Accountant's Musings: CPA Exam & Life Beyond

Five things are needed to pass the CPA exam, and it is amazing how simple the things are. The good news is, almost everyone has the things, or one can develop them:

1. Intellectual and academic readiness. If you have been approved to take the exam, then the AICPA, NASBA, and/or your State Board of Accountancy think you are (intellectually and academically) ready to take the exam.

2. Good Study Material. I have addressed this topic before. As you may have seen, you are more important or critical to passing the CPA exam than the study material. The material has to meet both the exam requirements and your needs.

3. Commitment to study the material and prepare adequately for the exam. There is no commitment without persistent and focused action and vice varsa. The exam is tough and also passable. You just have to give it the respect, time, focus, and preparation that it demands. There is no substitute for practice.

4. Good exam technique. Mostly, commonsense stuff. Pace yourself (that is time budgeting and sticking to the budget). Read the questions carefully. Educated guessing. Basic computer skills (for example, how to split a screen or use embedded/onscreen calculator). Don’t leave questions unanswered. Focus on each question. Read the question (stem) first. Starting with the essay part of the simulation. Double-checking questions to make sure you read it correctly. Double-checking answers to make sure you selected what you wanted to select. Double-checking spelling and grammar. Making sure all questions aare answered. You can find more of these tips in your CPA review book or your lecturer (on DVD or live) will probably give you some pointers. Good exam technique is more effective if you are fully prepared for the exam.

5. Positive Thinking. You can pass without believing in yourself (that you can do it). I, however, think that positive thinking makes the a trip on this road less traveled a lot easier.

All the tips on this blog and other places can be summarized into these 5 things, or they are closely related to these. That is all you need.

[If you think there is more than this, or that you can take out one of these, please feel free to share below or send me an email via the contact form.]

Thanks for reading, and I hope you found that helpful. Your comments are welcome.

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The surest way to realize your dreams: Lots & lots of work!

Image credit: http://weheartit.com/entry/345611

Thanks for reading, and I hope you found that helpful. Your comments are welcome.

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[A little background: My undergrad degree is in Mathematics and Education. When you study education, you learn about Psychology, Sociology, Philosophy, and of course, Theories of Education and Learning. As you may expect, most of the Psychology, Sociology and Philosophy lean towards education. One of the few things I still remember liking from my time in college is the Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning.]

According to Bloom, all of learning is divided into three main domains or categories, namely, Cognitive, Affective, and Psycho-Motor. If I were to explain it to a kid, I would say, “all your learning is either mental, heart/emotion, or bodily” – which seems obvious, until you start getting into the details on how to formulate questions which can be used to assess an academic paper or a dissertation, or the technical competence of a CPA candidate! This article’s focus is the Cognitive Domain of learning and how its understanding can be a handy tool in preparing for the CPA exam.

The Cognitive Domain (or mental) aspect looks at levels of “thinking” from Knowledge (which is simple or (rote recall) to Evaluation and/or Creativity (which is complex and involves creation of something new). Like most skills in life, you build your way up, so there is a hierarchy of learning. The Taxonomy has since been revised; below are the two hierarchies (new and old) side by side.

Bloom's Taxonomy Cognitive Domain Hierarchy

Armed with knowledge of the details of Bloom Taxonomy’s Cognitive Domain, you can easily see through what a CPA examination question is asking. From my experience, most of the CPA exam questions focus on the high-level cognitive skills, (analysis, evaluation, and creativity) which partly explains why the exam is so difficult or demanding. You are expected to exercise those thinking skills from question to question, and the “keywords” for the particular thinking level are implied or hidden within the question. You may have noticed as you were going over practice questions that questions rarely directly ask you to evaluate or critique something. Usually, a scenario will be presented, and from the requirement/question, you will see that you need to evaluate a statement or position.

