[Tcohle]

NINJA Question –

Hi all!

Hopefully all of you Ninjas can help me out. I bought Wiley CPAExcel before I knew about Ninja. It’s very detailed, has a good online structure for the course. But I found I was dragging along and it was taking forever. Not only that, but I felt like I was “over-taking” notes from the book. I was writing so much and I never felt like I was retaining it.

So I bought Ninja Notes. Now Ninja is more like a cram course. But I thought this would be a good strategy:

OLD WAY:

Read book/power point slides and take EXTENSIVE notes

Do MCQ in Exam mode

Do Proficiency Questions

Do SIMS

*Did not always feel like I was retaining what I learned

NEW WAY:

Read book/powerpoint while having Ninja Notes open

Write my own notes in between Ninja Notes (combining)

Do a lot of Wiley Test bank MCQs

1) Is this a good study tactic? Does anyone else have a better suggestion?

2) If the subject itself is not in the Ninja Notes, should I not focus on it as much?

3) Would it be more efficient to not worry about getting good “grades” in each individual lesson and just focus on Wiley Test Bank?

FAR- 5/11/15 76!!
AUD-10/31/15 63, 84!
REG-7/12/16 72
BEC-8/31/15 75!! Perfect Score!

Wiley CPAExcel Platinum
Ninja 10 pt combo for FAR/AUD/BEC

[Anonymous]

1) I used that method for AUD, FAR and REG and I passed all 3. I stopped doing the proficiency questions and listening to the lectures because it wasn't working for me. And, I also got the NINJA flashcards – nice to review quickly on the go.

2) I found NINJA notes was an awesome tool for my review (2 or 3 weeks before I would take my test). CPA Excel has SO much info, the notes helped me isolate the bigger concepts to better review.

3) I never worried about the “grades”. I would copy/paste the questions I got wrong into Excel and would rewrite those (also during my review).

Good luck!

[Tcohle]

BuckyCPA thanks man! This is my first time taking any CPA test and I have nobody around me that understands (or they took it 30 years ago lol). So I followed the study program to a T. I was worried that maybe I would miss some topics if I used the notes as a structure for my overall notes. I take my test May 11th and have been studying since Feb. 10th. I figured I would need to acclimate myself to everything.

Eventually I started memorizing the MCQ just to get my score up. Waste of time. I might go through the Wiley Test bank and get Ninja MCQs.

Did you take a ton of notes from the book or were you more on the MCQ-note-taking side?

FAR- 5/11/15 76!!
AUD-10/31/15 63, 84!
REG-7/12/16 72
BEC-8/31/15 75!! Perfect Score!

Wiley CPAExcel Platinum
Ninja 10 pt combo for FAR/AUD/BEC

[Anonymous]

I followed the CPA Excel study program as well my first exam, and ended up failing with a 73.

I take very minor notes when I read through powerpoint/the book, but I do make flashcards/notes for myself on bigger concepts or items I have a tough time comprehending the first time.

Sounds like you are going to be well-prepared – I have been out of school 12 years and a stay at home mom for 2 years now, so this has been a tough process for me too!

[Last Chance CPA]

I have been using CPAExcel since the beginning. It looks like you never used the videos, which was a wise choice. Other than Pam Smith, they all are terrible – e.g., Marriane Jennings.

1) Is this a good study tactic? Does anyone else have a better suggestion?

I would add Ninja MCQ just to add to the variety of MCQs. Ninja notes are great, but audio is hard to follow sometimes. WTB has questions very similar to CPAExcel sometimes (too much overlap).

2) If the subject itself is not in the Ninja Notes, should I not focus on it as much?

Focus on it. Ninja is great but it's not comprehensive literature. The CPAExcel book probably has too much information, so I would focus on the study text instead. I read both FAR books for CPAExcel (1200 pages?) and it was torture.

3) Would it be more efficient to not worry about getting good “grades” in each individual lesson and just focus on Wiley Test Bank?

Again, add Ninja MCQ. Everyone seems to love the “adaptive learning”. Get both test banks up to 70-80% and you should hopefully be set 🙂

One more thing I do in CPAExcel is print out full exams.

1-Start an exam.

2-Just exit out of each testlet like you are working the testlet, but don't answer any questions.

3-Exit out of all sections including the SIMs.

4-End exam.

5-Get Results (0% of course).

6-Open each testlet, CNTRL+A, CNTRL+V onto Microsoft Word.

7-Voila! You have the entire exam with answers. Study away…

FAR - 76
AUD - 75
BEC - 75
REG - 76

Now I need some experience!!! And some networking...

[Tcohle]

@LastChance–Thanks!! I'm going to do that exam print out thing you suggested. I just bought the Ninja MCQs. Really love the adaptive learning feature. I'm just about to start the “Specific Transactions section” of Wiley but I may take today and churn out a ton of MCQ to review the past sections. I haven't been reviewing too much

Link: Current CPAexcel Discount Codes

FAR- 5/11/15 76!!
AUD-10/31/15 63, 84!
REG-7/12/16 72
BEC-8/31/15 75!! Perfect Score!

Wiley CPAExcel Platinum
Ninja 10 pt combo for FAR/AUD/BEC

[Author]

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