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Hello and welcome to Episode
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6 of the CPA Exam Experience Podcast from SuperfastCPA. I'm Nate. And today we are going
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to talk about how to study for two CPA exams at once
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This, I mean, I get asked this all the time, but it was
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actually this morning that a reader or a customer user emailed me and just asked me
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how to do that, because what a lot of people are having issues
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with right now is they had a section scheduled and then, you know, there's
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the whole coronavirus thing going on and the testing centers are shut down
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They're supposed to open up soon, but no one really knows if they're actually going to be able
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to stick to that schedule. And so a lot of people are prepared
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like right now to sit for a certain section and then they have another one scheduled in a
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month or two. So I've been getting this question a lot. So that's what we're going
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to answer in this video. Now, I do have some experience with this
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If you're a SuperfastCPA follower, you've seen this little picture because this is my proof, my
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claim to fame, how I passed all four sections in one three
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month period. That was after failing FAR once. And then I, you know, figured
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out how to really study. But in this process, I took FAR and audit
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four days apart. You can see here, October 22nd and October 26th
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Four days apart, I believe it was. Well, I have no idea
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I guess it was like a Monday and a Thursday. I'm not really sure. But it was four days apart, as you
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can see. What happened was I had my audit test set on that date, October
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26th, I guess. And. You know, however, whenever it was before that, I had taken FAR, then
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got my score back, realized I had failed and I didn't want to
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move my audit date back or anything. So I just set FAR, my FAR
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retake up against the audit. The original audit date. And that was that's what it was
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four days apart. And luckily I passed both. So. Yeah. So those strategies
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that's the point of showing you that is I know how to do this, which I proved and
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I will show you how best to do this in a very time
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friendly manner. So here's what we'll cover. When to not study for two exams
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at once, because that's important. But there are situations that arrive like this coronavirus
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thing that might make it might give a legitimate reason to actually do it the other time
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Or sorry, we're not to that yet. When you might need to study for the
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two exams at once and then when to avoid it, if possible
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How your failed score, like the actual score you get, should dictate how you approach
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the retake and whether or not to push the next one back or
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you know, focus solely on that or try to study for two at once
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And then how to study for two sections at once, why you're really here. But these other things matter
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or else, I mean, I wouldn't wouldn't have included them. These other things matter. So we'll go over those first
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Now, before we get into that, the marketing people are telling me I
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should do more of this. So please like, subscribe, comment, review the podcast and the YouTube
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videos that we are starting to make more of. Whoops. Whoops. So it makes
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sense, right? This is a free way to support what we're doing. Keep this kind of
3:57
content coming. Subscribing to the podcast and on YouTube. Most of all, though, currently
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leave a review in the iTunes podcast app. If you're finding these episodes
4:10
helpful, that's what would help us the most currently. Subscribing on YouTube, you know
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leaving comments on the YouTube videos, not just random comments. We do have a little prompt for
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you to make this easier. So today's viewer poll for this video, whenever you're watching this
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video in the future or today, it doesn't matter. What? So. Answer this question in the comments
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below. What section have you personally struggled with the most and then why
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And you might think that's far or reg, but not always. Because something like audit
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if you have never worked as an auditor, audit is very confusing and hard because all of it sounds
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the same. But it's all very different, obviously. So audit can really throw
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people for a loop if they've never worked in auditing. So anyways, leave
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your response to that in the comments below this video. So when to not study for two exams
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at once? The first most obvious reason is if you don't have an actual reason
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to. And I do get asked this. I get emails about this
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someone. And usually what it is is they they will say, I'm
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not working right now, so I have all day, every day to study
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I'm thinking about studying for far and reg at the same time and just dividing my day in half
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No, don't do that. That that makes absolutely no sense. And you will probably fail both of them
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You don't want to be going through like the the actual learning process
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You don't want to be going through a section for the first time
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or you don't want to be doing that twice at once. That's very hard
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And as we'll get into, typically how this should work is you
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will have one section that is new that you're going through for the first time where you're studying
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under the typical format, just going lesson by lesson. And then you have another section
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where you're doing a restudy. You know, if you failed it or you're
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just trying to maintain. And we'll get to that. But never do it for no reason just to
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study to it once. That doesn't make any sense. If you want, if you have like a
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three month window from when you finished your master's until you start your full time job, if that's
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what it is, you'd be much better off to set the two six weeks apart
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And so it's just all day, every day is whoops. All day, every day is one section
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And then you you take that section and then you do the next one. Now, here's the score thing
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If you failed with less than a 60. I would recommend if you can make
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it work, you know, don't schedule a new one yet. I would just go back to that section
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and approach the restudy as if you're just starting over. So that's my advice on that
