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.

 

Support System

Having a great support system can really make a difference. Here are a few things that really helped me use my support system to its fullest potential.

Don’t Fall for the Guilt Trip

I remember when I was first studying for the exam and living at home with my parents.  At times my parents would "guilt" me into doing things instead of studying.  And I was a little too eager to oblige them.  You probably have heard it too: "It's only for 2 hours" or "We never spend time with you any more" or "But you really should take a break" When I heard those lines, I usually gave in and then my study plan fell apart.  This time around, I made it very clear that those lines wouldn't work on me.  I knew I could sacrifice anything for just these two months this summer.  And if I could do it, my family could too. 

Schedule Specific Time for “Fun”

I think what helped me the most was making a schedule including times I’d be studying, the time I could have dinner with my husband and then the time I needed to be back at the library to study the rest of the night.  I also let my family and friends know that I was studying and that I would make plans to see them in September after my studies were done or I’d tell them exactly when I would be free (like after 6pm on Saturdays when the library closed).

Relinquish Your “Duties”

My husband has also been a huge help taking on more of the duties/responsibilities that I normally would do.  He’s been the one primarily walking the dog, getting the groceries, cooking dinner, and cleaning the house.  Without having someone to pick up some of my slack, I don’t think I could have studied as much nor would I been able to concentrate as well.  I would have been worried about the dog (or groceries, or dinner or the house).  If you don’t have someone that can help with some of these types of responsibilities consider these options:

• hire a dog walker
• pay a neighborhood kid to walk your dog/take care of the lawn/etc
• consider having your groceries delivered using online sites or peapod
• consider having your meals sent to you already prepared or with little prep time.
• drop your laundry off for wash & fold service

Don’t Take Your Work Home with You

I have been blessed that my firm is so supportive of my study plan.  They have scheduled my work/jobs/clients so that I do not have to worry about it once I leave for the night to go home and study or leave on a Friday.  I’m not worried about checking my emails, I put on an “out of office” message with a specific date when I’ll be back in the office and can address their email.  My phone/emails are usually on Do Not Disturb mode while I’m studying so I don’t get distracted with work emails or any personal texts etc.

Hope these tips help to build your support system.

You're gonna go FAR, kid

Took FAR on Tuesday and needless to say it was an experience. I breezed through the first testlet. The second testlet was significantly harder but I thought I did decent enough. I was making good time so I decided to take a quick bathroom break (the past two exams I just kept on going with the exam). Came back and the last testlet was also very hard, which I liked seeing because that's an indication that things were going well. I left myself roughly 1:45 for the sims which I thought was going to be ample time. The first time thru the sims I was struggling a bit but then fortunately was able to find some answers in the literature. 

Best piece of advice I could give to someone is to give yourself enough time with the sims to look up things in the codification. The references saved me on an answer. 

Overall, I think I passed but you never know what might happen. On to Audit. It's so nice looking at book half the size of FAR. Still on track to reach my goal of passing all four parts before starting work.

Exam Day Tips

“Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it.  Make your mental blue print, and begin to build.”- Robert Collier

Last week I took my first exam of this round.  I felt very well prepared but still anxious.  After the exam was over, I thought my anxiety would subside but IT DIDN’T.  I think that’s because after leaving the exam I just wanted to know if I passed or not.  Even though you feel like you did well on the exam, you never REALLY know how well you did until you get your score.

Speaking of getting you scores- here’s a link to the NASBA website with the expected score released dates for the rest of 2015.  http://nasba.org/exams/news/2015-q3q4-score-release-timeline/

 

As for the day of the exam here are a few tips that have helped me on the day of the exam:

Visualize Success: Have you heard of the study conducted by Dr. Blaslotto at the University of Chicago about shooting free throws?  He split people into 3 groups & tested how many free throws they could make.  Then he had the 1^st group practice free throws every day for 1 hour, the 2^nd group just visualized themselves making free throws, and the 3^rd group did nothing.  The 1^st group improved by 24% but the thing to note is the second group improved almost just as well as the first group (23%)!  So leading up to the exam- keep visualizing that score greater than 75!

Be Confident: For me being confident isn’t just a mental thing, I actually have to FEEL confident. And for me that means putting on some makeup and wearing nice (yet comfortable clothes) like my favorite pair of jeans and a shirt with a sweater.  If I rolled into the exam without a shower, my hair a mess, and in sweatpants and a sweatshirt I’d feel really lousy.

Take your time: Not just during the exam, but beforehand too.  Get to the exam site 45 minutes to an hour before your schedule time to allow for traffic, some time to relax, get your mind right (see tips above) and to do a little review. 

Reward yourself: You’ve worked hard to get to this day, after the exam go out for a drink with your friends or grab a nice dinner, or just do something fun that you’ve had to avoid since you began studying for the exam.  You can wait till tomorrow to start studying for the next one!

Final Week Prep Suggestion

I'm taking FAR in one week and the nerves have started to set in. I'm more just looking forward to getting this part done because I'll have only AUD left (assuming all goes well). 

Everybody approaches studying differently, however, for those that are looking to get the most of their final week here is one suggestion that has helped me. Towards the end of the review stage I have found it helpful to go through each chapter individually and hand write a Key Points Study Guide. This guide consists primarily of the "Stuff Ya Gotta Know". 

I usually go through the book of each chapter, write out key formulas and pass keys that should be memorized before the exam. I'll then take progress tests (usually 20 Qs) for each chapter individually. After completing the progress test, I'll make notes on the Chapter study guide about key points I may have missed.

