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How Katie Changed Her CPA Study Routine to Become a CPA
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May 3, 2024
Free "CPA Study Hacks" Training: https://www.superfastcpa.com/passnow #becomeacpa #cpaexams #superfastcpa Full post here: https://www.superfastcpa.com/how-katie-changed-her-cpa-study-routine-to-become-a-cpa/ In this episode you’ll hear me talk with Katie, a SuperfastCPA customer and now CPA, about how she changed her CPA study routine which helped her pass her exams and become a CPA. You'll hear her describe her CPA study experience, and the things she figured out once she realized what it really takes to become a CPA. She share's 3 really good tips on the CPA study process: 1) Her overall CPA study experience and what it takes to become a CPA 2) Her system of taking notes and how she used her notes in her final review 3) A tip on how she got used to waking up early to do her CPA study, and how she treated the weekends Important Links: Learn the perfect 2-hour study session here: https://www.superfastcpa.com/passnow Don't have a review course yet? The best thing you can do is get a free trial from several courses and see which one YOU like the best. Get free trials from the top 3 courses here: Wiley CPAexcel: https://www.superfastcpa.com/cpaexcel Roger CPA: https://www.superfastcpa.com/rogerreview
View Video Transcript
0:00
I owe my CPA license probably to your service, so thank you so much
0:05
It helped me more than you probably know. Welcome to episode 16 of the CPA Exam Experience podcast from Super Fast CPA
0:13
I'm Nate, and in today's interview, you'll hear me talk with Katie
0:17
She is a Super Fast CPA customer and now a CPA. And there are three specific things that I want you to listen for in this interview
0:26
So first, her overall story, And this is similar to some of the other interviews that we've done where, you know, the person kind of got out of college and they just kind of assumed, nobody thinks the CPA exams are going to be easy, but they just kind of viewed them as this thing that they were just going to kind of put the time in, study a little bit each day, and just kind of pass the exams and get them over with
0:52
And then they run into the reality that these are much bigger or harder or much different
0:59
thing than your average college exam. And she kind of talks about that process and she uses the
1:05
phrase, I got to the point where I realized what it was actually going to take. And then she kind of
1:13
talks about that shift and, you know, what that meant, what she means by what it actually took
1:19
So she explains that process. The second thing is she shares some good tips on her own note-taking process
1:27
and again, this is something that has come up in multiple of these interviews where I've always
1:35
promoted the idea that you should be making your own flashcards and specifically flashcards
1:40
And if someone doesn't have their own tried and true methods for taking notes that they used
1:46
all the way through college, I would still probably recommend the flash card route
1:51
But some of these interviews have convinced me it doesn't have to be flashcards
1:56
and usually that's when someone has their own system that they've already been using for years of taking notes
2:03
And this is one of those cases. She kind of talks about how she did it, how she used the notes
2:09
both in the day-to-day study process as she's creating them and the different ways she did that
2:14
And then also how she used her own notes as she got closer in her final review to an actual exam
2:21
And then the third thing that she talks about, or the third specific thing, that I thought was a really good idea
2:26
she shares a specific tip for getting used to getting up early in the morning and getting used to it pretty
2:32
quickly. And she talks about that and I could not agree more with the point that she makes. So listen for that
2:37
And obviously, we talk through her whole study process. So there are a lot more than three specific
2:42
tips you will get from this. Again, if you're in the study process or you're going to be in the next year
2:48
I would highly recommend you listen to this full interview. Go back and listen to the other interviews
2:52
we've already published and some of our other podcast episodes because they are completely free
2:57
and we have gotten a lot of comments about how helpful these have been to people that are
3:01
still trying to figure out their own daily study process. Now that being said, these episodes are
3:07
obviously completely free to listen to or watch on YouTube, but they do take a lot of time to
3:13
record and then edit everything and publish it. So if you found these useful or if you found
3:19
one of the previous episodes useful, please take a second and go to your favorite podcast app where
3:24
you're listening to these and just leave a review. So I just want to read one of the most recent reviews
3:29
we got on the podcast. This is from Elistamom. They said, great for motivation. The podcast is
3:34
keeping me motivated to keep studying. Listening to others talk about their path is keeping me on
3:40
mine. So that's a simple review, but you get the point. And that is a good point. Listening to other
3:46
people that are going through the same thing you are, I do think it helps with motivation and
3:51
keeping a cohesive mindset about what you're trying to accomplish each day as you go through
3:56
the months that it's going to take to get these exams over with. The last thing before we get
4:01
into this interview, if this is the first thing from Super Fast CPA that you've come across
4:05
the best place to start is one of our free study trainings. That is, it's a webinar we run multiple
4:11
days a week where we walk through our study process. And this is all basically
4:16
around a two-hour study block. So our big claim with this is you can learn how to study or get
4:21
more done in two hours than most people can in four to five hours studying the normal way
4:27
And that's all explained on the training what that means and what we mean or why what we
4:32
recommend is different. And the key thing about this is when you can do that, all you need to do
