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So I received my CPA license as of 4/6/12 and the certificate actually came in the mail on on the last day of tax season, so needless to say the end of tax season was a little bit more cheery than usual. Anyways, I always joked that one of the reasons why I wanted to get my license is so that I can sit around and dispense sage advice to those who havent finished the exams. Now that I’m done, I think I’ll get on the soapbox and dispense a few choice nuggets of wisdom:
1.) You don’t have to be really smart to pass. There is no single subject in any of the four topics that are too mind bending for a someone who was smart enough to graduate high school and earn a college degree, you can understand variances or pension liabilities or AMT. At the very least, you can understand them enough to get a few questions right on the exam.
2.) When taking the exam, don’t get too hung up on questions. If you feel like a question is totally from outer space, it probably is. Don’t dwell on it, just move along and use that time for something more productive than saying “WTF is this!?!?!”
3.) I’m not a believer that you need x amount of weeks or x amount of days to study. It’s all based on the number of hours. For REG AUD and BEC you need at least 80 hours and probably closer to 100 hours to be ready. At least 130 for FAR
4.) You are an individual and unique snowflake, so if you do better using flashcards or reading the book instead of doing MCQ or whatever, thats fine. Everyone is different, learns differently, etc. Just because the hotshot dude at work spent 9 million hours re writing his notes does not mean you need to rewrite your notes. what matters if it works for you.
5.) I dont buy the notion that you cant have a normal well adjusted social life while taking the exam. If you are sacrificing a night out with your special lady or your man friend so you can chug redbull and half watch pete onlinto yammer on while you are half awake and going through the motions, you aren’t doing anyone a favor. If you aren’t studying with purpose or efficiency, you might as well just take some time off, recharge, have a few beers or watch some manhating movies on Lifetime or whatever. I’ll never buy that bashing your head against a wall is a legit strategy for success.
6.) Even though I passed, I’m still 27, I still make stupid mistakes at work, and I still don’t know a ton. The CPA license is an accomplishment, but there are far more other things that need to be done to be a good and well paid accountant. The Steelers old coach, Chuck Noll, always used to say “you can never arrive.” Well, I certainly havent arrived.
Good luck, have fun, and study a bit.
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