NJCPA Exam Cram Blog

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!

Was That The Last One?

Yesterday I sat for the BEC section of the exam. I have passed the other three parts. I felt like the multiple choice was a little harder than I had anticipated; however, the testlets got progressively harder, which I take as a good sign. The writings were not terrible. Now the wait begins to receive what may be my final score. I anticipate the score being released on September 10th; however, it may not come out until the 15th depending on when the AICPA receives the data from the test center. Regardless, I worked hard this summer and accomplished my goal of sitting for all four parts prior to starting work on September 28th. I hope I will have good news to report next week when I get my score! Since September is a blackout month for the exam, I hope everyone can take at least a few days off from studying and enjoy the upcoming holiday weekend. I look forward to hearing good results from everyone who tested recently next week! Good luck!

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!

REG Down, BEC Friday!

This morning I got the best news, I passed REG! I am so happy it is unreal. I'm so appreciative of all the support I've gotten along the way and every success, I believe, is another reason to thank God. 

As much as I want to run outside and scream, studying for BEC has kept me in line. BEC is on Friday. I'm very nervous and am focusing on my final review as much as I can. I am very relieved that BEC is not all cost/managerial accounting. The economics sections really add some variety to this exam. More details to come after Friday, wish me luck!

The Anxious Wait Begins Again

For those who don't know, scores will be posted at 1AM eastern time tonight if the AICPA received your test data from Prometric by August 14th. Below is a countdown clock that NASBA so kindly provides. I'm beginning to see a theme with the CPA process. On exams, your clock counts down (which is like watching the blood drain from your body), and in waiting for your scores you get an Evil Countdown as well. 

 

https://ncd.nasba.org/gwprdv2/servlet/hgwcs01

 

Hopefully tonight's results will go well for everyone. I am more nervous than I had been for FAR and Audit in receiving my REG score tonight. It was harder than I had thought it would be even though I prepared as well as I thought I could have. The wait for the score is the worst part. I am attempting to stay focused today as I have to keep studying for BEC which I will be taking a week from today. I am feeling okay with the material. I went to a Becker Final Review session for it this past Friday. The final review is very helpful because it summarizes the key points, and it also provides you with additional questions and in the case of BEC writing prompts for the Written Communication section. I'd highly recommend attending one of the Final Reviews or ordering the lectures on line if you have the opportunity to because they have helped me greatly and may help you as well.

 

Good luck to everyone studying and taking exams, and finding out scores. I hope to post some good news shortly after 1:00AM. 

FAR down, REG taken, BEC now

Last week I got great news, I passed FAR! Later in the week I took REG which I do not think I had the same level of success on. I will be finding out about REG just days before taking BEC. August will be a rough month for CPA studies. I find I am really looking forward to October, when I actually start working and at least have some knowledge on all the topics in case I have to retake any parts. So far BEC has been more challenging than expected. I always hated managerial/cost accounting, but I forgot how much I hated it until opening this book. If anyone has any advice on how to tackle this, please keep me posted! 

25% Of The Way There...

Hello fellow aspiring CPA's. My name is Joe Hark and I am about to graduate from Bentley University with a Masters in Accounting. I will be starting full time work as an auditor with Deloitte in the fall. So far, I have successfully passed the BEC portion of the exam in January and I am scheduled to take the audit section next week on May 15th. I was very confident with my preparations going into BEC and expected to pass. So far, I do not feel the same way with audit, as I have been busy with final exams and work over the last few weeks and have neglected my CPA exam studies. However, my plan over the next 7 days is to put in a solid 40-50 hours before the exam as a review. I just finished the 6 Becker modules for audit today so will begin reviewing tomorrow. I have alot of work to do over the next few days!

For the summer, I will be living in the Florida Keys and working as a server/bartender part time at a tiki bar on the Gulf of Mexico. My goal is to complete the other 2 exams during the summer so I will be driving up to Miami from the islands to take them. Hopefully I can bring myself to focus and study in the islands! More updates to come, but now it's time to turn my focus to cramming for the audit exam next week.

-Joe 

Three to Go

Hey Everyone,

I am back again here with some more exciting CPA Exam news.  First, I will start out with some good news.  I finally received my scores and my efforts are finally starting to pay off, as I passed BEC.  So I now have one exam down, three to go.  Now, as I mentioned last week, I started a new job, so I will be honest and tell you that my focus has shifted away from the CPA Exam and onto work temporarily, but now I know it’s time to get back into studying.  This evening I finally got some good hours of studying under my belt again, and I plan on getting back into a solid routine of studying starting this week.   I will be taking Auditing next testing window, somewhere towards the end of October or early November, so it is definitely time to get studying again.

