[jeff]

I’ve had a few requests for April/May Study Groups…March will be here before you know it.

In order to take an early April exam, you should begin studying…now. 🙂

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) | Another71 | NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

Is anyone else having trouble keeping US GAAP and IFRS straight? I find myself forgetting when there's a difference and when they're the same. Any tips?

[Anonymous]

Do you have the Ninja Notes? Jeff has a section on just the differences between the two. It's really helpful.

[Anonymous]

I haven't used NINJA yet but I'll definitely look into it if it's good. Thanks for the tip!

[j.ford]

Hey everyone…. starting FAR for the second try; I work full time as an accountant, part-time book keeping, volunteer as treasurer for my church, married and have an 18mo baby girl. I usually try to study after I put my daughter to bed around 830 for several hours and weekends. I drive over an hour each way to work and have bought the BLACKCPA audio and have been listening to it as a supplement to CPA excel. I also listen to it while I work and usually piuck-up a few things throughout the day. Just bought the 10pt combo to have additional mix of material. 4Q13 FAR attempt CPA excel w/ virtual class failed 56 – weaker in all areas except financial statements(comparable). Currently discouraged but still fighting through;. Planning on Mid-April FAR exam date.

How do you stay motivated and put in the study time when you are completely exhausted by the end of the night(more mental than physical)? How do you stay focused on studying the material?

BEC 69 2Q12,69 4Q12, and 69 1Q14

AUD 48 1Q12, 44 3Q12

REG

[j.ford]

Hey everyone…. starting FAR for the second try; I work full time as an accountant, part-time book keeping, volunteer as treasurer for my church, married and have an 18mo baby girl. I usually try to study after I put my daughter to bed around 830 for several hours and weekends. I drive over an hour each way to work and have bought the BLACKCPA audio and have been listening to it as a supplement to CPA excel. I also listen to it while I work and usually piuck-up a few things throughout the day. Just bought the 10pt combo to have additional mix of material. 4Q13 FAR attempt CPA excel w/ virtual class failed 56 – weaker in all areas except financial statements(comparable). Currently discouraged but still fighting through;. Planning on Mid-April FAR exam date.

How do you stay motivated and put in the study time when you are completely exhausted by the end of the night(more mental than physical)? How do you stay focused on studying the material?

BEC 69 2Q12,69 4Q12, and 69 1Q14

AUD 48 1Q12, 44 3Q12

REG 50 2Q13

FAR 56 4Q13

CPA Excel now supplementing with BLACK CPA audio and 10 pt combo.

[RachelP]

Wow sounds like you have a lot on your plate!! I honestly listened to Jeff's email (if you think getting up at 6 is early, try 4:30, was the jist of it & so now I'm in bed promptly at 8:30. Overall I feel better, just trying to get into the groove of it & definitely you should capitalize on your lunch break! I give myself 15 mins to make sandwich/eat sandwich and then 45 minutes pure concentration. I get more done in that 45 minutes than any other, I think bc I know I have to go back to work!

"Don't worry, beeeeee happy!"

Unhappy with job, long distance boyfriend, not much studying:
FAR- 66 [08/28/12] AUD- 61 [10/04/12] REG- 59 [11/28/12] BEC- 63 [01/11/13]
Year off (from exams): Got new job, got married, moved, etc
✓ AUD- 79!!! 01/10/14 FIRST PASS!! WOOOO!!!
✓ REG- 73 02/27/14, 81 10/27/14
✓ FAR- 83 5/16/14
✓ BEC- 80 7/24/14
✓ Education ✓ Experience
Ethics Exam

[melonie88]

@j.ford i think the best way to refresh yourself is light exercise. If you can go for a late night walk, or maybe do some light exercising in your living room for maybe 20-30 mins. That's what rejuvenates me but i live really close to my gym and it's 24 hrs. There's so much stress revolving around this exam that it's the only way i can truly ‘reset' myself and my brain or a moment. All the study material i dream about to some extent when i go to bed, because i'm so worried, but the clarity i get after exercising is unmatched

[j.ford]

@RachelP most days I don't get a lunch just so I can leave by 6 and usually I am starting work by 730…. I am used to the long days an hours by now, I also get up @ 5 just to get out of the house by 6. I have tried to take lunch breaks in the past and study in my car(mainly because if I am at my desk I always get interrupted by “questions needing immediate attention”). I know I have a lot on my plate and I am not working my normal tax season job and stepped away from one of my more demanding part time booking keeping jobs within the last 6 months to focus on the exam more. Unfortunately it seems like there is always something filling my time back up.

@Melonie88 thanks for the advice… I haven't excercised in about 5 years since I started amping up on night classes while working to finish my BA in accounting. It might be a good stress release to start my evenings before getting into studying.

