When studying for the CPA Exams, what was your life like?  (Family, kids, working full time, didn’t work at all, etc.)  And then, how did you juggle it all and still find time to study?

When I signed up to take the CPA exam I made a decision to move back home during my master’s year of college. I treated studying for the CPA exam as my “full-time” job. This meant every morning I would wake up and begin studying at 8 am and generally I would study for 4-8 hours a day. Outside of studying my life did not change too much. I still had school and work I was attending. Weekends I would try to dedicate to my family and friends and this was my time-off to refocus myself.

When did you start studying and when did you pass your final exam?

I applied to take the CPA on 6/1/20 and I received my notice to schedule on 8/30/20. I passed my final exam on 6/5/21. So, in totality I spent about 12 months from when I first applied to when I passed my last exam. I was studying for the exams while I was waiting for my NTS. I used a friend’s study material while I waited for my study material to come in.

What order did you take the exams in? Do you think the order you take the CPA Exams matters?

I took in order FAR, BEC, AUD, AUD, REG, AUD.

I do believe that the order is important on taking the CPA exam. In my opinion there are three options:

Option 1: Take the easiest test first

               Everyone has an idea of what test will be easiest for them. For me it would have been REG. I am a tax professional, and that information has always come naturally for myself. Taking the easiest test first could give you a confidence boost with the rest of the test. It also helps you understand how to study for the remaining exams. After the first exam, in my opinion, move to a test you can get through quick to build that momentum.

Option 2: Take the hardest test first

        Like the one above everyone also knows what the most difficult test will be. For myself, that was audit. That material always felt foreign to me, and I could never understand the concepts. The nice thing about taking your most challenging test first is you have an unlimited amount of time to pass the exam. Once you get your most difficult exam done, in theory, the rest of way gets easier!

Option 3: Take FAR first

               FAR is by far (pun intended) the biggest exam to study for and covers a wide range of accounting concepts. I studied for this test first and it took me about 5 months’ worth of studying to get fully comfortable with the material. This is the most time intensive exam and once you get through this one it feels like the rest of the exams are much smaller and more manageable. This is the option I did, and I am glad I got FAR out of the way. Before they switched to 30 months of passing all the exams it was set at 18 months. I wanted to make sure I had the unlimited time get this one out of the way. I also knew I would spend the most time studying on this one so I did not want to waste months of not taking exams while studying for this one.

My studying by exam and month:

FAR = 5 months*

BEC = 1 ½  months

AUD = 4 months**

REG = 1 ½  months

*I waited about 3 full months for my NTS to come in so I was studying during my wait period.

**I failed audit twice which extended my study time on this one. I gave myself two months to go through the material the first time.

What do you think your learning style is?  Did that play into your studying strategies?

I know myself and how I study and that generally means I over study material. I would first watch the instructional videos from Becker and do the questions with each chapter. Once I finished a chapter I would go back and redo the multiple-choice problems to keep each section fresh. For example, once I finished chapter 4 of a book I would then go back and do all the multiple-choice problems for chapters 1-4 before I moved onto chapter 5.  Once I completed the book, I would just start going over multiple-choice questions and review areas I knew I was weaker in. By the end of my studying journey, I was very efficient at this process and get through an entire book and problems in about a week if necessary.

Did you fail any?  If so, what did failing an exam teach you the most?

I failed AUD two times. The first time I got a 73 and was really excited about this. I knew audit was going to be my most challenging test so when I saw the score it told me I was close and that I really guessed wrong on a couple questions.

I purposely setup my first exam at the end of a test window so if I failed, I could retake the test right away. So, I took my second exam about two weeks after the first exam……. And got a 66. The worst part is I thought I crushed this one and was stunned when I saw the score. I decided to keep moving on towards REG (as I was already studying for this test while I waited for the second AUD score to come in) and thought it was in my best interest to reset myself and clear my mind from AUD.

After I passed REG I signed up for AUD a third time and took it a week after finding out my score from REG. The biggest lesson I learned from AUD was that I was simply overthinking the question and would stary away from what my gut was telling me. I gave myself a week to do a quick crash course on AUD and went and took the test. Luckily, I got a 80 and passed the test and was done!

