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www.CPAreviewforFREE.com
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Lesson 91
From: Joe
(a) – Sitting here on Saturday evening working to help everyone pass the CPA Exam. I wonder if the folks who run those big courses are working right now to help their candidates pass. It is 8:33 p.m., March 26 -- if you are an officer for a big CPA review course and you are working for your candidates TONIGHT, drop me an email at Jhoyle@cpareviewforfree.com and let me know. I’m curious (maybe “skeptical” is a better term) to know which review courses really put in the work for you guys.
(1) – We have a lot of readers who live and work in Japan. We here at www.CPAreviewforFREE.com want to express our deepest sympathies for all that your country has been through in recent days as a result of the recent earthquake. From what I can see on television, the devastation seems unbelievable. Every person in Japan is certainly in our thoughts.
(2) – I’ve received a lot of really nice emails in the last few days from CPA Exam candidates. Wish I could include a copy of every one that I receive but here are a couple.
From LQ: “Just found out I passed REG which means I completed all four parts!! Joe, many thanks to you and your team for such wonderful questions. I used the subscriptions also for practicing simulations. These helped me add a few points to my score for sure. I'm very excited and can't thank CPAreviewforFREE enough!"
From KC: "Thanks to CPA Review for free I passed all four sections my first time around. (Within a six month time frame.) Your site is an amazing resource and motivational tool. I bought one other study book per section for reference (except REG - I used your paid information) and spent under $140 on all my exam materials. I would suggest to anyone to try to pass one section with this site before spending hundreds of dollars on study materials. Thank you!!!!"
From RA: “I would like to thank you for this great website. I used it to prepare my CPA exam and today I got the result for the last part (REG). I have passed all the four parts thanks to the information that I learned from your website. This achievement is very important to me given I graduated more than twenty years ago and lot of the material was completely new for me.”
From CK: “I just got my score for REG - my final part - and I passed! I want to thank you for your help. Your words of wisdom really kept me going. Your words of encouragement kept me going. I have a wife and 7 children at home. I used to sit here at 11:30 PM and study. That's after a day's full of work and helping at home. I locked myself in a room and studied (not at home). I can tell you that I felt miserable. And then your emails arrived. It was like fresh cold water on a hot day. You wrote points like don't give up, keep going, focus on getting more points every day, etc. That gave me the push to continue studying. You made all the difference. It was the difference between sluggishly going thru the materials, and between enthusiastically going forward. I thank you very much. God should repay you for your help.”
From HK: “So, it’s been a really long journey, but I just found out today that I finally passed my last section. FAR no less. FAR was the section I struggled with most and I am just so grateful that I passed. This was also this first implementation of the new 2011 exam. Anyway, the passing of these exams could not have been done without your website, FOR SURE. You have all my gratitude, and my thanks. So Thank you, thank you, thank you... The questions on cpareviewforfree.com gave me the points needed to pass.”
All of these people saved their money and used www.CPAreviewforFREE.com and have achieved success on the CPA Exam. In these difficult times, there is no good reason to throw your money away. Give us a shot and see how you do. Pick a part that you like and use www.CPAreviewforFREE.com and go for it.
(3) – I know we have a lot of college students who use our materials and read these email lessons. In case you are interested (or in case you think one of your teachers would be interested), I do write a blog about teaching in college. I want to encourage better teaching because I think that will lead to better learning—something that is important for our country and our world. In case you are interested, the blog can be found at:
www.joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/
My most recent posting provides my thoughts on “The Top Five Mistakes that College Teachers Make.”
(4) – If, by chance, you are ready to unsubscribe from these lessons, please scroll to the end of this email lesson and click on the appropriate link.
(5) - As the spring gets here, more and more accountants begin to think about passing the CPA Exam. How do you manage to do the work that is needed for success? As I have said often in these email lessons over the years, your biggest enemy is procrastination. There just seems to be a thousand reasons in life pushing you to put off studying. It is such a difficult task to break through the wall of procrastination in order to do the necessary work that you need for success.
My wife takes “Good Housekeeping” magazine. I almost never even open the magazine. However, this morning, for no good reason, I picked up the new copy (April 2011) sitting on a table and found a fascinating article by Gretchin Rubin about how to beat our human tendency to procrastinate. I was immediately very interested. I like articles like this. She put forth a number of recommendations that should help you to stop putting off the study you really need to be doing. Here are a couple that she mentioned that were my favorites.
---“Do it first thing in the morning.” If you don’t like to do something (and studying isn’t always the most fun you can have), get it over with as quickly as you can. The longer you put it off during the day, the more likely it is that you will never get around to doing the work. As the day moves along, you get tired and your schedule gets full. Suddenly, it is bedtime and you haven’t studied for one minute. You have lost the entire day. Get up early and get some study time in before anything else happens. Then, no matter what takes place for the rest of the day, you’ll have added points to your score. You’ll never have a lost day. That’s a good motto for success: never lose a day.
