How to Pass the CPA Exam on the First Try

This is another video from Accounting 101.org

In this video we're going to talk about how to pass the CPA exam on the first try

So what we're going to go over is a few of the main things that you can do to really increase your chances of passing on the first time

So before we get into this, make sure you go to the site, Accounting101.org slash CS and get my CPA exam cheat sheet

This has some of my best tips. It's all organized just on one page

So you can download this and instantly read it. And that'll give you some of my best tips for passing the CPA exam

Okay, so let's get into these. Step one. The first step is to set your date and stick to it

So what I see a lot of people do and a lot of my colleagues, they'll schedule their tests and then they do a crappy job of studying

Basically, they don't study, they don't take it serious, or they just kind of procrastinate

and it gets to be a month, three weeks, then two weeks, and they just realize they have no chance

So they move the date back. And the problem is that was an option in their head the whole time

So this comes back to just commitment in general. And it's kind of that principle or that maybe not principal phenomenon of how you could

this isn't a good example because when you were in college you know you could procrastinate a five or a 10 page research paper

till the last day or two and and still get it done my point here is that by the day that that thing was due

you had it done and because it was out of your control you know you couldn't change the dates when that

paper was due you found a way to get it done now i'm not saying you can procrastinate and do the same

theme because that's just not how it works. My point is that, or the parallel, is that you need

to set your date and not allow yourself to break that date no matter what. Don't let personal

things get in the way. Don't let family things get in the way as much as possible. A family

reunion, not an excuse. I mean, a big unplanned wedding or a funeral, obviously that's just

you do what you have to do. But things that, that are in your control, do not let anything get in your way of the dates that you set for your

exams. Now, one example, I'm not a big bragger, but when I found out that I had failed

far the first time, I still had audit scheduled for a certain date, which was like a month

and a half away. And I kept studying, well, I spent most of my time going forward, re-studying for far

that was the bad one. And I said it as soon as I got my new NTS and it ended up so that I only

had a week in between my retake of FAR and audit. And I refused to move back audit. And my senior

at work, when I told him that, I could tell he thought I was an idiot. But he was too nice to

say anything to me I wouldn have changed it anyways But I just got it done and I passed both of them So it possible Don let your dates Do not move your dates back If you want to move it sooner then go ahead and do that

Again, when I was studying for reg, I was ahead of my study plan and we had a big job

coming up at work. I knew I was going to be busy when I had reg scheduled

So it's annoying, I paid the $30 to move it, but I moved it up a week instead of back a week

So if you're ready sooner, you know, if you're peeking at the right time

then by all means move your test up. But do not allow yourself the option

Don't make an option in your mind to be able to move the test back because guaranteed you will end up moving it back and doing a crappy job of study

Okay, so the next step here is to make the concepts your own

What this means is in the study process, what you're really trying to do is learn the material as much as possible

The problem is there's so much material, especially on FAR and regulation

that it's really impossible. You'd be memorizing the tax code and internalizing it if you were actually going to learn everything

But the big main things, and your CPA study course will do a good job of kind of pointing these out, hopefully it will

The big main things, the frameworks, the things that you need. to know as you're studying you need to one of the most helpful things for me was to talk things

out loud i would talk through concepts out loud i would talk through problems i would read these

explanations to myself out loud and that really helped and i would keep explaining it to myself

till i understood it and then what i would do is i would make a flash card so if you've read my other

posts i would make flashcards with a uh a free flash card app or service i guess i use brainscape and i

really like the way that the flashcards work once you have them made on your iphone or

android whatever your mobile phone uh the other one out there is quizlet i think but make your own

flashcards as you go and write these things in your own words that's extremely helpful you need to

to really understand the concepts. So that's, as far as learning the stuff, that's my most helpful tip is be able to explain these

things to yourself in your own words and get it to the point that you get it, that you understand

So step three is to make your studying count. Again, this was my experience in my first time around on FAR

I knew I was doing a crappy job of studying. I was overwhelmed with how much material there was

I would turn on the lecture, you know, press the play button and tell myself, okay, I'm studying

Clock starts. This lecture is playing. I'm studying. But, you know, that's not really studying

I mean, if you're sitting up straight, if you're paying attention and you're engaged in the lecture, which is tough to do, then you're studying

you're taking their words in and it makes sense to you and you're getting something out of it, then, okay, yes, you're studying

But if you press the play button your thoughts go somewhere else You have a golf tournament on on your other monitor