I think the most useful way to use the Bloom’s Taxonomy is to be aware of it as you are studying or learning or taking notes. For example, are your notes a regurgitation of what you found in the book (lower level), or did you create something that is “new” (higher level)? From your notes or newly acquired knowledge, can you answer questions that directly use the high level “keywords“? Can you debate an issue? Can you explain a concept to a person who is an accountant and have the person satisfactorily explain to another? (That is, can you teach what you know?) If you clicked the “keywords“ link, you may have observed that as you go up the hierarchy, “relationships” appear to be emphasized. This can be relationships between bodies of knowledge, parts of a body of knowledge, a body of knowledge and a particular scenario, etc.

You may get more information on Bloom’s Taxonomy and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) from the following sources:

http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Bloom%27s_Taxonomy (Bloom’s Taxonomy – Mary Forehand, University of Georgia)

http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/researchskills/dalton.htm (Excerpt of sample question stems, useful verbs, etc – from “Extending Children’s Special Abilities”)

http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/hi216/learning/bloom.htm (Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Levels)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom’s_Taxonomy (A Wikipedia article on Bloom’s Taxonomy)

http://www.mindedutainment.com/content.php?id=53 (Mind Edutainment – My Thinking Program)

Thanks for reading, and I hope you found that helpful.

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People ask this question over and over again. May be the only other question closest to it is “which is the cheapest CPA review course?” You just have to look at the forums.

Here is my opinion: passing the CPA depends more on you than anything else. Thus, if you take any of the top 5 or 6 CPA review courses and give it to a good candidate, somebody who really wants to pass, and who will put in the study hours, she or he will pass. First time, no problems. If you give the same (or all of the CPA review courses to a poor candidate, one who is unprepared but wants to pass, or wants to pass with minimum effort possible, I will bet that she or he will fail. So, if I were to advise my brother or son or daughter or mother who was thinking about taking the exam, I would say, pick any of the better known CPA reviews out there, and pick what you think suits your needs. Once you do that, know that you have the best CPA review course in the world, and your only job is to match it. Be a good candidate/student.

Now, the fact that one of the vendors makes so much noise and in the process gets to be well-known does not make it the best. The fact that vendors feature their top students who always say they got 95+ on all parts does not make them the best. The fact that vendors have highly subjective statistics on passing rates, and quote “independent experts”, does not make them the best. Vendors love CPA candidates, and they really want us to pass. However, they love money much more! You know what people will do for money. Some will go for quality and hope to win market share with superior quality, some will lie, some will make noise, some will mock or make fun of the competition.

What if somebody asked me to develop a system for selecting a CPA review course? Well, let’s see how I would go about choosing one. First, I would look at myself to see what my needs are. How long have I been out of school? How motivated am I to read textbooks? Do I need anything in addition to Textbooks? CD? DVD? Live tutoring? How much time do I have to study or attend class or watch DVDs? Do I have access to the Internet? Will I be traveling a lot? Will I need the support of a counselor, or lecturer? What type of customer service will I need? Does it matter to me that the vendor offers guarantees to pass or it will provide free updates until I pass? [Read small print on the offer!] Do I remember anything from my school days? How did I do in school? What type of learner or student am I? etc. Answers to these questions will give you a guideline as to the needs that the vendor you choose must meet. For example, if you don’t have access to the Internet, you may want to stay away from a vendor whose critical parts to your success are all online. If you have access to the Internet, and you hate books, you may want to go with a vendor who has content/items critical to your success online. If you spend a long time on the bus or train, but you cannot open a book while on it, you may go with some Audio CDs or lectures on a jump/thumb/flash-drive. If you love books, and nothing but books will do it for you, you may want to go with the vendor with the thickest books! You get the idea! You are the one who will take the exam, so when you buy the material, you need to buy something that suits you.

Another option, or in addition to the above, I would look to see if I know anybody who has passed the exam and was willing to share his or her opinion, thoughts and experiences on the particular review material that he or she used.

If several vendors meet my needs, I would look at which one appears to give me the most bang for my buck! [That is, maximum return for my investment.]

