Up next in 10
Failed CPA Exam: 3 Simple Steps to Pass Your Retake
965 views
May 3, 2024
Full study strategy training: https://www.superfastcpa.com/study-secrets/ Failed your last CPA exam? Here's a fool-proof strategy for studying for and passing your CPA exam retake. A CPA retake after a CPA exam fail is a process that many CPA candidates get wrong. The most common mistake is making the CPA restudy process way too complicated. This video will give you three very simple but extremely effective strategies for adding 10-20 points to your CPA exam retake score.
View Video Transcript
0:00
And when you're doing those two things, it makes a massive difference
0:05
I would almost say it's hard to fail your retake if you are literally doing both of those
0:11
things consistently every day. All right. Let's talk about how to do a restudy
0:17
I've got three tips on how to do a very effective restudy
0:23
And I have a lot of emails to back this up. Somebody asked me, how do I do a restudy
0:28
How do I study for a retake? I essentially send them these three tips I'm about to go through
0:34
And it's very simple, but it works. Because you're just going to be focused on, again
0:41
what you are actually going to be doing on test day. So the first tip, when you go back to do a restudy
0:49
you do not want to kind of start from the beginning. You basically want to just go back to sets of 30 questions
0:58
and that is going to be the main basis. That's going to be the foundation of your daily study sessions
1:05
So sets of 30. 30 MCQs plus a set of. 30 MCQs, do that twice
1:16
plus a set of five to seven practice steps. Okay? So if you have two hours, let's say
1:23
for your main study session in the morning, you sit down, you do two
1:27
sets of 30 multiple choice questions. You want these to be cumulative. Now, some people really want to
1:36
they really want to focus on their, on their weak areas, you know, whatever their review course is
1:41
telling them, and you can just sort questions by like, I think Becker calls it personalized review
1:49
or something. If you really want to do that, then just split this up. Do one set of your
1:55
personalized questions, meaning the stuff that they're handing you saying, like, this is what
2:00
you're weakest on, but still do the set that the other set from all areas. Because repeat coverage
2:09
constant repeat coverage of all topics is what's going to get you the passing score. It might
2:16
make intuitive sense to go back and just really spend a bunch of time on your weak areas
2:21
but you should not neglect the idea of constant repeat coverage of everything
2:28
So two sets of 30 MCQs followed by a set of 5 to 7 practice sims
2:35
Now, when you do these practice sims and you generate these in your review course
2:39
you just want to go through and you only even want to pay attention to the ones that are hard for you or challenging for you
2:45
and when you when you do the sim you look at it you kind of read through get an idea of what it's asking
2:53
you and look at the if it a document review simulation with all the little exhibits you look through those Just get an idea of okay what is this What is this about
3:05
And then you start filling it out. As soon as you get stuck, because you do not want to spend 20 minutes just staring at this
3:11
As soon as you get stuck, submit it. Okay? Submit it. See what the solution is
3:18
Then wherever you got stuck, you'll have kind of an aha moment
3:22
you'll see, okay, that's where I got stuck. That's how I need to do it
3:27
Then you start it over. And then you keep filling it out
3:31
Keep filling out the SIM. Get as far as you can go. That's essentially how you work through Sims
3:37
And again, you're trying to find ones that are hard for you, that are difficult for you that maybe you haven't seen before
3:43
or it's on a topic that it's hard for you to just understand it generally
3:49
That's how you do the practice Sims effectively or efficiently. Through this whole process, this is key
3:57
Flash cards. Flash cards that you write in your own words. Now, if you are a podcast listener, you've heard me discuss this with different people on the podcast
4:08
It does not necessarily have to be flashcards per se. It could be traditional notes
4:14
Another thing a lot of people do is they print out our review notes
4:18
They print out the Super Fast CPA review notes. and in the corresponding section
4:25
they just kind of make, write their own discoveries in their own words. But the key idea here is that when you are reviewing these
4:34
when you're reviewing your sets of 30 and your practice Sims, when you come across questions, this is afterwards, obviously
4:43
after you've submitted the set of 30 and you're looking through the solutions, if it's something that you've missed multiple times
4:50
It's just hard for you to remember. Just the key idea is stuff that's difficult for you
4:56
You take a second and you write yourself out of flashcard. You sit there and you explain it back to yourself out loud until it clicks
5:06
And at least momentarily you understand it, whatever explanation you came up with
5:12
And you write that down. You write that explanation down that's in your own words
5:17
Again, that can be on notes or... flashcards. I always prefer flashcards, digital decks, because then it's just easy. They're with you. It's
5:28
another thing you can do mini sessions with, and it's just really easy to do them at night. They're just
5:32
always with you. But again, on the podcast, people talk about, um, people do it in Excel. They take notes in
5:39
Excel on paper, in a notebook. They do the paper, physical flashcards, whatever your personal
5:46