4:37
on weekdays, assuming you're busy and you're working full time, all you need to do on weekdays
4:42
is one of these two-hour sessions with your review course. So instead of trying to find four or five hours all throughout your day to sit with your review
4:50
course, you only need to find two hours a day to actually sit with your review course
4:54
because what you will be doing is so much more effective and efficient
4:58
So to sign up for one of those trainings, just go to superfastcpa.com slash pass now
5:03
Or if you're just listening to this, you can text pass now one word to 44222
5:08
or go straight to our website at superfast cpa.com, and it's easy to find a link to one of these trainings
5:15
With all that being said, let's get into this interview with Katie. So how long have you
5:22
You're all done, right? You've passed all four? Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm all done
5:26
When did you pass your fourth one? I passed my fourth one this past January
5:33
Nice. Meaning like three months ago or three or four months ago
5:37
Exactly, yeah. Sweet. Yeah, I had audit passed for a while and then that was my first one that I had and then I did
5:45
reg, FAR and BEC in like five months. Nice. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's just start at the top
5:53
So when you, when you first started studying, did you just get a review course and just kind of
5:59
jump into it or how did you start the study process? Yeah
6:03
So I, when I got my full-time offer, I worked for RSM
6:07
They gave me the Becker package. So that's what I started off initially
6:12
But I don't know if it's because I didn't do a master's program. I did the 150 credits
6:17
I was maybe not expecting the exam to be as, like, rigorous as it was
6:23
Yeah. So I did not really take my study course all that seriously when I first started
6:29
So I kind of thought it would be like any other college exam. And then after I took my first exam and I found out just how, like, tough it is
6:36
and just how like in the detail some of the questions can be, I basically had to like restart everything
6:43
And this was at the same time when I was about to start full time. So it all came crashing down all at the same time
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And I freaked out thinking, I'm never going to be able to do this if I start working
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But what worked for me is I used to study before I went to work
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So like I would wake up at 5 a And then study until I had to leave for work until like 8 8 And that basically what I did It took me a while to get to that point because I thought oh I just like redo my review course
7:10
And when that wasn't working, that's how I found super fast EPA
7:14
And I started using that, especially like the audio lectures because I travel a lot
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especially like driving to and from, like I live in South Florida. A lot of my clients are like central Florida
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So my longest commute is like three hours. I would stay out there, but like that three-hour commute, I would just listen to audio lectures, to and from work
7:34
Anywhere I would go in my car, I would listen to them. Just because I feel like the more you listen to it, the more like ingrained it gets
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But once I started getting strict at that like 5 a.m. to like 8 a.m. studying every day
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And then every day, like eight hours at least on the weekends, that's what made the biggest difference
7:52
Okay. And when you started, did you, did you fail any sections
7:58
Or did you? Oh, you did? I did. The first time I took Far, Audit, and Reg, I failed
8:06
Now, the first time I took, I think it was far, I got a 73
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So it was one of those fails. I was like right there, but I just couldn't get over the threshold
8:17
Same thing with Reg the first time I took it. It was similar to that. I think I got, like I said, a 71 the first time I took, right
8:25
Okay. And so when you like got our, package or whatever, did you start studying based on kind of our, how we recommend you study
8:36
or did you mostly just use the audios? No, so I used, I would say I use the audios mostly, but I also use like the five question
8:44
quizzes a lot, especially if I had downtime. I had the app, so I would just log on whenever I had a couple minutes just to do questions
8:51
And then before my exam, I would print out like the actual written notes
8:55
And then I would just review them, highlight the things that I thought were important. and then the things I didn't know well, I would like flag them with those little post-its to
9:02
like go back and read again. So I did use those, but closer to like my exam date, I would just
9:09
use those kind of as like a recap of like everything that was in each section
9:13
Yeah. Okay. And so when you were going through the, you know, studying each day when you
9:20
in the beginning and you failed those sections, and then after that when you started passing your
9:26
sections. What changes did you make to your actual, like your main study session and how you used
9:33
your, your Becker stuff? Did you just study the same and just kind of get better at it? Or did you
9:38
change anything with how you actually? I think the biggest change was just how much time I put into it
9:44
every day. I think before I would only put in during the week two hours and then the weekends around like
9:49
six-ish and hours. And I just thought that wasn't enough. So I would do like the Becker stuff and then I would
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listen to the audio lecture that would like coincide with the same chapters in becker and then
10:01
i would do the little quizzes when i was like out or at work and then i would try to do like
10:07
more practice exam before my my exams because that was something i didn't do um the first time i took it
10:13