---“Become a regular.” If you are constantly looking for time to study, you may never be able to find any. It is always a game of hide and seek with time. Thus, set aside one period of time, (even if it is only 20 minutes) to study every single day. During that time, study every day no matter what else happens. Having a defined time when you always study just helps make that a normal part of your life. When it becomes a normal part of your life, you won’t even consider putting it off.
---“Find ways to make the task more pleasant.” Yeah, studying can be a drag occasionally. In fact, as you study, it will seem more and more painful as time passes. Pretty soon, it can become almost impossible to keep going. Build in a reward mechanism. For example, promise yourself a small piece of chocolate or 4-5 jelly beans after each 15 minutes that you study. That gives you a good reason to study. Then, it is no longer about an exam that you might not be taking for months; you are working for a piece of candy that you’ll get in 15 minutes. Instant reward. Or, play music while you study. The words to songs may distract you but upbeat instrumental music can just make you feel better about the whole study process. When I am at work, I have a whole list of instrumental music that I listen to for energy.
---“Protect yourself from interruption.” If you start and stop studying ever 5 minutes, you’ll never get anything accomplished. Turn off your cell phone. Unplug your computer. Hang a sign on your door “Go away and leave me alone – I’m working to pass the CPA Exam.” If you find yourself praying for an interruption as you study, you are not going to be able to focus on the materials you need to learn. Once you start studying, you want to stay at study. So, think of every possible way that you could be interrupted and, before you start, try to rid yourself of those potential distractions.
--“Take a baby step.” You are never going to pass the CPA Exam in one day. Won’t happen. Success on the CPA Exam is the culmination of a long string of small improvements. So, every time that you sit down to study, remind yourself that you don’t have to hit a homerun. All you have to do is have an efficient study session so that you can add a point or two. Somehow, having a reasonable goal just makes the entire study process easier. It is terribly important that you get away from thinking of the CPA Exam as overwhelmingly difficult or even impossible. Who could possibly want to do a lot of work if they believe the goal cannot be achieved? Your goal today (and every day) is to make a baby step forward as you get closer and closer to passing the CPA Exam.
Okay, there were several more ideas in the article but this gives you some thoughts. You face procrastination every day; you need a plan to get over the wall that it creates to keep you from studying.
(6) – My younger daughter (Lara) hopes to become a pastry chef. So, last Sunday, we drove to Norfolk, Virginia to see “the Cake Boss” who is – I now know – a gentleman named Buddy Valastro who runs a family bakery in New Jersey. More importantly, I suppose, he has become famous on cable television as he tells viewers how to make great cakes and, also, how to deal with this family.
Here is a person who has taken a normal job and used it to become famous. There were 700 people in that room who hung on every word he had to say for nearly four hours.
Personally, I found three things he had to say to be especially interesting.
--First, he told the audience that he was a truly lucky guy but that he had also worked incredibly hard. He talked about getting up at 4 in the morning to go to the bakery. He talked about dropping out of high school to help in the bakery when his father got sick and died. The point that I took away: virtually all success (even on cable television) goes back to hard work. Few people succeed at anything whether it is making cakes or passing the CPA Exam without hard work. If you spend your time looking for shortcuts, you may simply not be cut out for success.
--Second, when he was given the chance to succeed in television, his wife told him that she was sure he would succeed because he was the most determined person in the world. The point that I took away: there are a lot of things in this world that will come between you and your goals. It is easy to let them throw you off the track. If you are going to succeed, you must learn to fight through adversity. If you don’t want success enough to fight through the problems, you really don’t want it. Be determined or don’t get started.
--Third, he had a problem with one of the demonstrations and he had to improvise. He turned to the audience and said that this is just what you have to do—take what you have and make the most of it. People are always looking for one more CPA review product. They are always looking for one more book or one more CD. It is usually not the review materials that are the problem. It is what you do with them that counts. Make the most of what you have been given.
Yeah, it was an interesting day. But I was surprised by how much the Cake Boss said that applied to any challenge, even the CPA Exam, and not just to the making of cakes. I am convinced that people who are successful tend to follow the same pattern, no matter what the field.
---Work incredibly hard,
---Be completed determined, and
---Make the best of what you have.
(7) – Practice time. Let’s add some points.
FAR
The City of Singler has a capital projects fund. The highest-level of decision-making authority for the city transfers $9 million from the general fund to this capital projects fund with the stipulation that the money must be used to construct Highway 66 out of town. In the balance sheet for this fund, the cash is shown as an asset. How is the fund balance reported?
A. Fund balance—restricted
B. Fund balance—committed
C. Fund balance—assigned
D. Fund balance—unassigned
Answer is B
Assets that have been designated for a particular purpose—not by an outside party but rather internally by the highest-level of decision-making authority—is reported as a “fund-balance committed.” The term “restricted” is used if the designation of purpose is made by an outside party. The term “assigned” is used if the decision about the asset’s use is made within the government but not by the highest-level of decision-making authority. The term “unassigned” is appropriate for assets where no stipulation of the future use has been made.
