[hopefaith]

To whom ever can relate,

I have a slow learning curve when it comes to accounting. I know friends that study an entire chapter of Becker homework problems in one evening while I am lucky enough to drill through 30 questions a night with truly understanding what I am reading.

I also know other CPA candidates that can study for one CPA exam within a couple months. They do all of the Becker home work problems, all of the supplementary questions, all of the simulations, and have enough time to take the practice tests. At my rate, I am on pace on taking four to five months to prepare for the FAR exam and I will have drilled the homework questions, looked over the lectures, drilled the Becker CPA note cards, and practiced one simulation. I religiously study, at the very minimum, for two hours an evening. Four out of seven days, I study for two and a half hours a night and some times study for three hours.

I know every individual has different learning curves and retention rates, but I feel that I am out of place amongst my accounting peers and I am starting to think that I am just not cut out to be a CPA.

Is there any one out there that can offer some insight on my dilemma? Maybe some tips on how to study or if need be some advice on cutting my costs because I am not cut out to be a CPA.

Thanks to all and God Bless

[NJCPA2B]

hopefaith, you're doing good. Are you also studying in the weekends? You should be doing 5 to 10 hours each day in the weekends. And also, you shouldn't be having any down time for yourself, No movies, No going out for dinner or vactation ect…You need to use all of your avail hours….! As you study more, you will pick up speed….Try to spend more time on doing actual problems…

good luck, you got time on your side!

BEC=77, FAR=78, REG=73,74,80, AUD=70,69, 84 DONE!

[NJCPA2B]

hopefaith, you're doing good. Are you also studying in the weekends? You should be doing 5 to 10 hours each day in the weekends. And also, you shouldn't be having any down time for yourself, No movies, No going out for dinner or vactation ect…You need to use all of your avail hours….! As you study more, you will pick up speed….Try to spend more time on doing actual problems…

good luck, you got time on your side!

BEC=77, FAR=78, REG=73,74,80, AUD=70,69, 84 DONE!

[Anonymous]

hopefaith

NJCPA2B is right a big chucnk of the study time comes on the weekend. Have you taken an exam yet? Perhaps if you change up how you study that may help. Some of us are more like the turtle than the hare. We just have to get to the finish line! When you study is it quality time? Or are there too many distractions? Are you trying to achieve too high a % of correct answers on the homework?

Perhaps breaking the information into smaller bites could help:

Listen to the entire lecture for a chapter – highligh and do the notes.

Review one topic, do the homework, review any weaknesses

Move to the next topic

Take the flashcards with you everywhere – when yo have downtime review them

Spend part of the lunchhour to study – flashcards, quick 20 question practice tests

Could you listen to a lecture, review notes, practice problems on the way to work – if your commute is on a train or something

Repetition is a good teaching tool

Have 2 sisters – one can read a textbook and study a few hours and make As the other reads the textbook, studies many hours and does all possible homework and makes a B.- both pass just for one it is easier and less effort.

[Anonymous]

hopefaith

NJCPA2B is right a big chucnk of the study time comes on the weekend. Have you taken an exam yet? Perhaps if you change up how you study that may help. Some of us are more like the turtle than the hare. We just have to get to the finish line! When you study is it quality time? Or are there too many distractions? Are you trying to achieve too high a % of correct answers on the homework?

Perhaps breaking the information into smaller bites could help:

Listen to the entire lecture for a chapter – highligh and do the notes.

Review one topic, do the homework, review any weaknesses

Move to the next topic

Take the flashcards with you everywhere – when yo have downtime review them

Spend part of the lunchhour to study – flashcards, quick 20 question practice tests

Could you listen to a lecture, review notes, practice problems on the way to work – if your commute is on a train or something

Repetition is a good teaching tool

Have 2 sisters – one can read a textbook and study a few hours and make As the other reads the textbook, studies many hours and does all possible homework and makes a B.- both pass just for one it is easier and less effort.

[75 CPA]

It took me 5 months of studying to pass FAR. That is why I took FAR first. That 18 month time clock is my enemy.