i didn't take a practice exam because i just thought i would be better just to review the concepts
10:19
in the little time that i had between like the last day of studying and the actual exam date
10:24
but I started incorporating like at least doing one practice exam before each exam
10:29
Yeah. I think that's good. I mean, I know you use the audio notes and little quizzes
10:35
so that gives you a decent amount of kind of re-review each day. Were you doing that any re-review as part of your main study session
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or were you just mostly using that time to move through new material? The re-review, I would use like the audio lectures for the most part
10:49
So like I would just listen. Like if I did like that day, like pensions in the morning
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when I would go to work or like I was traveling back from work, I would listen to like the pension
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lecture on the audio notes. And then when I got home, I would try to do just specific question
11:02
to that section and then do a couple of those five question quizzes that would just like encapsulate
11:07
everything. They try to keep other stuff fresh too. Yeah. That's how I try to do it. Like if I
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learned that Becker section that morning, I would try to listen to those audio lectures after the fact
11:17
Okay. So your actual like your test day experience and especially where you had a few failed sections, what were some of the things you learned going through
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the real exam that you then used the next times that helped? Definitely the time management
11:36
of your exam. The first time that I took reg that I got my 71, I ran out of time in my last
11:43
simulation, and it was just really discouraging because I feel like if I had more time, I probably
11:48
could have just gotten all at least more points on it. I probably would have been over the threshold
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So when I was studying, I just tried to get faster at answering questions, especially with the quizzes
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if I didn't try to spend more than a couple minutes on each question
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So if I didn't know, I would just pick and move on just to try to get faster at answering them
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But that was definitely the biggest thing I had to change after my first failed exam
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was just like how much time I was putting into each section. And it always felt like that last sim, I was like pressed for time and I was like rushing through it
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And every time that I felt rushed to finish, I failed the exam. Sam
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So if that's any indication. That does. And that's a big thing
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And that's what I'm always talking about in those training videos is you just
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you have to get good at answering multiple choice questions through the study process
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And then that will kind of take care of itself on test day because the faster you get
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done with the multiple choice questions, the more time for Sims. And that's really what the Sims are about is just sitting there struggling with them for as
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long as you can. Yeah. I think sometimes you don't see like how much time the sim's going to take you
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because you don't like you won't see how many like attachments are attached to a sim until it's actually
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like your time to view it. And if you get one of those sims that has like eight attachments at the
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end of your exam and you're like 30, only have like 20 or 30 minutes left. Like that's probably
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not even enough time to get through like reading through all the attached information. So that I had
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I had to make a huge change for that. And I've never really been like the best test taker like all
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throughout like I took my SATs and when I was in college I was always like one of the last
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people to finish exam just because I was just a little slower so it definitely was I really
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had to change how I was like approaching the exam so that I wouldn't feel like I you know I should
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have if I would have gotten more time I would have been able to pass that kind of mentality yeah
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and then how about how did you approach uh because I don't really like the full two week final
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review, you know, because if you just go lesson by lesson, you're really just forgetting a bunch of
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everything you're going through. And then you basically are trying to relearn it all at the end
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That's why I talk so much about re-review on a daily basis. But how did you do your own, like
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what was your version of a final review So I took a lot of like written notes especially when I would do like practice exams And if I like would go back I would like write down all the like the sections I did like poorly at and like maybe the specific part of that question I got wrong
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And then I would just make notes of all stuff I was weak at. And then I would just review all the things that I was really weak on on my practice exams
