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.

Still Studying

So continues another week of studying. This past week I attended all of Becker's live classes in Woodbridge. For those of you considering going to live classes, I would probably recommend it. The class forces you to pay attention, however I would recommend reading the chapter in advance because not all topics are covered in class due to time restraints. 

This weekend I took a nice little break from studying to see the movie Paper Towns. I think watching movies is one of the best ways to relieve stress while studying for the CPA exam. The nice thing about movies is that if you select a good one, you can get so engulfed in the story line that you completely forget about taxes and business law for an hour. I would recommend Paper Towns, and to anyone reading this I would love some movie suggestions!

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! 

 

10 Days Away from the first Exam!

Hi All,

My first exam is scheduled for July 6 which means that we are approximately 10 days away from exam day! I finished the review course for FAR and have been doing self-study type work for the past week. This has included outlining the chapters, re-doing multiple choice questions and simulations, as well as taking some progress exams. As a break, this week I attended my little sister's high school graduation. I am very proud of her. She will be following all of us and pursuing a degree in accounting at FDU beginning this August. I hope everyone's studies are going well and more details to come next week!

The Studying Continues

Hi All,

I got back from a nice Memorial Day Vacation down in Wildwood and Cape May and ever since I have been hitting the books pretty hard. I have made myself a promise that as soon as the exam is over I will take another trip, only then I will no longer have the exam on my mind!

I found a great website for anyone interested and currently studying for the CPA. www.cpareviewforfree.com offers a ton of practice questions for completely free, all you have to do is register with some basic information (no credit cards or anything like that). I hope some readers find this helpful!

Study Habits

Hey Everyone,

It’s good to catch up with you all again.  As you know I got my BEC exam out of the way and I have now moved on to AUD.  I have already begun studying, and in fact I am further ahead than I thought I would be at this point, which I am pretty happy about.  My plan for studying this time around is definitely different than the last time I studied.  For example, balancing studying and work is definitely a different challenge, but so far I have managed to get plenty of study time in as well.  Between putting some hours in at night and a weekend day here and there, finding the time to study is really not that bad.  One thing that also definitely helps is that studying is much easier the second time around.  To study so far, my plan has been to read a sub-section of the Becker book as a quick refresher and then do the questions for that section.  For me it has definitely been the best way to study.  I am then also keeping track of which sections I am struggling on so I can go back and redo those sections sometime later on.    Also, another thing I have noticed this time around, is that I am amazed at how much of the information is coming back to me.  I remember a lot from the summer session when I studied, which definitely helps, and I know that it is now just a matter of doing questions over and over. 

Therefore, for another piece of advice for anyone who failed a section of the exam, get right back into it.  The longer you wait, and the more you keep putting the exam off the more you will start forgetting, so keep on studying.  Even if you move onto another section, and go back to that one next, that’s fine.  I studied two other sections since I last looked at the Auditing book, but just having seen the information at least once before makes a huge difference.  So, I would recommend to anyone studying to just stay in the mindset of studying, built it into your weekly schedule somehow, and whatever you do don’t ever completely stop.  Keep studying now and just get the exam out of the way once and for all.  

I will keep you all updated on how these next few weeks of studying go, and hopefully I will keep moving right along.  I sit for the exam the very beginning of November so October will definitely be a busy month.  Best of luck to those out there studying!

Joe

 

 

Looking Back

So, the CPA Exam dominated my summer for the most part.  While I was able to squeeze in some fun I spent most of my time from June through August with my head stuck in a Becker Review Book.  I did the Becker Fastpass program, and I took three parts of the CPA exam in these past two months.  Unfortunately I don’t have as much to show for it just yet, but I am still waiting on two scores.  As you know I did not pass Auditing, and I am currently waiting on my scores for BEC and REG, which I will find out next week.  I felt pretty good after sitting for BEC.  As for REG, I will say the Simulations were definitely where I struggled.  I think I did decent on the multiple choice questions, but I hope my scores on the Simulations aren’t enough to stop me from passing.  I am hoping for the best next week.