I set up “CPA Central” in my home office. I leave my books out and my computer on. I do not need a big block of time to study. Five minutes is long enough for me to learn something new.

[75 CPA]

It took me 5 months of studying to pass FAR. That is why I took FAR first. That 18 month time clock is my enemy.

I set up “CPA Central” in my home office. I leave my books out and my computer on. I do not need a big block of time to study. Five minutes is long enough for me to learn something new.

[Anonymous]

People try to do hundreds of multiple choice problems a day but I am not like that. It takes me forever to process information. FAR keeps kicking my butt because I have to keep reading the questions over and over to figure it out.

The exam questions aren't as hard as Becker's homework questions. I gave up on trying to do the supplemental questions because they were driving me insane (I may regret that, we'll see).

Focus on the basic material and know it. For example, know how to calculate LIFO ending inventory and CGS but skip over the retail-cost-LIFO-complex junk in the appendix. Don't spend too much time focusing on the exceptions as you do the rules. Keep practicing and repeating. Good luck ~ you are not alone.

[Anonymous]

People try to do hundreds of multiple choice problems a day but I am not like that. It takes me forever to process information. FAR keeps kicking my butt because I have to keep reading the questions over and over to figure it out.

The exam questions aren't as hard as Becker's homework questions. I gave up on trying to do the supplemental questions because they were driving me insane (I may regret that, we'll see).

Focus on the basic material and know it. For example, know how to calculate LIFO ending inventory and CGS but skip over the retail-cost-LIFO-complex junk in the appendix. Don't spend too much time focusing on the exceptions as you do the rules. Keep practicing and repeating. Good luck ~ you are not alone.

[75 CPA]

Advice from Joe Hoyle

I have a poster on the wall of my office (here at the University of Richmond). It has been there now for at least 20 years. It is a wonderful essay written by Joe Paterno that first appeared in the Wall Street Journal two decades ago. Even now, I read this essay about every three months. Paterno is one of the true winners in this world and I have always been fascinated by what true winners have to say. I think you can learn more helpful stuff from true winners than you can from anyone else. Losers tell you how to lose; winners tell you how to win.

There are a number of lines in Paterno's essay that I love but the main one (for me) is:

“The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.”

It is a line that-even after 20 years-I think about often. To me, success is all about “the will to prepare.”

I have worked with thousands of students and CPA exam candidates over the years and the desire to win and succeed and get rich and famous is almost universal. Heck, who wouldn't want that? If you walk into any group and just ask “how many of you folks want to be successful, want to be winners?” they will practically knock you down as they wave their hands in the air.

Don't let anyone tell you there is a shortage of ambition in the world.

However, from my experience, true success comes from what I call “channeled ambition.” That is the deep desire that gives you the strength to get up and do the dull and boring stuff that you have to do in order to be successful. In other words, channeled ambition provides you with the energy needed to prepare yourself for success-not just occasionally but every day. And, that is very tough because preparation can be truly boring so that it can be easy to fall back on shortcuts. We are hyperactive people; we love shortcuts. I'm convinced that most people fool themselves into believing that shortcuts work as well as real preparation (and that just isn't the case). It takes incredible self-discipline to skip the shortcuts and do the preparatory work every day. Do you have channeled ambition?

At this very moment, I am giving a final exam to my Intermediate Accounting II class. It is an extremely hard course covering deferred taxes, defined benefit pension plans, capital leases, earnings per share, statement of cash flows, contingencies, bonds, and the like. I was talking before the test with one of my students who really wants to improve her grade. I knew she had been working quite hard for this exam because I had gotten a number of questions by email from her over the week-end. I asked her how many hours she had studied for this one test. Her response was quick: about 30. Most students simply don't have the self-discipline to study 30 hours for one college test. I don't know how she will do but she has put herself into position where she can do well. That is what I want when the test starts-for her to be in position to do well. Without proper preparation, it is almost impossible to work those intermediate accounting questions. With preparation, she has a great chance to earn a better grade. There are no guarantees but she has a good shot.

Whether it is Intermediate Accounting II or the CPA Exam or just life in general, there is little advice that can be better than what Joe Paterno wrote in the Wall Street Journal about 20 years ago:

“The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.”