Auditing & Attestation
Jane Eyre works as a staff auditor for the CPA firm of East & West. She is currently working on the audit engagement of the Hitckcock Corporation. Her daughter is employed by Hitchcock. Her daughter is 27 years old and not a dependent of Jane Eyre. The firm is trying to determine whether Jane Eyre must be removed from the audit team because of a lack of independence. In applying these rules, which designation is applied to the daughter?
A. Close relative
B. Distant relative
C. Member of immediate family
D. General member of family
Answer is A
The AICPA defines a close relative as a parent, sibling, or nondependent child. A dependent child would be considered a member of the staff auditor’s immediate family.
BEC
A company has cost of goods sold for the past year of $900,000 and average inventory for the period of $100,000. The cost of goods sold is divided by average inventory to arrive at 9. What does the 9 represent?
A. Inventory density
B. Cost availability
C. Inventory turnover
D. Cost performance analysis
Answer is C
Cost of goods sold divided by the average amount of inventory for the same period gives the inventory turnover (also known as inventory turnover ratio) which reflects how many times during the year that the reporting company sells an amount equal to its average inventory. It is used to measure the speed at which a company is able to sell its inventory.
Regulation
What is a gift causa mortis?
A. A gift of real property
B. A conditional gift in contemplation of death
C. A gift that will only occur after a specified event (a cause) has taken place
D. A gift that is transferred as part of a will.
Answer is B.
A gift causa mortis is a conditional gift made in contemplation of death. It is automatically revoked if the donor does not die of the impending illness or crisis. Such gifts can only be made when the donor is in a terminable condition.
Spring is coming and the air feels good. It is a great time to sit down and start studying to pass the CPA Exam. Why not make it a goal that you will pass several parts (if not all) of the CPA Exam by the end of the summer. Put in the time and effort and YOU CAN DO IT!!!
Joe Hoyle
Co-Founder
CPA Review for FREE
www.CPAreviewforFREE.com
Monday, March 28, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Exam Grades Released
Congrats to all of you who passed the CPA exam as well as those that passed the next part!
To those who didn't pass, here is Joe's "secret sauce" to help you pass the exam:
(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.
To those who didn't pass, here is Joe's "secret sauce" to help you pass the exam:
(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.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Help for Japan's Victims
Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and their families of the Japan earthquake and tsunami. It humbles us to see dreams interrupted to deal with tasks at hand that take immediate precedent. Our thoughts also go out to the brave men and women working with the damaged nuclear reactors.
Google has set up an info page which includes an easy way to donate to The Japanese Red Cross Society
For family members, the Japanese Red Cross Society has also provided the following link: Family link web site has been opened in cooperation with ICRC:
http://www.familylinks.icrc.org/eng/familylinks-japan
Thank you! Lynn
Google has set up an info page which includes an easy way to donate to The Japanese Red Cross Society
For family members, the Japanese Red Cross Society has also provided the following link: Family link web site has been opened in cooperation with ICRC:
http://www.familylinks.icrc.org/eng/familylinks-japan
Thank you! Lynn
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Characteristics for Success of the CPA Exam
Try us FIRST before you spend your hard-earned money.
March 9, 2011
CPA Review for FREE
www.CPAreviewforFREE.com
Over 2,200 FREE CPA Review Questions and Answers Available for YOU
140 Weeks of Operation and 21,985,330 Page Views (without a penny spent on marketing)
Lesson 90
From: Joe
(1) – I want to start with the same information that I sent out last week about the CPA Exam going international. I know that, for a lot of our readers, this is exciting news.
Starting in 2011, the Uniform CPA Examination will be offered during the month of August in Japan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. The international exam, which will be offered in English, is the same as the U.S. exam administered by the AICPA, NASBA, and Prometric in the United States. Future testing months during which the exam will be administered in Japan and the Middle East will be November 2011 and February, May 2012. Licensure requirements for international candidates are the same as for U.S. CPA candidates. Along with passing the Uniform CPA Examination, international candidates must meet educational and experience requirements as mandated by U.S. state boards of accountancy. In the United States, state boards have the governmental legal authority to award the U.S. CPA license. Registration for the international exam will begin on May 1, and applications may be made through certain U.S. state boards of accountancy offering eligibility for
international candidates. A list of participating state boards and information about fees will be posted on the NASBA website in April at www.nasba.org. Testing in the new international locations will be open to citizens and long-term residents of the countries in which the exam is being administered. In the Middle East, citizens of Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia may take the exam in one of the Middle East locations. U.S. citizens living abroad are eligible to test at any location.
(2) – Okay, we’ve got thousands of people who use www.CPAreviewforFREE.com for our free questions and answers each and every week.