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Now, everything else we're going to talk about is if you scored like
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a 61 or above. Between a 61 and a 74, of course
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If you're new to SuperfastCPA and you just happened upon this video and you don't know about
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our study approach that we teach our clients and customers, then watch
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one of our study trainings. And you can do that by texting pass now to 44222
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And you'll be sent a link. You can watch a free study training. All right. Now, when to study for two
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exams at once. When you think you might have failed a section and you
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want to maintain your knowledge of that section. I will give you an easy way to do
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that. That's one situation. The other time is when you you've gotten your score back and you know
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you failed the section, but you don't want to move your next exam date or you want to retake it as
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soon as possible. Which, again, if you scored 60 or above, that is what I recommend
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You want to get back in the testing center basically as fast as possible. Like I'm talking like three
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to four weeks. Because doing what I will tell you in the strategy part of this episode
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If you scored above a 60, you can easily make up that 10 to
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15 points over several weeks. Then the other situation is this current situation during this whole
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exam date testing center uncertainty due to the coronavirus. And then there's probably other
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circumstances I haven't explicitly mentioned. But, you know, when when you have a legitimate reason to
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try and maintain your knowledge of the previous section you've already studied and then you're moving on to
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you know, learning or going through a new section for the first time. So how to study for two exams at once
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Again, this relies on you knowing the SuperfastCPA approach to studying and the two hour main
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session that we teach our our customers. So if you are a customer
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and that's not crystal clear, then go into your account and rewatch the
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study hacks videos. If not, attend one of our free trainings. Again, I mentioned this
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for an overview of how your main study session should be done. You can do that by texting PASSNOW
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to 44222 or go to superfastcpa.com slash training. Pick an upcoming session
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You will find this one hour training extremely valuable. So how to study for two exams at once
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Here's how it should work. You shouldn't ever be in a situation
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where you're learning new material for two sections at once. I already mentioned that
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It should be where one section is new and then one is a restudy or maintenance
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Now for the new section, you simply follow the Superfast CPA approach with your review course
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doing that two hour session, ideally in the morning. Okay. So that's that's how you do
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that. That's simple. It's the same as it always would be. Now for the restudy section
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you set aside an hour a day for this. And primarily what you will be doing
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is a set of 30 cumulative multiple choice questions. Then you review them just like
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you do. You know, again, if you know the Superfast CPA approach to the two
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hour main session, you know that you end every session with 30 multiple choice questions
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So because you're done going through the material for the first time, it basically just narrows
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down to this. This is how you maintain that knowledge or, you know, gain that
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extra 10 to 15 points that you need. You're going to do a set of 30
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cumulative questions. Then you review them, make flash cards as needed. And then if you have time, a set of
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five to seven practice simulations. And then for the mini sessions, this
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is just as crucial. So you obviously keep doing those. And by mini sessions, again, if
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you're new to Superfast CPA, what this means is you want to be
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studying from your phone in all the little chunks or the nooks
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and crannies of your day. Whenever you would normally pull out your phone and look at social media
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or just do time waster stuff like text memes to your friends
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You want to replace that for a few months until you pass these exams with using study supplements
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from your phone, because every minute of studying counts and it helps
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And when you can add in an extra one or two or three hours a day outside of your main study session
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using study supplements on your phone, that makes a absolutely huge difference in your retention and
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understanding, especially when you're consistent every day. So you're doing these mini sessions
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And if you have the Superfast CPA bundles or bundle, you have the review notes, the audio
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notes and our quizzes. And the quizzes also include mini sims. So whenever you take a quiz on our
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app, you're getting exposure to both multiple choice question content and simulation content
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So. The idea with the mini sessions is you simply split your day in half
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such as a.m. and p.m. So if you are studying, if your new section, let's say it's audit
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And your re your restudy or your maintenance section is far, then in the morning you'd
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get up, you do the normal two hour session for audit as you're moving
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through new material. And then through the rest, through the rest of your morning until lunch
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all your mini sessions would be on audit on the on the
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app, reading the review notes, audio notes, taking quizzes. Then after lunch, it just switches
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You you do far many sessions on the Superfast CPA app. Now, here's the ideal situation to
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make this all clear. You do the new section in the morning using the standard Superfast
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CPA two hour session. Right. We already said that. Now, if you can scrape together
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another hour in the morning to do those 30 multiple choice questions, then great. You just get it all out of
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the way in the morning. That would be ideal. But if not, you do that
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hour of your restudy or maintenance section at night. It's just one hour and it's a lot
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less mentally taxing than learning new material. So you can do it at night and it's
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really no big deal. You do the 30 questions. If you've been doing if you've been
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following the Superfast CPA approach and you end each study session with those 30 multiple choice
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questions, you should be really good and quick at answering multiple choice questions
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at this point. You should be averaging one question per minute. And so if