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Remember my final review for the two weeks before. I would just I would try to listen to all the audio lectures again
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and then go off of my notes from the practice exam for things that didn't go that well
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So like if I struggled particularly like one module, if I was like really bad at it
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then I would look at the lectures on Becker again, do the practice questions on Becker and then listen to the audio again
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Okay. So kind of went in like that order. I would do the Becker audio
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then I would do the Becker multiple choice, and then I would listen to the audio lecture for that recap from the app
15:01
Nice. And that was my next question. So you sounds like you took notes, kind of just like regular notes
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like on a notebook and not so much flashcards. No, maybe it's just me in particular
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but it just stuck so much better with me when I saw it on a page. And like for me, if I was sitting
15:20
in the exam, I could kind of visualize like where in my notes I wrote that specific formula
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And I did color codes and like all of that for like specific formulas, for like terms for
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If I did the difference between, like, S-Corp and C-Corp, I did, like, red for the differences
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Like, I would just remember, like, where in my notes I saw that's a particular thing
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Yeah, for sure. And I think you said kind of the key idea, though. It's like, it's not so much the mode of how you do it
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But when I talk about people making flashcards, the biggest thing is you don't want to take notes or make flashcards on every single thing
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because then you're just spending this huge amount of time making notes or flashcards
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So you want to specifically do that for things that you personally struggle with, you know
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to understand or remember. And that's basically exactly what you said. Yeah
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Especially after a practice exam, I would only really like redo notes for things that I was weak at or like a module that I performed like really poorly on
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Would I like go back and actually like start new notes? Okay. So going back to just kind of your daily process, did you
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So in the beginning when you were just starting, you mostly studied after work and you weren't getting
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up early? Is that what it was in the beginning? Yeah. I mean, I will admit when I first started
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work, I think I put more effort into like doing well at my job than trying to finish the exam
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And if I can go back and tell myself that that was not the route to go down, I would definitely
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do it. Because at some point, it kind of hit me that if I don't like really get serious about
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finishing this, then like it doesn't matter how great I do at work. Like I can only go so far
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So I kind of had to change my whole thinking of that. But yeah. I definitely was one of those kids out of college that thought I would have no issue with taking
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this test and I had a lot of issues at the beginning before I got disciplined about what it actually
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takes to get through all four of them. Yeah, the CPA exams are weird. There were two people
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from my master's degree that were in my higher group and my same firm. And they were clearly
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like two of these smartest kids like in the masters. They were just, they were sharp. And they really
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really struggled with the CPA exams. So you just, I just never know
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There's just something about them. Yeah. And then so from going from there for where you studied after work and then realizing
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okay, if I'm going to like block this in, this has to happen in the mornings
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how did, what was just your process for getting used to waking up so much earlier
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Because that's one of the one things I hear from people. And I'm like, okay, what do you want me to say
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Like, do you want to pass these or not? Yeah. What I did, which helped a lot, was I also woke up early on weekends. So even though I had the time to sleep in, I would still try to like train myself to wake up early. So it wasn't like I woke up super late Saturday and Sunday and then here I am trying to wake up at 5 on Monday. So I tried to keep waking up, maybe not at 5 a.m. on the weekends, but at least by like 7 a.m. I was already awake. Like not like trying to start my day earlier. So it didn't feel as like bad when I was trying to wake up on Monday on 5. It worked out better for me. I was on
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a travel engagement when I was taking my last exam, which is BEC, and I was in a hotel, so I
