- This topic has 12 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 1 month ago by RachelP.
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October 27, 2014 at 9:46 pm #189594RachelPMember
I took REG today for hopefully the FINAL time!!!!! I feel really good about it. I got a Medium-Hard-Hard (Mayyybe Medium-Hard-Medium). The SIMs went ok, although I waffled the incorrect way on one of them (looked it up straight away after the exam). Ugh. Otherwise I think I nailed them.
I am at work and haven’t been able to concentrate… Looked up what all else I have to do & already have my PDF application filled out hahaha
Now… tonight I plan on SHOPPING for CRAFTS to do in my FREE TIME (what’s that?). I will also CLEAN my horrendous CLOSET/BATHROOM. (My poor husband) (Cleaning includes a girly beer/mixed drink 😉
Tomorrow: Hair appt with my lovely sister & COOKING FRESH FOOD!!! Time to lose this extra 10!
WooooHoooooo!
-Rachel
"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
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October 27, 2014 at 10:16 pm #615179jstayParticipant
best of luck!!!
glad to see 2012 didnt get the best of you!
taking BEC soon, any pointers?
October 28, 2014 at 12:43 pm #615180Tax ladyParticipantCongrats! How did you re-study REG?
REG 8/15/14 (73); 11/13/14 (82)-expired 🙁
AUD 5/30/15 (80)
BEC 11/28/15 (75)
FAR 7/30/16Studying with CPAexcel and Ninja notes/MCQ's/Flashcards
October 28, 2014 at 1:12 pm #615181y_u_no_passParticipantYay! I hope you are done, too!! I can't wait to reclaim my free time!
Florida CPA!
Took final exam 2/25/15.
Sent in Application 3/12/15.
Issued License 3/20/15.
Used CPA Excel solely for all exams.October 28, 2014 at 1:14 pm #615182RachelPMember@jstay 2012 didnt get the best of me because my father said yes to us getting married with the understanding that I would try again! LOL! AND I actually have a job in public accounting now so it seems important/like it will help my career. He is so happy he sent me flowers yesterday to my office 🙂 He keeps saying he thinks he is more excited than I am! hahaha (and yes, to anyone out there who might be wondering, the CPA was my goal, he just thought I shouldn't give up on it to be a wife!)
as for BEC…I used Becker and watched the videos and worked the MC. I think the thing that I do that is unique is when I watch the videos I re-read every page right after I watch the lecture portion for it, which I haven't seen anyone else doing. I am totally a visual learner & not auditory so that might not work for everyone. It also made me hate watching lectures bc they would take me like 10 total hours to get through for each chapter. But I always felt like I needed to watch the lectures for the little nuggets of info they sometimes have to say.
The big thing on BEC for me was the essays. I would get used to BSing about something you're not 100% sure on. Basically make sure you can write a good topic sentence & support it with 3 paragraphs of nonsense. I was only vaguely familiar with my topics that I got to write over so I did a lot of pulling stuff out of thin air. Just don't panic when you get there & remember its more about how you set up your letter than how much info you actually know about the topic.
@tax lady I used Becker for REG & I HATE watching the lectures so I re-read the chapters during my lunches and re-worked the MC questions. Honestly I am SO glad I gave myself plenty of time bc my mom ended up breaking her hand about 5 weeks ago and so I have been trying to help her and study at the same time. I took Friday off & spent a 3 day CRAM weekend finishing up all the MC questions and working as much of the SIMS as possible. Note to the wise, do not skip out on memorizing the rules for nonqualified/ISOs/Employee Stock option plans. Of course I re-read that stuff the night before and still missed part of it :/
"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 ExamOctober 28, 2014 at 1:22 pm #615183RachelPMemberI should also say that my timeline is pretty long if you look at it bc I gave myself 2 weeks off after each exam to “reset.” I know a lot of people don't recommend that but I found that I was probably going to take the 2 weeks off anyway to see friends, so I may as well build it in. I also didn't study for anything after BEC until I got my scores back bc I did not think I had passed FAR & so I didn't look at those scores while studying for BEC bc I felt like if I hadn't passed FAR I might just quit but I thought if I passed BEC w/out knowing that I had failed FAR then maybe it would give me motivation to keep going… lol AND I thought if I did pass FAR I would be too busy celebrating to focus on studying for BEC. So I waited to look at my scores at all til BEC was supposed to come out. It was kind of neat bc I looked the night before (the Ninja date) and I guess I was “on the bubble” bc my scores didn't come til Saturday so I saw I passed FAR & my whole family went out and celebrated then I saw I passed BEC the next day & we all went out and celebrated again! hahaha
"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 ExamOctober 28, 2014 at 4:39 pm #615184StephAVMemberFingers crossed Rachel! You are much more confident than I was coming out of my REG retake… Which makes me worry (for myself). 🙂 I got my hair done the day after my retake and I've been working on shedding the 20 lbs I packed on… UGH! I actually just finished my last unit needed towards the 150 on Saturday and I purchased the Ethics Exam yesterday. I am REALLY hoping for a pass! Best of luck to both of us! Enjoy your freedom while waiting for your score!
FAR - 7/13 - 72, 11/13- 74, 2/14- 82!!! Best score ever (for me)!!!
BEC - 1/14 - 75!!! Perfect score! First Pass! YAY!!!
AUD - 8/14 - 80!!!
REG - 5/14 - 72, 10/14 - 66, 1/15 - 78 - DONE FOREVER!!!
