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Hello Everyone,

2012 is here and it is time to revamp The Crammin’ and Jammin CPA Style Blog. If you have come across the blog because you are studying for the CPA Exam please consider becoming one of our bloggers.

Blogging is a great way to keep yourself on track for studying, a constructive way to vent, and to gain help from the public. If you would like to become one of our bloggers please contact me at coday@mscpaonline.org with the subject line “CPA Exam Blog”.

 

Thanks,

Chris

My first week of studying BEC has been a success with Roger CPA Review. I have decided to take the NINJA approach, from another71.com,  and so far have made it through about 8 hours of video. I am enjoying the way that Roger’s lectures are about 30 minutes each. He makes them as entertaining as possible and it has really helped me zone in and pay attention. It is almost as if he knows when the student will zone out and then takes a break. After each lecture I have been rereading his notes and then finding the corresponding information in the NINJA guide and reading that also. Then I rewrite the NINJA notes. I feel as though I am retaining the information more taking it in small pieces.

I plan to finish the lectures by my next blog with the hopes that work doesn’t get in the way! Lately I have felt busier than normal with work. I know it is because I am gaining more responsibility but sometimes I wish I could just go back to the carefree days of being a “first year”. There are days when photocopying and not having to worry about deadlines because you know the person above you is the one worrying sounds so much more appealing. But then again I wouldn’t trade my opportunities for growth at my firm for the world. It is just the addition of studying that can make is overwhelming at times.

Anyways! In order to get in my study hours I have been very strict with myself and study through my lunches. I bring my notebook of notes with me for anytime I have a few minutes to spare. Then at night I try to aim for an additional 2.5 to 3 hours a night. The hubby has recently picked up golf with a group of his friends and has been going on Sundays so I don’t feel guilty studying for five hours. I managed to get in about ten hours this past weekend.

I am waiting on the arrival of my NTS and then will schedule BEC for the end of the month. Something happened the other day as I forked over another $500 to NASBA. I made a promise with myself that I am done with not giving this 100% of my energy. I am sick of spending hundreds of dollars on something because I didn’t give it my all even though at the time I told myself I was. I am ready to move on from this exam and enjoy my life. That being said I am going all in and I am so determined to knock these exams down. Who wants to spend gorgeous weekends at the library?! I know I am sick of it when I see posts on Facebook of all my friends heading to the beach! I WILL be there next summer and only going to the library to pick up books for my reading pleasure on the beach in my lounge chair.

Hey this might all be wishful thinking but I am done with being a pessimist about this exam and am becoming an optimist! So here is to positive thinking! Have a good week of studying everyone and keep those hopes high. We all will past these exams at one point or another.

-Rebecca

 

A Place of Yes

One of the hardest parts for me in this whole process has been to not let myself get discouraged. I get so frustrated working the MCQs, especially when my scores are low. “How can you put that question in the testlet when you didn’t tell me about it in the lectures I just watched?!?” I often find myself practically screaming at the computer. “How am I supposed to remember all of this?” is another one. I get frustrated, close my books for the day and it takes me dayssss before I get back the motivation to start again. This is a vicious vicious cycle for me.

During one of these fights with my CPA books I read the book “A Place of Yes” by Bethenny Frankel. At first I thought this book might be a little too rah-rah for me but I decided to give it a try since I am obsessed with Bethenny and think she can do no wrong. In the book she talks a lot about how she overcame many obstacles and was able to get to where she is now. At first I didn’t make the connection but the more I read it the more I was able to see that I could apply her tactics to taking the CPA exam and my struggle with the MCQs.

In the book she talks about her less than ideal childhood, her failed relationships and multiple failed businesses. But with each situation she was able to take what she learned and build on it. Each time she got stronger until she finally got to where she is today-  happily married with a newborn daughter and a multi million dollar empire. Even though it took her 40 years she never gave up. 

This really resonated with me and my struggle with MCQs. I’m not going to get every single one right. I might not pass each exam on the first try. But that’s ok. The point is to keep going. Keep trying and adding to my building blocks until I finally get to add those 3 letters after my name. The most important thing is to not give up.

With 5 weeks left until my test and my renewed sense of motivation it’s time to once again get back to those MCQs. Wish me luck!

Jola

Score Release!

The most highly anticipated time during the CPA exam process is here… score releases! I personally am not waiting for a score but I must admit I am kind of jealous. As much as your heart rate may go up as you refresh NASBA’s website a million times in hopes to see a big 75 and want to vomit, it is such a thrill! It is almost the same feeling as when you were a child waiting for Santa to come. You think about it for weeks and then when Christmas morning arrives you are so happy with your gifts or you are upset that you didn’t get the one gift you really wanted.