Example: I just finished my Chapter 1 Final Study Guide. I've included (in detail) under the Key Points and Formulas: SFAC #8, OCI components, Segment reporting 10% & 75% Tests.....

Then I've added additional notes at the bottom from practice questions: "Assets Held for Sale are classified as a current asset, is no longer depreciated, and is the lower of book or net realizable value".

That way when it's time to do a quick review before the exam I can see the formulas all laid out and then additional notes at the bottom that can be read over once and will hopefully stick come exam time.

Everybody studies differently, but this has been a helpful tool especially when you're pressed for time. YOU MUST KNOW THE KEY POINTS (can't build a house without a foundation). 

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. 

USE THE OUTLINES

Maybe I'm just blind, but I had no idea that Becker provided Outlines for each chapter. The full chapters are great when going through the material initially, but when the clock is ticking and you need to know the key points go to the outlines. The outlines can be found in the top right corner of the Becker page online. I printed out each chapter and have been making my own notes on the side when I come across a key point. This is helpful when you come across a topic that you're struggling with and you find a bit daunting. Who knows maybe like a "grandparent finding about the internet" I'm the last to discover this, but it's a great tool. 

Update from my end: Pushed the exam back a week to July 28th. Second time rescheduling. I was planning on visiting my sister in Canada which is why I only moved the exam back 5 days the first time, but now I cancelled the trip. She's a full time triathlete so even though I won't be able to watch her race in Canada I'll throw her some support here! She'll crush the swim, bike, run like I will the CPA (fingers crossed). 

Staying Focused

Optimists focus their energy on making their goals happen, rather than bracing for the worse.- Denis Waitley

One of the struggles I face when studying for the CPA exam is staying FOCUSED on studying.  The odd thing is, staying focused wasn’t really an issue for me previously.  I was the queen of being able to stay up all night before an exam and cram right up to the time I had to actual go and take the exam.  I quickly found out that my studying strategy during high school & college was not going to cut it for the CPA exam.  There is no way that you can learn all the material for the exam in one night.  So I had to find a better way to study and stay focused on it over an extended period of time.

 Here are a few focusing tips that I find work for me that might work for you too:

• When attending a live lecture, sit in front.  When you’re in the front of the class you are more likely to be engaged on the instructor or presenter and less likely to be zoning out or on your phone.
• Put your phone on “Do Not Disturb” and put it out of sight.  Did you really need to check that text message or Facebook message right then, or could it have waited two hours? If someone has something urgent to tell you they most likely will call you and leave a voicemail or call you twice to be sure they got in touch with you.  It helps remove those small distractions.
• Drink plenty of water- by drinking water you increase the amount of oxygen in your body, which leads to more oxygen to the brain, which ultimately increases our alertness & clarity. 
• Set Specific Goals- by setting specific daily or hourly goals, it helps bring the huge task of studying ALL that material to a more achievable task.  If you set a goal to finish all multiple choice questions for one chapter before you leave the library, the more likely you are to accomplish it.  Compare that to thinking “I’m going to stay at the library for four hours” and the first two hours you spent on Facebook and emails.  If you leave the library after only two real hours of studying, you’ll feel like you got nothing accomplished.
• Peppermint oil- This last one may surprise you but peppermint essential oil has a bunch of benefits including relieving headaches and improved mental focus.  By diffusing the oil for an hour while you study or even putting a drop under your nose can help improve your concentration. 

Take This With A Grain Of Salt

The uncertainty of mastering the material is arguably the most stressful element of the CPA exam. As you're studying for the CPA exam and answering questions on Becker you inevitably question how well you have mastered the material. The exam is unique in that the method for scoring the exam is not public knowledge. While the AICPA has stated that the exam is not curved, the organization does acknowledge the fact that candidates are rewarded for completing a more difficult testlet. How much is that reward? What is the standard deviation of the exam scores? Nobody really knows. I know I'm not the only one answering Becker questions, getting around a 65% on the homework, and pondering how would I have performed if this was a true CPA exam. 

Generally speaking (here's where the grain of salt comes into play), Becker questions tend to be a tad more difficult than that of the CPA exam. And that's not a knock at Becker at all. They simply want their candidates to be adequately prepared for whatever is thrown their way. It's the mentality of "if you can survive this, you can survive the exam". However, some people have found the CPA exam to be more difficult than Becker exams and homework questions. 

My goal here is to provide those who are stressing out about getting 65%-75% on Becker questions some peace of mind. I have attached below a link to a google doc that someone on Reddit put together comparing Becker Exam scores to Actual Exam scores. Routinely candidates score roughly 13% points higher on the actual exam than on the Becker exam. It should be noted that this percentage boost has a high standard deviation (some candidates perform only slightly better,others significantly better, some worse). 

While nothing is a guarantee, this document serves as a general reference for those attempting to interpret their Becker Scores. 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18h1_IfOBv04SjkKDqUkzcjoj2OdXGMc_hxqot7N2u9w/edit#gid=0

 

Date Pushed Back

It's been awhile since my last post since I visited some friends up in Boston the past couple of days. Before I left for the weekend, I decided to push the date of the exam back 5 days to July 22nd. The cost to move an exam date is $35. I know 5 days isn't a huge adjustment, but right now I should finish up the material tomorrow and then begin my review stage. This should give me closer to three weeks to review and I intend on spending two days per chapter. When I go through the material the first time I usually don't master it because a lot is thrown at you at once. The review stage, in my opinion, is the most important stage of the studying process. This is where you figure out 1) What do I truly know & 2) What do I need to master. Understand your limitations and pushing back the date of the exam is potentially a valuable resource.