--Most of them are preparing for the CPA Exam. Many of those folks have become disenchanted with the mediocre review programs that charge them thousands and are poorly put together.
--Others simply decided (as our motto suggests) to try us for free first before investing even a penny in a review program.
--Some use us along with other books and programs; some use our free questions along with our subscription service ($15 per month per part); and some folks use our questions all by themselves to pass.
--We also assist college students who are desperately trying to get an A in Intermediate Accounting, Advanced Accounting, Auditing, Business Law, Income Taxes, or the like. They use our questions as a way to practice and review.
--Other folks just use our questions to keep themselves in touch with a wide variety of accounting questions. I’m always fascinated by how many people write in to say “I passed the exam years ago but I still enjoy working 5-10 of your question each day to stay sharp.”
How you make use of www.CPAreviewforFREE.com is up to you. The 2,200 questions and answers are there for YOU. We are happy to make them available. When we first started, we would get a lot of questions like “what’s the catch?” There is no catch. By now, nearly three years in, most people have come to understand that. We are happy to be of help to you.
We do need to make enough money to support our site so when you pay to download the questions and answers or when you use our subscription service ($15 per month per part), you are really helping to keep us in business so that we can continue to help others. THANKS!!! We very much appreciate your support.
So, if you have never looked at our questions and answers, go online and start working. One hour per day working with our questions and answers and you have a great chance of passing the entire CPA Exam in 2011 FOR FREE.
We don’t want to see the high cost (and low quality) of other CPA review programs keep you out of the Accounting profession. I have long argued that the cost of CPA review is entirely unfair. The Accounting profession should be open to everyone, not just those people who can afford expensive review programs.
I was reminded of this last week when I got a wonderful email from an accountant in Iran who thanked me for what we were doing. Do you think those big review programs get many grateful emails from Iran? We are not out to save the world but we are glad to be of help to everyone who wants to be able to enter the Accounting profession—no matter where you live and no matter how much money you have.
And, of course, we are grateful for your support.
(3) – How Good Do You Have To Be? I am convinced that everyone is always a bit insecure about most important things. That is just human nature. So, when you start to consider taking the CPA Exam, there is always the sinking feeling that you are just not smart enough to be able to pass. Well, I’m here to tell you that is pure NONSENSE!!!! Yes, the CPA Exam is tough and requires work but anyone who is willing to put in the time and stays persistent should be able to pass the CPA Exam in a reasonable period of time. No matter how many doubts you may have-YOU CAN DO IT!!!
Assume that you bring in 100 candidates who are thinking about taking the CPA Exam. Do you have to be the smartest person in the room to pass? Of course not. Do you have to be one of the best prepared candidates in that room to succeed? No way. In school, we tend to focus on the very top students—that upper 10 percent that seem to know all the answers. Passing the CPA Exam isn’t like school. In most cases, the top 50 percent of the people (roughly) are going to pass each part while many of the rest are going to come close. And, in that bottom half are an awful lot of people who never got around to studying at all. Or, they studied a few hours, got distracted, and never got back to it.
In other words, most people who try do pretty well. That’s just the statistics. That’s the secret that those big review courses don’t want you to know.
So, yes, you do have to study and certainly you can fail. But you don’t have to be a genius to pass. You don’t have to be an A plus student to succeed. That’s all just a myth. You just have to get in the upper 50 percent. That bar is not set terribly high.
How do you get into the upper 50 percent? You study. You study. You study. It is not magic. You study. I always suggest that if you just want to pass (make 75) you should spend 60-100 hours per part. That is one hour per day for between 8 months to a bit over a year. That is not easy but it certainly is not impossible. If you get up a bit early, you can have that done every day before breakfast.
How do you spend 60-100 hours of studying per part?
It doesn’t take smarts.
What characteristics does it take? What helps people become winners on the exam?
--Desire
--Ambition
--Determination
--Self-control
--Patience
--Planning
--Being Methodical
--Persistency
--Being Driven
Yeah, when it comes to the CPA Exam, I would take any one of those characteristics over smarts. Anyone can have smarts and waste them away. But if you give me a person with the above characteristics, I’ll show you a real winner.
You can do it.
(4) – Need to unsubscribe? Well, we hate for you to leave us but you have the right to unsubscribe. Just scroll to the bottom of this email and you’ll find an unsubscribe button. Use it and we shall part. However, before you do so, why not forward this lesson to a friend who might be thinking of taking the CPA Exam and tell them they should go to www.CPAreviewforFREE.com and register and check the box for additional materials and those additional materials ONLY include these email lessons. And, before you leave, let me say one final time “Thanks so much for being with us.”
(5) – Time to practice. Notice that this first question is very similar to the first question in our previous lesson but with some small changes. Often in accounting, understanding the importance of small changes can make all the difference in the world.
