NJSCPA Exam Cram Blog

Farewell, NJSCPA Exam Cram Blog

Hello, fellow NJSCPA Exam Cram Followers:

To start off, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of the bloggers who have joined within the past few months! It's a long journey to becoming a CPA, and it's great to have support or at least an outlet for our rants and triumphs. Speaking of which, I have a multitude of successes, and a few struggles, to share with you since my last post. Please forgive me for the time lag.

In December I shared that I passed all 4 parts of the exam - so, you might think that life just got a lot easier, right? Well, in one respect, a huge burden was lifted, however; life-events coupled with work (i.e. busy season) replaced any relief that I was feeling. I unexpectedly found myself in the midst of purchasing a house! I wasn't actively searching for a house, but an opportunity arose that I couldn't let pass by. I was surprisingly approved for a mortgage and I closed on the house on January 17, 2012.

Wanting to enjoy every part of being a new home-owner was met with an equally opposing force: busy season. Going into my first busy season, I had some preconceived idea of the hours that I would be working and the deadlines that would be set, but never did I envision working 80+ hours per week with barely any time for friends, family or even sleep. Luckily, I can equate my busy season to a sprint, rather than a marathon. Although I faced some long hours, and weekend work, it was only for 4 weeks, as my client pushed to file their 10K in mid-February. To the PwC engagement team, this meant a week of r&r was to follow; and trust me, it was absolutely necessary!

Looking back on my experiences during busy season, I can whole-heartily say that I learned a tremendous amount; more than I ever thought possible. I learned the importance of teamwork, effective communication, and most importantly work-life balance. I was exposed to a number of audit areas and many different people. I am fully convinced that busy season has taught me more than any college course or CPA exam ever could; HOWEVER, having a strong foundation and background knowledge immensely helped me excel in the work that I performed.

Before I say my final goodbye, I would like to leave a few words of advice to those in the midst of studying or launching a career in accounting:

1. Make the most out of every opportunity you are given; whether it be placing dinner order for the team or tying out the 10K; every experience has the potential to be a learning experience. The relationships you establish throughout your career, even in your first year, will be a critical factor in your succession through work and through life.
2. As challenging as the CPA is, remember that it is vital in establishing a strong accounting background. It will set you apart from your peers and open many doors. Spend every free minute embracing your review material and set the exam as a high priority. It is easier to complete the exam early in your career, even if it means forgoing a weekend with friends in Atlantic City.
3. Find what studying routine works best for you and stick to it. I studied best in the morning, so I would force myself to wake up 2 or 3 hours before work and study. I also learned that I needed to listen to the Becker lecture first, read the chapter on my own second, and practice with the multiple choice questions last. I also learned that the simulations did not help me in preparing for the exam, so instead of wasting time working through them, I would re-read the chapter or re-work the multiple choice questions. 
4. Remember to keep your head up and if you don't succeed at first, try, try again. I know that this may sound silly, but it is the truth; especially for this exam.

With that said, I would like to say farewell to the NJSCPA Exam Cram Blog, good luck to those of you still on the CPA exam path, congratulations to those of you who have accomplished your goals, and thank you for allowing me to be a blogger for the past 8 months. This is a rather bitter-sweet feeling.

Ciao!

"Nothing worth gaining was ever gained without effort." -Theodore Roosevelt

And you are sitting for the CPA exam - exactly why???

Because firms are still hiring.  See the good news below.

 

http://www.fins.com/Finance/Articles/SBB0001424052970204301404577171413207752408/Accounting-Firms-Are-Hiring

Career Wisdom in 6 Words

When Smith magazine and consulting firm Mercer posed the question last year, "sum up in six words what you've learned so far about how to succeed in business", they received thousands of entries (see link below.)  This started me thinking (and that isn't always a good thing), about how individuals, who have passed some parts of the exam, could sum up in six words what they have learned so far.  Thoughts??

 

 http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/09/career-wisdom-in-just-6-words/?iid=SF_F_River

One down, three to go.

January is over!!!!  Which means we have two and a half more months to go until the end of my first tax season.

I must say, tax season has brought my studying to almost a full stop.  What is everyone doing to keep up with their studies!?  It has really become tough to study, work and keep a some-what healthy lifestyle.

Has anyone read January’s Accounting Today article titled, What's Up With Your Docs?  It talks about working in a paperless environment.  I lead the way to a paperless work place at my last employer.  It caught on rather quickly.  We kept a shared drive with the typical directory tree structure.  The firm I am with now, went paperless a year before my arrival.  We utilize CCH Document in addition to the shared drive storage.  I find Document to be very unreliable.  After months of pushing Document, I have went back to the shared drive.  It is dependable.  A few times I have searched for a PDF that was uploaded (or scanned) into Document, and came up empty.  (and I know, for a fact, it was sent to Document)

I've tried to go paperless at home a few years ago.  A few months into it, my hard drive crashed before I was able to implement a back up schedule, resulting with me reverting back to the old fashion way of keep personal records.  To be honest, I have thought about cutting back on the amount of papers I keep.  I have always kept receipts for all credit card purchases and every paycheck stub.  But I find it tough to answer the question WHY?!  Most of the information, if needed, can be downloaded from the internet. 

