Jay is a weekly columnist as a Club 75 Blogger, where he documents his journey through the CPA Exam. He has been a member of Club 75 since April 2010.

Week 17:

This past week, I’ve worked on Financial Instruments, Stockholders' Equity, EPS, Ratio Analysis, Cash Flows and Governmental Accounting. I’ve done okay on all the sections, except cash flow statements.

I logged 24 ½ hours this week reviewing the materials and working through MCQ’s.

I understand the concept of cash flow statements, I understand the conceptual differences between direct and indirect when Peter Olinto explains it, but I couldn’t get any of the homework questions correct. I scored a 50% on the homework and I got lucky guessing on a couple. I think I’m generally okay with investing and financing, but the operating questions are killing me.

I always seem to add instead of subtracting or subtract instead of adding. I even went through the Yaeger CPA Review Cram to see if Cindy Simpson gives any specific tips that might help me. Cindy's explanation of “fake cash” really made sense, but didn’t really convert to getting MCQ’s correct.

I will try listening to it again, but I may just have to memorize the formulas and the specific items that get added/subtracted, b/c when I try to use logic, I don’t seem to be having any luck. Any tips would be greatly appreciated, b/c this could easily be a Simulation and cost me valuable points. I have to nail down cash flow statements.

As for Governmental, remembering the funds and all that stuff isn’t too bad, it’s the next chapter that I’ve struggled with historically, bringing it all together into the government wide financial statements. Then, you mix in Not-For-Profit and it’s like a stew of all these different things floating around in your head.

Anyway, as I write this update, my exam is 25 days away, so I have one last chapter to get through and then it’s MCQ’s, SIMS and practice exams for the final 2 ½ weeks.

I was running low on hours logged this week, so I went into work early a couple of days and studied for an hour. I’ve been having a tough time logging more that 3-3.5 hours in the evenings, as the local college library where I study has been closing at 10pm during winter session.

I have a really difficult time studying at home, because I either get distracted with something or end up falling asleep. Luckily, the Spring semester starts next week, so the library will be open until midnight every night.

I should be able to study 4+ hours consistently and hopefully get my last few weeks up to 25-30 hours of studying. Luckily, my wife is a wonderful woman that is a great support system and picks up the brunt of the work load around the house and taking care of the kids. I really need to pass this exam, for both of our sakes.

Best of luck to everyone, have a great week!

-Jay O