[Anonymous]

It was like yesterday when I decided to study for the exam and found this site. Subsequently came the rush to learn more about Becker, Yaeger, Roger, Gleim, etc. and choosing which one to go with. Jeff only had the books, notes, and the short videos when I first started but Ninja could be considered as a viable option now as well.

Having completed the grad school more than a decade ago, it took time to getting used to studying and learning again. First 3 weeks were especially extremely painful as studying 30 minutes per day felt like 30 hours a day. Then came managing the work, family life, social life, studying, the stress of slow progress, and the demotivation of not remembering anything about the material studied 2 days ago. Doubting about myself, the chosen materials, whether supplemental materials were needed, and the idea of if all this was really worth it naturally came next.

Today, I learned that I passed REG with a score of 90 and I am done. I would like to share my lessons learned as my final post and wishing everyone best of luck in the exam, and in life.

-Have a purpose and vision bigger than just passing the exam and becoming a CPA. My goal is not to work someone younger than me. Imagining reporting to some prick I currently know at work in 5 years fired me up. This one worked for me, find yours.
Note: Same prick failed 2 sections and lost credit. May be devilish feeling but felt awesome.

– Choose the materials that your heart warms up rather than what people say. I have a short span of attention and I needed the lectures to move at a fast pace so I chose Roger. I don’t think I would do well with Becker or some others.

– Don’t rush to buy supplemental materials such as extra testbanks, notes, books, etc. as you will not have the time to use them. I did it and wasted few hundred bucks.

– Flashcards are life saver and do get them as you can use Brainscape whenever you have few minutes. Don’t make them as it is time consuming. Ninja flashcards do the work.

– Schedule a weekly study plan. My goal has been to go over 3 to 4 hours of Roger videos and whatever I could do in MCQs and simulations per week.

– The key to the exam success is studying everyday throughout the week. Even if you are extremely tired and feel like studying is the last thing to do at that moment, just open a video and watch it. It will energize you after 10 to 15 minutes.

– Another key to exam success is not worrying about too detailed or too hard MCQs. Remember that you will have 2-3 questions for each chapter in your textbooks and focus more on learning the essential stuff.

– Record your actual hours worked and have weekly totals. Your goal should be to exceed previous week’s total this week, even by 15 minutes. You will see ups and downs in weekly totals but it will help with putting in the hours.

– Make progress even if you sucked at MCQs on a previous chapter. Don’t stop and waste time to get off your plan and study more for it. Keep moving, that’s what they did in Normandy and so should you.

– Simulations are extremely important. Don’t skip them and do spend time solving them on your own until you really get them.

– Having said that schedule a week or more on final review. This is your time to go back and recall everything you learned 2 months ago. Make it quick and clean.

– Have the last day or two reserved for mixed MCQs and simulations. Don’t lose morale as your results in mixed questions don’t mean a thing. If you get almost all easy questions and most medium looking questions correct, you are in good shape.

– Have a good attitude and morale on exam day. If you think you are fading, stop, close your eyes, take deep breaths for 30 seconds and continue.

– Always have in mind that the exam day will come no matter what happens. It is up to you to feel good about it while taking it or get lost in it and restudy for the dang section again.

– As Roger says, CPA Exam is not an IQ test and you will pass if you study. It is an exam that consists of whole bunch of stuff from whole bunch of areas. In the grand scheme of things, knowledge is power and what you learn will give you a different edge over non-CPAs.

– Remember that you are not less intelligent or awesome than people who passed 4 sections in one try. They just studied well and so can you.

– Be active in this forum as it helps validate your thoughts while typing posts here.

– Final Note: Someone recommended having the CPA Exam embedded in your daily life. An idea is making your computer password something related to CPA. Tried and proven, it works so do it.

Again, best of luck to everyone.