Megan is a weekly Another71 Facebook blogger as she documents her journey through the CPA Exam.

I finally started my studying this week. Sometimes I have to just push myself through the motions until I find myself studying. Turn on the computer. Go to Roger CPA Review. Login. Press play. Before you know it, you’ll be half way through the lesson.

I was not looking forward to REG because I did not enjoy my taxation class. There were a few reasons I didn’t enjoy it: confusing textbook, no one to really ask questions since it was an online class. Not to mention tax textbooks seem like reference books to me. Who reads those??

During the first lesson of the review, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself giggling at Roger’s lecture. I stopped the video twice to play segments for my boyfriend. He is studying for the GRE’s currently. After playing the entertaining clips for him, I asked, “Don’t you wish Roger taught a review course for the GRE’s?” He said, “Seriously, yes.”

It was a great start to REG! Even after the first lesson, I felt like I had a better understanding of the “big picture” of tax returns. It can be confusing how the government treats items on the return, but Roger always spells it out, as if you never had a tax class, for example. Schedules. Credits. Deductions. Exemptions. Prepayments. He doesn’t make you ASSUME anything, he TEACHES you!

Even if I never have to work in a tax department, I’m glad I will have enough understanding by the end of this course to hold a discussion with someone about taxation. That’s a secondary benefit of this review course: actually understanding why things are done the way they are. What is the Alternative Minimum Tax? Why is it used? How is it computed?

I don’t remember learning this much in class. But that’s ok! I look at my classes as a bonus. My classes were an introduction to the material I will be tested on. Roger makes sure to cover what I need to know as if I never had a class at all. I find this methodology relieving and very advantageous!

There are approximately ten weeks of studying in my future to prepare for REG. There’s no telling how difficult I may find the material. What I do know is that I’m lucky to have found an instructor that will make me laugh and still cover all the material in the CSOs (Content Specification Outlines). Sweet! Happy studying, everyone!