NJSCPA Exam Cram Blog

Post Exam Update

Hi all,

I hope that everyone is doing well.  I have just made it through my first testing period after taking the Audit exam last Friday.  After I was finished with the exam, it finally felt good to be able to take a break.  I've been studying and trying to work since September, so it was nice to take a break.  If I had to do it again, I would definately not schedule more than 2 tests in one testing window.  When I started in September, the goal was to take all four. I learned the test is passable on the first time if you don't rush yourself and study properly.

Going into the exam, I felt what everyone else probably feels: I didn't study enough. I won't worry about the scores until they come out (which is easier said than done.)  I did learn a couple of things that may help during the Audit exam.  The biggest advice I have is the make sure you leave enough time for the simulations.  There is a lot of material, but if you leave yourself enough time, you can work through the issues.

I plan to send in the application this weekend for my regulation exam.  I am hoping to take it after busy season around May.  In the meanwhile, I plan to go over the Becker lectures one week at a time.  I will make sure that I can schedule this part so that I can properly review the lectures and do all the questions.

Take care, and good luck studying.

Kunal

Busy busy busy season

So, work has been keeping me busy, as well as others I'm sure.  I've enjoyed my last two weeks of CPA freedom however class starts on Saturday to review for Financial and I am not at all looking forward to it. I knew busy season was going to be hard and whatnot but I guess you don't realize how hard until you're actually in it.  The thought of losing Saturday's to CPA class and then Sunday's to the homework for the class is not going to be fun. At least it's only a month!  Now back to work.  Hope everyone is surviving their busy seasons! If you're not in busy season right now then you're lucky! Enjoy your freedom for me!

Busy season and studying

I know many of us have just entered that wonderful time of year. Busy season, full of long days, longer nights and weekends at the office or client. Or at least thats how it is for the people I work with (thankfully it hasn't gotten THAT bad yet for me).  Are there any brave souls out there who are trying to study for an upcoming exam in the midst of all the year-end work?  I'm sure that others would LOVE to hear any tips you may have for balancing it all out. I know one of my coworkers sits in the library for about 8 hours on Saturday with her book to make up for not really studying during the week to study for her late February exam.

At the moment I'm enjoying my 'free' time and by free I mean couple of weeks of not studying time as much as I can.  I decided I need that break until my CPA class starts next weekend.  After which I have a strong feeling I will not be enjoying my life much, long weeks at work and then full Saturday's of CPA class learning financial!?! If you have tips on surviving that other than injecting straight caffeine into your veins please let me know. 

Hope everyone is surviving busy season and if you're taking any exams- GOOD LUCK! :) 

-Wendy

Another day, another exam

So I've been a bit negligent with my blog. Sorry!! I've been busy studying for audit again. Took it today. And I'm really hoping that the saying 'the worse you feel afterwards the more likely you passed because although I studied a lot and I only failed it by one point less than 2 months ago, I felt pretty miserable during the exam. All we can do is wait and see now.

Hard to find the motivation to really study when you took the exam so recently. I figured, how much could I have REALLLLLY lost in a month? Now I'm starting to think I lost more than I expected.

Not much else to say at the moment other than the fact that I am super happy to have that one done for the moment and take a couple weeks off before I start my FAR review course at the end of the month. And by 'having a few weeks off' i really mean, time to enjoy my first real busy season. Starts tomorrow with me waking up and heading straight to a client. Lets see how this goes!

Good luck to anyone who's studying for an exam especially at this busy time of the accounting season!!

Happy New Years!

Hi all,

Happy New Years!

I hope everyone had a festive holiday season.  I also hope that everyone was able to get their studying in, but also found time to take a break and enjoy.

I actually ended up canceling my Regulation exam.  When I originally signed up for the exam, I thought that I could take all four parts before I got really busy at work. (I would never recommend scheduling all four so close together unless you know you will have time to study.  It's much better to dedicate the time and pass each section rather than try to rush and get all four finished)

Because I canceled my Regulation exam, I found more time to study for Audit.  At this point, I have gone through three lectures in the Becker book, and have taken note of all the items we need to memorize, and some of the important lists.  This is the section that will probably be the hardest for me.  There don't seem to be formulas and calculations, so memorizing and applying formulas won't help me.  My goal is to memorize the ideas emphasized in the Becker book, and try to understand the transactions cycles as best as possible.  If you have a better approach, please let me know.

I'm flying to my National Training today, so I hope that on the plane, I can get through one more lecture.  With the test on the 23rd, I want to leave one more lecture and nothing but review questions for my last weekend before the test. 

I hope to have started the fifth lecture before next weekend, as studying will be really hard if the Eagles win today.  As much as I try, it is hard to keep three hours of sports out of my schedule for studying.  Fortunately, I had this experience during the Phillies playoff run, and the games served as a break to help material sink in.  I hope that the results are the same this time (both gaining an understanding of the material, and the Eagles winning).

Let me know how studying is going for everyone out there.

- Kunal

HAPPY NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I hope everyone had safe, healthy, and FUN holidays!! Finally was able to reschedule audit for January 12th. Holidays are never really helpful for me to study, but I'm trying my hardest to find the time and motivation to really put a lot of energy into remembering everything I knew just before Thanksgiving and strengthen the items that I was apparently weak in when I took my exam. Key word being TRY.  Hopefully this exam goes better than last time and I don't miss it by one point (or by more than one point).

At the suggestion of someone I work with I've signed up for the financial Becker class in February. I hear some people swear by the live classes, so hopefully it's worth the money and actually helps me pass that exam. I'm curious what some of the readers of the blogs think about the different forms of review classes. Let me know what you prefer- online, cd, live classes.  I've done the online classes before and find it really hard to focus on the lectures sitting on my bed after a full day of work.  Who knows if spending 8 hours of my life on a Saturday will be much better.  I scheduled that for April and then hopefully, hopefully hopefully, I will FINALLY be done with these exams!!

For those lucky souls who have been off  work since before Christmas- enjoy your last few days of relaxation!