What CPA company/study tool did you use to study?

How many hours a week did you study?  Do you recommend others do the same?

I treated the CPA exam as my full-time job so I would normally study anywhere between 30-40 hours per week. When I first started studying a new test it was 40 hours a week consistently until I got through the material. From that point on I would go down in hours if I felt as if I was understanding the material. By the point I was going to take the test it was about 30-35 hours a week.

I recommend that you do what is best for yourself. Everyone knows how they study and what works best for them. For me, I am someone that needs to over study until I can explain the concept to someone. Once I can do that, I know the information will stay with me. Sometimes that takes reading it once and other times that takes 30 hours.

Did you make any changes in your lifestyle that made the process easier on you?

I made the big decision to move home during my master’s year of college to pursue the CPA. I know myself and if I was in college I would have been easily distracted at school with my friends. I would recommend doing this but the negative was it got really lonely as this was the height of COVID and I was home alone a lot but I did get my CPA out of it.

Another thing I really focused on was my health. I started to work out a lot more to try and stay in shape.

What was the most effective tool/strategy to help you pass the exams? What was the lease effective tool/strategy to help you pass the exams?

My most effective tip was always doing a problem the same way. What I mean by this is I would create a step-by-step process on how to solve a problem and that is how I would setup the problem every time. This way it trained my brain on how to move through a problem without overthinking it. I would look for the key words and phrases in the question, put it into my step-by step process and the answer would generally lead to the correct answer. I think this was incredibly helpful because there is so much information to learn it is impossible to remember everything. This was my way of creating shortcuts in my brain to get to the answer.

Another strategy/tool I implemented was to focus solely on the big picture of the exams/understand what the test is going to test you on. Certain sections of a chapter can be 10-20 pages of complex accounting knowledge while other sections might be 1-3 pages and not entirely important. If it was a short section, I would generally watch the video, highlight what I need to, and never look at it again. I did not want to get bogged down with every little detail and I came to accept the fact that if I got a question from one of these small sections on the exam it is only one point and not the end of the world.

Something I did not find useful was reading the books. Like above, there is so much information that hold little weight on the test or is too niche of a rule to focus on. Unless the video specifically told me to know that oddball rule, I would just move it past it.

How would you do things differently if you had to take the exams again (how could you have made the process easier)?

Truthfully there is not too much I would change about my process. I understood how I operated and studied in a manner that worked for myself. The biggest thing I can think of changing would have been just accepting the fact that certain sections are not important, and they can be overlooked/skipped. I realized this during BEC (my 2^nd exam).

What do you wish you knew before your CPA journey started?

That the hardest part of the exams are staying dedicated to the exams. With enough patience and studying anyone can pass the tests. You might fail a test or two but if you stay dedicated and persistent you WILL pass them. Where people struggle is when they push off studying or decide not to study for a few days at a time. It is incredibly easy to ignore studying for a day and go hang out with your friends or family. Another thing, which everyone says, is study for the exams before you start working full-time. It is so much easier to focus on the exams while you are still in school mode. Once you get to the “real world” life can come at you fast and can pull you away from the exam easily and quickly.

Has it been worth it since passing the CPA exams?  If so, why?

Yes, it has been worth it – but you do not notice it right away. When you first pass the test, you are still getting paid the same as a non-CPA and for a year or two it can feel deflating. But in the last year or so my salary has jumped considerably, and I am making way more than my non-CPA counterparts. I am also getting notified with some big job offers that is harder to come by for a non-CPA individual. Overall, the CPA is incredibly powerful, and I can see it paying dividends already for myself.

What are you most excited about in the future now that you have your CPA License?

Simply knowing I have it and that I passed the exams. In the accounting world it feels like a badge of honor and people understand the time and effort it went into obtaining it. I am proud of myself that I got the CPA and not everyone can say that. I also know that having the CPA opens doors and positions that would not be readily available to me if I did not have the CPA. This gives myself comfort that I will be able to comfortably take care of my family, and we will not have to worry about money or finances in the future.