I hope you all got the gift you wanted and those who want to cry keep your chin up! I on the other hand am studying like crazy where I am two and a half weeks away from testing. I am averaging about 125 multiple choice questions per day on REG and scoring in the 80s. My confidence is starting to go up! I catch myself talking to myself on a regular basis about the AMT calculation, how to calculate basis, like-kind exchanges, etc. I must look like a maniac to anyone driving by me on the highway during my commute. Hey whatever makes it stick right?!

I am making the goal of getting through all of the “required minimum multiple choice questions” from Phil at Yaeger by Sunday. Then I am going to take Jeff from another71.com’s suggestion and rewrite his NINJA notes in hopes that some information just sinks into my brain further. I am not allowing myself to panic and slack these next two weeks. Jeff gave me some great advice this week and it hit home for me. “Don’t let the notion that you’re behind cause you to lose motivation”. That being said I am not allowing myself to lose my motivation!

Plus, I know a few people that have finished the exam now after this week’s score release. That alone is enough to make me cringe as I think of that fact that passed and I am still struggling to beat this beast of an exam! I will pass but I am not going to beat myself up in the meantime by comparing myself to others. We will all pass this exam eventually we just have to continue to cheer each other on. Keep at it everyone we got this!

Till next time,

Rebecca

Reality Check!

I am one month away from my REG exam and this is usually when I do a quick reality check! I am behind a little in the fact that I was hoping to have completed all of the lectures from the Yaeger Home Study this past weekend. I sort of knew this would be the case between my brother’s going away party and my best friend’s birthday party all in the same weekend. I am not far off but struggling to keep my eyes open as I watch the UCC chapters!

Once I finish these lectures then I will begin doing multiple choice questions like a mad woman! I studied a bit tonight, Friday, which is normally my night off from studying but my best friend surprised me with NKOTBSB tickets at Fenway Park tomorrow night as a birthday present from back in March. You can laugh I am not ashamed of my favorite childhood groups! We will be rocking the neon clothing and sitting on the field at Fenway! What more can a girl ask for!

Therefore, I will probably be a couple hours short on Saturday so I sucked it up and stayed in to study tonight while everyone else is watching the Bruins! I can’t beat the quiet time in my house though while the husband is at work so I took advantage of it.

When reality kicks back in Sunday morning I will be buckling down and getting a solid day of studying in.  My goal is to have gone through at least the MCQs for the first three chapters of taxes in the Wiley CPA Exam Review book by the end of the weekend. My ultimate plan is to be done with all of the MCQs by June 19th.  I am thinking that if I can do this then I have one week to re-write my notes.  I have never rewritten my notes but from reading other people’s success stories with the suggestion from Jeff, the mastermind behind my favorite CPA review website, another71.com it seems to be the way to go! I am also debating on getting a CRAM to watch before my testing date July 8th.

Well I hope everyone is having a productive week with their study plan and for those anxiously awaiting results from the last testing window good luck to each of you!

Happy Studying,

Rebecca

Redoing study units

The 4/15 and 5/15 tax deadlines managed to completely derail my studying. Now that the worst is over I can get back to hitting the books. I have scheduled FAR for the end of July and just scheduling the exam gave me anxiety.

The worst part about getting sidetracked is I feel like I have lost everything that I studied before. I had managed to get through the first 3 sections of my FAR review materials before tax season. I feel like since it’s been over a month since I last looked at them I can’t just pick up where I left off and continue on in my studying. I decided that I need to do a quick review. The Gleim lectures are relatively short, about 30 mins per study unit, so I plan on re watching the 3 sections I have previously done. Then I want to work some multiple choice questions in those areas and see how my scores compare to where I was when I left off. Hopefully I can get through that this weekend and start the rest on Monday. 8 weeks and counting!

Goals

Do you ever have one of those weeks where you feel as though you have all the time in the world but yet nothing gets done? Well that was my past week. I was supposed to be at a client for the week but due to the client not being ready for my audit team our engagement had been pushed off till this upcoming week. In my mind I thought woo hoo some downtime to study at the office! However, it is funny how when this happens and you have some time to study it is a lot easier said than done.

               I don’t know why, but you can ask some of my fellow co-workers who are also studying for the exam, sometimes it feels that surfing the internet during the day is more accepted than studying during downtime. I am sure the shareholders would beg to differ but ask a co-worker and they mostly will agree! Maybe it is the constant guilty feeling that one of your co-workers who is also studying for the exam is swamped with work when you aren’t? I have definitely formed a love hate relationship with trying to get in some study time at work. I have discovered that my most productive studying is done during my lunch break when I plug-in my head phones and drown out the sound of the printers going a mile a minute and tune in to Phil Yaeger from Yaeger CPA Review.