In terms of my study habits they will be very different than the first time I took the exam.  The first time I studied I went through the entire AUD book in under three weeks, and was on a very fast paced program, covering nearly a lecture a day.  However, now that I have some experience with the exam, and now that I am working all week during the day, I am going to spread my schedule out a lot.  Weekends will definitely be a key time to study, and then I also plan on putting in a lot of late nights at the office to study as well.  One other thing I plan on doing is putting in a lot more time practicing the Simulations.  I did not get to study them as much as I would have liked last time simply due to time constraints, so I will be sure to practice more of them this time around. 

I also believe that a lot of the material is still relatively fresh for me which I am hoping will make studying much easier this time.  It was not too long ago when I first studied, so I believe that most of the information will come back to me fairly easy, and while I know I still have a lot of work to put in, that past study time can only help.   

So that’s where I stand at the moment on the exam.  The rest of September and October, I will continue to give you all updates on how my Audit studying goes, and how I am balancing my work and study habits.  For now, best of luck to everyone studying! 

Joe 

My CPA Journey

Hey everyone, my name is Joseph Zapf, and I am excited to be a new member of the NJSCPA Exam Cram Blog.  To give you a little background about myself, I just graduated from Ramapo College this past May, and I will begin work full time at Sobel & Co. in September.  I am excited to have finished school and I cannot wait to begin my career, but while I have this summer free I am going to put as much time and effort as I can into studying for the CPA Exam.

I am taking the Becker Fastpass program to study, but throughout the course I have modified the program into more of a self-study to fit my schedule better.  I already sat for my AUD Exam on July 20 and I am now in the process of studying for REG which I will be taking in a little over a week on August 15^th, so my schedule is a bit crazy right now to say the least. I have only about 2 weeks to study for each section but with some hard work and dedication I know I will be able to get it done.  I study for at least 6 (usually more like 8-10) hours a day in order to keep up with the lectures and the daily Becker homework, which gives me virtually no social life this summer. In fact I just had my first real “vacation” of the summer last weekend where I was able to squeeze in a short weekend in Upstate New York.  While the two day break was nice, it’s now back to studying for the rest of this week, as I have to finish all of my REG lectures by this weekend in order to  leave enough time next week for review.   After my REG exam is over, I move right onto BEC which I will take at the very end of August, giving myself only two weeks to study for that as well.  For now I am holding off on FAR until October, and hopefully I will have some of these other sections out of the way by then.  I am keeping my fingers crossed on that one.  So, once again I am excited to be a part of the Exam Cram team here, and I will look forward to giving you an update on my crazy study schedule sometime again next week.  Best of luck to everyone out there studying!

Joe 

 

Spain, here I come!

Six months of sitting behind my desk, pouring over Becker review books, and listening to "never-ending" lectures has finally come to an end. Looking back to that first day in January when I started studying, I remember staring out the window at 8 feet of snow wondering how I was going to survive the next few months. Now, I am sitting here in the same seat with the A/C blasting in 90+ degree weather, thinking how amazing it feels to be done!!

I just took my last scheduled exam, BEC, this morning, so I am not officially done until I receive my score in August. But, until I get that score back, I have no more studying in my immediate future! One thing I will say about BEC, though, is not to underestimate it because it is the "easiest" exam. There are still a few difficult concepts and calculations, and it is crucial to know how to navigate these questions to leave yourself enough time for the written communications.

Earlier this year, when I was mapping out my study plan, I planned to take my last exam by the first week of July. I also knew that I would be finishing up my internship by the last week in June, and that my full-time position would not start up until mid-September. So I spontaneously booked myself a trip to Spain (leaving on July 6th) as motivation to finish the exam! And now I can't believe it's finally here! I minored in Spanish in college and have always loved the language, so I am excited to finally experience the culture firsthand. The tour consists of stops in various cities in Spain, and also short trips to Morocco and Portugal! The funny thing is that I will actually be back on August 3rd, a day before the scheduled score release on August 4th!

I will check back in with news about my score in early August, but for now it's "¡Adios!" from me. Good luck to all getting ready to conquer Q3 exams, and Happy 4th of July to all!