[75 CPA]

Advice from Joe Hoyle

I have a poster on the wall of my office (here at the University of Richmond). It has been there now for at least 20 years. It is a wonderful essay written by Joe Paterno that first appeared in the Wall Street Journal two decades ago. Even now, I read this essay about every three months. Paterno is one of the true winners in this world and I have always been fascinated by what true winners have to say. I think you can learn more helpful stuff from true winners than you can from anyone else. Losers tell you how to lose; winners tell you how to win.

There are a number of lines in Paterno's essay that I love but the main one (for me) is:

“The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.”

It is a line that-even after 20 years-I think about often. To me, success is all about “the will to prepare.”

I have worked with thousands of students and CPA exam candidates over the years and the desire to win and succeed and get rich and famous is almost universal. Heck, who wouldn't want that? If you walk into any group and just ask “how many of you folks want to be successful, want to be winners?” they will practically knock you down as they wave their hands in the air.

Don't let anyone tell you there is a shortage of ambition in the world.

However, from my experience, true success comes from what I call “channeled ambition.” That is the deep desire that gives you the strength to get up and do the dull and boring stuff that you have to do in order to be successful. In other words, channeled ambition provides you with the energy needed to prepare yourself for success-not just occasionally but every day. And, that is very tough because preparation can be truly boring so that it can be easy to fall back on shortcuts. We are hyperactive people; we love shortcuts. I'm convinced that most people fool themselves into believing that shortcuts work as well as real preparation (and that just isn't the case). It takes incredible self-discipline to skip the shortcuts and do the preparatory work every day. Do you have channeled ambition?

At this very moment, I am giving a final exam to my Intermediate Accounting II class. It is an extremely hard course covering deferred taxes, defined benefit pension plans, capital leases, earnings per share, statement of cash flows, contingencies, bonds, and the like. I was talking before the test with one of my students who really wants to improve her grade. I knew she had been working quite hard for this exam because I had gotten a number of questions by email from her over the week-end. I asked her how many hours she had studied for this one test. Her response was quick: about 30. Most students simply don't have the self-discipline to study 30 hours for one college test. I don't know how she will do but she has put herself into position where she can do well. That is what I want when the test starts-for her to be in position to do well. Without proper preparation, it is almost impossible to work those intermediate accounting questions. With preparation, she has a great chance to earn a better grade. There are no guarantees but she has a good shot.

Whether it is Intermediate Accounting II or the CPA Exam or just life in general, there is little advice that can be better than what Joe Paterno wrote in the Wall Street Journal about 20 years ago:

“The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.”

[financeguy]

It is not important how efficient you are at studying compared to other candidates. That does not matter. What matters is that you pass the exam. That is the only thing that matters. It is not a study competition between you and anyone else. It is simply a job of you preparing for this exam.

It is not easy and it is not fun, but hopefully it will be worth it to you. There are no shortcuts, and if you are waiting for the magic answer…it doesn't exist. You have already paid for your study course and have already committed some time to studying, therefore you are committed. There is no quitting now.

You take 1 year of your life and you make some sacrifices and you bust your ass and you overcome this challenge. If you quit, I promise you, you will spend the rest of your life wondering, “what if”. I promise you, 1 year of this torture of study is far better than 30+ years of always wondering in your mind how your life would be different if you were a cpa.

Worst comes to worst, you never end up utilizing your cpa license, and so you spent that year of your life missing out on some fun things and instead studying. However, even if you don't use the license you have piece of mind that you are not wondering “what if”. Not only that, but there are many other things that you will gain as a person from studying for and passing this exam. You will improve your: critical thinking skills, time management, persistence, work ethic, self discipline, and more. Preparing for this exam will help you prepare for many challenges in life.

AUD - 81, BEC - 74, 80, FAR - 82, REG - 81
Done!

[financeguy]

It is not important how efficient you are at studying compared to other candidates. That does not matter. What matters is that you pass the exam. That is the only thing that matters. It is not a study competition between you and anyone else. It is simply a job of you preparing for this exam.

