NJSCPA Exam Cram Blog

Happy New Year!!!

Hello Everyone,

I wish you all a happy new year; may all your dreams come true as you wish this year. I wrote Regulation this morning, and getting ready to re-do Audit on the 24th of this month. I also have busy season ahead of me.

I am jam packed this month, but I promise to keep posting, and keeping you all up to date with my progress.

For all those writing the CPA this window, I wish all the best. I also want to congratulate my fellow blogger Ryan for a great job of crushing Regulation, Congrats and good luck with Audit.

Cheers!!

Ed. Adiele

I Passed!

Hi everyone,

I got my score back for FAR, which I took on October 9th, yesterday--I passed!  I got an 81.

No time to celebrate, though.  I still am going through REG which I will take in about a week and a half (November 30th).  Receiving a passing score was good to keep me motivated, though.  At least I now know that my study strategy is working.  Again, I read all the lectures and complete the multiple choice and simulations as I go.  Then I go through the multiple choice again while I skim the chapters.  Finally, I take the practice Final Exams.

I'll let you know how REG goes.  Keep working hard and good luck to all.  Have a happy Thanksgiving! :-)

Best wishes,
Ryan

Last window for 2009...Motivations and exam taking strategies

Hello Everyone,

First, I would like to thank the NJSCPA for this great opportunity to blog for the state society. I started this year which has been a CPA exam year for me (my first and hopefully the last). Its like I am on top of the mountain, and I need to jump in to the promised land, but the CPA exam is the hurdle.

This is my advice to all new grads reading this blog...please learn from our experience, and use it to your advantage. Try and take at least one or two parts before you start working. Don't goof off with your time, and say " I've got plenty of time".

Ask a lot of questions, most of you would have started your new jobs..taking some parts of the CPA (pass/fail) shows that you are COMMITED. You have made an attempt, and you have the experience.

I have taken every part of this exam except BEC, I can clearly say that I got better with each part that I took, and in each subsequent exam i got a better grade.

FARE- This exam is 4hrs long,but don't get excited, time management is key on this exam because you have 2 simulations to takle...just study and practice a lot of questions

AUDIT- This exam is 4.5 hrs long, it might seem like too much time, but trust me all that answers would look like the right ones, and you need to think very well to answer them.

REG- This exam is 3hrs long,---Time management totally finished me on this exam, I knew the material very well, I practiced a lot of questions, and ulike AUDIT AND FARE which I took back to back and failed. When I took AUDIT, I did not get my score for FARE yet. By the time I took REG, I knew my scores on both exams.

BEC- I have not taken it yet, but from all I hear do not underate it. If you did well in cost and managerial accounting, and college finance plus economics (micro and macro) then you chances of scoring 75 is very good, the rest of the material are straight forward.

Finally I just discovered Wiley E-prep online (google it) and if you have any questions let me know. It has a lot of questions, and like I have found out from experience, the more questions you take the better chances of understanding the material.

To all my fellow bloggers (Ryan, Kunal, Samantha) good luck with this window, and lets make it our best.

To Wendy...(you must be very excited to be CPA EXAM FREEEEEEE)

To Janice & the NJSCPA TEAM ...(We love you all, and thanks again for this great opportunity to pay forward our experiences)

Cheers....

Ed. Adiele

The never ending review

Hi everyone,

After completing F7, I began reviewing all the prior lectures.  So, I have been studying endless multiple choice questions.  I am hoping to be finished by Sunday so that I can move on to the governmental sections (F8 and F9), but I don't know how many more questions I can look at before my eyes roll to the back of my head, haha.

I think Kunal brings up a good point.  When doing the multiple choice questions, I don't actually care too much about the answer; rather, my focus is on the method to getting the answer correct (actually, I learn more when I get the question wrong and hate guessing correctly).  Remember, it is important to be able to apply the concepts to different situations; as such, I have spent a great deal of time studying the explanations to the multiple choice answers.

Keep working hard.  I imagine there are quite a few people preparing to take a part at the beginning of the window.  If so, maintain your focus; you're almost there!!

Best wishes,

Ryan

Almost there!

Hi everyone,

My test date for FAR is closing in; October 9th to be exact.  Currently, I am finishing up with F7.  Before I move on to F8 and F9 (mostly governmental-related issues), I will spend the next week reviewing F1 to F7 as well as going over the simulations again.

