The exam has come and gone! I took FAR today, and then came home, relaxed, went to dance class, and did my best not to think about it too much!

I have no idea how I did. The questions didn’t seem to get any harder (a bad sign) but they also didn’t seem to get any easier (a good sign?).

I raced through the multiple choice section to make sure I’d have enough time for the simulations, which ended up not taking very long at all, and so I left the exam with over an hour on the timer. That may or may not be a bad thing?

It seemed like most of the multiple choice were not questions requiring computation, which always takes up time, so I think that’s why I managed to get through it quicker.

On one of my simulation tabs, they seem to have left off half the information required to do the problem. I spent a long time re-reading the information and trying to find what I was missing, since I had all that extra time, but no such luck. Hopefully that’s one of the pre-test questions!

Well, I just looked up how long it’ll take to get my scores, and it seems I could get them in as little as a few weeks, or as long as a few months! So in the meantime, I’ll forget about FAR for awhile and start studying for REG! But that can wait until tomorrow.

In half an hour I’ll be on my way to the Prometrics testing center to take the FAR section of the CPA exam! (Leaving a little earlier than I need to, just in case, and because it’s raining. People drive slowly here when it rains.)

Trying to keep my list of things to remember to a manageable size:

1. Take several forms of ID to the testing center
2. Read the last sentence first of multiple choice questions
3. Do the written communication first on simulations
4. Take extra time on the first testlet, because it determines how difficult my questions will be on the second testlet.
5. Eat breakfast!

Plus, I have to remember how to do all that accounting stuff they’re going to ask me about .

Well, one more day to go before I take the FAR section of the CPA exam. I should be doing hours and hours of last minute studying, because there is a lot of material I haven’t covered yet, but I’m just all out of motivation.

I’ve never been good at convincing myself studying at the last minute will do any good, which is why I started studying 10 weeks ago. I passed the 90-hour mark this weekend, so if I had studied 3-4 hours a day every day, I could have studied the same amount in a month or less. But that’s just not how I work.

So, I spent Thursday-Saturday making note cards, and now I am reviewing them. It takes a long time to go through the whole stack! (But it’s a more effective way of really learning the stuff than just reading and re-reading it.)

I also took the day off work tomorrow so I can sleep in. That way, I won’t be too sleep deprived if I have trouble sleeping the night before the test. A big part of my CPA review study strategy is being well-rested! (Helps your recall!)

There are a few areas I haven’t reviewed too much that are worrying me: Pensions, Deferred Taxes, and Derivatives. I think I’ll be fine on pensions and deferred taxes, since I learned those in school. I just haven’t looked at them in a couple of weeks. I re-studied the Derviative section of my Roger CPA Review book, but I think I’ll have to do a few practice problems to really remind myself how to do them!

However, right now I’m focusing on something simple: Ratios. Ratios are one of those things I was never tested on at school, but showed up in a lot of my FAR practice questions. The great thing about ratios is that you can memorize them in about 5 minutes, and they can help you answer an entire question. With something like pensions, you could spend 2 hours studying it, and only half-understand it, and therefore not be able to answer the questions anyway. I like to get the easy points first!

Along with my Roger CPA preparation materials came a Wiley CD with CPA practice exams on it.

So on Monday I sat down for an hour and a half and went through it. The results? 75% on the multiple choice, and 0% on the simulations because I didn’t type commas into my numerial answers.

Analyzing practice test results

I’m a little concerned about only scoring 75% on the practice questions, but I have hope of being about to study to fix this, because it is only a couple of areas that I got almost entirely wrong that cost me that 25%.

It is much easier to improve if there are only 1 or 2 sections I need to study hard (namely, nonprofits and governmental accounting.) On many other sections, such as liabilities, I feel quite confident and don’t think that I need to spend a lot of time studying that.

Suprising weaknesses

It makes sense that I would miss the governmental accounting and nonprofit questions, because I had never seen these topics before I started studying for the CPA exam. I learned these entirely from my Roger CPA Review materials, which are just that–a review.

However, I was suprised at how poorly I performed on the assets questions. I think I struggled with the questions about the time period over which to amortize intangibles and things like impairment loss.

Complicated questions

It seemed to me that the topics I had studied the most in school had the most complicated questions. I guess the test-makers know what we learn, or our professors know what to teach us to do well on the CPA exam?

However, some areas like consolidation I never learned in school, and just studied from Roger’s exam prep materials, and I did really well on that section. Partly because Roger explained that topic exceptionally well in the review videos, and partly because the practice questions I’ve seen just aren’t as difficult as they could be in that topic.

Computer Adaptive Exam

The CPA is computer adaptive. If you do well on the first 3rd of the multiple choice questions, you get harder questions in the second section. Difficult questions are worth more points than easy ones, so you can get fewer of them right than easy ones, but still get a higher score.

The practice tests I have taken can’t duplicate this, and I wonder which of my practice questions are the “difficult level” or if they’re all easy and moderate perhaps. It would be nice to practice on sets of only easy, only moderate, and only difficult CPA review questions to get a feel for the different levels. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to see some difficult ones on the exam!

This has been an exciting week for me at work so far, but pretty stressful on the CPA front. I’m going to tackle a practice exam now, but I thought this was a nice run-down of the BEC section of the exam from Roger CPA Review.

When I signed up for the CPA exam, I had no idea what to expect. After studying for the last few months, I now know what the FAR (Financial Accounting and Reporting) section covers, but I still don’t know very much about the other sections.

I like Roger‘s overview, because it’s quick, but tells me what I should expect when I start to study for that exam. I can’t wait to be done with CPA review for FAR and move on to REG!

I haven’t finished figuring out governmental accounting yet, but I have less than 2 weeks before I take the FAR section of the CPA exam, so I’m moving right along and going to finish up review as quickly as possible, and then go back and patch the gaps.

