[Anonymous]

Recent college graduate — not employed so I “technically” have all the time in the world to study. I have my shiny new review course with all 4 sections as well as the NINJA 10 point combo with Wiley Test Bank.

But guess what? I can not get motivated!

I plan to go through it following the NINJA study method by watching videos first. I started off trying to take notes during the videos but found it too hard to try to keep up and decided I’d just focus on watching the videos and go back through the book after I watch all the videos and re-write the NINJA notes and just write down any other points I think seem important.

FAR is just so damn overwhelming and Roger CPA has it split in 33 sections. My initial goal was 3 sections a day of video watching, every single day but here lately I’m lucky if I make it through 1 whole section. I find myself thinking about anything else other than “Foreign Currency Exchange Transactions” and before I realize it I’m on another planet while Roger is still yapping away about spot rate, forward rate, yadda yadda yadda.

Does anyone have any tips on how to get motivated and stay focused? I’m having second thoughts about all of it here lately because my FAR book just has so much information I just know in my mind that there is no way I will be able to do this. Sometimes I feel like people that are prescribed Adderall are taking the educational equivalent of steroids for sports.

[Anonymous]

kmm1216 – It is nice to see that you basically have all the same materials as I do and managed to do so well (especially on FAR) Can I ask how you study? Do you follow the NINJA study technique at all?

[kmm1216]

Sure, I'm pretty systematic with the way I study through the material, so it'd be easy to follow if you wanted to try. It's a lot per section, but it pays off.

I start off of course by reading the chapter; I don't go too crazy, just trying to get an idea of what's to come for the lecture. Then, I watch the lecture, taking notes along the way, the usual. I then go back to reading the chapter, basically adding some of the notes in that I've taken, or highlighting key points. I know NINJA says you don't need to highlight, but I don't think it hurts either, especially when you're going through your final review. After that, I'll re-write the NINJA notes for the given section, and take special note of items that NINJA covered that may have been skimmed through or missed in Roger's book/lecture. Now with all of the important topics highlighted/noted, I start to make my own flashcards. Usually it's formatted with a question on the front side, and the answer and maybe an example on the back side. The amount I make varies with topic, but for both BEC and FAR so far, I ended up with close to 400 flash cards each.

Now to prepare for answering the questions Roger assigned, I re-read the chapter a third time. I make sure I'm very thorough this time with it. After that, I go through the assigned questions the way Roger says to (answer one, read answer, etc.) and track my scores. I'll then use the WTB to answer any problems in the practice sessions, since I want instant feedback (I save the pop quizzes and take a test option for my final review). Finally, I answer the free problems on cpareviewforfree.com because their questions are a bit different style so it's like a whole new set, and each CPA exam section has about 600 problems each.

This is really the whole timeline of events for each section. Along the way, I also listen to and read my NINJA notes/audio (usually during my hour long subway commute to school) and I'll go through my flashcards as well in bed or wherever else. I know this is probably a lot and you could definitely do less and still pass, but I'd rather over-study and “waste my time” passing the first time than have to retake a part and end up studying more that way. I hope this really long-winded message helps! Haha.

BEC: 88 (8/27/13)
FAR: 93 (12/3/13)
REG: 92 (2/27/14)
AUD: 95 (4/22/14)

Roger CPA, Wiley Test Banks, NINJA Notes & Audio

[kmm1216]

Sure, I'm pretty systematic with the way I study through the material, so it'd be easy to follow if you wanted to try. It's a lot per section, but it pays off.

I start off of course by reading the chapter; I don't go too crazy, just trying to get an idea of what's to come for the lecture. Then, I watch the lecture, taking notes along the way, the usual. I then go back to reading the chapter, basically adding some of the notes in that I've taken, or highlighting key points. I know NINJA says you don't need to highlight, but I don't think it hurts either, especially when you're going through your final review. After that, I'll re-write the NINJA notes for the given section, and take special note of items that NINJA covered that may have been skimmed through or missed in Roger's book/lecture. Now with all of the important topics highlighted/noted, I start to make my own flashcards. Usually it's formatted with a question on the front side, and the answer and maybe an example on the back side. The amount I make varies with topic, but for both BEC and FAR so far, I ended up with close to 400 flash cards each.