I think this will prove to be beneficial, but I suppose there is only one way to find out.  Has anyone else attempted to periodically review the previous lectures as you move along?

I'll let you know how it goes.  Keep working hard!

Best wishes,

Ryan

So I've passed the exam...now what?

Well, Its been a GREAT few months since I finished my exam. I never realized how great it would feel and all the extra time I would have. Even enough to train for a half marathon! 

However, the process isn't over, and I've already learned something by trying to jump the gun. So I have all my experience hours and I have my 150 credits, I figured, I passed the test, I can just download the application from the State of NJ website, fill it out, have my employer do their part send it in no problem.. Yea, that was WRONG. A friend of mine clued me in to the fact that I can't send in my application until the state sends me something that they have received my scores, and deemed me eligible to submit an application.  I JUST recieved the 'CONGRATULATIONS' letter from NASBA saying congrats on passing all 4 sections, so I hope that they're sending my scores to the state so I can get my application soon.

In addition, I realized that in order to sit for the exam I only needed 120 credits, however I have since earned the extra 30 but my final 150 credit transcript was never sent to NASBA, so I had to send that too. (Advice to those of you who got your extra 30 credits after you started studying for the exam, send your updated transcript to NASBA anytime to save you the hassle when you're trying to apply for your license)

Here at PwC we have some tools to help with what to submit, what forms to fill out and such, but even with that it's still confusing, finding notaries, getting my passport photo etc etc. I can't wait to be done with all this.

So for the moment all I can do is sit and wait for the state to say I can send in my application.

I hope everyone is doing well studying, passing some exams and still managing to fit in SOME fun summer time in their busy work and study schedules.  Glad we finally are starting to see some summer sunshine!

-Wendy

im doneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

i knew it would feel good but I never realized how great it would feel. I'm officially DONE!!!   Next up- filling out my application for my license!

Penman, Wendy 81 I hope everyone else is having as much success this testing window as I am!!! -Wendy

Submit

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!!

A Bittersweet Holiday

So scores came out last week and FINALLY I got the scores I had been anxiously awaiting. Thursday morning, at approximately 7:04 am, I checked my scores and SHOCK Regulation was UP!!! AND I PASSED!!!! This was the exam I took in early October and I actually cried after because I felt SO horrible about it, yet there it was, the pretty little score staring at me in the face telling me that I now had two sections complete.  WHOHOOOO!!  I was on cloud 9 the rest of the day.

Then Friday came, along with the heavy snow came the audit score.  I was just about to leave the office to go home early due to the weather when I learned a good friend of mine had just gotten his score and luckily for him, not only did he pass, the pass meant he was DONE with his exams. I however was not so lucky. I found out I got a 74! So frustrating to fail by ONE point. Needless to say, by Friday night I had already paid to get my new NTS to retake it as soon as possible. Now its just cramming a little again since I just took that one before Thanksgiving hopefully I didn't lose TOO much of the information.

At the moment I'm glad I failed by only a little, even though I'm super frustrated about having to retake it AGAIN.  I know I was so close and a little more studying I should pass it the next time (one only hopes.)

How did the rest of you do?! I'm hoping for some early holiday presents of a lot of passes for everyone!

And tonight I head back to the library once again to devote my life to studying audit.

Have a GREAT holiday to everyone! Enjoy and be safe :)

I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EXCUSE ME FOR TYPING IN ALL CAPS - BUT I PASSED!!!!! I PASSED I PASSED I PASSED!! MY LAST EXAM!!!!!!!!!

Phew, OMG. I passed. I passed. I passed. OMG.

If anyone were to compare the feeling of getting the first past score back versus getting the last passing score back - getting the last one back is DEFINITELY better.

I'm still in shock. OMG. I got an 89!! A freaking 89!! Take that Auditing exam!!! Haha...I showed you!

OK, so I'm pretty much delirious right now. It feels SO good to know it's all done.

 

My only complaint is that I wish I would have checked it at work instead. My running around and screaming would of been appreciated much more by my coworkers than it is by my dog now that I'm at home. Although, the look he's giving me is pretty much similar to the one I'd expect to get at work too. OMG, I PASSED!!