NJCPA Exam Cram Blog

Just a Little Over a Week until Exam #4!

The studies continue for AUD. I have reached the point where I am extremely nervous but am halfway to the 'just wanting to take it' phase. Learning about auditing is kind of interesting to me. All of my experience in accounting (outside of course work) has been in tax. I am happy to be learning about what my peers in auditing do on a daily basis. I remember this past summer I was working on a provision and was always around an auditing team. I now have a better understanding of what they were doing! More details to come as test day gets closer (one week from tomorrow)!

One Left!

I have not posted in a little while, but have received good news in the meantime. I passed BEC! With that, I just have one more exam left to take (Auditing). I am very happy of all I have accomplished thus far and hope I can have similar success in auditing. I think if there's one thing the CPA has taught me thus far, it's that I should be very appreciative of the education I received at Seton Hall. I could not say enough great things about my undergraduate education, and I think the education I received there was pivotal to my CPA successes. I am suddenly very appreciative of all the professors that I felt 'assigned too much work' or were 'too demanding.' More details to come about auditing, and congratulations to all the other CPA candidates that are passing their exams!

WAHOOOOOO!

I can not even describe the incredible feeling of finding out that my hard work has paid off and I was successful on REG. Last night at 1AM I found out that was the case. I have now passed FAR (07/01), AUDIT (07/20), and REG (08/08). I will be taking BEC on Monday (08/31). Needless to say, but this has been a packed summer of studying. I am very excited to have these exams behind me, and am trying to focus on finishing my studies for BEC. Congrats to those who found out their scores today and did well! I'll write again after BEC! Good luck to all!

What A Feeling, I Can't Deny

Sitting, wide awake at my computer desk, it was 12:59 AM. I had time.gov open with the synchronized world clock, literally counting down the seconds until 1:00 AM would strike so I could log onto NASBA to check my scores for my first two exams. I had heard many horror stories of how the website would crash when the scores were released and I was just hoping to get on to the site at exactly 1:00 to find out my fate. Luckily, I was able to get through the site relatively quickly and enter my Section ID and my Birthday to find out my scores. I PASSED BOTH FAR AND AUDIT! It was an instant relief to know that all of the hours put into studying have paid off so far. While I have missed out on a few fun nights with my friends this summer, and haven't gotten to do everything that I would like, it was all instantly worth it when I saw my scores. I know that I will have plenty of time in the future to celebrate with them when all four parts are done! I am definitely going to use this momentum as I study for the rest of this week and get ready to take REG this coming Saturday. I am very thankful for the Becker Fast Pass course and for my Education at Lehigh University because they both prepared me incredibly well for these tests. Now, I'm half way home, and I will put as much focus into this next month to get the next two parts done as well! I hope everyone else who checked was as fortunate as I was; however, if you did not see the score you wanted, do not be discouraged. Use any setbacks as motivation to propel you to future success. Good luck to all who are studying, and getting scores back! Until next time...

2 Taken 2 To Go

This past Monday I took Audit. I think I was very well prepared for the exam. In my opinion, the Becker Fast Pass class that I took to prepare for Audit was more challenging and gave me a wider variety of questions then the actual exam did. I worked my way through the Multiple choice rather quickly, and then had close to 2 hours to work on my simulations. I am very eager to get my scores for both FAR and AUD to see if I am truly 50% of the way done. Now I have begun studying REG. While it is a shorter exam than both FAR and AUD, I do not anticipate it being any easier. I will be taking this August 8th, so from now until then, it is all studying. I will update you all when I hear back about my first test (I believe August 4th). Good luck everyone.

Almost Test Day

Well, these past few weeks have flown by. I took off the past two weekends, one to go to the beach on the Fourth of July, and last weekend to visit my girlfriend in Wisconsin. Who knew they actually had a beach in Wisconsin as well? For those who didn't, Lake Michigan is legitimately a beach (and that's coming from a New Jersey Beachgoer). Also, they have any type of cheese you can imagine, and it's far better than any cheese I have had in NJ. Anyway, I studied a little while I was there; however, since I have been back I kicked it into high gear. I have been studying pretty much all day, except when I take a break to eat, or go to the NJCPA Student/Mentor Night at the Somerset Patriots Game. I will be sitting for Audit this coming Monday. I feel pretty prepared, as I interned in audit last summer, took an audit class last semester, and have completed the Becker Fast Pass review of the material as well. It was surprising to me to see the stats of the Audit CPA test in relation to others, in that it is the least passed exam of all four. I do not think that is necessarily because it is the hardest material, I just think that as accountants, we are used to seeing numbers, and on the audit exam there are rarely any. What I have found is that in order to be successful, I have been reading the call of the question first like Becker recommends, and then I read the entire question, scan the answers, and then reread the question. After I reread the question I have a better idea of what it is actually asking. "Is it tracing or vouching," "Do they put this in the report, or that in the report," Reading carefully and taking my time, has helped me do better on the practice tests. Also, shoutout to Connor for posting, in my opinion, two great posts (I had no idea about the outlines, or the correlation between Becker scores and the actual exams). If this blog can help others as it has helped me already, then I'd say it's truly worth it to read. You decide for yourself! Good luck to all taking the exam and in your studies. 

