I’m currently taking an Advanced Accounting course at my university, which covers consolidation accounting, governmental accounting, and accounting for foreign currency exchanges.

All of these were topics on the FAR section of the CPA exam, and now that I’m learning them in depth, and seeing how confusing they are, I am ever more grateful to Roger CPA Review course for teaching me everything I needed to do so well on FAR.

I mean, I did a consolidation worksheet on my exam. And had lots of governmental accounting questions. But now that I’m learning them properly, in a focused, semester-long class, they’re so confusing!

I mean, it’s good to really learn these accounting methods in depth so I can remember them if I need them in the future, but I am really impressed at how Roger took these complex topics and gave me a simpler, condensed version that allowed me to get a 93 on FAR.

I’ve been neglecting my Roger CPA Review materials over the last few weeks, but I’ll be taking AUD in less than 2 weeks, so it’s back to multiple choice questions!

It’s the time in the semester where the first big tests are happening, and the first big cases are due, so there is plenty to distract me. Roger’s review materials come with software that simulates taking the exam though, so I’ll be sitting down with that over the next two weeks to complete my preparations.

In other news, apparently auditors have been noticing an increase in fraud recently. This article from WebCPA has some troubling statistics about the increase in fraud over the last year.

The scary part is when you stop to wonder how much fraud they’re not even finding. For every fraudster that is caught, how many are out there still getting away with it?

I had a spot of trouble when I went to start watching my REG videos today. I just bought myself a Lenovo S10-2 for the new semester (since my old laptop has been having issues). However, I didn’t have Flash installed yet, and I kept trying to re-load the Roger CPA review video without realizing the problem.

Finally, I figured it out and installed Flash, but by then I  had used up my views. Luckily it was a quick fix. I used the live chat support option that the Roger CPA Review website offers, and they reset my views quite quickly. I had never used the live chat option before, but I am going to look into it more to see how else I can use it from now on.

In the meantime I started reading the chapter that goes along with the first videos, and I realized that I meant to study this way all along (read first, then watch, then re-read.) So it all worked out well!

I spent my first hour of studying for REG reading about individual taxation, which I think is the only part of REG I learned in school. It is just as convoluted as I remember! I’m confident it’ll make more sense the second time around though, especially since I have had a lot more contact with preparing tax returns than I had when I took tax class!

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.