Comments for Accounting Elf

Comment on Strategies: Multiple Choice Questions on the CPA Exam by Patricia

Patricia — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:31:51 +0000

Hi, yes I do…I was going crazy trying to figure out how to study for this test. The problem is, that the CPA review is not a CPA study. You can’t study for this test like you did back in college for a test on material covered in class. It’s not a textbook approach (read the chapter and answer the questions)…there is too much information in one module to do it that way…you’ll never remember.
This is a REVIEW…which means it is info you already know from having gone to school and RE-Viewing it…looking at it again…so…my approach is as follows and it is working very well:

Do all the questions in a chapter first. Spend about 1 – 1 1/2 min on each one. Yes…the first round will take a while. For Cash, Marketable Securities, etc.. it was about 2.48 hours the first round. Then see what you got right or wrong. The answers in the back of the section tell you what questions correspond to what subsections…so if questions 1-6 were on Cash…and you got 3 of them wrong…then you go back to the subsection of “cash” and read and take notes or make flashcards on it. Then go back to that set of questions 1-6 and do them again, this time knowing what you just read. Then you’ll understand better and get the questions right. Do that for each set of questions for a section that you did wrong. The next day, re-do the questions again as a review/refresher. Then go on to the next section.

Try it…it works for me…cuts the time in almost 1/2!

Comment on About by kelkel

kelkel — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 02:07:43 +0000

I gave myself a few months for each. If you look at the sidebar of this blog, I have a little chart showing the total hours I spent studying for each section, and the date I took each section. I started studying for each subsequent section as soon as I took the section before it.

Comment on About by Kristine

Kristine — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:39:35 +0000

I really like your blog! I am graduating in May and plan on taking the first section of the CPA exam in October. I am also thinking of using Roger CPA as my review course. How much time (weeks/months) did you spend studying for each section? Do you think it is best to take FAR (the hardest section) first? Was it really that difficult? (You got a really good score!) Do you have any tips for studying/taking the exam? Also what made you pick Roger CPA over Becker or the other courses?

Sorry for all the questions! It’s just nice to hear from someone who has already gone through what i’ll be going through. Thanks!

Comment on Consolidation Accounting by kelkel

kelkel — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:13:54 +0000

I had only heard of a couple of well-known cpa review courses when I started looking, and they were way out of my price range. I had a contact who worked at Roger who suggested it to me and got me a special deal. Even without the deal, it is a lot cheaper than the other courses I knew of at the time, and when I listen to my friends describing the boring, ineffective lecturers they seem to get with their courses, I’m glad I have Roger’s videos instead.

Comment on Consolidation Accounting by kelkel

kelkel — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:10:22 +0000

I re-read this post, and you’re right, it does sound a bit like an advertisement–sorry! It’s true though- I was really surprised by how well I did on FAR, and I was sitting in Advanced accounting yesterday wondering how on earth I had gotten through all of those consolidations and governmental accounting questions, because when my professor tries to explain it, it doesn’t make any sense at all

I got a deal on the software through a friend of mine, in return for posting my thoughts on the course, but I’m not required to say anything nice about them . If they were awful, I would tell you.

Comment on Consolidation Accounting by Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:38:24 +0000

Perhaps this is answered elsewhere, but I was wondering if you considered using any CPA review aides other than Roger? Why did Roger win? Thanks!

Comment on The Seven Deadly Myths of Accounting by Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:23:49 +0000

Very interesting read. I’m finishing up my Associate’s degree right now (before I move on to Bachelor courses in a few months) and myth 2 and 7 are the ones I’ve had to deal with.

I am quite exceptional at math and would love to find a profession that allows me to exercise it, but it didn’t take long to run into students who were unhappy with the relationship between math and accounting. I guess they thought, like the myth says, that it was math only. I’m more concerned with the level of math that I’ll get to use. A lot of it is just adding and subtracting, but I do remember one course that taught various equations to pull out numerical statistics from across the financial report. That is exactly what I was looking for.

As for myth 7, I’ve never had the delusion that I’d learn nothing in college about accounting (in fact my first course was a bit difficult), but I do find myself wondering exactly how prepared I’ll be. More importantly, if I were to be hired to do a company’s accounting on my own, how horribly I might fail.

On another note, I found your blog just a little while ago and I’m enjoying it. I’m especially interested in the CPA exam parts because even though it’s far off for me, it all seems to be quite a mess. Thanks for sharing your experiences!

Comment on Consolidation Accounting by just wondering

just wondering — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:13:40 +0000

Are you in any way affiliated with Roger CPA? Your posts are starting to sound like advertisements for their review course!

Comment on Back to the books by kelkel

kelkel — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:17:38 +0000

I’m sure you’ll do great! Let me know how it goes

Comment on How well is Making Home Affordable doing its job? by kelkel

kelkel — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:06:20 +0000

Thank you!