I Have Taken FAR

Last Wednesday I took FAR. I thought I was well prepared for the exam. I moved my way through the multiple choice questions and left myself ample time for the Task Based Simulations. The simulations were a little bit tougher than I had anticipated. I think the Becker Fast Past prepared me for the exam very well. I am anxious to get my score back at the beginning of August. I have begun studying for Audit now. I am working my way through the lectures and will begin my review soon. The exam is getting closer as I am taking it on July 20th. I will be hitting the books hard for the next week and a half. Good luck to all taking exams, and I hope everyone had a nice 4th of July!

Now it's MY time!

 

"If you believe in yourself, and have dedication & pride, and never quit, you'll be a winner"- Paul Bryant

I wanted to introduce myself & tell you a little bit about my story.

Like many of those that have blogged here in the past and that are currently blogging, I started my CPA exam review right out of college before I started at WithumSmith+Brown full time.  I failed a few of the exams, got intimidated & postponed/rescheduled a few, and finally after about 3 years and countless of on and off again studying I passed my first CPA exam part: Audit!  Well I just couldn't get the next exam passed (failed with a 72, 73, & 74).  I lost confidence in myself so I took a "hiatus" from the exam.  During that almost 2 year "hiatus" a few things happened to me:

• I lost the credit for passing Audit
• moved from the traditional side of accounting to our firm's Litigation Support Group
• got engaged and
• now I'm officially a "Mrs."

After talking with my mentors & career coaches at the firm, we decided the best course of action for me to finally pass the CPA exam would be to enroll in the Becker "Fast Pass" Program.  So here I am, back on the horse.  I'll be taking you with me on my ride through this process.  

My story isn't typical nor is it ideal.  I would have loved to have passed all four parts early in my career.  But that's not how things worked out for me so my goal through this is to encourage those that feel intimidated or frustrated with the exam and the entire process to not give up.  Now it’s MY time to pass the exam and you can too! 

 

2 Down, 2 to go

After the score release website crashed at 1 am this morning, I was able to finally just check my score this morning. Thankfully I passed the audit exam and am now 50% of the way to completing the CPA exam. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I felt that the Becker self study had me well prepared for the exam. Devoting the week before the exam to just studying was definitely helpful. By the end of the week I had worked through hundreds of multiple choice and felt very comfortable with them on the exam. Now I need to register for my next exam section for July. I start work at the tiki bar tonight and plan on registering for FAR tomorrow morning and will start working through the Becker review modules tomorrow as well. I'm planning on giving myself about 6 weeks to study for FAR. Stay tuned. -JH

Took the Audit Exam

I spent all last week studying for the audit exam and took it on Friday May 15th. In the days before the exam I tried to force myself to study by going to my parents office from 9 am - 5 pm each day and locking myself in an empty office. I found this helped to keep me focused as I did not have any of the distractions of being at home. The Monday before the exam I took a practice exam on Becker and got above a 75. I then took a second practice exam on Thursday and got above a 75 again (although not by much). This definitely had me feeling fairly confident heading into the exam. I worked through several hundred multiple choice questions each day before the exam to keep the content fresh in my mind. 

I'll find out the results on May 27th, but I felt like I performed alright on the exam. I was definitely prepared for the multiple choice questions. The Becker program had me exceptionally well prepared and some of the multiple choice on the exam almost looked identical to those in the Becker review. I was able to work through the 90 multiple choice questions relatively fast and saved time to work on the simulations, which I found to be quite challenging on the exam. The topic matter of a few of the simulations was more difficult than I had expected, but I felt pretty well prepared from the Becker program. I had no problem with the research based question, but some of the content in the other simulations was quite difficult and one topic in particular was not heavily covered in the materials. I think my score will be very close to the pass/fail line, but I am not overly concerned. If I fail, I have a decent idea of what I need to review/practice before taking the exam again, and will quickly sign up to take it again in the first week of July.