I did 5 of the UNA and CPAExcel classes to earn units.October 28, 2014 at 6:40 pm #615185CPAfitParticipant@rachelIP congrats on getting this exam done. Now go out and have some fun you deserve it 🙂
By the way I'd like to ask you a couple of things regarding my REG study plan and if you think there's a better way than this. I plan to take REG on 11/30 after my FAR retake on 11/4. I lose BEC if I don't, so ain't nobody got time for postponing exams. I'll have almost 3.5 weeks to prepare for REG. Keep in mind that I'm an international candidate and have never studied tax in my life. I have Becker and Ninja material on me but can't waste time with Becker lectures due to time constraint. My plan is to memorize all the Ninja notes, listen to Ninja Audio and watch BLITZ (as much as i can) in a week and then continue with Becker MCQs and SIMS till the end of time. So do you think Ninja combo will be enough to cover the important stuff for REG?
sorry for the long post
October 28, 2014 at 6:40 pm #615186RachelPMemberYou will find out before I do! Honestly I'm being confident so I don't just get nervous! One way or the other, I will finish it's just do I have to spend the $$ for another retake or not! I haven't purchased the Ethics Exam yet… gonna try to get my employer to buy it for CPE purposes 😉
Come back & let me know if you made it! Here's to a holiday season free of not-studying guilt!! 🙂
I'm getting my hair done tonight!! Same thing! Funny how it's the creature comforts we want the most!
"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 ExamOctober 28, 2014 at 7:22 pm #615187RachelPMember@zubairs no apologizing! Are you working while studying for the exam? If not, I think it's totally do-able in 3 weeks. If so, prepare to not sleep lol.
Tax will be tough, and law because some of the law things probably will not seem “natural” to you since you've grown up under a different system.
I have a huge advantage because I work mostly in tax at my current position so some of the rules are second-nature to me. BUT all the really hard rules the software does for you… so I still had to memorize that.
My method of studying when I am in crunch time is to watch the lectures quickly, give myself one day between lecture & then work the MC, and memorize what didn't “stick” by reading the answers to the questions and the rationalization of what is wrong/what isn't wrong. I never have memorized any of the mnemonics or lists of things because I find I work better almost going “backwards” by just knowing what types of things will get asked and being able to know the material in such a way that I can rationalize through it to the answer.
So, all that being said I don't know if I, personally, would wait through that whole first week to work ANY MC. I would go after a topic, work MC, and go after the next topic. Essentially giving your brain time to absorb all the rules.
So my study time looks like this: (when cramming)
First day: Go through about 3 topics (A,B,C) reading/taking notes/absorbing (I saw one person using becker not using the lectures went through & still marked up his book from the software & I thought that was a brilliant idea if you are wanting to use the Becker book to study. I haven't seen any of the Ninja material except the flashcards so I'm not really sure about them).
Second day: Go through one topic (D) reading. Go through 2 topics (A,B) w MC. Study 2 topics (A,B) things not understand.
Third day: Go through one topic (E) reading. Go through 2 topics (C,D) w MC. Study 2 topics (C,D) things not understand. Re-work MC 2 topics (A,B) questions I missed yesterday(NOTE: on the re-visit I only work the problems I missed, NOT all of them, that would be crazy). Revisit things I SUPER not understand from those 2 old topics (A,B).
Fourth day: Go through 2 topics (F,G) reading. 2 topics (D,E) MC. Study D,E things not understand. Re-work C,D MC missed yesterday. Revisit things still not understanding.
Fifth day: Read H,I. MC F,G. Study F,G. Re-work D,E. Study D,E.
Sixth day (saturday): Read J,K. MC H,I. Study H,I. Re-work F,G. Study F,G & then do 1-2 groups of 30 of those “review” things you can do in Becker where it gives it to you random. In this “review” I try to do it how I would in a test & keep it in that time limit. That's why I typically do 30.
Sunday: Whatever strikes your fancy (aka force yourself to work those dang SIMS) hahaha
This plan can be strung out over days & just use that format according to the time you have and what you can get through, or if you aren't working you can add more topics per day that you are going through. This way though, you are getting more immediate feedback & by re-visiting topics 3 days in a row like that, you are getting that study benefit of actually putting it into LT memory without having to hard-core MEMORIZE, which is hard to sustain. I also would say that some days I am just really grooving in the MC & actually “enjoying” it, so I might mess up my plan and work more MC topics than I have read and then the next day have to read more to make up for it so I have enough for MC the next day.
Also keep in mind the only time I ever sustained that sort of schedule was for FAR and that was bc I was a crazy loon and my husband cooked all meals for me 🙂
"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 ExamOctober 28, 2014 at 7:29 pm #615188mmp7183Participant@ Rachel – good luck to us! Also hoping to have nailed down REG so there will be no more exams!
Oh-Hey-Yoh Candidate
FAR - 89 Dec 2013 (CPAExcel)
AUD - 89 Feb 2014 (CPAExcel)
BEC - 83 Aug 2014 (Becker)
REG - 85 Oct 2014 (Becker)CMA (Aug 2011), CFSA (Dec 2008), Philippine CPA (Nov 2004)
October 28, 2014 at 7:43 pm #615189CPAfitParticipant@rachel thanks a lot for the feedback. I'll try to follow your plan by using the Becker book for highlighted parts only (from the software) and reinforce with the Ninja materials. I'm taking those 3 weeks off from work and will have nothing else to do but cram for REG. Thanks a lot for your feedback and good luck to you and all of the other Ninjas.
October 28, 2014 at 8:58 pm #615190RachelPMemberI hope it works for you! I DEF think you can do it in three weeks if you stay motivated and keep at it! If you're confused on anything from Becker, I will do my best to keep checking this thread and help you out since I've just finished studying it!
"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 -
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