NJSCPA Exam Cram Blog

Ed's Exam Strategy 1 ....a bite at a time.

Hello Future CPAs,

I was at the NJSCPA scholarship ceremony last Thursday, and I must confess the CPA title is very sweet and honorable to have. I also had the pleasure of meeting my fellow blogger (Wendy), who gave a very inspiring speech that night.

Ok, back to business. My strategy has not been proven yet, as I have not seen my scores, but it worked for me in college, and enabled me to graduate with honors....I use Becker as my own review resource, and since I have a hectic schedule the online option is the best for me.

1. Try to set short to long term goals

I study one chapter in three days, and since Becker breaks them up into lectures, I listen to 1-2 lectures a day, and do the homework associated with it.  This is minimal, but trust me if you have a lot of time on your hands you can do more. The more you do the less effective you get. What do I mean? Small chunks or bites are easier to digest, and for the sake of the CPA Exam, easier to understand. Keep to your schedule (that is I why I have a minimum of 3 days). You can increase your time depending on your work schedule. Over time you will hit your long term goal, and understand the material effectively.

2.  Understand the exam question format

The style of questioning is a little different from college style questions. A friend once told me that the CPA exam river is very shallow, but very long. The questions are not hard, but tricky. Most people would pass if they had a lot of time. Practice questions help you get familiar with the style of questioning. Sometimes they give you too much information to confuse you.

3.  Time Management

I cannot stress this point hard enough. I had 4 hours for the FARE exam, and finished 3 minutes to the end. Trust me, time will fly when taking the exam. My strategy was to do each testlet in 45 minutes. I used the first 10-15 minutes to run through the testlet, and answer questions that were either easy or had no calculations. If I thought about it for more than a minute, I skipped it for later. After that, I used the remaining 30 minutes to solve those questions, and if at the end I still had questions, I just made an educated guess and moved on.

Finally, it's not how many times you failed the exam that counts, but passing it at the end. For those in my shoes that have family commitments....trust me I understand.. its hard, but giving up is worse. I was not 100% prepared for my first exam -- my 8 month old daughter was in the hospital for surgery at that time -- but I gave the exam my best shot. Now that's what really counts.

It's 80 degrees out there today, and I am blogging and studying...hey, there are many more summers to come.

Cheers everyone...

Ed...

Checking - In

Hello All,

Busy season has come and gone, and I am still working at my same client site, with similar hours that I have had since beginning this post.  Finding time to study is still difficult (as most of you may already know.)  Since I commute to work through the train, I have found time to study on the train.  Although this is not ideal, the Audit section is a little bit easier to focus on in a crowded train.  I have been able to work through part of the first chapter, but it is definitely taking me longer than I thought (which in the end may be a good thing, as I find myself going back the basic types of reports, and seemingly learning from the repetition.)

As of now, I have re-registered for Audit and Regulation, and have paid the fee.  I am waiting for my NTS, and I'm planning on taking the exam either towards the end of May and in July or both in July and August.  The biggest obstacle for taking the exam in May (other than not having an NTS) is the start of baseball season.  I have planned a couple of trips (including Baltimore this weekend) early in April and May, so that I can spend my summer studying for the final sections.

As always, please feel free to contact me. Over the course of the year, I've had periods where I had the time to dedicate to studying while also going through working and trying to study.  Hopefully, my experiences will provide some insight.

Take care and regards,

Kunal

Introducing "Ed"

Hello Everyone,

My name is Edward Adiele, my friends call me "Ed." I graduated from William Paterson University last December, and I am currently taking the CPA exam. I am married, and have a son and daughter both under the age of two (my son is 21 months, while my daughter is 8 months). My social life has been on layaway for quite some time now, but I am happy to tell you that it's for a good reason.

When you look at the names of the people who have their pictures with me, they all have a place of work.....oh well it's ok, I accepted an offer from Deloitte, and will be starting with the firm this fall. I currently work for St. Joseph Health Care System, as a micro-computer specialist...how is this related to Accounting? Don't worry I'll tell you at a later time.