Is your office paperless?  How do you keep your personal finances?

MRD

You asked for it and now you have it -- a faster turnaround for exam scores

The AICPA just announced the new Q1 and Q2 2012 exam scores reporting timeline. 

If you sat for the exam anytime from Day 1 through Day 20 of the first quarter testing window, your scores will be released 11 business days following day 20 of the testing window -- February 6.  If you sat in days 21-45 of the testing window, your scores will be released 6 business days following day 45 of the testing window - February 22.  

For the complete timeline visit

http://blog.aicpa.org/2012/01/2012-cpa-exam-score-release-timetable-q1q2.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AicpaInsights+%28AICPA+Insights%29

My First Post

Hi everyone! My name is Alyssa and I'm excited to be the newest contributor to the Exam Cram Blog. A little background about myself: I just graduated from Richard Stockton College in August and joined WeiserMazars' NJ office in September. Believe it or not, I landed my job through networking at the NJSCPA Scholar's Institute. So, those of you who are debating applying for a scholarship or SI, get to it the deadline is coming up!!

Study wise I am currently dragging my way through Becker's BEC review (self-study). I am on lesson 1 =/ I find it always takes me about a week to get through that first lesson and then the rest go by much quicker. The information in BEC is also very different from the other parts. While studying for REG, I vaguely recalled almost everything from one college course or another. This is not true (atleast for me) of BEC. I'm finding that the content consists of many, many definitions and mnuemonics I am being told to memorize (oh the fun).

In more exciting news, I found out last Thursday that I passed REG with a 91! REG was my first exam. Needless to say, I left the testing center feeling queasy. While I didn't think I completely bombed the exam, I had this awful feeling I would be right on the verge of passing and be stricken with a 73 or 74. Luckily, as I have heard from many test takers and now believe myself, there is no way to rely on a gut feeling about the exam, you just never know until you receive the score report.

With the holidays coming up, I am beginning to plan so I can relax AND prepare for my January 6th BEC exam. It's going to be a little hectic, but totally worth it to still make that ugly sweater party this weekend! I hope everyone is doing the same. Make a detailed study plan so you can have your cake and eat it, too!

Cheers!
Alyssa

More scores being released today.

Today, 7853 AUD, 4593 BEC, 7345 FAR and 8472 REG scores were released by the AICPA to NASBA from the October / November 2011 testing window.  This could mean early holiday presents for some of you.

Start checking for the scores.....

Today, 4845 AUD, 2617 BEC, 4123 FAR and 4388 REG scores were released by the AICPA to NASBA from the October / November 2011 testing window.

I hope it will be a Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

Studying while working

Studying while working is not as easy as I thought it was going to be. Sometimes work weeks are inflexible, deadlines need to be met and it seems like you will never have time to actually get some studying in.  I have been trying to get up early around 5am and study for 2 hours and then go to work. Then after I get out I try to go to the gym, eat dinner and try to get in another 2 to 3 hours in before I call it a night. 

By the end of the day I am exhausted and am normally not as efficient (or awake) it is still 3 more hours of studying a day. If you break it down that’s 25 hours during the work week and a 100 hours a month. Then if you add in 10-12 hour study days on the week end you can easily cram in 180-190 hours of studying a month.

If you are a person that wants to enjoy your weekend or even one day of it you can easily do so by cramming in 5 hours a day. Also, if you are feeling like you are in need of a few extra z's to stay focused at work you can occasionally skip the morning (once a week, normally mid week, works best for me) session and still feel accomplished.

It sounds like a lot and will be exhausting when you are doing it. But if you plan around busy season and around the blackout months for the exam you can probably sleep in and not get up at 5 and still be able to get in a 120 hours or so of studying.  It’s definitely possible to take the exam during work and succeed at doing so but it will obviously be a challenge. If you are a new hire, such as myself, you will also be spending time outside of work learning how to use new tools and enhance your knowledge of how to most effectively do your job. I have found that a good strategy is to try to project how much time you will need to study to be prepared for the exam. Then make a schedule of when you will study and how long it will take you to reach you projected amount of hours you need to be properly prepared and give yourself a week of cushion in between. 

If you fall a week past the end of the test taking block you should consider whether it is worth taking the exam is worth it since even if you fail at least you will be able to take it again as soon as the block opens up again with a few more weeks to study. 

- Kevin

 

The remaining scores were released today

Today, 905 BEC scores were released by the AICPA to NASBA from the July / August 2011 testing window.  This concludes the release of scores for the testing window. The window is now closed.