[MaLoTu]

I am certain I am not studying as effectively as I can. I have plenty of distractions right now, but aside from that I am just not sure really how to study.

Can someone share what they do? I am home pretty much all day. I have been practicing for 5-6 hours a day. I just don’t know if what I am doing is really right. Mostly doing MCQ and writing my own flash cards.

I just need some ideas and input.

[sweetmoon]

I was studying full time with a 3 year old, and I studied about 8-10 hours a day on weekdays and about 4-6 hours on weekends.I was able to finish all the exams in about 7 months. My weekday schedule is like this :- 4.30 am-7.30am, and then from 9.30-11.30 when my daughter is at preschool, and from 1pm-5pm I leave her at a daycare and finally 6pm-8pm at the Library. The last couple of hours were on as needed basis, like when I was close to an exam or if I wanted to tread through a difficult topic.

As people always say the number of hours doesnt matter, the quality matters. But for the CPA exam with so much to study and practice,but to me, both matters. Whay review system do you use? Do you spend some time studying your material or watching lectures?

FAR : 71, 83
AUD : 73,88
BEC : 87
REG : sweet 82 and DONE !!

[MaLoTu]

I use Becker and just started using the Ninja FC. I attend live lectures for each module and I will go back and re-watch certain topics if I need refreshing or another type of explanation. I drop my kids off at school and am home by 8:30am. I try to work on my stuff while they are at school. My study has consisted mostly of completing 90+% of the MCQ and writing my own flash cards. I find it incredibly difficult to memorize flash cards … it is the least appealing thing that I do for all the study. After my kids are home from school I try to get in another hour or 2 of working with the material. I try to take breaks to keep up on household stuff, but even that is hard to do. I failed the last two exams I took and I feel traumatized by it! I study about 5 hours a day … I would say that it ends up being over 200 hours by test time and that isn't including the live lectures. That is why I feel I am just doing something wrong.

Can you tell me your study method, like how you went through the material?

[Anonymous]

Hi MaLoTu,

I use Becker as well and just started using the NINJA package for BEC. For Becker I took the live classes so that I knew I would go through the material at least once and had someone I could ask questions to directly. (I took the Saturday classes because I work full-time) I would go to the library on Sunday or lock myself in a room away from my family and study for 5 hours or so. I have flex-time at work so I wake up early and get everyone ready for the day and leave for work. If I get to work early I usually did some questions or read over the outlines or NINJA notes then I listen to lecture while I work through out the day as my “music” and study at lunch then get off and go to the library or study at work if it is quiet until around 8 or 9 if I really am behind. I usually gave myself a chapter to 1.5 chapters a week for Becker. I would just run though the questions until I got a 90% and then do the sims. If I was lacking in time I would just read over the sims and print out the answers Becker gave and read through them (especially the chapters that had a lot of sim examples since those are usually the ones that are on the exam the most.) For BEC sims I would pull up the answer and type in what the answer was to practice the format the exam is expecting since that is more what it is looking for than the correct answer (and I have gotten strong in the writing content section.) It took me a little over 2 months to practice for FAR and 6-7 weeks to practice for the others this way.

Hope this helps!

[smazthespaz]

It depends on how much time you have before your next exam. I've done 1 per window. Every night after work I study for about 1-2 hours, depending if I want to go to the gym or not. On the weekends, I usually try for at least 2 hours a day. I use Becker self study. I'll watch the lecture then do the HW problems before moving on the next topic. It's a good idea to give yourself at least a couple weeks to review the MCQ on any topic you are still uncomfortable with and practice the sims.

REG - 83 11/24/14
AUD - 94 2/17/15
FAR - 93 5/26/15
BEC - 90 8/10/15

[Author]

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