[CPAfit]

started F5 of becker today got done 57%. It's almost bed time my goal was to finish the whole lecture today. I guess something's better than nothing. I am finally getting the ninja way as I am retaining info much better now rather than just watching vids and highlighting pointlessly. Any tips if anybody wants to add what I should focus on and what I can skim through with regards to becker. Thanks in advance

[RachelP]

@jford You have more stamina than I do! Although I am at a disadvantage. I have hypothyroid and just can't keep up like I used to! I don't know what your diet is like – but I recently went to 0 sugar unless it's in my salad type sugars. It was rough week one (why I'm not so confident of my REG score) but now that I'm over the craving part, I have TONS more energy than I did before. Idk. I was one of those girls that said I could give up anything but sweets. I had 1/2 a choc chip cookie a coworker brought in Friday & it tasted weird. Anything that works, right?

"Don't worry, beeeeee happy!"

Unhappy with job, long distance boyfriend, not much studying:
FAR- 66 [08/28/12] AUD- 61 [10/04/12] REG- 59 [11/28/12] BEC- 63 [01/11/13]
Year off (from exams): Got new job, got married, moved, etc
✓ AUD- 79!!! 01/10/14 FIRST PASS!! WOOOO!!!
✓ REG- 73 02/27/14, 81 10/27/14
✓ FAR- 83 5/16/14
✓ BEC- 80 7/24/14
✓ Education ✓ Experience
Ethics Exam

[RachelP]

@zubairs You can do it!! Keep trucking!

"Don't worry, beeeeee happy!"

Unhappy with job, long distance boyfriend, not much studying:
FAR- 66 [08/28/12] AUD- 61 [10/04/12] REG- 59 [11/28/12] BEC- 63 [01/11/13]
Year off (from exams): Got new job, got married, moved, etc
✓ AUD- 79!!! 01/10/14 FIRST PASS!! WOOOO!!!
✓ REG- 73 02/27/14, 81 10/27/14
✓ FAR- 83 5/16/14
✓ BEC- 80 7/24/14
✓ Education ✓ Experience
Ethics Exam

[Anonymous]

Well, I just signed up for my rematch with FAR on May 27. I'm hoping that will give me enough time to get through busy season with my sanity and then hit the books. I am still trying to figure out the best way for me to study. I don't think that the lectures helped me much last time, so I think for this battle I'm going to try reading the books and hitting the MCQ in the books and in the test bank. I'm also going to work harder at incorporating my NINJA flash cards and notes… I started off strong with those and then I just fell apart at the end.

I pretty much need to polish my skills at everything. In my summary letter from NASBA, the only thing I got “stronger” in was Governmental — who does that? I'd love for this to be my last battle with FAR so I can move on to another section. I look forward to utilizing this group a lot in the upcoming months. I plan on trying to just review flash cards during busy season and then start re-reading & doing MCQs after tax season.

[How many letters do you need]

Happy Saturday Q2 FAR gang–CPA Mom, oilgas, Jen..everbody else. I've been crusing through Wiley Mod 12 (Current Assets/Liabilities) and reviewing my week 1 study material Mods 9-11 in the WTB. Took 80 questions randomly over the three mods (in three groups) and managed to squeeze out a 70% average. Certainly not good enough but the bright side is that I can narrow my weaknesses down to a few sub topics in the material, which makes reviwing and improving so much easier. Time to add those sub topics to my notes and begin regular note review. My plan for week 2 of study is to finish up Mod 12 and begin the daunting Mod 13 (for those of you who aren't using Wiley…thats Bonds, Leases, Debt Restructure and Pensions ALL in one Mod). It's an incredible amount of difficult material so it's going to pretty much consume week 2. We will see how I end up on my week 2 review next Sat…

How is everybody else making progress?

MBA,CMA,CPA, CFF?, ABV?

[Anonymous]

@howmanyletters–Hey! I did pretty good this week. I didn't get through everything I wanted to because I had an employee unexpectantly go out on medical leave on Friday so I had to work all day today (during my planned study time) to get a jump start on month end close out since I'll be down a staff accountant. I got through Basic Concepts, Error Corrections, Accounting changes, Inventory, Statement of Cash Flows, Derivatives, and part of the Miscellaneous chapter—reading and adding my own notes to the Ninja Notes. I started quizzing and the only areas I have nailed down (0ver 75% on quizzes) is Intermin reporting, segment reporting, accounting changes, and inventory. I'm scoring between 67 and 75% on the other topics so I know with a little more effort and rewriting my notes I can pull those up. I did take about an hour of study time to printout all the AICPA questions I could find. I think I went back to 2006. I didn't realize they had SIMS as well. I'm going to try to incorporate those into my final review too. Well–I'm just now starting my studying for the night. I'm going to try to get in 5 hours before I pass out. I'm glad to see your studying is going well! I'm avoiding bonds like the plague.:)

[NJPRU]

Good Evening everyone! I hope your power Saturday is going well. I believe I just clocked about 6 1/2 hours and got through, changes in estimates/principles/errors, discontinued operations, and extra ordinary items.. I've been working on Long Term Contracts for the last hour – it's almost like I'm learning this stuff for the first time again (as you said CPAMom!).

Hope you guys are doing well and hanging in there!

AUD: DONE
FAR: DONE
BEC: DONE
REG: DONE

IM GOING TO BE A CPA!!!!!

[Author]

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