Now to prepare for answering the questions Roger assigned, I re-read the chapter a third time. I make sure I'm very thorough this time with it. After that, I go through the assigned questions the way Roger says to (answer one, read answer, etc.) and track my scores. I'll then use the WTB to answer any problems in the practice sessions, since I want instant feedback (I save the pop quizzes and take a test option for my final review). Finally, I answer the free problems on cpareviewforfree.com because their questions are a bit different style so it's like a whole new set, and each CPA exam section has about 600 problems each.

This is really the whole timeline of events for each section. Along the way, I also listen to and read my NINJA notes/audio (usually during my hour long subway commute to school) and I'll go through my flashcards as well in bed or wherever else. I know this is probably a lot and you could definitely do less and still pass, but I'd rather over-study and “waste my time” passing the first time than have to retake a part and end up studying more that way. I hope this really long-winded message helps! Haha.

BEC: 88 (8/27/13)
FAR: 93 (12/3/13)
REG: 92 (2/27/14)
AUD: 95 (4/22/14)

Roger CPA, Wiley Test Banks, NINJA Notes & Audio

[jle1028]

About a year ago, I felt the same way. I was unemployed but had my credits to sit. I bought Roger's review course in September 2012 and had my NTS in hand by the first week of October. I started working on REG in mid-September and scheduled to sit in the first week of November. Studying went well at the beginning, but I lost all motivation for about four weeks, picking up again just before sitting. I started a new job shortly thereafter and scheduled my second exam for February. The big takeaway from all of that: I didn't appreciate all of the free time that came with not having a job until I no longer had that freedom.

Seriously, get on it. It sucks, it's never fun, and, as you know, Roger's FAR-1 is just a bit of a mishmash slog. It'll get better, but you have to suck it up and just do it.

Getting through three sections of Roger's videos a day isn't too terrible, but then again, I learned through this process that when it comes to test prep, I'm a sprinter, not a marathon runner (alright, maybe I already knew that, but this whole process reaffirmed it). BEC and AUD were prepared for in two and two and a half weeks, respectively. I'd imagine that REG was in that general range as well, although prolly closer to the three week mark when the dust settled.

Just make sure that as you go through your studies, you spend lots of time reviewing the reasons behind the multiple choice questions' answers. I really like Roger's suggestion that you do one problem at a time, checking the answer after each one. It is time consuming, but it is really worth it.

Best of luck!

REG -- 77 (11/12)
AUD -- 77 (2/13)
BEC -- 89 (4/13)
FAR -- 91 (10/13)

Roger CPA, Wiley

[jle1028]

About a year ago, I felt the same way. I was unemployed but had my credits to sit. I bought Roger's review course in September 2012 and had my NTS in hand by the first week of October. I started working on REG in mid-September and scheduled to sit in the first week of November. Studying went well at the beginning, but I lost all motivation for about four weeks, picking up again just before sitting. I started a new job shortly thereafter and scheduled my second exam for February. The big takeaway from all of that: I didn't appreciate all of the free time that came with not having a job until I no longer had that freedom.

Seriously, get on it. It sucks, it's never fun, and, as you know, Roger's FAR-1 is just a bit of a mishmash slog. It'll get better, but you have to suck it up and just do it.

Getting through three sections of Roger's videos a day isn't too terrible, but then again, I learned through this process that when it comes to test prep, I'm a sprinter, not a marathon runner (alright, maybe I already knew that, but this whole process reaffirmed it). BEC and AUD were prepared for in two and two and a half weeks, respectively. I'd imagine that REG was in that general range as well, although prolly closer to the three week mark when the dust settled.

Just make sure that as you go through your studies, you spend lots of time reviewing the reasons behind the multiple choice questions' answers. I really like Roger's suggestion that you do one problem at a time, checking the answer after each one. It is time consuming, but it is really worth it.

Best of luck!

REG -- 77 (11/12)
AUD -- 77 (2/13)
BEC -- 89 (4/13)
FAR -- 91 (10/13)

Roger CPA, Wiley

[Author]

Replies