[Anonymous]

NINJA Question –

Hi – I understand that reading the Ninja book and taking notes can take the place of watching the videos and taking notes – but my notes seem to be me just writing everything down that I read (since I’m supposed to take notes on anything I might forget) and I’m worried that it will take me too long to get through the book – I heard ideally I should do this in 2 weeks or less – I’m taking my exam May 29 so this means I need to be done by April 5 – Do non stop mcqs between April 6 and April 10 (and start re-writing my notes no later than April 10 – Any advice on note taking? Did you guys basically re-write the book too?. I’ve only taken notes til pg 57 – “III Financial Reporting” and kind of skimmed (no notes) “IV Other Financial Statements” – thanks.

[Mjganier]

I didn't take a lot of notes at all really and instead used thr ninja notes as my quick reference material. I took more notes while doing the MCQ if anything. For every question I got wrong, I always wrote it down so I could come back and review it later. I found doing that to be more efficient than taking notes from the book since I was practically rewriting the whole book.

FAR 8/18/2014--87
AUD 10/18/2014--78
REG 11/24/2014--76
BEC 2/28/2015--76

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"-Albert Einstein

Study Mats: Cpaexcel study text and EQ, Ninja MCQ, Ninja notes

[Anonymous]

Thanks Mjganier – that's an impressive FAR score – did you recently graduate from school or have really good grades in intermediate accounting? Mine unfortunately weren't so good and its been a while since I was in school. How long did it take you to get through the cpaexcel study text (I have cpaexcel too) and did you read it cover to cover like Jeff suggests we do with the Ninja notes?

[Mjganier]

Nope. I graduated in May 2012 and didn't get a job in the field until March last year. My grades in my intermediates were all C's lol. I struggled a lot with the material and I was working 30-35 hours a week to go to school full time but, I managed to get through all of them the first time. I took 10 weeks to prepare for FAR. I was able to recall a good bit of info from school but I had a lot drop out that I had to relearn. I took 8 weeks to get through the CPAexcel study text, Exam Questions, and rewrite the Ninja Notes once or twice a week. Then I did about 200-300 Ninja MCQ daily and rewrote the Ninja Notes 5-6 times in the two weeks prior to the exam to review everything. I overstudied, obviously, but I'm glad I did. If there's any exam you don't want to have to retake, it's this beast. I also used the FAR Ninja Audio anytime I did yard work, walking the dog, or working out. Repetition is key and the more you can see/hear the info the better you'll retain it.

FAR 8/18/2014--87
AUD 10/18/2014--78
REG 11/24/2014--76
BEC 2/28/2015--76

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"-Albert Einstein

Study Mats: Cpaexcel study text and EQ, Ninja MCQ, Ninja notes

[Anonymous]

Wow – well I have like 9-ish weeks (counting 3/23 as my start date) – I must admit I've taken FAR before and I'm totally multiple times bitten, shy. I guess I have to see how long my write read takes and if it seems like it's lagging switch to the notes and mcqs – I want to like cpaexcel but couldn't get back into it after using it last time – they way the just jumped into the statement of cash flows just made me drag – but hmm I guess I could just skip that for a little bit – but yeah its almost like I have too many study methods at my disposal and am having a hard time committing – thank you for your input. Why does there have to be so much material.

[Mjganier]

Make sure and utilize this forum for topics you aren't locking down. I know I found a lot of useful info for remembering cash flows and deferred taxes. Anytime I hit a topic that didn't explain well, I came here and searched it in the forum search. 9 out of 10 times I was able to find better explanations

FAR 8/18/2014--87
AUD 10/18/2014--78
REG 11/24/2014--76
BEC 2/28/2015--76

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"-Albert Einstein

Study Mats: Cpaexcel study text and EQ, Ninja MCQ, Ninja notes

[Author]

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