[mds86]

After having passed the CPA exams, I really wished there was some kind of outlet where I could post my top CPA studying tips for other candidates going through the exam. I tried doing a search here, but couldn’t find a thread. It would be great if we could get a thread going that would stick around for candidates to read through. Even better, let’s have it so its in an easy to read list format. I’ll post mine below and hopefully other passing candidates can post their top tips as well. I would imagine that other candidates should center on those tips that are mentioned more than a couple times.

My top tips for studying:

1) Take notes and revisit those notes. It took me a long time to actually believe in this method. I wasn’t a heavy note taker in college as I found it time consuming, but once I started doing this during my studying, I realized just how well you retain the knowledge when you take notes, read those notes and then – believe it or not – re-write those notes. Notes taken aren’t worth much if you don’t revisit those notes in some fashion.

2) Final review is key. In general, I found that I would fail an exam if I didn’t put enough weight behind a good final review plan. Make sure to leave one to two weeks for final review – this is absolutely key. Do not slack early on when studying and eat into precious final review time. If you’re slacking early on and know it will eat into the final review time frame – reevaluate your study plan to make sure you have at least a week.

3) Practice/ progress tests are key. I can’t stress enough how valuable progress tests are during final review (or better yet, at the end of each section). Progress tests allow you to hone in on your week areas. Think of the words “divide and conquer.”

4) Know content weight. What I mean by this is know the weights behind each test’s subjects. A helpful tool are the Content Specific Outlines of each exam. Many study programs (such as Becker) try to get you to know EVERYTHING. This is great, however, how many of us go into an exam knowing absolutely everything? I would bet that MOST candidates lay out a perfect study plan to get a score in the 85-90 range, but don’t actually execute their plan perfectly. Knowing the weights helps later on in your study plan (especially during final review) so you don’t end up spending your precious remaining time on something that may only show up 5% of the time (just an example). I found this to be key to passing Regulation, where the bulk of the exam is Tax and a smaller portion of the exam consists of EVERYTHING ELSE. However, Becker’s review doesn’t really lay out their study program according to this. Take FAR’s Gov’t and NFP for example, Becker – FOR SOME REASON – puts these sections LAST. Good grief. In my experience, the last section of a study program will most likely not be studied as much as the others.

5) Change of scenery. I don’t know about the others, but I would experience what I like to describe as stale study environment syndrome. More often than not, I would, for example, study at home for a couple weeks or a month and start to get really frustrated by the space around me. Not sure why this occurred, but I imagine the study area had become tainted by the negativity that studying creates. As such, I would switch over to studying at a local library. The change of scenery was refreshing and helped me to gear down. If you get into a study rut – go to a coffee shop, go to your library, reorganize your furniture, etc.

6) Procrastination. The first and foremost task to beginning a study regimen is to eliminate procrastination. Actually, better phrased, it’s more like “guerrilla procrastination”. I’m not talking about just not studying on a given weekend, but rather when you start studying and every 5 minutes you check facebook. I found this to really eat into study time. Have a goal each day you set out to study. Have planned breaks. Finish a subtopic and then spend 10 minutes clicking your Farmville farms, then, get back into it. Better yet, try turning your wireless off to make it harder to click that Internet Explorer icon.

Alright, I’m all done here. Sorry for the wordiness but I really wanted to share these tips and hope other candidates can use it to their benefits. Other candidates, feel free to agree, beat mine up or just post your own =)

AUD - 64, 75
BEC - 67, 75
REG - 33, 58, 76
FAR - 41, 73, 84
DONE.

Tip: If you don't feel like you're studying hard, you'll probably fail. Study harder.

[mnh71]

Thanks for the info! You made some great points. I'll try them out!

[Reverie]

How to combat procrastination?

– You gotta set concrete goals day by day.
– Make these goals small. Ex) 50 MCQs each day.
– Reward yourself after you accomplish these goals.

^ Baby steps but as time goes on, it becomes a habit.

[mtaylo24]

@SenseiSkinhead in my experience, a few fails will usually take care of procrastination.

AUD - 1st - 60 (12/12), 61 (2/13), 61 (8/13), 78! (11/15)
REG - 55 (2/16) 69 (5/16) Retake(8/16)
BEC - 71(5/16) Retake (9/16)
FAR - (8/16)

[.]

I didn't take much of any notes. Didn't do any practice exams either.

I do agree with points 2 and 4. It's really retarded how the review courses put government and NFP last (including CPAExcel). That's why I skipped over “Specific Transactions, Events, Disclosures” and did government before it. For REG, I did tax before business law. CPAExcel puts business law before tax and really goes overboard on business law.

Procrastination is a major issue for me since I don't really find accounting very interesting. It's pretty damn dry and the review courses make it even more dry because they take out all the fluff and interesting examples that you would find in a normal college course. I enjoyed my business law class a lot and the online individual tax course was pretty fun too. But REG was blaggggh, barf. Not nearly as bad as FAR but pretty bad.

To keep me from falling asleep while studying or switching over to a wikipedia article on marsupials, I read the textbook out loud. Helped immensely. I guess if you are studying in public that might not be possible.

FAR - June 2016 - 88
REG - July 2016 - 89
AUD - Aug 2016 - review phase currently
BEC - Sep 2016 -

Wiley CPA Excel & Ninja MCQ

[Wannafree]

Thanks for your great post . I’ll try them out!

[Anonymous]

Who uses internet explorer?

[GitRDone2017]

change of scenery is a great idea! I have a nice quiet home to study in yet there are a lot of time that I go to the local library instead of going home. I do this because I know that I will not get as muchc done at home, not sure why! Maybe going to the library get my “in the mood” better? Lol

"Confidence is going after Moby Dick in a rowboat and taking tartar sauce with you" - Zig Ziglar
Ninja book + Ninja MCQ + Roger
AUD Oct 2016
FAR Nov 2016
BEC ?
REG?

[Author]

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