Alex is a NINJA CPA blogger. If you can run a marathon you can do ANYTHING. Does anything include the CPA exam too? I truly hope so because I've done 2 full marathons, 11 half marathons, and I coach long distance runners 3 times a week. I love running and the discipline it requires but so far the CPA exam has been harder than any race or any training day I've ever had. I guess I should start over. My name is Alex and I graduated from college in 2011 with a Masters of Accounting, quickly after that I started at one of the Big 4 accounting firms, with all hopes of passing my CPA exam the first year and getting that sweet bonus, but unfortunately life happened. After leaving Big 4 to go to a smaller firm and hopefully a better quality of life, I again decided to pursue the

Aida is a NINJA CPA blogger. For this post, I would like to cover the work related topic. I am in staff position at big public corporation. One evening while preparing for REG section I started thinking if technical or soft skills are more important for the accounting profession. That is what I’d like to discuss below. A lot of people come out from universities with master’s degrees and with very poor communication and presentation skills. At the workplace I often face the situations where the communication is a key for resolving an issue. Sometime the problem itself arises because of miscommunication. Soft skills are not easy to quantify, however they facilitate the relationships, help people to become leaders. On the other hand, no matter how great communicator one is – the argument won’t have its weight if there is no technical point behind it. I believe its hard skills

Evonne writes in. I have been out of school for 20 years but I have taken the CPA exam before. I'm juggling kids and a 50 hour work week. I'm 51 years old and passing the CPA exam is on my bucket list. Which exams should I start with? First of all, good for you Evonne. That's awesome. There are people in their 50s and even 60s taking the CPA exam. So, good for you. And I don't think it matters if you've been out of school for 20 minutes or 20 years. I recommend everyone take financial accounting and reporting first. Different people have different opinions. I think they're all wrong. So the only time that you could stray from this is if maybe you had four or five weeks to study and take your first exam. Then I would take maybe BEC because you can easily fit that

Von writes in: In the FAR section of the CPA Exam, why is there an impairment test for intangible assets with finite lives? Don't we just amortize them? Yes you amortize them, however if the carrying value of the asset if it now exceeds the fair value … So the carrying value on the book is now greater than the fair value, then you have to write it down and take the impairment charge. So and you need to test for impairment at least once a year. But you are correct. You amortize it but you still have to test for impairment. I hope that's helpful. Have a question about the CPA Exam? You can Ask Jeff. Check out our other CPA Exam Videos. Grab some Free CPA Review Materials while you're here as well. HIYA.

Jennifer says I'm trying to follow the NINJA framework while studying for the CPA Exam using only NINJA CPA Review Materials and noticed that I'm having problems retaining the information. I'm so focused on taking notes of what I feel like is important in the notes section of the NINJA framework, that I'm not retaining anything that I'm reading. I'm essentially rewriting the entire BEC NINJA book because I feel like I can't pick out what the most important parts are. How do I take notes and make it through the entire book? I'm also a visual learner. So any advice would be appreciated. Okay if you find yourself using NINJA CPA Review materials or anything else, getting stuck in the CPA Exam weeds like you're just slogging through video two out of 20 or whatever or you're having trouble with NINJA Book. You're like man everything just seems important.

Have a question about the CPA Exam? You can Ask Jeff. Check out our other CPA Exam Videos. Grab some Free CPA Review Materials while you're here as well. HIYA.