Current Events > Ugh, it's time to start studying for my CPA, enough putting it off.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I have a job, I got my degree, got Becker, just need to stop being lazy and hit the books.

I wish there was a way to do this quickly and efficiently, but based on what I'm reading, it's best to just suck it up and do the 100 hours of studying for each section (more for FAR). Going to do tax first to get it out of the way and then audit as that would help me with my current job, at least with refreshing my knowledge of terms that may have been forgotten. It will be perfect timing as busy season will be going on by the time I get to that. My hope is 8 hours of studying during the workweek and 16 hours per weekend. Should be able to take the first exam sometime in early-mid December if I'm not lazy. Cycle will then repeat.

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Ugh, good luck man.

Im thinking of an accelerated masters program that also serves as exam prep and has you sit for all the sessions. That would be next year.

Not looking forward to it.

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I have no idea if Ill ever go for it. I really dont care to be in Public, but a CPA is still good to have. My job is mostly unrelated to Accounting right now, but I should be able to transition fairly easily.

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I have no desire to be a cpa myself

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Alteres posted...

Ugh, good luck man.

Im thinking of an accelerated masters program that also serves as exam prep and has you sit for all the sessions. That would be next year.

Not looking forward to it.

That'd be good in the long-run. A lot of my issues were laziness; I can't blame a lack of time as I had plenty, lol. Now, I have to do it while I work, so that's going to be fun.

PerseusRad posted...

I have no idea if Ill ever go for it. I really dont care to be in Public, but a CPA is still good to have. My job is mostly unrelated to Accounting right now, but I should be able to transition fairly easily.

I work in public right now (Big 4), but don't know if I plan on staying in the long-run. We'll see if the first busy season breaks me. I'd like to at least be promoted to senior associate before leaving, though, so hopefully I can handle the stresses that come with public accounting. I'm with you on the reasoning, though. Regardless of what future job I have, I'd like to have the CPA title since that opens some doors for you.

skermac posted...

I have no desire to be a cpa myself

Fair enough. It's not necessary, and is pretty time consuming to do all the stuff related to it when you account for the fact we all have lives and work we have to do.

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What is your job? If you are an auditor, do audit last? Your on the job experience will help make your studying much easier (I passed AUD without studying).

My recommendation is to create a plan and stick to it. I did 3 hours per day 6 days a week (taking Fridays off). Accept now that you will do nothing fun M-Th. The sooner you accept it the better. But with Fridays off and only 3 hours on Sat-Sun you still have plenty of time to stay social.

The lectures and books are okay, but the real value comes from doing the multiple choice over and over and over until you get all of them right. But be mindful that you aren't just memorizing the answers (you will pretty quickly) and you can actually come to the solution.

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Good luck, it fucking sucks!

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Compsognathus posted...

What is your job? If you are an auditor, do audit last? Your on the job experience will help make your studying much easier (I passed AUD without studying).

My recommendation is to create a plan and stick to it. I did 3 hours per day 6 days a week (taking Fridays off). Accept now that you will do nothing fun M-Th. The sooner you accept it the better. But with Fridays off and only 3 hours on Sat-Sun you still have plenty of time to stay social.

The lectures and books are okay, but the real value comes from doing the multiple choice over and over and over until you get all of them right. But be mindful that you aren't just memorizing the answers (you will pretty quickly) and you can actually come to the solution.

Sounds fair. Again, was thinking of doing Audit 2nd since it might refresh me on some terms before busy season, but then again, your line of thinking is smart too. Would definitely feel like a victory lap if I do save it for last. A part of me is just pushing FAR off because it sounds scary. I'm doing Tax first because I really just want to get tax over with and leave it behind.

Maybe I could do 3 hours M-TH, 4 F-Su as that would also give me plenty of time to do whatever. 8 hour days probably aren't feasible for my mentality. The other variable is travel as I've already had to make multiple trips to different states, and there's another one coming up next Monday.

Thank you for the tips; I'll keep the MC one especially in mind.

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Drpooplol posted...

Good luck, it fucking sucks!

Thank you! I haven't even started, but I think I agree. I didn't like studying for 10 minutes when I was at college, so this is going to be a wall to climb.

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Oh, so I'm gonna tell you right now that studying during busy season is a completely futile endeavor. You won't have time or the brain for it. Try to knock out REG before busy season and then plan to start anew after busy season ends.

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As a CPA myself, it's going to be the worst 18 months of your life. I'll give you some tips:

Don't ask your CPA's if you have any questions on what you're studying, odds are they threw all of that out of their heads the moment they got their CPA license. It's better to directly ask the cram course you purchased about the questions, since most of them can answer it in laymen terms.

Put your 100% in passing the first time, take it seriously, take the test at the end and concentrate most on the parts of the chapters that you got wrong. Biggest thing is to endure it and once you got your CPA license, it is with you for life. Just having that 3 letters next to your name guarantees means the sky's the limit in how much money you can make.

My strat was to tackle the easy ones first (REG) and the hardest part last (FAR) because I'm one of those losers that needs positive reinforcements to move forward. The common strat is to tackle the hardest one first and the easiest last, which works for most people so it depends on which field you specialize in and how you like to study.

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Compsognathus posted...

Oh, so I'm gonna tell you right now that studying during busy season is a completely futile endeavor. You won't have time or the brain for it. Try to knock out REG before busy season and then plan to start anew after busy season ends.

For sure. I'm just hoping if I study about 24 hours a week, I can perhaps get two exams done by early January. Regardless, once busy season starts, I'm taking a break, lol.

Prestoff posted...

As a CPA myself, it's going to be the worst 18 months of your life. I'll give you some tips:

Don't ask your CPA's if you have any questions on what you're studying, odds are they threw all of that out of their heads the moment they got their CPA license. It's better to directly ask the cram course you purchased about the questions, since most of them can answer it in laymen terms.

Put your 100% in passing the first time, take it seriously, take the test at the end and concentrate most on the parts of the chapters that you got wrong. Biggest thing is to endure it and once you got your CPA license, it is with you for life. Just having that 3 letters next to your name guarantees means the sky's the limit in how much money you can make.

My strat was to tackle the easy ones first (REG) and the hardest part last (FAR) because I'm one of those losers that needs positive reinforcements to move forward. The common strat is to tackle the hardest one first and the easiest last, which works for most people so it depends on which field you specialize in and how you like to study.

I mean, your way of doing it ain't too bad. At least you didn't have to stress about FAR first and fear that if you fail it, it's all doom and gloom. Thank you for your tips as well, hopefully I can pass first try and not worry.

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Yeah apparently I have a video game mentality when it comes to tackling exams, killing smaller enemies to get to the bigger bosses.

The CPA exam isn't hard per say, it's just fucking boring and dry (fitting because that is what accounting is lol). Make sure to motivate yourself after each test you pass and it isn't the end of the world if you fail one time. Unfortunately, it does mean you have to try extra hard because it drops one test you passed. Also yeah, don't do what I did and take the test during tax season, I had to pay for 2 holes in my wall because of how fucking stressed I was (it was Audit) trying to do both at the same time. Put effort into it, but it will also tell you if this is the life you want or not.

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