FAR
On January 1, Year One, Ace Company completes construction work on a warehouse at a cost of $2 million and sells it to a bank for $2.3 million. It has a useful life of 30 years. Ace immediately leases it back for two years. What amount of gain is recognized by Ace during Year One?
A. Zero
B. $10,000
C. $150,000
D. $300,000
Answer is D
In a sale-leaseback arrangement, any gain on the sale is normally deferred and then written off as a reduction to the depreciation expense recognized in connection with the leased asset. However, if the leaseback is for a period of 10 percent or less of the life of the asset, the entire gain is recognized immediately. Here, the leaseback is for only two out of 30 years so that the gain is not deferred but recognized entirely at the time of sale.
Regulation (I went to our subscription service and picked this information at random).
A calendar-year corporation was organized and incurred organizational expenditures of $6,000. Assume the corporation begins business on April 1, Year One, and wants to maximize its deduction for organizational expenditures in that year. What amount can be deducted in Year One?
A. Zero
B. $300
C. $5,000
D. $5,050
Answer is D
Because the company has elected to maximize its deductions in Year One, they can deduct the first $5,000 immediately. The remaining $1,000 is amortized to expense over 180 months or $1,000 x 9/180 = $50. Although it does not apply here, if the organization expenditures are over $50,000, the company begins to lose the right to the initial $5,000 deduction so that more is subject to amortization.
Auditing and Attestation.
A publicly-held corporation is in the process of changing its president. Which of the following forms should be filed with the SEC to disclose this event?
A. Form 10-K
B. Form S-1
C. Form S-3
D. Form 8-K
Answer is D
According to the SEC’s website, “Form 8-K is the ‘current report’ companies must file with the SEC to announce major events that shareholders should know about.”
BEC
Numerous companies produce widgets. However, the only company that buys widgets on the market is the Ace Corporation which uses the widgets in its uniquely designed aircraft. In economics, how is this market described?
A. As a floating market
B. As a monopsony
C. As a category 2 market
D. As a market dominated by the Wilson effect
Answer is B
Candidates are likely to know of a monopoly—a situation where there is only one seller so that unfair pricing advantage can be taken over customers. A monopsony is the opposite situation where there are many sellers but only a single buyer. This buyer can often demand unreasonably low prices because the sellers have no other alternative sales for their goods.
Hope the sun is shining where you are today. Start using www.CPAreviewforFREE.com to add those points that you need in order to pass the CPA Exam. Let’s get it done in 2011.
Joe Hoyle
President and Co-Founder
CPAreviewforFREE
www.CPAreviewforFREE.com
March 9, 2011
CPA Review for FREE
www.CPAreviewforFREE.com
Over 2,200 FREE CPA Review Questions and Answers Available for YOU
140 Weeks of Operation and 21,985,330 Page Views (without a penny spent on marketing)
Lesson 90
From: Joe
(1) – I want to start with the same information that I sent out last week about the CPA Exam going international. I know that, for a lot of our readers, this is exciting news.
Starting in 2011, the Uniform CPA Examination will be offered during the month of August in Japan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. The international exam, which will be offered in English, is the same as the U.S. exam administered by the AICPA, NASBA, and Prometric in the United States. Future testing months during which the exam will be administered in Japan and the Middle East will be November 2011 and February, May 2012. Licensure requirements for international candidates are the same as for U.S. CPA candidates. Along with passing the Uniform CPA Examination, international candidates must meet educational and experience requirements as mandated by U.S. state boards of accountancy. In the United States, state boards have the governmental legal authority to award the U.S. CPA license. Registration for the international exam will begin on May 1, and applications may be made through certain U.S. state boards of accountancy offering eligibility for
international candidates. A list of participating state boards and information about fees will be posted on the NASBA website in April at www.nasba.org. Testing in the new international locations will be open to citizens and long-term residents of the countries in which the exam is being administered. In the Middle East, citizens of Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia may take the exam in one of the Middle East locations. U.S. citizens living abroad are eligible to test at any location.
(2) – Okay, we’ve got thousands of people who use www.CPAreviewforFREE.com for our free questions and answers each and every week.
--Most of them are preparing for the CPA Exam. Many of those folks have become disenchanted with the mediocre review programs that charge them thousands and are poorly put together.
--Others simply decided (as our motto suggests) to try us for free first before investing even a penny in a review program.
--Some use us along with other books and programs; some use our free questions along with our subscription service ($15 per month per part); and some folks use our questions all by themselves to pass.
--We also assist college students who are desperately trying to get an A in Intermediate Accounting, Advanced Accounting, Auditing, Business Law, Income Taxes, or the like. They use our questions as a way to practice and review.
--Other folks just use our questions to keep themselves in touch with a wide variety of accounting questions. I’m always fascinated by how many people write in to say “I passed the exam years ago but I still enjoy working 5-10 of your question each day to stay sharp.”