I was a little worried after governmental accounting, because I have learned none of these final topics (governmental, consolidations, and accounting for non-profits) and I didn’t do such a great job learning governmental accounting outside of a classroom, even with the help of Roger CPA Review.

However, so far Roger’s CPA review course has been perfectly understandable and easy to follow for consolidations. I think governmental accounting is just weird and tricky. I wish I had started on that section a bit earlier in the CPA study process…

Oh, while I was in California, I remembered that there are still a few states out there that only require 4 years of accounting education to qualify for CPA, whereas Georgia requires 5 years. If you’re looking for information about requirements to qualify to be a CPA in your state, this is a list of state requirements from Roger’s CPA Review site.

Note: This post turned out to be a little long and theoretical, but as a college student, and as someone trying to become part of the workforce after college, this topic is very meaningful for me, and hopefully for some of you readers out there.

On my drive home tonight I was listening to NPR as they talked about various criticism and support for President Obama’s claim that we should try and get every American to go to college, and that most of the new jobs created in the US will require some college. (Read/listen to the story here.)

I think this is an interesting topic, because I come from a family where we consider education very important and we were expected to go to college and even graduate school. Overall, I agree with his plan to try and get every American to have at least a year of college, because people should have the opportunity to try it before they decide whether or not to pursue it further.

However, as some of the critics pointed out, not everyone wants or needs to go to college. One economics professor even argued that while many jobs will require training, it is mostly on-the-job training, rather than a college education that will provide the needed skills.

What do you really learn in college?

I liked studying accounting because I learned information I would use directly in my job once I graduate. (You still have to learn almost everything about how to do the job in accounting, but you have 4 years of learning the background terms and concepts.)

Many college students study an area that does not (directly) relate to their first job. On the other hand, some companies prefer to hire college graduates with no knowledge of how to do a job to someone without a college degree. Therefore, they must see some benefit to a college education beyond getting direct knowledge of how to perform the tasks required in the workplace.

The explanation I have heard regarding this is that college teaches you critical thinking skills how to communicate. From where I stand, this seems somewhat true, but I also know that going to a good high school can do the same thing. So perhaps everyone should get a chance to go to college to learn what they should have learned in their 12 years of free public education?

Should we educate for the jobs we expect to have, or will our education now determine our future jobs?

I found the arguments over whether or not our expected future jobs will require higher education to be interesting. I wonder if you can plan to educate for the jobs we expect to be available, or if the education people get now will influence the jobs available in this country in a couple of years.

Even if there are few jobs available in science, for example, if many students get science degrees now, will they not create their own industry as they graduate and try to find work for themselves? If there are no jobs, someone will have to innovate, and entrepreneurs with the excess skills may create new niches that utilize the skilled graduates available.

My conclusions

These are just some of the thoughts rolling around in my head, and I haven’t quite organized them yet. Also, I’m kind of an idealist, no? Here are my main conclusions:

1. College for everyone would be nice, but isn’t necessary.
2. Future jobs will depend on the skills we have, not the other way around. But more college graduates may lead to more jobs for skilled workers being created or moved to the US.
3. Improving high school and on-the-job training could potentially aid us just as much and possibly more than everyone in the US having at least one year of college.

Any thoughts?

I’m back from my vacation! While I lugged my Roger CPA Review book with me in my backpack for 6 days, I only actually read 3 pages of it. Tonight I’m trying to finish up the governmental accounting videos, but I’m super frustrated, because even after reading the chapter, the videos make no sense. I keep watching and hoping I’ll absorb something, but I can’t follow what’s going on at all.

There’s nothing for it but to just read the chapter until I get it, but with only 2 weeks to go before I take the exam, my anxiety is growing a bit!

You’ve noticed I mention that I’m studying with Roger CPA Review software for the FAR section of the CPA exam right now. I thought I’d point out that they have some free resources available, and some free demo CPA review videos.

They have free CPA review study tips, general information for beginners to the CPA exam process (which still includes me, so I can’t an swer all the questions their website can!)

If you’re thinking about buying a CPA exam review software, definitely check out their free demos and see what you think. Roger appealed to me right from the start, and he remains just that energetic through every video. So if you like his style, the answer is YES, he is like that all the way through!

Happy 4th of July! I’m getting close to the end of my first run-through of FAR topics. I’ve been celebrating the USA’s independence by studying how our government approaches accounting!

Governmental accounting was not covered in my undergraduate classes, but apparently it’s an important part of my CPA exam preparation because Roger (Roger’s CPA Exam Review) says that it’s a big part of the exam! Go figure! I wonder why they don’t teach it to us in school, because now I have to learn it all for the first time during my CPA exam “review.”

So far, most of the topics for FAR really have been a “review.” I was familiar with the concepts, even if I didn’t quite remember how to account for them. Governmental accounting is all sorts of new craziness. It feels like learning debits and credits all over again, back when it didn’t make any sense.

Accounts seem to have dopplganger accounts–they have almost the same name, but one will have “estimated” in front of it, and the other won’t. Sometimes you’re using accrual accounting, and sometimes you’re using this funky “modified accrual” which I had heard of before, but never seen.

My approach to this section has been to watch the Roger CPA Review course associated with this section first (3.5 hours of video review–probably the longest single topic so far.) Next, I’m re-reading the Roger CPA Review book that goes along with the video lectures, to see if it makes more sense a second time through. Tomorrow, I’ll start on the problems, and I’m hoping it starts to really make sense then… although I’m feeling slightly more comfortable with it since I re-read the chapter.

After that, non-profits and consolidations I think, and then I’ll be DONE, DONE I TELL YOU. Oh wait, except for doing a million practice tests and looking at simulations and going back and studying the stuff I forgot since I started studying…