It is not easy and it is not fun, but hopefully it will be worth it to you. There are no shortcuts, and if you are waiting for the magic answer…it doesn't exist. You have already paid for your study course and have already committed some time to studying, therefore you are committed. There is no quitting now.

You take 1 year of your life and you make some sacrifices and you bust your ass and you overcome this challenge. If you quit, I promise you, you will spend the rest of your life wondering, “what if”. I promise you, 1 year of this torture of study is far better than 30+ years of always wondering in your mind how your life would be different if you were a cpa.

Worst comes to worst, you never end up utilizing your cpa license, and so you spent that year of your life missing out on some fun things and instead studying. However, even if you don't use the license you have piece of mind that you are not wondering “what if”. Not only that, but there are many other things that you will gain as a person from studying for and passing this exam. You will improve your: critical thinking skills, time management, persistence, work ethic, self discipline, and more. Preparing for this exam will help you prepare for many challenges in life.

AUD - 81, BEC - 74, 80, FAR - 82, REG - 81
Done!

[Trying like crazy_CPA]

I can relate. Don't give up, you can do it. Just keep focused on what you want to achieve and you will succeed. I studied from October 17th 2009 to February 22, 2010 for FAR. (Although, I got seriously distracted in the month of December and basically took the month off from studying so only about 3 1/2 months- the December time off wasn't in my schedule but the holidays threw me off and I read the Twilight series, haha, I couldn't put it down.) Anyway, I ended up passing FAR and it was the first exam I ever took. I knew I needed that much time to really learn all of that material and practice everything enough. I think I passed because I studied it for so long and gave myself enough time to review. I even had time to type up my handwritten notes for each chapter. I try to get a chapter done per week and some of the more difficult chapters I took like 1 1/2 weeks. Then I reviewed for a couple weeks. I also work full-time and rely a lot on weekends for my valuable study hours. I am a slow learner too, it takes me an entire day to read through a single chapter. Good luck and you can definitely do this. Hope this post can be encouraging to you 🙂 because I am right there with you. You are not alone.

FAR 2/22- 87, BEC 4/14- 87, AUD 5/28- 92, REG 8/30

[Trying like crazy_CPA]

I can relate. Don't give up, you can do it. Just keep focused on what you want to achieve and you will succeed. I studied from October 17th 2009 to February 22, 2010 for FAR. (Although, I got seriously distracted in the month of December and basically took the month off from studying so only about 3 1/2 months- the December time off wasn't in my schedule but the holidays threw me off and I read the Twilight series, haha, I couldn't put it down.) Anyway, I ended up passing FAR and it was the first exam I ever took. I knew I needed that much time to really learn all of that material and practice everything enough. I think I passed because I studied it for so long and gave myself enough time to review. I even had time to type up my handwritten notes for each chapter. I try to get a chapter done per week and some of the more difficult chapters I took like 1 1/2 weeks. Then I reviewed for a couple weeks. I also work full-time and rely a lot on weekends for my valuable study hours. I am a slow learner too, it takes me an entire day to read through a single chapter. Good luck and you can definitely do this. Hope this post can be encouraging to you 🙂 because I am right there with you. You are not alone.

FAR 2/22- 87, BEC 4/14- 87, AUD 5/28- 92, REG 8/30

[FARbehind]

hopefaith,

I am in the same boat of slow learners/fast forgeters. Now more than ever I miss the fast learning abilities and good memory I never had. On top of this I grew up in another country where they didn' t train us to be fast. Being precise was much more important than being fast. So I struggle with the speed concept of this exam.

Good thing we have this site and I can admit this. I never do at work and I am sure a lot of people don't admit stuff like that at work. Maybe this is why you think you are an exception. But you are not, there are a lot of people like that.

I think you should go and take a few cpa exams before you start being intimidated. The exam is manageable even to people like us. We might end up repeating one or two. Once you try out the exam your scores will be your benchmark and you will feel much better knowing how much and how you need to improve.

aud,bec,reg-passed
far-->75 Done!!!!!
ethics-100

[Author]

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