welcome back to part two of how to pass the CPA exam we're going to pick up
right from where we left off last time so if you have not already seen part
number one make sure to go back and watch it I'm going to leave in the
description down below a link to the first video and with that being said
let's go ahead and dive right into it guys
okay number six what programs that I use well as you guys well as I said
earlier is exactly there are several great CPA review courses out there I use
Becker now my wife is also a CPA and she is Becker and from what I know Becker
has the best pass rate it's also the most expensive which is kind of a downer
but it also has proven to be the the best course or give you the best chance
to pass your tests but there's also another good one of the Roger CPA Review
goodwill it's the unidentifiable asset that makes
a business worth more than the sum of all of it I get two five laughs so we'll
define it and good in intangible what do we do every year you test the value if
it's been impaired you write it down you never recover it so that's called
goodwill in this case it's a hundred bucks you have to do what works for you
I like to I like Becker first lane because I was able to purchase the
self-study course and I was able to study right in my own home I didn't have
to go anywhere but they also have on lot work like locations you can actually go
to like a real live class and do it there if you learn better that way but I
use the Becker on lot our Becker take home review course and I just studied
from my own home and I also had the flashcards and that that's all I use I
didn't buy any additional extras other than the classroom
okay let's talk about number seven how to study and get organized so I'm gonna
put up some tips on the screen here so first of all start by following the
recommended method of studying per your exam review course or whatever it is
that you're using follow their proven system because that is probably one of
the best things you could do now although I did read and use a lot of
flashcards I really think one of the two best
things you can do for studying is to continuously take a lot of notes and do
a lot of practice questions even rewriting your notes will help you make
more sense of the subject or the material that you're on or looking at
every time I was unsure of something or I missed a problem in the review course
I took notes on why I missed it and I can tell you guys that once I started
taking more and more notes better and better my exam scores got notes seemed
to be one of the major keys of the CPA exam for note-taking what I would do is
I would keep a separate binder for each test or even a separate notebook so I
use notebooks personally but I thought I had like a separate five-star notebook
for every single exam and I wrote all my notes in that notebook for that exam you
know come up with a system of how you want to go about organize your notes use
different pens use highlighters you know use sticky sticky notes whatever it is
and the fact if you use Becker you'll often be making notes in the book like
in red pen and using yellow highlights in the etc etc but that's going to help
your notes stand out and so that when you're going back and skimming through
the information and reviewing the information you're going to be able to
find those key pieces a little bit quicker
I really recommend trying to organize your notes in such a way so that you can
trace your notes back to the problem you were on in the software that's what I
did in the notebook so I would start on chapter one and then I was new chapter
one problems and I would write out starting with question number one if I
missed it I would write out you know chapter 1 question 1
and I would write what section I was in and then I could look back anytime I
wanted and my notes would relate directly back to that specific question
in the Becker software that's a really great way how you can
quickly not only find the question you're looking for the software but also
review the notes related to it now really guys make sure I and actually
move my wife who told me this really make sure you take advantage of the
practice exams in your software at least about a week out before your exam I
really feel dumb that I didn't know this but make sure that you take advantage of
the practice exams in your Becker software you'll find that they're not
only a great review because they're going to cover multiple chapters at once
and really test your knowledge but also I found that they actually ask different
questions then I encountered in the normal software so make sure you're
using those practice exams as soon as I started using those practice exams I
started the passed tests so it really helps my a special bonus trick if you
really want to get into this you can use audacity if you don't know what that is
the free voice recording program software that you can use that to record
your voice so I literally with with my notes as I wrote out my notes I wanted a
way to be able to continuously refresh my memory in my mind of what notes I
wrote so I recorded my voice in audacity and I put it on my ipod so as I drove or
even sometimes while I said at work I was listening to myself reading my notes
and it really helped the two tests I did that on the most I use that tactic on of
using audacity I got the highest exam I got my highest scores on those tests
using that method
okay guys so how long did I study before taking an exam and how much did I study
for each day you know I really I studied six or seven days a week in order to
study as much as possible actually cut out church for the time being until
those exams were done that was a conscious decision I made I'm not saying
you have to make the decision but you have to decide what you want to cut out
in order to increase your amount of study time whatever you need to pass
these exams now I studied on average two hours per night Monday through Friday
after getting home from work on the weekends I usually sit with study like 4
to 6 hours on a Saturday and 4 to 6 hours on Sunday just depending on the
week and how close I was to the exam I would take a minimum of two days off
from my job to do a massive cramming session before going to take each test I
would study 812 hours a day before the twelve before the taking those tests
though if it was the weekend of the exam or right before the exam I would study
as much as I Q Mele could I'm coming to get you
sure sure you know I would normally you know window I scheduled a test I would
normally take the test on a Saturday or a Monday Monday was better for if my
work schedule allowed me to take the time off because then I could have an
additional days plus use the weekend to study before taking the exam like if I
go back and look at the math of how much I was studying per week I found I was
studying around 20 hours per week every single week and depending on how fast or
how far my test was scheduled out that meant I had studied between 120 to 160
hours before taking each test side know guys if you if you're super tired I
wouldn't I would just recommend going bed early because some nights you know
we all have the best intention but sometimes you're just physically your
body's in either just too tired and you need to sleep it off and that's no big
deal it happens so it happened to me so if you're too tired go to bed early and
sleep it off and studying next day because if you study when you're tired
nothing is going to think in it's just going to make you more frustrated and
how long would I give myself before each exam you know I would usually give
myself about six to eight weeks before taking any of the exam now I found for
me in the sweet six because if anything before six weeks I would felt like I
wouldn't have enough time to study but anything after six weeks I realized I
was forgetting information in the earlier chapters so six weeks seems to
be the sweet spot for me and as our six to seven weeks and I was able to cram
everything in that time period and then dump it out and pass a test
okay guys let's talk real briefly about what you should be doing about a week
out or two weeks out before your first scheduled test and really I would at
that point you get two weeks out at least start beginning to review
everything you've studied over the last few weeks before that you know start
reviewing your notes do as many practice problems as possible even consider start
taking those practice exams I will let you guys know that I never took a full
legitimate practice exam even within Becker but if you just what I did is I
clicked at least open the three practice exams within the Becker software and I
went through the different questions just to see what they were it was a
great refresher it really kind of helps you get my mind in the mindset for the
test because those exams and Becker are just like real exams but did I ever sit
through one of them for four hours and do every single step do but I didn't
need to and you might not need to either but just make sure you're looking at the
practice exams practicing as many problems as possible
reading your notes as much as possible and just referring to the book if need
be after that that's the approach I would take two weeks out before the exam
oh my goodness you just made it through part two
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that being said I hope you use this information not only the pass CPA exam
but to live your life on gage I'll see you in part number three until then
peace