[UConn_CPA]

DONE!

After 1,100 hours of study, practicing 450 sims & 14,000 MCQs I passed all four parts of the CPA exam!

To those of you still studying my encouragement is to keep going; don’t quit; you can do it!

For me one of the biggest take-aways from the exam is when you fail, evaluate what worked & what didn’t, create a new plan of attack, and try again. After failing two parts in a row, I did just that. Here are some of the things that worked for me.

1. Reading “Your memory: how it works and how to improve it.” – After two fails in a row I wanted to take a step back from traditional CPA study material and study the science of studying. I realize most people won’t have time to squeeze another book into their schedule, but this book was really helpful to me so I wanted to share it. Not every page of the book was helpful, but the handful of things that were (i.e. SQ3R method; peg method; etc.) gave me a boost towards passing.

2. Study all the time anywhere & everywhere – I was very conscious of trying to incorporate learning into every area of life, trying to redeem as much “dead” time as possible. In the morning while I ironed my clothes and then made breakfast I was either listening to Ninja audio or doing flashcards. Everywhere I drove I listened to Ninja audio. If I was doing something mindless at work (i.e. data entry) I would listen to Ninja audio.

3. Schedule time to rest – The flip side of the previous point is to make sure to schedule time for rest. I learned the hard way that you physically cannot study 24/7. I almost burned out (twice). For me it worked best to just block off Sunday nights.

4.Play to your strengths

*Reading – Initially I did the traditional route of watching videos & taking notes. But after two fails I decided to try making reading my book my primary means of learning. For me this turned out to be a more effective way of learning than watching the videos.

*SQ3R – In addition I incorporated the SQ3R method of reading each chapter. While this took far longer than just traditional reading, I believe it helped tremendously.

* Flashcards – After my fails I really stepped up the amount of time I spent drilling through flashcards. I designated my lunch “break” each day for flashcards. In addition, after dinner each night my wife would go through a deck of flashcards with me. The repetition was key for knowing concepts cold, and then executing on test day. Think back to how you learned best in school.

5.Take your time to understand problems – Initially I judged the “success” of study time by how many MCQs I had completed. But the exam isn’t a race, per se. Quality, not quantity is the key to passing. On especially tricky questions I would write out an explanation of what the question was asking for, what principle was being tested, and how to solve it. I pretended like I was a teacher explaining it to my class. Again, this took longer, but I believe it was helpful.

These are some things that worked for me, and I hope that others will find something they can take away from this post to help themselves out. I was helped many time by all of the ninja’s here on the board, and I hope in some small way I too can give back.

Wishing everyone all the best in their studies!

REG - 78
BEC - 79
FAR - 71, 78
AUD - 67, 85

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*Wiley books & test bank
*Roger books & videos
*NINJA audio
*NINJA MCQ
*Study Blue for flashcards

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the post!

[Author]

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