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Jeff - another71.com — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:42:00 +0000

After three long years, I have passed the CPA Exam.

I absolutely could not have accomplished this without God’s mercy, a supportive wife and kids, and Phil Yaeger. My wife and I are grateful to Yaeger CPA Review because they were the turning point in my exam experience. I honestly don’t think I would be sitting here today with 4 passing scores (and none expiring, apparently) without Yaeger, which is why I will always be grateful to them and will always recommend them.

THANK YOU PHIL.

I may not have any “MCQs” to study anymore and I may not be getting up at 4am, 4:30am, 6am, to check my scores (just in case!), but I will continue this blog and will always help other candidates in any way that I can via the blog or e-mail. Eight months ago, I was sitting here with one section passed that would soon expire (Oct 2006 – and it DID expire) and while I didn’t start out my exam journey very well (I didn’t really want to be a CPA because I didn’t want to sacrifice to get it), I finished strong and this is the greatest personal accomplishment of my life to date.

I have silenced my biggest critic – myself.

If you are still going through this exam and find yourself discouraged – Keep Moving Forward and never, ever, give up. Your day will come.

Thank you for reading.

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FAR – Believe the Hype

Jeff - another71.com — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:18:00 +0000

FAR – Believe the Hype

This isn’t my first rodeo and although I’ve sat for – and passed FAR before, that was two years ago and I didn’t take anything for granted this time. All totaled, I probably spent over 100 hours studying and worked 2000+ MCQs. Still, I was surprised, but not overwhelmed by any means with what I encountered today.

For starters, FAR is a mile wide and an inch deep. I expected certain topics to be hit more than others. That didn’t happen – it was a little bit of everything. I couldn’t tell you one topic that I felt was tested on more than others.

My first testlet was cake. It was easy and the questions were a sentence or two on average – very easy on the eyes and self esteem. I was cruising. I have a terrible habit however of clicking the “next” button or whatever it is and going back to check to see if my answer was still there…or going back and recalculating the numbers again. It’s a little obsessive-compulsive thing that I have going, I guess.

The honeymoon was short lived. The second testlet was murder and it was not pleasant. As a jaded veteran of this process, I knew I was doing well, so onward I marched.

Testlet three was pure misery. When I studied, I worked a lot of MCQs over just about every topic and every little exception or gotcha that I encountered, I wrote down in a narrative form that I would understand while reviewing 2 hours prior to my exam. It was this extra effort during my study process that got me through testlet three. It was slow going and difficult. I was also starting to tire about 70 questions in. The final 20 were a grind.

I didn’t take any breaks and tried to keep pushing myself as I saw the clock winding down. I stumbled into sim one with 55 minutes left. Not good. I wrote the memo first after briefly holding my breath to see what sim I had inherited. I hit the memo and worked my magic there. The research didn’t seem to understand my search terms. I probably would have had better luck using expletives. No dice on the research tab.

I did the tabs in simulation one and moved on to sim two with 20 minutes left. Yikes.

Just like simulation one, it was doable. I calmly knocked out the communication tab, cursed the research tab and didn’t look at it and moved to the first answer tab and then crickets…

The instruction tab was very vague and didn’t explain what I was supposed to do with tab one. I stared at it for five minutes, baffled, and then realized what I was supposed to do. The only problem was that I had two minutes left. I frantically filled in what I could, but time ran out.

All in all, I’m confident that I passed. I was prepared and I recognized the curveballs that they were throwing at me. Were parts of it frustrating? Absolutely. I felt better prepared for FAR than I was for REG and I worked harder at it. We’ll see how this one goes. I have a habit of throwing “hail marys” on exam day, but this was not the case. I worked hard and probably put in 60 hours of studying in the past two weeks and gave it everything I could. I have no regrets.

With the exam fresh in my mind, my one piece of advice is to not sit for the exam unless you have exhaustively studied for FAR and have done it right. They test you on everything and a realistic timetable for studying is around 100 hours, give or take. Some pass with more, some with less. 100 hours seems to be the norm according to people that I know who have also taken it.

For the first time in a long time – I’m doing nothing for a few weeks. I’m assuming that I passed and I feel like that assumption is warranted.

Thank you for reading.