               I managed to meet my goal of studying the full 20 hours this week with the help of Jeff’s NINJA study outline for REG on another71.com. I also managed to get through the Yaeger home study lectures for partnerships and corporations which was the other goal I made for myself this week. I have come realize that I am extremely goal oriented so making myself a goal each time when I write-up this blog to keep me true to myself totally makes all the difference in the world. Therefore my goal for this upcoming week is to get through the tax section of the home study and review Jeff’s NINJA notes that I have marked up crazily. Jeff’s NINJA notes are my life saver! I used to write my own notes but I have the habit of rewriting the ENTIRE book and that takes me a life time and then some so now I just add to his. What is each of your goals for this upcoming week of studying? I am curious to know!

               I sort of feel behind in my study plan but I think it is because I have taken a different approach to my studying this time around that seems to be working in my favor. I used to watch all the lectures first and then do the questions. Now I watch the lectures for each module and then work the minimum required multiple choice questions. I know people feel differently about this but when I think back on my past studying habits I realized that I was just trying to rush through the lectures to actually get to the multiple choice questions. With that being said, I felt as though by the time I watched 30 hours’ worth of lectures my mind went blank of what I learnt in the beginning. Hopefully my “new” studying habit helps me retain the information and get that passing score on July 8th!

               I recently saw a quote on infamous Facebook from the fan page of the movie Something Borrowed and I thought of myself and this whole CPA exam process when I read it so I will share it with all of you. “I am learning that perfection isn’t what matters. In fact, it’s the very thing that can destroy you if you let it”. I personally know that I feel as though perfection is 100% necessary when studying for these exams. Meaning that if I don’t score a 100% on a testlet of 20 questions I get nervous that I am going to fail. However, I just need to let it go and move onto the next one because the panic of not being “perfect” eventually will destroy my score if I let it.

Until next time,

Rebecca

Summer is Here

Hello Everyone,

The weather is warmer and summer has been thrust upon us. Busy season is over and that means its time we all get busy studying for the CPA Exam. I myself sometimes find it hard to study when it is so nice out and my friends are lounging by the pool or going off to the beach. That is why I keep a few tricks up my sleeve that help keep me motivated to study.

1. Set a set time that you are going to study – I will pencil in 2 hours of no distractions.  If I complete this then I can feel good about my day.

2. Study earlier in the day- You are more likely to get tired and distracted when studying late at night.

3. Bring Study materials on the Commute – Ride a train 2 hours a day? That’s two hours worth of study times right there.

4. Remind yourself of your goals. IT WILL BE WORTH IT IN THE END.

5. Never give in or give up!

Surprise!! No not V-Day

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I got another letter in the mail from the Massachusetts State Board of Accountancy on Friday.  I was completely mortified when I got it too.  I know the board met in January and their next meeting is not until March so it couldn’t be anything good, right?  Bam!  Congratulations, your CPA license number is 28,125.  Woh! Wait a minute, huh?  I had just figured it out that my next chance was March so why am I getting my certification.  Well, I may never know and I really don’t care.  I got my CPA!!! It’s all I cared about.

This will be my last post everyone.   I have not had the time to make many posts this year.   I wanted to say to the other C&J bloggers and the readers (all 3 of you), good luck. And for those of you tax season I feel your pain.   I took my first two exams just before tax season last year and I needed a whole quarter to recover and catch up for the last two exams.  And I still failed one by a point.  Still irks me.

Benjamin M Piccirillo, MSA,CPA

PS The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing-Walt Disney

Times are a changing

Hopefully we are in the last stages of the winter. Oh boy, has it been a cold one. Snow has fallen from the sky like its been going out of style and I have shivered my way onto the train  every morning and night.

However, I feel like things are changing. The days are getting longer and people are getting less cranky. Sure we may get hit with a few more dustings, but I think that the groundhog was right and winter is almost over.

 

Now that Spring is here I have to take control again and start kicking some royal butt.

Here is my list for what I am going to do this Spring.

1. Going to get into wicked good shape.

2. Run a Marathon this Summer.

3. Find a new person to date that is the total package.

4. Make more money!

5. Do something nice for my friends.

6. Move out of where I am living now.

7. Write a book.

8. Get my Taxes done.

9. Do some artistic endeavors

10. Get a new Computer and Car.

 

BOOM Roasted