Not sure how quickly I will write again but wanted to make sure and wish everyone a Happy and Safe Holiday!!! When you are passing out gifts, don't forget to give the people near to you big hugs and tell them how important they are in your life. Anyone can spend money to come up with a gift. Actually telling people that you love and care for them is more important and doesn't cost a penny.
(a) - Got a couple of nice notes this week here at CPA Review for FREE (www.CPAreviewforFREE.com). It is always nice to hear from our many customers. The first comes from a college student using our questions to prepare for class and the second comes from another successful CPA Exam candidate.
(Email One): "I appreciate the emails with updates and the questions that they bring with them. I just wanted to share my appreciation for the site and let you know that it has been very resourceful in helping me with my current courses at the university. I often use the sections as they correspond to the material that I am learning. Sometimes I find that it is deeper than what we are covering, other times I am right on target. But it gives me the ability to not only see what the right answer is but to learn why. That is something it is hard to come by when you are studying on your own. 3 semesters left -- I hope as I study alongside your site I will be prepared for the exam...75 come on my way..!!!!"
(Email Two): "Three down, 1 to go! I just got my BEC score this morning -- a 92! Not quite up there with FAR and AUD ;-) -- but I'll take it since I spent the week before the exam goofing off with my wife and daughters at Disney World. (Can you believe it? I was doing review while waiting for the "Beauty and the Beast" stage show to start at MGM Studios and while standing in line for Space Mountain. That'll be MY story to tell.) Once again, I can't thank you enough for your site and the questions (as well as explanations) that are up there. I'm working in a field outside of accounting until the end of the year, and it is so great in my down time there to be able to log onto your site and just work question after question after question ... no complicated external software necessary. I'm pounding away at it now on REG. That said, as much as I love it, I hope I'm done using it (well, at least the exam review part) shortly after New Year's when I take REG. The finish
line is in sight, and cpareviewforfree has helped get me there."
(1) - I got another email this week from a person who used my review program back in 1999 to pass the CPA Exam. This time he wrote to tell me that he had recently passed the Certified Treasury Professional exam and had used a couple of techniques that I had taught him back in 1999.
I found two things that he told me to be quite interesting.
First, he said that I had told him to tape paper over the screen of his television set. Well, if that was true in 1999, it is even more true in 2008. If you talk to people, most will tell you "oh, I don't watch much television" but that's a myth. Most people waste many hours each week sitting in front of that monster. Movies, reality television, basketball games, football games (college and pro)-what do you benefit from all of that television?? Unplug the set for a week and see how much better you feel. You will read more and you will listen to music more AND you will work harder on passing the CPA Exam. Television eats up time, energy, and ambition. People become addicted to television because they don't have to worry about finding ways to occupy their time. Try it-unplug the television for a week and see if you don't like the results. In fact, just unplug the set UNTIL you have passed the CPA Exam. That's a great first step on the road to success.
Which is more important to you: your own personal success or watching the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers play football? That's a stupid question. Truly ambitious people are not interested in watching other people compete, they want to compete themselves.
Second, he reminded me of my philosophy about missing questions. Over the past few decades, I have often told candidates that every answer is a series of logical steps. You move from Step One to Step Two and so on until you get the correct answer. So, when you miss a question NEVER say that you missed the answer because that is not actually true. Always say that you missed one of the steps in arriving at the answer. Go back and figure out which step you missed and then determine how to get that step right the next time. What you are trying to accomplish is to get all the steps right by yourself. You cannot do that if you don't know which step is tripping you up and how to get that step right the next time you see a question.
Too many candidates don't know how to properly use missed questions because they don't know how to learn from them.
--Isolate the step that you missed.
--Focus on that step and how you can make sure to get it right the next time.
Two good lessons from all the way back in 1999.
(2) - Always remember-if you need to unsubscribe, just scroll to the bottom of this email and you can get right off.
(3) - I got another email last week (I do get lots of emails as you can see) from one of my favorite former students here at the University of Richmond. She asked what I thought was a fundamentally great question: "All of my friends are spending thousands of dollars for a very well-known CPA Review program. They then spend hundreds of hours plowing through hundreds of pages of boring materials and then make in the high 90s. I don't need to make a high score. I'd rather keep my money and make 75."
Okay, I'm biased but I must admit that I don't know why everyone who takes the CPA Exam doesn't think more carefully about the following choice:
99 and money gone or 75 and thousands of dollars of money in my pocket???
I told her the truth: try www.CPAreviewforFREE.com for six weeks and see how you do.
If you pass, keep your money.
If you fail miserably, then spend the money.
Spending the money first makes absolutely no sense.
Repeat after me: spending the money first makes absolutely no sense.
Here's what I would do if it were me:
(1) - Pick the part of the exam that you like the most. It's always easier to get started with a part you like.
(2) - Schedule to take that exam in roughly 40 days, let's say the end of January.
(3)-Go to www.CPAreviewforFREE.com and read all the information under "resources."
(4)-Start answering at least 15 questions per day.
(5)-Never guess. On the exam, you need to guess. In studying, never guess.
(6)-If you get a question correct, move on. Don't sit and congratulate yourself.
(7)-If you miss a question, find the step you missed (see above) and figure out what you missed in that step. Write down 10 words or less to help you get the question/step right the next time you see it.
(8)-Never forget that you only need to get 75 points to pass. You are not seeking perfection.
(9)-When you get to the final 7-10 days, start going methodically back through your 10 word notes. You want to make sure you can get as many questions right as possible.
(10)-During the exam, watch your time very closely. You want to finish with about 10 seconds left. Don't waste time but don't get too rushed.
(11)-If you don't know a question, eliminate as many answers as possible and take a guess. Don't let a tough question get you rattled.
Will you pass? I think you've got a great chance. Best of all, it only took you 40 days and you did not spend a penny for review materials. If you failed miserably, the big expensive programs will still be there but spending the money first makes absolutely no sense.
(4) - What an offer!!! Instead of giving a couple of review questions at the end of this lesson as I usually do, I thought I would do something different in this lesson. I gave 30 questions last week as part of a final exam in my introductory financial accounting course here at the University of Richmond.
If you send me a note at Jhoyle@cpareviewforfree.com, I will send you a copy of these 30 questions in a Word file along with explanations of the answers. Yet again, more free stuff from www.CPAreviewforFREE.com. Don't hit reply, you have to drop me an email at Jhoyle@cpareviewforfree.com.
Yes, it is an introductory course so these questions are probably a little bit easier than you would expect to find on the CPA Exam but not a whole lot easier. The CPA Exam stresses the breadth of coverage much more than the depth. Their questions are always more basic than you might expect. So, practicing on basic questions, even at the introductory level can be helpful. Sit down and take 90 minutes to 2 1/2 hours and see how you do. It is excellent practice. The answers are explained in a separate file that I will also send. Even at the introductory level, I would not necessarily expect you to get 100 percent correct. That is not the point of the exercise. The point is to find any holes that you might have in your basic knowledge of financial accounting and then work to get them filled.
Again--from all of us at CPA Review for FREE to all of you around the world: Happy Holidays!!!!!
Joe Hoyle
Co-Founder
CPA Review for FREE
No comments:
Post a Comment