Congratulations AnnuityDue
I completed all the four papers. It took me four month’s to prepare and complete all these. I registered for CPA beginning of April and cleared all the four parts end of August. I scored 85+ in three papers and 90+ in one.
During April end this year, I traveled with my family (along with kids) to the bay area. It was summer holiday for schools in India and I decided to take my family as well with me. For my first exam, I traveled 36 hours (our flights got delayed by 12 hours along with the connection flights), got down at SFO at 2.30 A.M, drove for 4+ hours to Sacramento, just had time to freshen up and took the exams at 8.00 A.M. I got around 89 marks. Since this was the first one, I was not sure whether I would even have the energy to sit and write for 4 hours of Auditing exam.
Next, I went to Florida to visit the theme parks along with my family after my AUD exam in the west coast. I spent three days visiting the parks along with my family. I had only six days left for my next exam. Since I paid a significant amount of money for the theme park entry tickets, I was in two minds on whether to write the examination or postpone it to Q3. I somehow pushed myself and wrote the exam. I was impressed with the results as I got 90+ in BEC. Earlier in the year, I took CMA and cleared them on the first attempt which helped with my BEC paper. It also gave me a lot of confidence.
During the end of August, I traveled again to the west coast to take up FAR and REG. While I was driving to the exam, I meet with an accident in downtown SFO. Had a flat tire, had to manage the other vehicle and driver involved in the crash had to fix the tire which took me around 3 hours. Reached the Prometric center 30 minutes late but good thing I did was that I called the center and asked for additional time. They gave me exactly 30 minutes extra time to reach the center, and I was able to drive with the damaged car with parts hanging around. I almost gave up the idea of writing the exam, but somehow my right time, I was able to reach the exam center on time. I could hardly concentrate and was staring at the screen for 15 minutes without doing anything. Somehow I recouped and was able to push myself. I did not do well in SIM’s but I was able to secure 85+ in FAR.
These had a significant impact on my preparation for my REG exam as I had only six more days for it. I was a bit demotivated with the accident and the fact I felt that I did not do well in FAR impacted me a lot. I pushed myself and somehow managed to secure 85+ again on this as well.
Being in the middle 40’s, in a senior position in an organization, with two kids, it's not easy to study. However, I believe even if had taken more time, I would have been in the same situation as work and family take priority. More than anything, I felt I had luck on my side, I guess.
What used to work for me and my advice
1. Put in enough efforts during the weekend (almost 15+ hours) and spend at least 4+ hours early in the morning every day during the weekdays.
2. I used Becker, and my advice is that you need to have reasonable knowledge in all the chapters and do not leave anything till the last minute. Cover the difficult sections first which I did not do well as I kept pushing the difficult one till the last minute.
3. Do not get scared by what you hear from others as the exam questions are much easier compared to whatever we have in the study materials.
4. Do not get scared by SIM’s as I felt that they are reasonably easier compared to whatever we have in the study materials.
5. If I were to start newly again and write the again, I would not plan for more than two months of study time for each subject.
6. To cut down the study time, I prepared my notes in Excel, and I used to listen to my notes (using the text to speech feature in Excel). It cuts down the coverage time at least to one-fourth of the time and will help you cover all the chapters the day before the examination as I believe whatever we study during the last two days is what stays in our mind.
My intent is not to boast that I cleared the exams but just to provide some inputs and an update on my journey as it was very scary to begin with but everything worked well for me at the end.
Thanks.
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