Accountant's Musings: CPA Exam & Life Beyond

Celebrating success! Your plans?

I was wondering what people want after they have passed the CPA exam. Is there something you want your family, friends, significant other, workmates, etc to do with you or for you? You can put you wish list in the comments. I have posed a similar question at these two forums:

CPAnet forum – people’s celebration plans after passing the CPA exam.

Another71 forum – people’s celebration plans after passing the CPA exam.

After I pass, I would like to finish the bottle of wine that I bought months ago… there is about half a small glass remaining! (I hope I will continue resisting the temptation til the end of the year!). I would like my girlfriend to repeat what she said after I passed the first three exams… “You are much smarter than I thought you were!” Really? What a compliment! She then had to make sure I didn’t take that wrongly by saying, “don’t get me wrong. I knew you were smart, but this is something else!” Oh , well. Thanks, babe! Sometimes I wonder how she rated me before all that! Anyway, let’s stick to the celebrations… I would like to remember to fall down on my knees and thank God for everything! I would love to go to lunch with my workmates, and not discuss the CPA exam! I would also like to hear what people will say. You think they will say something, but until they say it, you never really know! I think one other celebration will come some day. I don’t know how or why, but I just know that sometimes you do something, and you look back and you see that that was a turning point. When I realize that the CPA exam was such a thing, I will celebrate in some way!

My reward for passing… if one other person will be inspired to go ahead and accomplish whatever goal he or she has set because of me, that will be reward enough!

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

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Write down the score you want to get on the CPA exam! That's my goal, what's yours?

Yesterday I was studying during lunch (break at work). I was going over the notes I had taken when I was preparing for REG last window. Usually, when I study, I write down the time and date when I started on a particular page, and when I stopped. When I do my last minute study, it is motivating to see that I had put in some time and effort on different days, at different times, and I thought whatever I wrote down was important enough… anyway, I am digressing. So, I wanted to write dates and times as I was reviewing my “old” notes. I did, but it didn’t feel as great as the last time… so I thought for a minute, and it occurred to me that since I know the score I am shooting for, it may be motivating for me to write it on every page that I pass through… and before I turn the page over and write the score again, I stop to consider if my effort on this particular page, was good enough to get me that 99. I noticed that I covered a lot of ground during that 1 hour lunch break. I am not sure whether it had to do with the score writing and focus, or it was just because I was going over the notes one more time and I was familiar with most of the concepts.

Another benefit of writing down the score you want, (from a motivational point of view), is that you feel like you are in control of what you will get. Not only is your goal passing, but it is more focused on passing with a certain score. I am thinking that you can use “your number” as guide as you do multiple choice questions and simulations. Obviously, if you are shooting for a 75 and you are getting 75 as you practice, you may be in dangerous territory. Aim higher. Work harder. Shoot for the stars. When you only make it to the moon, you are still way up there, floating in the heavens!

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

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By passing the CPA exam, you could become the Inspiration Point

While I was driving to St. Louis, MO, on Thursday, I took a break from listening to the Gleim CDs for CPA Review (REG) and listened to Oasis Radio (I think). It is a Christian Radio network of stations. There was an interview with (I have to look up the name) and she (the interviewee) had written a book about ending a running curse in a family and in its place blessing it. Part of the curse may run like this, father is a thief, he teaches to son, who teaches his own son etc. They will all get in trouble or become misfits. Similarly, if father is a pastor, he teaches son, who teaches his own son etc. They will all stay on the right path and become blessed and share their blessings.

While I was listening to that, I remembered the many times that I wished I had close family members who were chartered accountants or medical doctors or lawyers or … you know, whatever people hold in “high esteem”. Sometimes, without really wanting to, I would find out that one of the brainiacs in my class was a daughter of a professor or a son of two PhDs or something like that. I had a ton of explanations. At one point, I thought it had to do with genes. At another, I thought it had to do with the structure in the family. [What would two PhDs in the family do for fun with their kids?! I know, I was wrong, too!] At yet another point, I thought it had to do with the kids looking up to their parents/relative and thinking, “I can be whatever I want, because, my dad, mom, uncle, or close relative is an Engineer, Chess Grandmaster, Music Virtuoso, Corporate CEO, Business-Owner, or … just rich – somehow”. It is this last point that I am trying to share with you.

By passing the CPA exams, who knows how many people you will inspire? Nephews, nieces, sons, daughters,… Just because they are related to you, and you did it, they may think… “I can be whatever I want” – and they will put in their best effort to realize that dream. All because you did it. You may never know it.

So, when times get tough, and you don’t feel like studying another minute or tackling an extra set of multiple choice questions, or watching another DVD or… Just remember that a whole generation’s success or inspiration may be depending on you.

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

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Track Your Critical Success Activities

We are trained to be accountants. One of the jobs of accountants is to measure and report performance of a business. If you don’t track it, you cannot measure it, and if you cannot measure it you cannot evaluate and report it. I believe that as one prepares for the CPA exam, she or he has to have a way to measure progress. One of the ways is to look at how you performing on the review tests – for example, are you getting 90% or more on each topic? [Different CPA review course vendors have different recommendations.] You cannot argue with the need to master the content tested on the exam. As you prepare for the exam, there are other things that you also need to keep track of to make sure that you are living a balanced life, and you are not neglecting any activities that may be critical to your success.

For example, you may practice multiple choice questions to the exclusion of everything else. You may get to a point where you are getting 99% on each topic’s MCQs. You go to the exam, and you find out that you cannot write a comprehensible essay to answer the writing part of the simulation, or you cannot effectively and efficiently search for what you need to answer the question. Or you don’t know how or whether to horizontally or vertically split the screen to answer a certain question.

Another example, if all you are doing is answering MCQs and simulations, and not reading the book or watching DVDs or listening to CDs or interacting with your peers (if applicable), then you may miss out on some tips that could be handy during the exam.

Along the way, as I was taking the exam, I tried various things to track my activity. Part of it was blogging, the other part was spreadsheets, the other part was note-taking and writing down when I did what, and yet another part was filling out a calendar as I did some things. Sort of trial and error. I would say it helped me for the most, especially when I was doing FAR, my very first exam. I was a little “bad” and disorganized for REG, but I still tracked my activities towards the end.

So, while doing all that, and thinking about it after the exam (note: I am still waiting for REG, my last exam) I played around with a spreadsheet as I was trying to figure out a way to track my blogging activities. I decided to modify it to see if I could use it to track CPA exam review activities. Below is a link to a spreadsheet I came up. Please feel free to play around with it and change it to suit your needs. Keep in mind that this will track your activities, not performance. To pass the CPA exam, you need to perform well. It is hoped that tracking your study activities will help you be more organized, and hopefully improve your review performance and hopefully(!) your performance in the exam.

CPA-SAT — Success Activity Tracker

BSAT – Blogging Success Activity Tracker

Thanks for reading and I hope you found that helpful.

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