How you make use of www.CPAreviewforFREE.com is up to you. The 2,200 questions and answers are there for YOU. We are happy to make them available. When we first started, we would get a lot of questions like “what’s the catch?” There is no catch. By now, nearly three years in, most people have come to understand that. We are happy to be of help to you.
We do need to make enough money to support our site so when you pay to download the questions and answers or when you use our subscription service ($15 per month per part), you are really helping to keep us in business so that we can continue to help others. THANKS!!! We very much appreciate your support.
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I was reminded of this last week when I got a wonderful email from an accountant in Iran who thanked me for what we were doing. Do you think those big review programs get many grateful emails from Iran? We are not out to save the world but we are glad to be of help to everyone who wants to be able to enter the Accounting profession—no matter where you live and no matter how much money you have.
And, of course, we are grateful for your support.
(3) – How Good Do You Have To Be? I am convinced that everyone is always a bit insecure about most important things. That is just human nature. So, when you start to consider taking the CPA Exam, there is always the sinking feeling that you are just not smart enough to be able to pass. Well, I’m here to tell you that is pure NONSENSE!!!! Yes, the CPA Exam is tough and requires work but anyone who is willing to put in the time and stays persistent should be able to pass the CPA Exam in a reasonable period of time. No matter how many doubts you may have-YOU CAN DO IT!!!
Assume that you bring in 100 candidates who are thinking about taking the CPA Exam. Do you have to be the smartest person in the room to pass? Of course not. Do you have to be one of the best prepared candidates in that room to succeed? No way. In school, we tend to focus on the very top students—that upper 10 percent that seem to know all the answers. Passing the CPA Exam isn’t like school. In most cases, the top 50 percent of the people (roughly) are going to pass each part while many of the rest are going to come close. And, in that bottom half are an awful lot of people who never got around to studying at all. Or, they studied a few hours, got distracted, and never got back to it.
In other words, most people who try do pretty well. That’s just the statistics. That’s the secret that those big review courses don’t want you to know.
So, yes, you do have to study and certainly you can fail. But you don’t have to be a genius to pass. You don’t have to be an A plus student to succeed. That’s all just a myth. You just have to get in the upper 50 percent. That bar is not set terribly high.
How do you get into the upper 50 percent? You study. You study. You study. It is not magic. You study. I always suggest that if you just want to pass (make 75) you should spend 60-100 hours per part. That is one hour per day for between 8 months to a bit over a year. That is not easy but it certainly is not impossible. If you get up a bit early, you can have that done every day before breakfast.
How do you spend 60-100 hours of studying per part?
It doesn’t take smarts.
What characteristics does it take? What helps people become winners on the exam?
--Desire
--Ambition
--Determination
--Self-control
--Patience
--Planning
--Being Methodical
--Persistency
--Being Driven
Yeah, when it comes to the CPA Exam, I would take any one of those characteristics over smarts. Anyone can have smarts and waste them away. But if you give me a person with the above characteristics, I’ll show you a real winner.
You can do it.
(4) – Need to unsubscribe? Well, we hate for you to leave us but you have the right to unsubscribe. Just scroll to the bottom of this email and you’ll find an unsubscribe button. Use it and we shall part. However, before you do so, why not forward this lesson to a friend who might be thinking of taking the CPA Exam and tell them they should go to www.CPAreviewforFREE.com and register and check the box for additional materials and those additional materials ONLY include these email lessons. And, before you leave, let me say one final time “Thanks so much for being with us.”
(5) – Time to practice. Notice that this first question is very similar to the first question in our previous lesson but with some small changes. Often in accounting, understanding the importance of small changes can make all the difference in the world.
FAR
On January 1, Year One, Ace Company completes construction work on a warehouse at a cost of $2 million and sells it to a bank for $2.3 million. It has a useful life of 30 years. Ace immediately leases it back for two years. What amount of gain is recognized by Ace during Year One?
A. Zero
B. $10,000
C. $150,000
D. $300,000
Answer is D
In a sale-leaseback arrangement, any gain on the sale is normally deferred and then written off as a reduction to the depreciation expense recognized in connection with the leased asset. However, if the leaseback is for a period of 10 percent or less of the life of the asset, the entire gain is recognized immediately. Here, the leaseback is for only two out of 30 years so that the gain is not deferred but recognized entirely at the time of sale.
Regulation (I went to our subscription service and picked this information at random).
A calendar-year corporation was organized and incurred organizational expenditures of $6,000. Assume the corporation begins business on April 1, Year One, and wants to maximize its deduction for organizational expenditures in that year. What amount can be deducted in Year One?
A. Zero
B. $300
C. $5,000
D. $5,050
Answer is D
Because the company has elected to maximize its deductions in Year One, they can deduct the first $5,000 immediately. The remaining $1,000 is amortized to expense over 180 months or $1,000 x 9/180 = $50. Although it does not apply here, if the organization expenditures are over $50,000, the company begins to lose the right to the initial $5,000 deduction so that more is subject to amortization.