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would wake up super early. I would go downstairs and get breakfast and then just sit at the desk
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in my hotel until I had to go to work. So that made it a lot easier because I didn't have any
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distractions in my hotel because I wasn't like at home. I was like in the middle of nowhere for some
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job. So but I made myself get up early on the weekends too to get used to getting up at 5 a.m
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like Monday through Friday. Yeah, I think that's a really good tip is
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And overall, that's similar to, again, what I'm always telling people is, like
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if you just can treat this as four or five months that are just, it's just going to suck
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When if you just accept that, it's, it's like easier and it sucks less to get up early
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study every day, never miss a day of studying, always do those little mini sessions
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just all of the above if you just kind of accept that that's how it's going to be for a few months
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you have a much bigger chance of just passing them all and getting it over with. I agree. Yeah. It is definitely a short time, like a short term sacrifice for the long time goal
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because I, right now that I have them all done and I just have to focus on work
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it just feels like a huge load is like off my shoulders. And I just feel like I'm just less stressed
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in general. And like our job is not necessarily the most stress free anyway. So now that I know
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it's like one more level of stress is like, I don't have to worry about anymore. It's like made my life
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better. Like even if that sounds dramatic, but I do think my life is better now that I don't have to
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worry about these exams. Oh, for sure. I mean, anyone who's actually studied this started the study
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process understands just how how crappy it is to have these like hanging over your head
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And getting your fourth passing score is like top two days of my life for sure. Yeah. Oh, 100%
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A hundred percent. And it's, I don't, I feel like people don't realize just how much harder it is to do it while
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you're working because I was one of those people that thought it'd be fine and I mean it is possible
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because I feel like if I did it really anybody can do it but it's it's 10 times more difficult
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because the time you don't have the same amount of times to vote and a lot of the times it's
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worker studying and I think you should choose studying right yeah that's the thing it's and it is also
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hard because like you said you you kind of just get the idea quickly
20:55
when you start in public accounting or at any job really that you know you want to be doing your best at work
21:00
but then eventually the partners start asking like how are the CPA exams coming you know yeah i think
21:09
um that definitely is what happens because i think my partner was probably the second happiest person after me when I passed my exams because it just just takes a weight off of his shoulder and like my team shoulder also that like they don have to worry about me finishing and I know of people that have like given up and I did not want to become one of those people and I really did even if it meant just doing it for myself I wanted to do it but it is it can be discouraging but it feels so great to be done
21:38
after you've accomplished it. Yeah. Well, and it's not just that. I mean, it does get to that point
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where you're just kind of like, okay, this is, you kind of view it as a personal challenge
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but like you said, you had to do all those, what did you say
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150 credit hours or whatever? Just to sit for the exams. And then in other states
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you know, you have to have a master's just to sit for these exams. So that's what I was always thinking about
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It was like I didn't pay 40,000. to not do these stupid tests
22:11
Like, I'm going to pass these. Yeah. So about that, what, do you remember when you found out you got your fourth passing score
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Like, what was that day like? Yeah, so I found out I was at dinner with family that was from New York
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And they were all asking about how the process was. And I used to hate getting that question because I always had to tell people like
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oh, like, I'm not done yet. Or I was really close. I have to study again. And in the back of my mind, I'm like, oh, I'm not
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have to like tell the story again how like I was really close and like I really don't want to
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talk about this anymore and when we were at dinner um Nazbo sent out the tweet that the scores were out
