[I'm, Ron Burgundy?]

Becker Question –

I feel like I’m re-writing the entire freaking book as Gearty pours more “highlight, circle, underline” out of his mouth. The entire book is nothing more than theoretical memorization. By using the NINJA method it’s taking me 2 hours to take notes on a 40 minute lecture. All this guy wants me to do is highlight this, circle that, underline here. Ughhh. It’s so frustrating. The NINJA method worked well for me with BEC as I adopted it on my 3rd go round and passed. However, Audit is nothing more than memorization it seems. There has got to be a better way. Does anyone have any suggestions? My hand is cramping badly and I’m not even an hour into the A-2 lecture. My NTS will expire in six months by the time I get done re-writing this book.

Midway down the page, number two, highlight…

I’d like to highlight my fist punching my laptop right now!

"If you're going through hell, keep going"
- Winston Churchill

"I've missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost over 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot, and missed. I've failed, over and over and over again in my life. And that is why, I succeed."
- Michael Jordan

BEC: (54), (72), 80 (losing credit on 02/02/15 - nervous)
AUD: 78
REG: (74), 91
FAR: (71)

[WestonM]

I feel your pain, A1 and A2 are terrible. How much detail are we expected to know for these reports? There are tons of tiny details.

BEC: 93 4/18/13
FAR: 89 7/3/13
REG: 90 8/30/13
AUD: 95 11/29/13

DONE!

[jeff]

Try it their way this time … hopefully you will have success.

If not – go back to ninja.

I'm not a fan of memorizing a bunch for AUD. I think it's more conceptual.

[WestonM]

@Jeff

When you get right down to it learning conceptual things is just a fancy way of saying memorizing.

BEC: 93 4/18/13
FAR: 89 7/3/13
REG: 90 8/30/13
AUD: 95 11/29/13

DONE!

[jeff]

Perhaps … I more or less meant to conceptually understand what is going on vs gorging on mnemonics.

[WestonM]

Becker Mnemonics so far through A2 are not that great. There are just tons of detail in these report formats.

BEC: 93 4/18/13
FAR: 89 7/3/13
REG: 90 8/30/13
AUD: 95 11/29/13

DONE!

[Amay]

Since initially I was hoping to study for Audit only 3 weeks (it ended up being more like 4.5 weeks total with a 1 week vacation of zero studying in between) I skipped the Becker lectures and went straight to the MCQs. I think this might be the best method for Audit because it forces you to learn the concepts right away. Also, a lot of the Becker Audit questions are repetitive. I applied NINJA method by 1) listening to NINJA audio in my commute to/from work 2) re-writing Jeff's notes after finishing the MCQs and 3)doing the 20 MCQ mini progress tests after re-writing my notes, also with Becker. We will see if my method worked or not on Monday!

I should add that I have audit experience which I think helped me a lot. A person without experience may need the lectures to at least understand the concepts first before jumping into the questions. Also, because of my time constraint, I told myself from the beginning I was only doing 80% of the MCQs in each section for my first go at them just to make sure I didn't run out of time. I also knew I wanted to do some re-writing of the notes before my review doing mini progress tests. I tend to take long with the MCQs because I lose focus quickly and I take good notes for each question.

I would suggest not taking so many detailed notes if you are going to continue watching the lectures. Just grab the main points and jot those down. Try writing them in your own words when you can, not verbatim. Although I know how tempting that sometimes is, it just takes too long! Don't think that you are not learning everything you need because when you work your MCQs, you should be taking notes anyway so the material WILL stick. That is when the real learning happens. Good luck!

BEC: 73, 81
AUD: 85
FAR: 71, 77
REG: 74, 75...finally DONE! 😀

*This is my 2nd attempt at the CPA exam. For all of you who have failed this exam many times, given up on it, or taken a break like me, remember that it is still possible to finish what you started...failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently 🙂

[lvr21]

As you can tell by my signature, I haven't passed Audit.

I think you just have to take a little from each person and craft your own study plan and what works best for you. I personally have read over MCLKT's study plan and I am using it to study with a few minor changes. I feel like it will work the best for me! It takes a little bit of NINJA, Becker, personal experience and mixes it all together to get the best results or at least I hope!

{R: PASSED!! (I passed one!)}
{B: PASSED!! (Halfway there!)}
{F: PASSED!! (1 left!!!)}
{A: PASSED(I am done!!)}

[I'm, Ron Burgundy?]

Jeff is the guru, I trust his methods. However painful, the NINJA method will be my route. One penny doubled per day for 30 days…

Thanks for the pick me up and the advice guys. I swear sometimes that this site keeps me going. Well, that and the Audi R8 I picture myself driving.

"If you're going through hell, keep going"
- Winston Churchill

"I've missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost over 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot, and missed. I've failed, over and over and over again in my life. And that is why, I succeed."
- Michael Jordan

BEC: (54), (72), 80 (losing credit on 02/02/15 - nervous)
AUD: 78
REG: (74), 91
FAR: (71)

[Never_Give_Up1]

I typed the entire becker videos for each section… it works. You have to tailor it to what are you weak points though. I typed up the entire videos going through them the first time. Took about 3 times as long as a video length was… Then took the areas that were difficult for me and had a high probability of being tested and went over that information again and again.

Audit is a tricky beast… you cant blame the “ninja method” because of audits difficulty curve. 1 word in the question can change the way a question entirely and they do it all the time in that test.

The method works… my scores prove it.

FAR - 81
REG - 81
AUD - 82
BEC - 81

Ethics - Done
State License Exam - Done

License - Licensed CPA in Utah

[Author]

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