[wadams]

The following is a synopsis of my study schedule and results, not for braggadocios reasons, but because reading these posts on another71.com helped me in my study process feel like I was on track and not a crazy person. I hope this does the same for you. Here is the quick overview of each section:

• AUD – 96

o Studied: 5 weeks, 125.5 total hours, about 23 hours a week

o Becker In-class instruction

• REG – 90

o Studied: 7 weeks, 141.25 total hours, about 22 hours a week

o Becker In-class instruction

• BEC – 81

o Studied: 6 weeks, 123.5 total hours, about 20 hours a week

o Becker online instruction

• FAR – 91

o Studied: 9 weeks, 201.5 total hours, about 23 hours a week

o Becker online instruction

I would first like to congratulate you on making the best worst decision of your life. You are both brave and stupid at the same time, but success only comes to those who work/risk more than the rest.

To give you a little background on myself, I am a later in life CPA candidate who is married with no kids (yet/that I know of). I would classify myself as a “late bloomer” education-wise; prioritizing my life a little differently back when I was in college. At the end of the day I left college with around a 3.3 GPA, so I would say of average smarts.

I took Becker in class instruction for the first two sections of the exam, AUD and REG, and as well I took them back-to-back in about 2.5 months. This was very stressful due to time constraints and having to travel to class after work. For BEC and FAR I used Becker online, which I would probably recommend because of time flexibility, even though I kind of dropped the ball on BEC. Coming out of taking AUD, BEC and FAR I felt like I failed the exam. This was because Audit was my first go at it and did not know what to expect when I left; BEC and FAR I knew what to expect and still felt like crap after leaving the exam. REG I had a feeling I did well; the second section of questions got much harder and I felt I did strongly on the simulations.

After finishing it all my parting thoughts are: this thing is definitely a marathon, not a sprint, so be patient and keep a steady pace. I would suggest exercise and taking breaks during the week when you feel you are about to go postal due to lack of free time. Do not beat yourself up after the test is over, the test is administered to not give you an idea of how you did, so try as you may to reserve judgment until you get your score. Remember you can finish this thing; it doesn’t take a special kind of person, just a hard working badass such as yourself.

All the best