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and I was like too scared like I'm gonna do this at dinner because I'll be like really depressed
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if like I didn't pass but my sister was at dinner and she checked for me and she was like you passed
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and we were already at dinner so we like a lot of desserts and like it was really fun but
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I was terrified I was like I can't I want to be a love
23:08
when I checked the last one. I don't want to be anywhere. I don't want anybody to talk to me
23:13
but it ends up being like a good moment. Nice. One of the questions I've been asking is
23:19
you might have mentioned this in some form, but if there was kind of one thing that you feel like
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was your secret sauce to the study process, what would that be? Or I guess maybe your biggest
23:28
tip you would give to somebody. I would just, like, as much like repetition, like if you can
23:33
do questions over and over again, listen to audios over and over again, do as many
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five question quizzes, like I feel like what really gets you to understand the topics is seeing
23:43
it over and over and over again and doing that question type over and over again and looking
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at that sim like multiple times if you're using Becker, like just the more you see it and hear it
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and like practice it, the better you are, the better prepared you are. Because for the most part
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the question types don't change very much when you actually are on the exam. It's just like the figures
24:03
and like maybe what the final calculation is. But if you know just the basics of what they want you to do
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can answer any of the questions. So the more you see those question types
24:12
the better you get, and the more prepared you are. And the faster you are in answering those questions
24:18
Okay, thanks for saying that, because that's another thing people email me about
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They're like, hey, I've been taking these five question quizzes, and I think I saw one that's the same
24:28
I'm like, okay, now do that until you've seen them all 10 times, like, because that's the point
24:32
Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, all right, cool. everyone has had and it's been interesting to me because all these different interviews everyone has
24:40
their own just little tips and tricks that they figured out and I think the biggest thing to learn from that
24:47
is what a lot of people do is they start and they're putting in a few hours a day and it's just
24:53
so different and overwhelming like you said because it's so much different than a college exam
24:58
yeah that they just kind of freak out or give up or or keep doing it that way for months and then
25:04
fail sections. You just keep at it. You start, you start just figuring out what works. And once you get
25:11
to that point, then it's just a matter of time, you know, that you will pass. I feel like when I found
25:20
exactly what worked for me, so like after I took reg and I passed and I was away into BEC, I didn't
25:25
change anything. And like my same study happens is exactly what I did. And I did fine on BEC. So I feel like
25:31
once you know what works for you specifically, like don't try to alter what it is that works
25:36
at first time because more likely than not, if you study the same way, you'll get a similar
25:40
outcome. Yeah, I agree. Well, yeah, I don't want to take up much more of your time. I appreciate
25:47
you doing this. Yeah, no problem. Yeah. I owe my CPA license probably to your service. So
25:54
thank you so much. It helped me more than you probably know. Awesome. That's good to hear. All right
26:01
Thank you very much. Thanks, Nate. Have a good one. Yeah, you too. See you. All right
26:08
So that was the interview with Katie. If you're listening or watching to this point, you heard the whole thing
26:14
And I'm confident that you found that well worth your time. We went through a lot of helpful things about how you can take some of her ideas or strategies
26:23
and improve your own daily study process. Specifically, I really liked her point about not getting up later
26:31
on weekends or not treating the weekends as like days off. I'm a big, big advocate of that
26:37
This whole process is easier if you just view every day exactly the same
26:42
And not just that, but you view the weekends as an opportunity to study even longer
26:47
I would always try to study for at least five or six hours on Saturday or Sunday
26:51
And I would still get up really early exactly like what she described
26:55
I wouldn't really let myself sleep in or I didn't view the weekends as like my time off
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I just found it much easier mentally to view every day as the same until I was done
27:07
And then, of course, she mentions using our app a lot, using the audios and then the questions quite a bit
27:13
and then reading our notes as kind of part of her final review strategy
27:18
Again, to get our best study strategies pretty much mostly for free because we cover the main ideas of our study process
27:26
sign up for one of those free one hour trainings. we also provide our best discount on our bundles only through those trainings
27:33
And so you have to be on one of those trainings to actually receive the link to that promotion for our best pricing on any of our bundles
27:42
So again, to sign up for one of those trainings, just text pass now to 44222
27:48
Pass now is one word. Or go to superfast CPA.com slash pass now
27:54
Or find the link in the description below if you're watching this on YouTube. If you're listening, you can just go to our site
28:00
It's easy to find a link to one of those trainings. So thank you for listening or watching, and we will see you on the next episode