CPA Exam: Plans Go Awry; Time to Set Goals

Kricket is a weekly Club 75 Blogger as she documents her journey through the CPA Exam. She has been a member of Another71.com's Club 75 since May 2009.

I am one week into my serious cram for REG and I’m doing my best to stay focused. My plan is to take REG on October 21st and then move straight into FAR and take it the last week in November. That’s the plan.

My grandmother always said “If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plan.” Things don’t always go as we planned. The last three years of my life are proof of that.

My original plan was to pass them all on the first try, but that didn’t happen. I regrouped and made another plan, but that didn’t happen either.

From this point on I will no longer call it my “plan” but rather my “goal.” So my goal is to take REG on October 21 and then move straight into FAR and take it the last week in November. That’s the goal. Having my friend Angie Evans to study with and keep me accountable for falling behind is wonderful.

Unlike most of the friends that I have met through Another71.com, Angie and I have actually met in person. I went to Houston for an Auditing class and got to meet her last November. So for those that are curious, yes, she really is that beautiful. She’s the one who started me thinking about the difference between my “plan” and setting “goals.”

We agreed that our goal was to finish REG 1 in Roger CPA Review by Friday. Thanks to an overzealous physical therapist, I didn’t finish until Saturday morning. But that was OK because I met the ultimate goal of having gone all the way through REG 1. It just took me a little longer.

I have discovered that physical therapy is an interesting and productive place to study. I used to walk around with flashcards but those apparently got me nowhere. So while lying on the table in my physical therapy appointment I used the ceiling tiles to remember the mnemonics that Roger teaches in REG 1.

Each tile was a different letter and before I could move on to the next tile I had to know what the letter stood for and what it meant. Then I have to sit in a chair facing the window for another kind of therapy so the slats on the window blinds became another mnemonic. By the end of the appointment I had gone over the tax schedules and what was to/from AGI at least 5 times.

Instead of counting out my exercises I use the mnemonics to do those as well. My doctor is quite pleased with my progress but then I’m doing twice as many exercises as he told me to do.

Today is Sunday, so Angie and I will regroup and find out what the next goal is going to be. Until then I have exercises to do and mnemonics to go over!