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Old School Final Review

Jeff - another71.com — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:33:00 +0000

Old School Final Review

Since I bought myself (literally) an extra 10 days to study, I’ve set the software aside and have been methodically going through the Wiley book and doing Yaeger’s recommended questions per section. I work the problem and then read the answer. Instead of flipping back and forth from the questions to the answers, I have found it very helpful to tear out the answers and staple them together.

So that I don’t lose my place and also to gauge my progress, at the start of each module I take Yaeger’s list of recommended questions and write all of the question numbers down on a small piece of notebook paper and then write the answers down on the sheet instead of the book. This can be tedious and patience testing (yes, I get up and walk around after every 10-15 questions it seems), but I have found that it is very effective in learning the material.

When I get a question wrong, I write out the relevant facts that I missed or had forgotten in a Word Document and separate it by module. If you can spend a week doing something similar and then switch to the software a few days before your exam to test yourself on weak areas, I think you’ll find that you have learned a lot. Doing this old school method of studying allows you to “work out the kinks” so to speak and before you know it, you will *know* the material. It can get boring and it takes time, but I am confident that it will pay off.

Currently, I’ve worked through Modules 7-10 in the Wiley book and hope to be done with them all (they go up to 20) by Friday night. My exam is Tuesday November 4th.

Thanks for reading.

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Brain Delay

Jeff - another71.com — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:16:00 +0000

Brain Delay

I may have been a bit too cavalier about cramming for FAR. It’s one thing to go through all of your material…it’s another to actually review it. So, I hit the eject button and decide to reschedule to November 4. Easy enough, right? Maybe not.

In my new e-mail confirmation from Prometric it reads

RESCHEDULE / CANCEL POLICY

After you have made an appointment for an examination section you may find it necessary to change or cancel an appointment. Be aware that you may be required to pay a reschedule fee or forfeit your examination fees, depending on when you notify Prometric of the change or cancellation. Changes made 5 to 30 days prior to your appointment will be assessed a $35 fee. Changes made less than 5 days prior will be assessed $95.40. Note: Any changes made 24 hours or less prior to your appointment will forfeit your fees and you will need to reapply to your board of accountancy or its designated agency. Please see your Candidate Bulletin for more information.

Did I just royally screw up? Of course – I can’t call anyone at Prometric until tomorrow. Maybe my state board will have mercy on me.

update: I spoke with Prometric and until I hear otherwise from them, I’m set for 11/4 and won’t have to pay the extra $280. I won’t be surprised if I get a call from them though.

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FAR on Friday

Jeff - another71.com — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:38:00 +0000

FAR on Friday

I worked until 1am last night wrapping up the Yaeger CPA Review FAR Disc 9 and wasn’t sure what today would bring. Twice within the span of 4 hours I had my payment info loaded onto Prometric’s site and a new date selected (November 4) and all I had to do was hit “confirm” and put my exam back a week or so, but I just couldn’t do it for some reason.

I still had discs 10, 11, 12, and 13 to go as of this morning. Thankfully, work was slow (and my boss is very nice), so I sat at my desk and worked through discs 10-13 throughout the day and into the evening and I am now done with Yaeger’s FAR program. Was it easy to sit there for 12+ hours (I worked each 4 hour DVD in about 3 hours using the time stretch feature on my laptop)?

No, but it was worth it.

I am taking tomorrow off from work, going to the local coffee shop (what a cliche, right?) and plan on spending a good 12 hours tomorrow working MCQs and sims…and I’ll be ready.

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$95

Jeff - another71.com — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:22:00 +0000

$95

I gave in and decided to push my exam back a week so that I would have a calm week to review and do MCQs. They wanted $95 to reschedule my exam. I decided to wait until Wednesday to decide what to do. If I can plow through the rest of my lectures and have all day Thursday (I’m taking a day off from work) to do MCQs and review, I’m going for it.

If I’m not done with my DVDs by late Wednesday, I’m postponing it a week. I’m ready to be done with this thing, but also don’t want to rush and be posting again in January about an upcoming FAR exam.

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FAR from Ready

Jeff - another71.com — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 01:25:00 +0000

FAR from Ready

I’m only on Disc 6 out of 13 of Yaeger’s FAR program. I was out of town last week for work…got minimal studying done because I was…lazy. Yada Yada.

I have a only a few days to get through this program. Most would say that I’m too behind to still take the exam on Friday. I’m not most people. Don’t underestimate my ability to cram like a madman and have success. See: AUD (35 hours).