 

Anyway, I currently have a couple days of down time from the exam, but in the meantime I began my full time job.  I started working this past Tuesday at Sobel & Co., and I am thrilled to be there and certainly cannot wait to get my career started in the accounting profession.  However, this will definitely impact my study habits for the CPA exam.  Finding the hours to study now will definitely become more difficult now that I am working full time, but I know that I will have to put in early morning and late evening hours studying to get through what I need to.  In addition, I am very glad that I am done with all the lectures and that I am at least very familiar with each section.  It should make studying next time around much easier.  After I receive my scores back on these last two parts I can make a decision about which part to focus my studies on during September so I can sit for my next exam somewhere in the beginning of October.  One other thing now is that I am definitely going to give myself more time to study than the last time.  While the fastpass course was nice in the summer it was extremely fast paced, and to some extent I do not think I was as prepared as I would have liked to be by the time my testing day came around.   Now that I have some experience with the exam and know what is expected of me, I am not going to sit again until I truly know that I have all the knowledge I need to pass. 

 

I will catch back up with you all next week with some information on my scores, and my plans for September. Good luck to everyone waiting on results!

 

Joe 

In the homestretch!

I passed REG!!! That's three down, one to go!

To be honest, I left the testing center after this exam feeling pretty defeated after struggling through the simulations, so I was surprised when my score popped up on screen during the last score release. Before starting to study for this exam, I knew that a few of the topics (Corporate Tax and Business Law, specifically) were not my strong points. Keeping this in mind, I definitely employed a few extra study tactics, such as rewriting my notes and doing a few more practice tests, to cover these areas. One thing I have learned about this exam is that, with such a large amount of material to remember, it definitely helps to focus more on the material you are not so familiar with.

Another thing I have come to grips with is that once you take an exam, there is really nothing you can do until you find out your score. I think this is how I've been coping with the long weeks between taking the test and actually receiving my score. That, and the fact that I am usually about half way into studying for my next exam and don't have much time to even think about it!

Besides the CPA exam, I have also been focused on wrapping up my internship at PwC's National Quality Organization. This Friday is my last official day before the new interns arrive, and I will only be working a few days over the next couple weeks to transition my projects. I am definitely looking forward to having these next few weeks off to focus on my final review for BEC which I am currently scheduled to take on July 1st at 8:30am! This being the first possible appointment on the first day of the Q3 testing window, do you think I'm excited enough to get this exam over with?!

Feeling like Wonder Woman.

Lately, I have been feeling like Wonder Woman, well an extremely tired version of Wonder Woman. I transitioned right from busy season to studying every day after work and all day long during the weekends. I have also been planning a wedding shower and bachelorette party for my best friend, which the ladies on here can relate, is a full time job in itself. So between my 3 full time "jobs" (planning, studying and actually working) I haven't had a free second to breath.

I took my AUD exam (2nd attempt) on May 28th and I am happy to report that I received a passing score! I passed REG in the fall so now I am halfway there. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

I plan on tackling FAR (2nd attempt) next. I attempted once before last summer and ended up with a score of 72. I plan on using the study technique that I used with AUD. I read the book, cover to cover, and write all my own notes and flash cards. I find that I am able to retain the information better than just reading and typing my notes out, or just listening to the lectures. I did not even use the Becker lectures for AUD; they don't help me. I find myself spacing out and half the time not even listening to them. I feel that reading and writing out my notes keeps me focused and my head in the game. I think I finally found the study technique that works for me.

I also found that keeping busy keeps the nerves at bay while waiting for the score release. I took my exam and an hour later I was on to the next thing on my to-do list. I think that keeping busy is a great way to cope with the anxiety that we all have while waiting for our scores to be released.

I am fortunate that at Friedman LLP, we are given the opportunity to have Fridays off during the summer months. I hope that this extra day off will give me the push I need to tame the beast that is FAR.

 

Keep up the good work everyone!