[ileanaCPAtoBe]

NINJA Question –

Hi Everyone, this is my first time posting in the forums, but I’m worried I’m doing a lot of pointless studying, versus efficient studying.

I started studying for FAR the last week of September using Becker online the ELL Ninja strategy: I watched all the lectures first (no notes), that took me about 3 weeks. Then I went back and took notes: this is where I fell into trouble. It took me three whole weeks to write the notes, and I didn’t even do the notes for the last two chapters as I felt sooo behind. I had originally planned on sitting the end of November, but I felt completely unprepared to sit after just three weeks of MCQ’s so I am postponing the test until January.

I guess my question is: Am I wasting my time taking the notes? And if not, what is a good amount of time to write the notes the first time around?

Thanks for any input!

[jeff]

In fairness, that's not the NINJA Method.

The NINJA method is to take notes while you watch the videos. Otherwise, I agree – it's very inefficient.

AUD - 79
BEC - 80
FAR - 76
REG - 92

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS)
NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE | Another71

[ileanaCPAtoBe]

Ok, so when the Survival Guide details:

Nail the Videos
Intense Notes
Non-Stop MCQs
Just Re-Write It
All Comes Together

And describes Intense Notes, after watching the videos, it was implied that I should have taken notes in conjuctions?… Wow, that would have saved me some time. In all fairness, I was really happy with my interpreted version of NINJA, because I felt I was grasping the material far better as I watched the lecture and gave undivided attention, versus trying to frantically write notes and keep up so as to not take two or three times as long stopping to write notes.

It seems it was six in one hand and half a dozen in the other, as I still took an excruciatingly long time writing notes. And in the defense of the method, I hated writing them, so I was very slow.

I wonder how I should compensate the for the next section? Maybe I will try taking notes simultaneously while watching the lectures.

Thanks for the enlightenment!!

[SGShiver]

ileanaCPAtoBe- I interpreted it the same way. I made it to 10 out of the 30+ chapters in the Roger course and decided to modify what I had interpreted. I thought there was no way people were finishing it in 2 months by doing what I thought was the NINJA method. It appears that my current method is close to what the real NINJA method is supposed to be. This is good news for me to hear. However, I am confused how long it typically takes to nail the concepts/write the notes before heading towards MCQ. I am sure it is different for the individual but I would like to have an idea to see if I am taking too long or too little amount of time in any of the steps.

FAR- 53, next time 5/5/16
B: 7/30/16
A:TBD
R:TBD

[Author]

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