[Anonymous]

How do you guys find motivation to study after working all day? My brain feels completely fried after working and I can’t seem to focus on anything. I am usually exhausted and have a hard time staying up late or waking up early. Help!

[elprezidente07]

It's a short term sacrifice. My trick is to study over lunch hours. When I go home @ 5.30, have supper with the Mrs., walk the dogs around the block and decompress until about 8. Then it is quiet study time until about 10-10.15. Weekends are usually spent studying on Sunday AM when the house is quiet, or I will go to the office for some peace and no distractions. You have to find some kind of motivation. Mine is momentum.

AUD // F x2 P 92- (Test server crashed! It really does happen!)
REG // F, F, F, P - 75 Aug 2014
BEC // P - 80
FAR // F, F...now its time for my greatest trick yet.
Ethics // Very.

75 to stay alive

[tomq04]

Methamphetamines are one hell of a drug.

REG- (1) 76
FAR- (2) 64, (5)74, (7)83 (Over achiever!)
AUD- (3) 70, (4) 75
BEC- (6) 75

[Anonymous]

You just man up and do it.

It sucks, but that's life.

[EverybodyswaitingfortheCPA]

Great question @Accrual1102 – I think it’s safe to say that all CPA candidates struggle with that question on some level. But I’m with @mamabear and @marti1nd… in my opinion (find out what works for you and your situation) but I was able to do the following:

1) Get up an hour earlier to squeeze in atleast 30-45 minutes of studying in the morning.

2) Eat in 15 minutes at lunch and then study for 45 minutes

3) Stay at work for an hour and study at the end of the day

4) Squeeze in another hour of studying at home at some point in the night.

5) I didn’t overdue studying on the weekends (no 8-10 hour shifts). For me, long periods of studying added to my fatigue and burnout. I continued to break it up in short hours of studying, still making sure to be in the material consistently.

At the very least, it’s an extra 3+ hours of studying a day; very manageable. I don’t like getting up early or staying up late either, but that’s the point; does anyone like studying for the CPA exam? We have to force ourselves to obtain the knowledge and apply it. The CPA designation is earned and not given. Also, I like studying in this way because it broke up studying into smaller chunks. I can’t sit anywhere for an extended period of time before I become distracted let alone try to study and absorb while retaining the material. Good luck- you'll get there!

BEC - ✔ REG - ✔ AUD - ✔ FAR - ✔

Becker + NINJA MQCs for FAR

Licensed January 2015

[Anonymous]

coffee, energy drinks, music… whatever works to get you hype

[Anonymous]

I usually take an hour nap and have my wife wake me when it's time. That gives me enough energy to survive the study, but also leads to lower productivity at work… Good that I have a supportive boss..

[overapplied]

I think you learn more effectively over a longer period of time. So try to integrate some learning into your workday. One thing I did was in my regular study time create graphs and diagrams showing CPA exam concepts and converted them into images that I could have on the back of my desktop at work. I set that up on slideshow and then every now and then when I had the chance I could peek at the graph or chart that was currently up to bring the concept into my head. Get your brain primed and it will think about concepts while you are working.

AUD - 75 - 07/06/2012
FAR - 72, 74, 82 - 05/30/2013
BEC - 84 - 01/16/2013
REG - 60ish, 84 - 08/16/2013

CISA - Passed

[Peterman25]

I didn't do any studying at work for BEC.

I was terrified of FAR after reading all of the information here. So for the month before my exam I would study at lunch at work and I actually liked it. I really felt like it was a quality study hour probably because ti wasn't the end of the day and brain was fried. It is something that I will repeat for AUD starting next week. NINJA audio to and from work. Study for an hour at lunch. Try to get in 2 quality hours from 8-10:30pm. 10 hours over the weekend.

I am finding the holidays to be a trying time for studying. I feel like a selfish a-hole because I get really annoyed when holiday gatherings, dinners, parties, etc. lead into my study time…not to mention that I avoid drinking. I find it difficult to study with a few drinks in me. All I want to do is study to get this over with.

BEC 7/14 - PASS
FAR 10/14 - PASS
AUD 1/15 - PASS
REG 4/15 - PASS

AZ license - Official 8/20/2015

[Tripp11]

How did I/you find the motivation?

Simple, just think back to that feeling when you kept clicking on that blue “Score” button every other second and that non-passing score popped up on the screen. If that doesn't motivate you to study harder, longer, smarter, etc… I'm not sure what will do it.

That feeling sucked.

AUD - 93
BEC - 80
REG - 86
FAR - 83

[kwags23]

I always tried to study while eating and take a walk for the remainder of my lunch. Then after work I'd study in my office after everyone left for a couple hours. Go home and have dinner with the GF and relax for at least a little bit. My GF gets up much earlier than me so when she goes to bed I hit the books for as long as I could focus. Normally another 1-2 hours. The late evening “shift” was only if I wasn't to exhausted.

Weekends all depended on what I had going on, but my goal was at least 3 hours a day and closer to 5-8 hours as the test got closer. Main thing, get beneficial studying done, if you can't focus take some time away and try to come back. No sense of sitting and studying for 2 hours and being upset because you weren't focused.

Good Luck to everyone during this process!

kwags

[Future Ninja]

@Accrual1102 after work I sleep for an hour, then wake up around 7pm, study until 12am or 1am. wake up the other day around 4am then study for an hour then off to work. at lunch I usually get a power nap in my cub. I study 8 hours during Saturday and Sunday these includes ninja audio and ninja notes. It works for me for AUD but I failed FAR short by 4. People at work tried to mock at me but I don't care. I'm not doing it for them. I'm doing it for myself. How to keep on keeping on. watch this video. I got it from someone who posted it here before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2minXF6G5z4

AUD - 79 (expired) retaking July 28,2016
FAR - 76 expiring July 31, 2016
BEC - 85
REG - 74,74,74,74,59,70,

[Zuly]

@Future Ninja Thank you so much for posting that link! Needed that this morning. 🙂

FAR - (11/01/14) 71 (02/07/15) 79
AUD - (04/30/15) 86
BEC - (07/21/15) 73 (10/01/15) 75
REG - (11/30/15) 55 (05/19/16) 74

[Anonymous]

Rising early works best for me. By the time I get to work I have studied approximately two hours and then I use my hour-long lunch break to accomplish more study. If possible I'll try to get in one extra hour after work. My studies are more effective that way because my mind is most fresh in the morning. By the time you are done with the work day you've used up the best of your capacity.

I spend most of the day studying on Saturday (10 hours if possible). If you combine the study with the regular work day it approximates to a 70-hour work week for me, more or less. I will do absolutely no study (or any other kind of work) on Sundays. The total rest on that day ensures that I can handle another 70-hour week.

[Anonymous]

It's Friday which means two days of grinding. Q1 testing will soon be here my friends.

Weekends + holiday time off from work = Study time, no excuses.

Eat some gingerbread men, get your dog to wrap your presents and hit it hard. Cheers to all the folks looking to close out the 4th and final section in Q1!

[Pumpkins]

Its basically impossible if you have to work over 8 hours a day or have a commute.

At my current job we tend to stay at least 9 hours a day and there is an hour commute each day.. making every day at least 11 hours before studying 🙁

About to quit my job to study for this exact reason.

AUD- 93
BEC- 81
FAR- 1/26/2015
REG- TBD

CIA Exams Passed in March, 2014

[Author]

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