Stress and anxiety is exactly what I need to study and pass this exam. Why couldn’t I just be a normal candidate and do it the right way?

Back to Pensions…

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REGULATOR.

Jeff - another71.com — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:22:00 +0000

REGULATOR.

I knew coming out of the exam that I had passed, but I didn’t expect this. I’m paranoid so I’m whiting out my info until I have my certificate in hand.

Thank you GOD.

Thank you Dr. Yaeger and everyone at Yaeger CPA Review!

Update: I got my paper confirmation on September 22 – a timely six days after my score appeared online.

CPA Exam Score Release Updates July & August 2010

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FAR Beyond Driven

Jeff - another71.com — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:13:00 +0000

FAR Beyond Driven

I took the weekend off from studying after taking REG last week and have since been tinkering with the idea of studying for Financial Accounting and Reporting, but have so far found limited success in this endeavor. I’ve been pondering what exactly could motivate one to start studying for a section of the CPA Exam that they’ve already passed and I think I found the answer:

PAY $280 FOR IT.

(rant) The 18 month window is absolute garbage. It’s not even 18 months. Each testing window is 2 months long and you can only sit once in a testing window. After each window, NASBA takes a one month breather and doesn’t allow exams and it STILL takes as long as 9 weeks (a co-worker of mine sat for his exam on July 3rd and as of today, September 3rd, his score is still not posted online) to get scores back. Of course it’s up to each state BOA to determine the window of time in which to pass, but the 18 month window is fairly uniform. Naturally, your 18 months starts when you sit for your exam, not when you get your score. Nice. If I ever find one aspect of the CPA Exam that is candidate-friendly, I will be more than happy to pass it on. I am also completely ignoring the fact that if I would have studied more for REG I wouldn’t be in this mess, but I am taking no accountability for my actions or test scores. It must be someone else’s fault.(/rant)

After I entered my payment information and submitted it, I immediately thought of all of the things that $280 would buy. In no particular order:

-A new gas grill
-An XBOX360
-4 family trips to see “Dinosaurs on Ice” complete with stuffed dinosaurs wearing skates for each child
-NFL Sunday Ticket (now you’ve hit a nerve)

It made me so mad that I promptly pulled out my Wiley FAR book, popped in Yaeger’s 1st FAR DVD and I’m off and running.

Something else to spur my motivation is as soon as I get my NTS back, I’m scheduling it for mid-October.

I will never pay for another NTS again.

Hurry up and Wait? No – there’s a better solution for 2011 CPA Exam Scores

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REG: Not So Bad (if you study)

Jeff - another71.com — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:05:00 +0000

REG: Not So Bad (if you study)

Today’s testing experience was a great success, I think. I was better prepared than I’ve been for any section I’ve taken (and passed) and I felt like I knew most of the answers – even the exception to the exception questions where the obvious answer was wrong. There were a couple of multiple choice that I felt like were beyond the scope of what a normal person would study for the exam – left field topics, but I’m guessing that they were the “test” questions that don’t count.

I feared that I would get some psycho simulation, but they were both topics that your review material should cover. One of them was very involved and challenging, however. Overall, it was a surprisingly painless testing experience. I was even starting to hope for a phlegm-hacking neighbor to spice things up, but it never happened.

I don’t know if other people do this, but I can answer a question – and be POSITIVE that it is right, but sit there and waste a minute staring at it for fear that somehow it is wrong. I also do this thing where I will answer a question, click to the next one and then go back to it 3x for fear that my answer changed in the transition.

I’m sure that I’m the only one who does this. Maybe I’m an obsessive-compulsive exam taker…sort of like Nicholas Cage in “Matchstick Men” where he has to tap his feet three times or whatever inside a room before walking outside. I just know my score will go from 86 to 66 if I don’t click back 3x.

Also – at end of my second sim, the timer ran out before I could click “Done”. I asked the staff person at Prometric if this affected anything and he said that the exam saves itself as you enter answers. I figured as much, but needed the affirmation that I didn’t just lose 15% of my exam.

I’m in study mode…I put in over 35 hours of study time this week. Tomorrow, the office is empty and unless I have a project or something tangible (value-added) to do, I’m starting Yaeger’s FAR, Disc One.

Now, only one thing stands in the way of me passing – and that’s a section I’ve already passed.

Thanks for reading.

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