at me for neglecting him...he left a smelly little present, right before my eyes, while I was glued to the laptop studying. Both the smell and his prompt, excited frolic alerted me to situation...(so you don't think I'm cruel - I had taken him outside less than 2 hours before it happened!)

Probably not the post you're waiting for...

I'm sure everyone's anxious to hear how REG went, right? Well, no news for you. I postponed it :-( although, it wasn't because I felt unprepared.

Remember how I was saying that work was getting ridiculously busy? Well, last week it got even busier. On Wednesday of last week I had both a Fieldwork Completion Mtg (end of a big audit) and a Planning Mtg (beginning of a big audit) on my calendar. But, outside of my control, they both got postponed to Friday (the day I was supposed to take off to study). I debated what to do for a while - I could miss the meetings, or call-in to them, but it wasn't the best idea. They're both great "face-time" with our department's director and a real chance to show if we know what we're talking about. I play a decent role in both the audits too, so my in-person input was appreciated (at least i think so!).

I talked to people, and after getting a few other opinions, I decided to reschedule the exam to this upcoming Monday (on 04/28, instead of today). Rescheduling gave me a chance to prepare and present my best in the meetings, and get an extra weekend to study. If I could of, I would of only moved the exam out a day or two...but being it was so last minute, a week was the next available appointment (and at a different testing center).

So, it'll be another long week of studying until I see how hard this exam really is...I know I'm anxious to just get it over with now. Have any of you had work totally conflict with your studying or exams?

...can't...get...motivated.

A week to go until my second exam and my studying for this one has been sub-par. I'm starting to worry. Much more so than I did for the first. I had studied about twice as much at this point in the game last time...

Work's been crazy too, so that hasn't helped. Totally engaging stuff which is honestly difficult to break away from - I feel like I've learned an incredible amount of stuff in the past few weeks. I've been putting in some time logged on during the evenings too (trying not to make a habit of it), which has stolen precious study time as well. I took a vacation day on Friday to crack down and study (the exam is Monday). Is it possible to study for an entire exam in a 3-day weekend? I guess we'll soon find out.

(It's not really that bad, but it's border line...let's say this coming 3-day weekend plus maybe 15 study sessions of 1 - 4 hours before this week, and then add in 3 short study sessions this week. I'll guess I'll find out if it's enough...)