[jeff]

Free Study Planner, Notes, Audio, Flashcards: https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-study-plan/

Free CPA Exam Survival Guide: https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-survival-guide/

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

[jstay]

yes F2 for becker

[nicole2035]

@2014CPA i started reviewing for chapters 1-5 and my scores jumped dramatically. i wouldn't worry, just give yourself enough time to review and go back and forth to chapters to really cement yourself and practice

just got done with leases and partnerships after a rough memorial weekend. couldn't say no to the partying, alcohol, or sales at the mall. Playing catch up, hope you all had a great weekend.

[jbethelak]

Just finished Yaeger Lecture for Mod 12: Monetary Assets and Current Liabilities, lots of information, lots to remember, IFRS provisions and contingencies are something I am going to have to drill myself, got to separate the concept from GAAP, on to Lecture for Mod 13: Present Value,

Hope everyone is on schedule,

FAR: July 5, 2014
AUD: TBD
REG: TBD
BEC: TBD

[Anonymous]

@magatha12: I noticed you said that you were going through the CPAexcel books before getting to MCQ's. Did you take notes while reading? I just started last week and took detailed notes for the first few lessons because it seemed like the MCQ's were looking for really detailed knowledge. But it was taking way too long to get through each lesson. After looking up how others here were taking notes, I printed out my NINJA notes and followed along with the CPAexcel text, only taking simple notes here and there. Just wondering what your process is. Without taking too many notes, I can probably read through the books in 5 weeks and start doing the MCQs.

[jstay]

How confident do you feel before moving to the enxt lesson? I did F2 with becker this past weekend and dont really fel confident. I mean i looked in my school texts and seem to grasp more of it today. But in general, how do you know your ready for the next one?

Also, I'm not taking FAR until August (hopefully the end of August), so my main question is when should i start REALLY going hard and not doing much else except studying? I feel like its a bit early to do that now but when I am out with my friends or doing anything besides studying for the CPA exam i'm thinking “omg i need go home and study i'm never gonna get through this.”–especially after not doing so hot on F2.

Just venting, any thoughts would be nice

[Mamabear]

@jstay–I think it's important to get a general understanding during your first pass of the material. The detailed understanding will come later when you start quizzing. If you try to get everything now, you will forget a lot of it by the time you get to the last chapter. One common mistake I think people make is to go too in depth initially and some don't even get through all the material once because they were so focused on nailing everything from the beginning. Get through it all then start quizzing from your Qbank. I started out taking notes while reading and then realized I was writing nearly everything because it all seemed important so I stopped taking notes and started focusing on just learning the material. I resumed my note taking when I go the MCQ. I wrote down the concepts that I got wrong. Another thing I see is that people rewrite the entire MCQ with answers if they got them incorrect. I think that is less effective than just writing down the concept because the questions probably won't be word for word the same on your test and it really is the concept that you need to understand so you can answer questions about the same concept, even if the questions are worded differently. If you have 12 weeks to study then I would probably try to get through all the chapters in 8 weeks and leave a good solid 4 weeks for review/quizzing/rewriting notes/etc. The test date sneaks up on you no matter how early you get started. Go ahead and make a plan for the weeks you have left and whether or not you have to study more/less should be determined by how much you want/need to cover in that week.

CPA Exam - Finally DONE (November 2014)
BEC (08/10/13) 80
AUD (08/24/13) 65 (11/13/13) 85
FAR (04/12/14) 81
REG (07/19/14) 69 (11/29/14) 87!!

[magatha12]

@DianeB2014- Yes I'm taking fairly detailed notes on everything just to make sure I understand it when I read through the book. I work full time so I've been reading about 2hrs a day and then catching up on weekends. I've been reading since April 16th and right now I only have 50 pages left to read. I know it is ALOT of material to read through, but I feel like it gives me an overall feel of all the material so that I make sure I can get through it all once.

