10 Tips From Passing the CPA in 3 Months
1K views
May 3, 2024
10 Tips From Passing the CPA in 3 Months
View Video Transcript
0:00
Here's how I passed my CPA exams in three months while working full-time studying two hours a day and taking the evenings off
0:07
Summed up in 10 quick tips. I'm going to go through this very quickly. So the hardcore yet lazy approach
0:14
What I mean by this is I was absolutely militant about doing my study session every morning
0:20
I studied for two hours, but that's all I did on weekdays with my review course
0:25
But the big key here was I would not miss my study session. So I got locked in before
0:29
I did anything else throughout the day. Now, as I just said, the key to being consistent was doing this two hours
0:36
It's much easier to maintain focus and stay on task and be engaged for two hours than it
0:41
is for four to five hours. Momentum for the win. So being consistent every single day, it gives you this sense of momentum
0:48
So it's a combination of having your study process nailed down, knowing exactly what to
0:53
do when you sit down to study, and then the idea of consistency
0:57
When you have both of those things, this process becomes incredibly motivating instead of having to fight yourself each day just to sit down and study
1:05
Strategic context means that for any lesson, I would go straight into the practice questions
1:10
So you look through the questions first and you strategically gather context as to, okay, from this lesson, these are the types of questions I'm seeing
1:19
What you notice is for most lessons most of the questions boil down to the same three or four things just being asked in different ways Once you do that and you know what you trying to learn from the lesson in the context of the questions the video lecture makes a lot more sense the first time around so that you don
1:36
have to watch it four or five times. Lunatic flashcards. This is a big one
1:40
So when you come up against something that you continually forget or it's really hard for you
1:45
to understand for whatever reason, you take the time to explain this concept rule or formula
1:50
out loud to yourself. So you're sitting at your desk, talking out loud to yourself
1:55
like a lunatic until you can come up with an explanation that makes sense to you and you
2:00
understand it. Then you take that explanation and you write it down in a flash card for yourself
2:05
Now, when you do this correctly by the end of your study timeline, you have all your own
2:09
personal weak areas written down in your own words in an explanation that you understand
2:15
That's incredibly helpful, especially in the last two to three days before an exam, which
2:19
we'll get to. Study to pass versus trying to learn it all. This is just a big picture concept to keep in mind that helps you craft every part of your study process
2:29
You are trying to answer the questions you're going to see on test day
2:33
Again, you're not tested on how well you can highlight a chapter or how well you can watch
2:38
a video lecture. Just understanding this idea helps you figure out what to focus on when you spend time study
2:44
Okay, the big secret. You've probably figured out that for any CPA section, you have to cover so much material
2:50
and the material is very dense and technical, that it incredibly hard to get through it once and then second it even harder to remember it all to the point where you can go in and score a 75 on test day So the big secret is to build re into your daily process
3:08
So part of that two-hour session is covering new material, obviously, but you also reserve a portion
3:13
to constantly go back and re-hit all the things you've previously been through
3:18
There are two specific ways of doing this, which we'll get to in a minute. ABS stands for Always Be Studying
3:23
So is there something that you could use to study on the go all throughout your day that you constantly have with you and you look at it constantly anyways
3:31
That's correct. Your phone. Get yourself some effective study supplements and you can be taking quizzes on your phone whenever you're waiting in line
3:39
On your lunch break, you can be reading review notes. You can be listening to audio notes whenever you're in your car when you're working out, preparing meals
3:46
This sounds so obvious, but constant repeat exposure to this material you're trying to learn is the way that you get it deep into your
3:53
your brain. So no final review. I did not do a traditional two-week-long final review because I built
4:00
in re-review to my daily process and then throughout the rest of the day, I was constantly studying
4:05
over and over and over hitting all the concepts over and over from my phone like I just mentioned
4:10
What I did do is what I call a mega cram session. So the two days before an exam, I would do endless
4:16
sets of 30 MCQs followed by a set of five to seven practice sims. And then the big thing was to
4:21
constantly review my own flashcards the lunatic flashcards that contained my weak areas written in my own words Number 10 and the best part was the evenings off Like I said I got my main study session out of the way in the morning including on weekends
4:35
and then I would do the mini sessions or the studying from my phone throughout the rest of the day
4:39
And then in the evenings, I would just do the stuff that I wanted to do. So once I had this process nailed down and figured out, it really was not that stressful
4:47
It really wasn't that difficult. Now, if some of these ideas made sense to you and you would like an expanded explanation
4:53
I have put together a free training where I will walk you through this entire process
4:58
including these strategies behind each point. You'll learn exactly how to execute these morning two-hour study sessions
5:04
You can get more done in these two-hour sessions than somebody studying four to five hours the normal way
5:09
But you'll still be using your same review course. You're just using the resources differently
5:14
You'll also learn these six key ingredients that every successful study process will have some version of
5:20
and when you know what these six key ingredients are and you're doing them correctly and consistently
5:26
it is literally hard to fail. As part of the training, you'll also get the slides from the training, which you'll want
5:32
You'll also get a mind map so you have a big snapshot of how all the strategies fit together
5:37
These trainings are in webinar format, so they're only at specific times. Click this video or the button below the video to go to the registration page
5:45
Choose an upcoming time that will work for you and then do not miss it. This is one hour that will literally save you months and months of time and frustration
5:53
So if you would like to dramatically improve and simplify your own study process
5:57
choose one of the upcoming sessions and I will see you there
#Education
#Other
#Tax Preparation & Planning
#Training & Certification