In my case, I had a classmate who had just passed the CPA exam using Gleim. That is why I bought Gleim the first time I thought I would take the CPA exams. I did not take the exams until a few years later, when a friend encouraged me to go for it. He had used Becker. My friend passed all the sections the first time. I would say our study habits and intelligence is about the same, so I was not sure whether it was Becker or him. He told me he had a study group, and I figured… it was him! I had liked Gleim the first time I cracked the book and went over the multiple choice questions, and even though I had not taken the exam, I felt that they did a good job. So, I didn’t want to move too far from Gleim. I also knew that it had been a few years since I finished my MSA program, so I would probably need some lectures. I Googled something online and in my searches, I found Jeff at another71.com, and he had used Yaeger and he said good things about it. I read his blog for quite a bit just to be sure, and I thought… “this seems like a good program”. I checked a few other programs, but I went with Yaeger because of several reasons: It met my needs, among which was need for lecture DVDs; the pricing was great, as I could get a discount if I bought via Jeff’s website (or he had a discount code); they used Wiley books, and I thought Wiley is a respectable publisher. I also knew that I would be using Gleim testprep CD, which I have always liked. I was willing to give the Wiley 14.0 CD a chance though. Well, everything is history… sort of. I have passed 3, and failed 1 by 1 point. This sounds like a commercial for Yaeger or Gleim (or Becker?), but I just thought I should share my experience.

If you spend enough time on CPA forums (or fora?), or go to various CPA blogs, you will see that people have passed with excellent scores (in my opinion) using RogerCPA review, Excel CPA review, Bisk CPA review, Yaeger CPA Review, Becker CPA review, Gleim CPA review… (I am sure I have missed some other vendors), which goes to tell you that as long as some basic essentials are met (i.e. sufficient content coverage, AND your individual needs), you will pass if you put forth the effort.

A few weeks ago, I wanted to do a chart to compare all the CPA review programs. I think I will do it when I pass my last exam. It is a time consuming project. I faced two main challenges; the packages are different from vendor to vendor, and the pricing is not straight-forward, at least from a comparison point of view (apples and oranges). It is not insurmountable, but it requires a lot of time to correctly decipher. I have seen a few comparisons by the vendors themselves, needless to say I thought they lacked objectivity! So, that’s on my to-do-list, sometime in Dec09 – Jan10, God-willing.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you found that helpful.

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The best study area is an area where you will focus and get the most out of your studying. Focus may be enhanced by reducing or elimination distractions. Getting the most out of your studying may be enhanced by the intensity as well as length of time you spend on studying. Distractions may include external and internal noise. External noise is the noise you hear, coming from outside, somebody asking for help, phone calls, or it could be visual, for example, if you are sitting by the window and you are checking out everything that passes. Internal noise may be things that you are thinking about that have nothing to do with study. For example, if you study at a park where you (used to) go for romantic walks, it may take your mind off your studying if you reminisce about that. May be not.

It is important to notice that areas that may be best for other things may not necessarily be best for studying for the CPA exam. For example, I do quite a bit from my bed/bedroom. I am very productive there. Over the weekend, I finished an 85 page book on HTML and CSS (while I was upset for failing REG!), I almost always blog from there, I watch soccer on ESPN360 from there (not productive), I designed the spreadsheets to track my studying and blogging activities from there, and I did some of my critical studying for FAR, BEC, AUD, and REG from there. However, it is not always easy to operate from the most comfortable and central place of my apartment. There have been times when I have fallen asleep when I really wanted to study, like last night. Or I have chosen to do other, more fun things, like reading a book on Investments or Productivity, than study – and I blame it on the bed/bedroom. I think that, as much as I get a lot done from my bed/bedroom, most of the things are not “forced”. The CPA study is kind of forced and there is an element of rebellion in me, not wanting to do it. Thus, I need extra motivation to choose to Study “Estates & Trusts” in the review book over other things. Once I choose comfort (that is the bed), it may be easier to go another level and choose another comfortable thing, (that is non-study stuff). After all, why should I spend my comfortable time doing uncomfortable things?!

When I notice things like that, I live for the living room, or the library, or the office. I get more effective studying done there. This works because, I think to myself, I am here, not my most favorable of place, I might as well accomplish what I came here for!

Knowing the best place to study (and using it) is a critical success factor, in my opinion.

Do you have a special study place? How do you make sure your studying is effective and efficient?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you found that helpful.

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