NJCPA Exam Cram Blog

Signing Off

Well, scores have been released and I am pleased to say I passed the fourth part of the exam. While this was a quick process for me (began studying for my first exam on June 8th, and took my last exam on August 31st,) it was by no means an easy one. In this final post I will highlight some of the strategies I used that allowed me to be successful in such a short time.

Lay out a plan for yourself prior to beginning... AND STICK TO IT. One of the hardest things for me taking the exam this summer was that I felt like every weekend something would pop up where a friend would ask me to go somewhere or do something. That is when the little accounting devil and angel pops up on your shoulder. I included in my plan some days off from studying, so If something popped up that I really wanted to do, I always had the option of moving one of my off days to that day, much like a flex player in fantasy football (NFL JUST STARTED SO I'M IN THE ZONE). 

Break up your studies throughout the day. For me this was one of the most necessary parts of my studies because I don't have the longest attention span. My typical day looked like the following:

8:15-9:00 - Wake up, shower, eat breakfast.

9:00-12:30 - Start Lecture/Homework

12:30-1:00- Eat Lunch

1:00-3:00 - Continue Lecture/Homework

3:00-4:15 - Go to the Gym

4:15-6:30 - Continue Lecture/ Homework

6:30- 7:15 - Eat dinner

7:15-9:30 - Continue Homework/ Wind down

10:00 Relax/ Sleep

At the end of each study hour, I would take a 5 minute break to get a drink of water or check my phone. This schedule gave me about 10 Hours of studying a day; however, it was manageable because I was breaking it up into no more than 3.5 hours at a time

Use a review course, and follow their plan. Now I'm not here to advertise; however, I used the Becker CPA review, and attended their final review sessions and I have nothing but good things to say about it. It truly is what I attribute most to helping me pass the exam. My education was a phenomenal base of knowledge; however, the Becker software gives you strategies for beating the exam, teaching you how to take it, and has a wealth of multiple choice and simulation questions at their disposal. 

Demand the best from yourself. No one is perfect; however, they can give a perfect effort each day. I demanded that I would give a perfect effort of sticking to my schedule each day. I said I wouldn't let anything come between me and finishing this exam prior starting work. Once I had that mentality, it was easier to drown out the white noise and focus on what was important. 

I know the exam will be changing soon, so I hope these tips are still applicable. I have enjoyed writing about my experience, and now look forward to the next chapter in my life. I will be starting work for Deloitte on September 28th, and there is no better feeling then walking in on day 1 with this exam behind me. Good luck to those taking the exam now and in the future. That's a wrap for me.

 

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. 

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...

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! 

 

T-Minus 2

It's almost test day! I will be sitting for FAR on Wednesday, July 1 at noon. I have still been studying just as hard as I was at the beginning of my studies. For the past few days, I have been simulating 4 hour exams and have been doing fairly well. After each exam, I review my areas of error, and then make sure I focus on those areas for the rest of the day. I am feeling more confident each day and am eager to get this beast of an exam over with. One thing that I have found difficult on the exams is time management. I find myself flying through the multiple choice questions because I want to leave myself with enough time for the simulations. My aunt who was in the education field for 25+ years made a recommendation to me which has actually helped me to slow down. I acknowledge in advance how crazy this may sound. She said, "Sit on your hands each time you get to a new question, and don't take them out until you have read through it in its entirety." I looked at her like she had eight heads. Even though I doubted that it would help, I tried her strategy, physically sitting on my hands each time I moved to another question, and to my disbelief, I slowed my time per question down, and made many less careless mistakes. It helped me to focus more on the questions and maybe that technique, no matter how ridiculous it sounds, will help you too! Good luck to everyone getting ready to sit for exams!

Falling behind this week

This week I was supposed to complete 2 chapters on the Becker software and am about to finish the first chapter, meaning that I have alot to catch up on this weekend. I had planned on spending my two days off this week studying all day, but was tempted by friends to go out fishing instead. While we had an awesome time and caught tons of fish, my studying time was sacrificed and I'm going to have to make up for that. I also spent some time this week writing an article for the NJSCPA Pulse about how the CPA exam is scored, so keep an eye out for that in the July edition of Pulse. 

Til next week..

 

Ready...Set...Test

My NTS has finally arrived. By some miracle I was able to schedule an exam for next Wednesday (July 1). I was also able to schedule the other 3 exams as well for later this summer. Now that I have my test dates, I can study towards a goal, and execute my plan. I am excited, and also nervous to be taking the exam next week. I feel very well prepared thanks to the Becker Fast Pass, and will be taking the Becker Final Review Course tomorrow; however, I still have nerves that I need to calm because this is the first of the four tests that I will be sitting for. I hope that these nerves calm over the next few days, and that I can go in to the exam as confident as ever. For now, I'm just thrilled I got my NTS, and am going to go back to studying! 

Still Waiting, But Making Progress

Unfortunately, I have still yet to receive my NTS. It is incredibly frustrating; however, all I can do is continue studying and wait until I receive it to schedule my exams. My goal, as I mentioned in an earlier post, is to have all four parts of the exam done prior to starting work at the end of September. Because of that, I am on a very packed time table for studying. I finished F8 yesterday of the FAR Becker Fast Pass Review, and am going to do F9 Today. After I complete the course tomorrow with F10, I will have approximately two weeks to review for the exam before I hope to take it (if I ever receive my NTS). I have found myself studying for about 10-11 hours a day, including watching the 4 hour lecture. On the weekends I have only studied about 3-5 hours a day, to give myself some time to recuperate some of my energy from the long weeks. I will keep everyone updated on my NTS situation with NASBA. Good luck to all taking the exam, or in the process of studying for it!