Auditing and Attestation.
A publicly-held corporation is in the process of changing its president. Which of the following forms should be filed with the SEC to disclose this event?
A. Form 10-K
B. Form S-1
C. Form S-3
D. Form 8-K
Answer is D
According to the SEC’s website, “Form 8-K is the ‘current report’ companies must file with the SEC to announce major events that shareholders should know about.”
BEC
Numerous companies produce widgets. However, the only company that buys widgets on the market is the Ace Corporation which uses the widgets in its uniquely designed aircraft. In economics, how is this market described?
A. As a floating market
B. As a monopsony
C. As a category 2 market
D. As a market dominated by the Wilson effect
Answer is B
Candidates are likely to know of a monopoly—a situation where there is only one seller so that unfair pricing advantage can be taken over customers. A monopsony is the opposite situation where there are many sellers but only a single buyer. This buyer can often demand unreasonably low prices because the sellers have no other alternative sales for their goods.
Hope the sun is shining where you are today. Start using www.CPAreviewforFREE.com to add those points that you need in order to pass the CPA Exam. Let’s get it done in 2011.
Joe Hoyle
President and Co-Founder
CPAreviewforFREE
www.CPAreviewforFREE.com
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
CPA Exam Goes International in August
Try us FIRST before you spend your hard-earned money.
March 1, 2011
CPA Review for FREE
www.CPAreviewforFREE.com
Over 2,100 FREE CPA Review Questions and Answers Available for YOU
139 Weeks of Operation and 21,875,544 Page Views (without a penny spent on marketing)
From: Joe
(1) - I normally only use our emails to provide you with email lessons.
However, the AICPA sent out the following press release today. I know that an awful lot of our readers will be extremely interested in this information. Therefore, I wanted to get it to you sooner rather than later. So, I’m sending it out rather than waiting until I could write an entire email lesson.
The actual press release can be found at:
http://m1e.net/c?90368637-bSPoKLag.815A%406226349-qgsX7oOYmqgYc
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, and Prometric announced the international administration of the Uniform CPA Examination will be offered during the month of August in Japan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. Registration begins in May.
The U.S. CPA exam is being offered internationally for the first time as a service to foreign nationals in response to rapidly escalating international demand for U.S. CPA licensure. In 2010, more than 10,000 international candidates traveled to the U.S. to take the U.S. CPA exam, a 22 percent increase from 2009. Nearly one-third of international candidates came from Japan.
“We are very pleased to be able to offer this program in Japan and several countries in the Middle East,” said Craig Mills, AICPA vice president for examinations and continuing professional education. “We believe the international administrations will provide additional opportunities for individuals who want to become U.S. CPAs. As we gain experience in international administrations, we are looking forward to expanding the program to other countries where there is interest.”
The international exam, which will be offered in English, is the same as the U.S. exam administered by the AICPA, NASBA, and Prometric in the United States. Future testing months during which the exam will be administered in Japan and the Middle East will be November 2011 and February, May 2012. Licensure requirements for international candidates are the same as for U.S. CPA candidates. Along with passing the Uniform CPA Examination, international candidates must meet educational and experience requirements as mandated by U.S. state boards of accountancy.
NASBA Executive Vice President & COO Ken L. Bishop said: "It makes excellent sense to extend the benefits of the U.S. state-based CPA examination and licensure processes to an international audience. We’re looking forward to implementing international CPA Examination administrations so that we may bring the examination to candidates who would like an opportunity to qualify as U.S. CPAs."
In the United States, state boards have the governmental legal authority to award the U.S. CPA license. Registration for the international exam will begin on May 1, and applications may be made through certain U.S. state boards of accountancy offering eligibility for international candidates. A list of participating state boards and information about fees will be posted on the NASBA website in April at www.nasba.org.
“Ensuring safe, secure delivery of the CPA exam has always been a priority for us,” said Bill Murtagh, senior vice president of client services and sales at Prometric. “Carrying our commitment to security to other key locations around the world will simply be an extension of the diligence we provide in the U.S. to support the integrity of this high-stakes exam.”
Testing in the new international locations will be open to citizens and long-term residents of the countries in which the exam is being administered. In the Middle East, citizens of Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia may take the exam in one of the Middle East locations. U.S. citizens living abroad are eligible to test at any location.
“The exam, regardless of where it’s administered, provides opportunities for personal growth and contributes to economic prosperity,” Mills said. “We continue to plan for an August administration in the Middle East and are hopeful that the local conditions will allow us to provide this service to the citizens of the region.”
Initially the exam will be offered internationally during a one month testing window per calendar-year quarter. An international testing FAQ sheet is available at the AICPA Uniform CPA Examination website – www.aicpa.org/cpa-exam.
(2) – I cannot send out one of these emails without a message. That’s just not my style.
