Becks...hang in there. You are close.
Financeguy, you hit the nail on the proverbial head!!!
I took FAR and AUD back in April and May respectively. Not really "knowing" what to expect other than what people told me, I went into studying "thinking" I can do this. BOY WAS I WRONG! Reality sucks when it slaps you right in the face. After crying about my results (47 and 57), I had to figure out what went wrong. It is not that I can't understand the material. It was just I did not KNOW it. The ONLY way to know it is to FORCE it. Screw buying flashcards, or having someone babysit me through a lecture. When they say you give up everything, you LITERALLY have to give up everything in order to learn this massive amount of information.
I have a friend who took the CPA exam back in 2002 when you had to still take all 4 parts. He used Becker. Their methodology has not changed much. He passed all 4 parts the first time he took them and averaged a 93 across all 4 parts. 97 in FAR was his highest and 91 in AUD was his lowest. We were in grad school together and he always got an A in all of our classes. After I got my results of my exam, I admitted that I did not study enough for FAR and I took AUD for granted since that is what I do. (caveat: I have NEVER studied hard in my entire life) I went to him for advice. I always assumed he did well was because he was just a genius. NOT THE CASE. He told me he just has this internal motivation that is so strong to be the best at everything. So when he studied, he gave it everything.
Studying is HARD WORK. I FINALLY realized that, because I know I cannot give just a little effort here and there and expect to pass. Not for the CPA exam. It is designed to show whether or not you really KNOW it. Set a schedule and commit to it. In order to do well, YOU HAVE to internalize the material. If you are using Becker, Yaegar, Gleim, etc., Outline each section on notecards. If you have the lectures, that is great. You know what to focus on in your outline. Add things you might see in MCQ that maybe were not highlighted in the lectures. If you bought notecards, you are wasting your money. Trust me. I did. That is the easy way out. Outlining a section is a long and arduous process. I spent all day Saturday and Sunday outlining R1 and R2 from Becker. You want to get the information down, to where you don't NEED the book anymore. I was shocked how much I learned about the little things in the material by going this route. I am essentially teaching myself and really learning it. When I do the MCQ, I am scoring in the 90s on MY FIRST TRY. I NEVER did that using my old "path of least resistance" process of studying.
When people who have successfully passed say to you, you have no life. YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THIS IS THE TRUTH. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. My problem is I want to please everyone. My wife, my kids, etc. I figured I gotta study but my son wants me to do this. So I would "study" and once I felt good, I thought that was OK? WRONG....Now, my only commitment is my Becker books and CDs. I gave up going to the beach a couple of weeks ago with my family. They are going out of town this weekend for Father's Day. I wish I could go, but I know if I COMMIT to suffering now, the reward (CPA) will be great later. I know it is cliche, but it is true when they say, "Pain in temporary, Glory is forever!"
Create a schedule for everyday of the week, and DO NOT divert from it. This is the biggest key to success. DO NOT DIVERT from your schedule. No time for ANYTHING OR ANYONE. If you put in the hours and quality WORK, you will get over this sooner rather than later. READ READ READ your note-cards OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
FIND the motivation and just keep that in the forefront of your thoughts. I know everyone has their own "demons" they deal with. I have my own. You just need to figure out what is the most important thing to you. I even saw a shrink before I decided to re-focus. She asked me, "ask yourself do you want to work hard to get the CPA?" My first reaction was no. Then she said, I really do not want it then. But I really do want the CPA behind my name (just not the pain that goes with it). Well, the ONLY way to get it is quit trying to find excuses as to why you are not getting it, and just work through all the BS and commit yourself to getting it. That is the ONLY way. Even though we think people who get the CPA have done it because they are smart. We don't know that. More than likely they probably worked really hard at it. They did it because THEY COMMITTED their life (for x amount of time) to it!