preferences. But the key idea is that you are taking things from these explanations on stuff you
5:52
keep missing and you putting it in your own words That the key point Those two things together Now the third thing is of course if you a super fast CPA customer you know what that is
6:08
Mini Sessions is simply the idea that you study from your phone
6:13
Like this makes up your main study session each day. This right here, these two things, when you can sit in front of your review course
6:19
Whether that's two hours or four hours or six hours, whatever that is
6:24
But then you also have the rest of your day and you always have your phone
6:29
You're always looking at your phone doing other stuff. While you're doing, while you're trying to pass your CPA exams
6:36
you read review notes or take quizzes whenever you would normally pull out your phone
6:41
and look at social media or other just time waste or stuff. So I cannot emphasize enough how much of an effect or how well doing this ties together
6:54
what you're learning in your main study sessions. It just makes everything come together
6:59
And again, if you're a podcast listener, obviously we do interviews with people that have passed their CPA exams
7:06
and they were kind of using our study strategies. So all those people will say over and over
7:12
if you listen to the different episodes, how helpful or how big of a difference doing mini sessions made
7:20
And, you know, I think our study tools are great, I think we created them in the most optimal way by focusing strictly on exam questions
7:30
But I don't even necessarily think that it's about that. It's about consistently recalling this information as you go throughout your day
7:40
instead of just limiting your CPA study to one big session each day
7:46
So it's got to be both. It's got to be your main study session and it's got to be the many sessions in conjunction
7:52
And when you're doing those two things, it makes a massive difference
7:57
I would almost say it's hard to fail your retake if you are literally doing both of those things consistently every day
8:07
Now, when you use the study tools, so I should say this does not have to be our super fast CPA study tools
8:16
I mean, it doesn't have to be. Your review course obviously comes with an app, pretty much
8:22
every review course comes with an app so you can use those. But what most people figure out, your review course app includes full strength questions
8:33
There's also a million options to just get into whatever the little tool is that you're
8:37
wanting to use. So you mess around with that for 60 seconds or whatever
8:43
And people just behaviorally, they get used to not actually using it in these little
8:48
three to five minute chunks. That why our app and our study tools it like literally two taps at the most and you either reading the review notes or you listening to audios or you taking a quiz so that it functional that you will actually end up using it It actually
9:04
feasible to use it in these little three to five minute chunks. So when you're using our study tools
9:12
you simply use them. This is the one area I'm always talking about being strategic when you study
9:18
You do not need to be strategic when you use our study tools. All you've got to do is
9:24
use them. So when you read the review notes, read a few pages, however long you have
9:29
three minutes, five minutes, and the next time you come back to it, just keep going
9:34
Work through the review notes all the way through over and over and over. Same thing with
9:40
the audios. And then the quizzes are that way by default because it's five questions. You don't
9:46
get to choose the topic. And again, people email me about that sometimes saying, why can't I
9:53
choose specific topics. Well, when you are just trying to take a quiz and land at the grocery
9:58
store really quick, I know better than you, but it's not what you want in a mobile study supplement
10:04
You pull it out, you press one button, you're taking a quiz. And it's exercise for your brain
10:11
pulling from all the topics, all across the board on whatever section you're studying for
10:16
Just trust me, do these three things, and you will pass your next, or you will pass your retake
10:23
And this is very, very similar to our general study approach that you'd learn in the pro course
10:30
Obviously, the only thing missing is the kind of the planting the seeds approach because you're going through new material
10:37
Anyways, for a retake, this is what you do. 30 MCQs times two
10:42
Five to seven practice sims. That's one block. Call it a block
10:47
That should take you roughly two hours. What that does is it prepares you for what you'll
10:53
actually be doing on test day, you just get good at answering questions when this is the basis
10:58
of how you study each day. Instead of restarting and rewatching video lectures over and over
11:05
and maybe 5% of that entire video is actually making it into your brain, this is directly
11:11
applicable because it replicates exactly what you're going to be doing on test day
11:17
So spend 80 to 90% of your study time doing this. Then you review the
11:23
sets of MCQs and Sims, stuff that you repeatedly miss or it's hard for you to remember or
11:29
understand, you make flashcards in your own words. And then the easy part is, all throughout your
11:35
day, instead of goofing around on social media or listening to podcasts for just a few months
11:41
until you pass, you replace all that as much as you can with reading review notes, taking
11:48
quizzes on the app, and then when it makes sense, you listen to the audios. That's a
11:53
all you got to do and then email me when you pass
#Accounting & Auditing
#Training & Certification