I listen to the audio everyday for about an hour just to keep everything fresh, and read through NINJA notes after I read through a section.

After I finish the gov't section, I'm hoping to dive into all the MCQs and only go back to the book if I'm absolutely stuck on a concept.

I hope this helps!!

FAR: 79
AUD: 81
REG:5/29/15
BEC:85

Using CPA Excel, NINJA notes and audio, NINJA MCQs

[Anonymous]

Thanks magatha!

@Mamabear: Your post helped me too. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hopefully I can start F9 today. But before that i really want to do the optional mcqs for F8 and before I tackle those I really want to do a quick review of the flash cards and highlights of F8..lol…I know, it sounds crazy, esp after reading mamabears's post.

Mamabear you are absolutely correct..no need to get into too much detail at this point. Ill hv to bear that in mind as I go thru the last 2 chapters.

Cant wait to be done with FAR. If I pass this beast, I'll consider my self a CPA 😀

[Mamabear]

Glad to help! It took me several tests to learn my best way to study. I spent a lot of hours studying that actually weren't very effective. Keep pushing through and you'll know what works for you.

CPA Exam - Finally DONE (November 2014)
BEC (08/10/13) 80
AUD (08/24/13) 65 (11/13/13) 85
FAR (04/12/14) 81
REG (07/19/14) 69 (11/29/14) 87!!

[kappa1032]

I took a progress test recently and did horribly in the sections that I worked on in the beginning – do you guys have tips on how to retain that info?

FAR - 81
REG - 74, 87
AUD - 88
BEC - 88

Finally.

“The only guarantee for failure is to stop trying”
― John C. Maxwell

[kappa1032]

I took a progress test recently and did horribly in the sections that I worked on in the beginning – do you guys have tips on how to retain that info?

FAR - 81
REG - 74, 87
AUD - 88
BEC - 88

Finally.

“The only guarantee for failure is to stop trying”
― John C. Maxwell

[Mamabear]

Take a short quiz each night on the prior stuff before you start a new section. It helps keep it fresh until you get to the full on review phase. I also reviewed my notes on my lunch break sometimes to 1-keep it fresh and 2-repetition helps retention. The more you read your notes/rewrite notes/quiz, the more information sinks in.

CPA Exam - Finally DONE (November 2014)
BEC (08/10/13) 80
AUD (08/24/13) 65 (11/13/13) 85
FAR (04/12/14) 81
REG (07/19/14) 69 (11/29/14) 87!!

[Mamabear]

And don't take the progress tests until you're in the review phase. It's not going to go well while you're initially learning all this material. It is just too much information in the beginning.

CPA Exam - Finally DONE (November 2014)
BEC (08/10/13) 80
AUD (08/24/13) 65 (11/13/13) 85
FAR (04/12/14) 81
REG (07/19/14) 69 (11/29/14) 87!!

[JamesBJames]

I guess I'll offer a differing opinion — I would definitely recommend going over the previous chapters whenever you finish a new section, even if that just means 20-30 questions over the old material. When I finished F4, I did 90 questions over F1-F3. When I finished F5, I did 90 questions over F1-F4, etc. and I retained stuff incredibly well by the time I was done with F10.

I decided not to do progress tests for AUD, and it took me a re-read of the whole book to re-learn a lot of stuff that I had previously forgotten. I think I understand the AUD material relatively better as a result, but man, it probably wasn't very efficient.

IMO, if you answer a couple of questions now, it saves you a lot of stress later. Otherwise, you've got to do consolidations, cash to accrual basis conversions, exchanges lacking commercial substance and so on after not being exposed to the material for over a month.

Of course, different methods work for different people. If it's hard to juggle multiple chapters in your head at once, then I imagine it's totally alright to let the material sit in your brain for a while first.

FAR: May 1st, 2014 - 91
AUD: May 29th, 2014 - 97!
BEC: July 16th, 2014 - 91
REG: August 29th, 2014 - 88

Licensed December 2015

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[Author]

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