I have been following this blog from when it started, and I have to specially congratulate Scott Sandford CPA, Priscilla Jenkins CPA, Wendy Penman CPA, and Kunal Mistry CPA...Lets play the CPA recognition game. Out of the four great scholars mentioned, Scott and Priscilla have earned their title, and can keep it since they both have passed all 4 parts. Wendy, Kunal and Ed are CPAs since we have all the educational requirements to become a CPA, but the title (CPA) is still unearned until we pass all four parts.

So you out there are CPAs, but we just have to punch the exams out, so we can keep our titles. I have taken FARE, and will take AUDIT on the 15th of May 2009, REG on July 2nd, and BEC on August 3rd. Next week I'll post my exam strategy.

Cheers everyone....and good luck studying

Ed.

This is what ive been missing!?!

So this past weekend was the first weekend I've been able to enjoy since I finished my exams and I have one thing to say.  If I knew how relaxing things could be AFTER the exam and how I can actually enjoy weekends again I would have given up all social life I had to study and get the exams done faster.  Or that would have been my attempt MORE than it was already. 

BUUUUUT as much as I'm enjoying my newfound freedom there is still this little 'whatif' nagging me in the back of my head. What if I'm not really done. What if I didn't really pass and I need to give up my June to try it again.  It takes some of the enjoyment of this time out. I can't wait to find out. Hopefully this time they don't take multiple months to release my score.  Come mid-May I'm going to have a really really really hard time controlling myself from looking for my score every 2 seconds.  I don't know if I'll be able to handle the stress of not knowing when they're putting up the scores.

BUUUUT Until then, there's nothing I can do. I know that the scores wont be posted for another few weeks so I might as well enjoy this freedom while I can. 

For those of you studying- focus on the end line. Not having studying or homework in the back of head. It'll come, you'll get there.

I'm FREEEEE

So here we are. All my exams are done. Now all I can do is sit and wait anxiously for my final score. People keep asking me when I'm going to know if I'm really done and its hard to say that it could be up to two months before I find out my score. Leaves me with wondering if I should be flipping through the flashcards just in case I have to retake it at the very beginning of July. But lets be honest, how many of you would really want to sit there and study something 'Just in case' you failed?? 

So for the exam, I came out of it feeling alright. The simulations were easy for me since the one was actually the same topic that I had a simulation on the first time I took the exam and I studied that part more this time. The second one I had a practice simulation on during one of my practice final exams. The questions were hard, but I felt ok about them. Of course however I had felt ok during a lot of my practice exams and wound up doing really poorly on them. So I'm totally freaked out about having to retake this section again. My family and friends all really really want me to be DONE so that I can have a normal social life again and not have my life revolve around studying. Lets keep our fingers crossed. 

Otherwise I'm doing what I can to enjoy my extra free time. Haven't had much of a chance since the quarter just ended so I'm really busy with work. 

Have a great week everyone and happy studying!!

Checking In...

Hi All,

Its been a while since I've posted here, and I have several pieces of bad news on my part.  First, I've underestimated once again how busy I would be,  So there is very little to update as to my study status.  I'm ultimately waiting for a better idea from my client situation before I start studying.  To further complicate things, family events and other events all seem to occur right around this time for me.  Looks like studying will have to wait until after my cousin's Sweet Sixteen, and Opening week in baseball. 

Secondly, I finally received my score for Audit, and I received confirmation that I did not pass.  I can't say that I'm entirely shocked. I knew that I didn't put in as much time as I wanted to.  The goal going forward is to schedule around busy season.

Good luck with studying, and hopefully busy season is wound down by the next post.

Warm Regards,

Kunal

Two more days...

Well here we are, two days of studying left and counting.  Super nervous about Monday because even though I took most of last week off to study, I still feel like there are so many things that i need to look over and make sure I remember.  So I'm going to keep this one short since I need all the studying time I can get. 

Thank goodness I'm not dealing with tax clients right now and the impending April 15th deadline. To any of you who are trying to study for an exam AND deal with that good luck. 

I've been asked this question recently by a couple of coworkers trying to schedule exams and decide how much time is needed.  If you're taking an exam in early April, and one in early July should you try to squeeze one in between in late May? I guess it depends on the exams you're taking, but in my experience, if you're working full time, squeezing an exam in and giving yourself only a month to study for a section isn't nearly enough time. Thoughts?

Good luck studying!!! I'll post again when I have a moment to breathe after this exam.