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you're able to do that when you have this hour, you're getting through the 30 questions in
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30 minutes or less sometimes. So then you would be able to fit in
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as and as the weeks go by, you'll get quicker at the multiple choice questions. So you'll have more time
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for the practice sims. Now, if you have four hours each day
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two hours in the morning, two hours at night, then you have plenty of time to do the full thing
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For the restudy section, you do the 30 questions, 30 multiple choice questions, and then the full set of
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five to seven practice sims. So then you obviously review each of
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them after you're done. Make flashcards as needed. And that is that's the restudy
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or the maintenance section. Now, if you're not to where you're able to do 30 or one
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multiple choice question per minute, then that is the goal you're working towards
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And it takes this daily practice. You have to do it. You have to do it
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You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it
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You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it
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You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it
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You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it
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You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it
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You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it
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You have to do it. You have to do it. The thing that you make flashcards for is the stuff that you keep missing or that just
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for you personally is hard for you to remember or understand for whatever reason
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Just the stuff that you personally keep struggling with whenever it comes up
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Those are the things that you make flashcards for. And you write it down
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You sit there and you explain it out loud to yourself until it makes sense
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And then that is what you write down on your flashcard. You write it in your own words
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And by the way, I keep doing this with my hand, but I mean digital flashcards like in
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Quizlet so that you can review them easily on your phone all in one place
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You don't have to carry around 200 physical flashcards. The 48 hour mega cram session does not change
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So when you get to the last 48 hours before your exam, whether it's the new section or
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the retake section, pause the other section for those two days and you just do the mega
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cram session like normal. Now, if you've been diligent about writing your own flashcards, those will be the absolute
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gold at this point because they contain what you have personally struggled with to remember or struggled to understand
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So you review those flashcards relentlessly in that last 48 hours. You also want to read our review notes from start to finish like two or three times in
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those last 48 hours. And ideally, once all the way through right before you walk into the exam
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If you can get to the testing center early, the same with your own flashcards
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Work in sets of 30, 30 for the multiple choice questions. So this is in the last 48 hours
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You work in these two hour blocks and you fit as many of these in in those two days as
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you can. The two hour block where you can actually sit with your review course would be
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30 multiple choice questions. Review them. Then do 30 more multiple choice questions
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Review them. Then a set of five to seven practice sims. Then you review them. Make flashcards as needed
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That's what a two hour block would be for this final review or mega cram
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session. And you just fit in as many of those two hour blocks as you can
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And then as you're sitting around, you know, eating your meals or at night during those
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48 hours, that's when you go through your own written flashcards and reading the review
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notes just in your downtime on those two days. And then, of course, the morning of the actual exam
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If you do all this every day, you will get a passing score
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If you scored between a 60, like a 61 and a 74
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and then you do this restudy. Even if you don't have the new section you're going through, that this is the same
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formula for a restudy. But you can fit this in while you're studying for you've moved on to a new section
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as well. But if you do this, you will get a passing score
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You will make up those 15 points, 10 or 15 points, however much you need
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If you do this, this works and it will work. All right. Now, a word on the superfast CPA approach again, if you're new to our
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videos or podcasts or whatever, we, what we teach our customers is how to have a two hour main study session
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When you do this right, it's more effective than someone studying four to five
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hours the normal way. And by normal way, I mean watching every video, reading every chapter
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and then doing all the practice questions. Now, we're not talking about shortcuts or any like magic
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tricks. You have to learn the information, but you can do it so much smarter and so
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much more effectively. And that's what you'll learn on these free trainings. Then you use the study supplements on your phone all through the rest of your day
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The review notes, the audio notes, the quizzes. We already talked about that for a free overview of the process
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Again, you can go to superfastcpa.com slash training. You will find this training incredibly helpful
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You'll have multiple aha moments. We frame the study process in a much different way and it will just make so much more
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sense after you see one of these trainings. You can also just text pass now to 44222 and we will send you
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a link or you'll be texted back a link to join one of the trainings or sign up for one of the trainings
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So again, if you found this valuable or helpful, please like, subscribe, comment, review
19:19
The main thing currently that we're looking for is reviews on the iTunes
19:23
podcast app. Just search Superfast CPA and you'll find the podcast. If you're finding these helpful, then subscribe because we got a lot more of these
19:33
things coming up. And this is just a free way for you to support
19:37
what we're doing with the this free, the free content side of things
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so that we keep doing it. Subscribe to the pod and YouTube
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Like I said, most of all, leave a review. And then again, if you haven't yet, the viewer poll for this video is what section
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have you had the hardest time with and why? Just kind of write out your experience in the comments below
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So thank you for watching. Keep grinding every day and hopefully you get these over with in just a few
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months with our help