People who pass the exam don’t need encouragement. For them, it is over and part of the past. It is the people who fail and then have to push themselves to try again that need encouragement. So, I’ll leave you with the words of one of my heroes (Vince Lombardi): "The greatest accomplishment," he said, "is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall."
Or, as I might say: “if you get knocked down, use that as motivation to push yourself even harder the next time. Anyone can take a beating and then quit. Quitting is the easiest thing in the world. It is truly a unique individual who gets stronger from the experience. And, then, the eventual victory is even sweeter.”
(3) – And, as always, remember that you can unsubscribe from these lessons by clicking the button at the bottom of this email.
Joe Hoyle
Co-Founder
CPA Review for FREE
March 1, 2011
CPA Review for FREE
www.CPAreviewforFREE.com
Over 2,100 FREE CPA Review Questions and Answers Available for YOU
139 Weeks of Operation and 21,875,544 Page Views (without a penny spent on marketing)
From: Joe
(1) - I normally only use our emails to provide you with email lessons.
However, the AICPA sent out the following press release today. I know that an awful lot of our readers will be extremely interested in this information. Therefore, I wanted to get it to you sooner rather than later. So, I’m sending it out rather than waiting until I could write an entire email lesson.
The actual press release can be found at:
http://m1e.net/c?90368637-bSPoKLag.815A%406226349-qgsX7oOYmqgYc
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, and Prometric announced the international administration of the Uniform CPA Examination will be offered during the month of August in Japan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. Registration begins in May.
The U.S. CPA exam is being offered internationally for the first time as a service to foreign nationals in response to rapidly escalating international demand for U.S. CPA licensure. In 2010, more than 10,000 international candidates traveled to the U.S. to take the U.S. CPA exam, a 22 percent increase from 2009. Nearly one-third of international candidates came from Japan.
“We are very pleased to be able to offer this program in Japan and several countries in the Middle East,” said Craig Mills, AICPA vice president for examinations and continuing professional education. “We believe the international administrations will provide additional opportunities for individuals who want to become U.S. CPAs. As we gain experience in international administrations, we are looking forward to expanding the program to other countries where there is interest.”
The international exam, which will be offered in English, is the same as the U.S. exam administered by the AICPA, NASBA, and Prometric in the United States. Future testing months during which the exam will be administered in Japan and the Middle East will be November 2011 and February, May 2012. Licensure requirements for international candidates are the same as for U.S. CPA candidates. Along with passing the Uniform CPA Examination, international candidates must meet educational and experience requirements as mandated by U.S. state boards of accountancy.
NASBA Executive Vice President & COO Ken L. Bishop said: "It makes excellent sense to extend the benefits of the U.S. state-based CPA examination and licensure processes to an international audience. We’re looking forward to implementing international CPA Examination administrations so that we may bring the examination to candidates who would like an opportunity to qualify as U.S. CPAs."
In the United States, state boards have the governmental legal authority to award the U.S. CPA license. Registration for the international exam will begin on May 1, and applications may be made through certain U.S. state boards of accountancy offering eligibility for international candidates. A list of participating state boards and information about fees will be posted on the NASBA website in April at www.nasba.org.
“Ensuring safe, secure delivery of the CPA exam has always been a priority for us,” said Bill Murtagh, senior vice president of client services and sales at Prometric. “Carrying our commitment to security to other key locations around the world will simply be an extension of the diligence we provide in the U.S. to support the integrity of this high-stakes exam.”
Testing in the new international locations will be open to citizens and long-term residents of the countries in which the exam is being administered. In the Middle East, citizens of Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia may take the exam in one of the Middle East locations. U.S. citizens living abroad are eligible to test at any location.
“The exam, regardless of where it’s administered, provides opportunities for personal growth and contributes to economic prosperity,” Mills said. “We continue to plan for an August administration in the Middle East and are hopeful that the local conditions will allow us to provide this service to the citizens of the region.”
Initially the exam will be offered internationally during a one month testing window per calendar-year quarter. An international testing FAQ sheet is available at the AICPA Uniform CPA Examination website – www.aicpa.org/cpa-exam.
(2) – I cannot send out one of these emails without a message. That’s just not my style.
People who pass the exam don’t need encouragement. For them, it is over and part of the past. It is the people who fail and then have to push themselves to try again that need encouragement. So, I’ll leave you with the words of one of my heroes (Vince Lombardi): "The greatest accomplishment," he said, "is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall."
Or, as I might say: “if you get knocked down, use that as motivation to push yourself even harder the next time. Anyone can take a beating and then quit. Quitting is the easiest thing in the world. It is truly a unique individual who gets stronger from the experience. And, then, the eventual victory is even sweeter.”
(3) – And, as always, remember that you can unsubscribe from these lessons by clicking the button at the bottom of this email.
Joe Hoyle
Co-Founder
CPA Review for FREE
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