I did that all the time. You're not studying. You're not learning anything

You are just flat out wasting your time. And you'll fail the test. So you need to do what I didn't coin this term, but active studying

You're sitting up straight. You're paying attention on purpose. You're consciously thinking, okay, I'm staying engaged, I'm paying attention

You kind of have to refresh that idea in your mind just constantly as you're sitting there studying

And like I've said in some of my other posts, just watching the lectures is not the most effective thing anyways

You should start with the questions. But that's not one of the things I'll get into on this video

The other thing is just answering questions and then reading the explanation

this goes back to my last point of making the concepts your own

It's just, it's easy to tell yourself that you're studying, that you've spent

I studied for two hours today. It sucked. I'm spending all this time studying

I don't feel like I'm learning anything. And that's really just, that comes down to you

That's a choice that you make. If you're learning anything or not. And so it's a lot easier

Someone who's actively studying, you can get more done. done, you can learn more in an hour than someone who's just doing kind of a half-ass job

of studying for three or four hours. And that really, that is what I did basically the entire time

I was studying for far the first time. I would turn on the lecture

Ten minutes later, I would realize I hadn't really been watching it or had no idea

what they'd talked about. Then I would try to read the lecture or read the chapter

and get bored of that or space out for 10 minutes and then try some questions, not get anything

because I hadn't learned anything yet. And then just I'd be 40 minutes into a study session and just that feeling of overwhelm and

oh my gosh, it's been 40 minutes. This is like my third week

I've learned nothing. And I think that's just how most people go through this because they're not actively studying

So make your study sessions count. You can get more done in less time

Step four is to always be studying. And I had an app on my phone, my iPhone

and I just decided that I was going to not play games anymore

I was not going to play any more Angry Birds. Any of my downtime, I wasn't going to read CNN or read ESPN

The only thing that I would do, when I pulled out my phone was to turn on my app and answer five to ten questions

multiple choice questions. So I would do that. I mean, really, when you commit to not doing anything else with your phone, you pull your phone out like 20, 30, I don't know, 50 times a day

It's crazy how much you use your phone when you stop doing the normal time wasting things that are a little bit satisfying

So I would pull my phone out do five to ten questions and 20 times a day 30 times a day you know that an extra 50 60 100 questions a day sometimes

And that was extremely helpful. That's one of the few things that I feel like bridge the gap that most people don't do, you know, during their study process

Because if you're looking at these multiple choice questions that often throughout the day, that stuff sticks in your mind pretty well

and it doesn't take very long to get good at this stuff

It reminds me of when in college when guitar hero was popular

I would play that stupid game every day, and I remember like finishing a song on expert and nailing it

and then seeing that South Park episode where they point out how stupid it is to get good at guitar hero

and just feeling like an idiot. thing I realized is that something that you do every day, it's crazy how fast you'll get good at it

So if you follow all these points, everything added up, doing things every day, making your

studying count, pulling out your mobile app 20 times a day and doing five questions besides

your core study time, you pretty much, there's no option but for you to pass at that point

if you're doing that much studying. And that's what you have to do. It sucks, but that's what you have

to do. So step five is to make the commitment. And this goes, this just covers all the other points and

this really kind of ties in with what I was just talking about. So not just during the day, but my

favorite thing was to watch TV on Netflix at night when I was going to sleep. And I finally

decided, especially after I failed far one time, I just thought, I'm not doing this again. I'm not

doing retakes. I'm not paying these guys $200 every time to fail these tests again

I'm not doing this again. And so I swore off Netflix, watching TV, sports

for the most part, which sucked. And I would just pull out my

app. I would have my two hours of course study, like actual study time

on my actual computer in the mornings. And then throughout the rest of the day, the only thing I

did was look at questions, go through questions, or flashcards. I would do that too, but mostly

multiple choice questions. And you just have to make that commitment that it's going to suck

your life's going to suck, or you're not going to have a life, forget about having fun or

quote unquote having a life. That's something I heard all the, I still hear all the time at work

people saying, oh, I still want to have a life. Well, that's great. But for me, with the CPA exam

hanging over my head. Everything was fake fun. I couldn't enjoy anything because this exam was hanging over my head

So just put all that stuff on hold and pass these off in a few months

It's possible. You just have to make the commitment and decide to do it. So those are my best tips about how to make sure you pass the first time

Again, make sure you go to this link, accounting 101.org slash CS and get my CPA exam cheat sheet

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