[taxman89]

NINJA Question –

finally passed REG a couple weeks ago with my back against the wall (if i failed again i would have lost AUD and would have potentially lost BEC next quarter). Just wanted to make a quick thread to give encouragement to others and say thanks to Jeff.

I started the CPA exam a little over 2 years ago. I was always somewhat successful in school (never the 4.0 but never below 3.5) and did well on tests like the ACT/SAT. I was expecting the CPA to be challenging but nothing i couldnt handle.

I scheduled to take AUD first because i hated AUD in school and figured i would get the worst one out of the way first. Scheduled to take it in May of 13 and about 2 weeks before i was going to take AUD we had some housing issues that resulted in my wife and I going to live with my inlaws for a month and about 3weeks of fighting with our landlords to let us out of the lease (which they eventually did….in all they were somewhat reasonable).

As a result i spent about 30hrs studying total in the 2 weeks before the exam, about 15 of which was a marathon the day before the exam (panic had set in lol). I had no basis for what was prepared and i was scoring between 70-80s on the practice tests so i thought i would be ok despite the less than ideal circumstances.

(side note…AUD practice tests mean NOTHING if they are not new questions lol).

We were on vacation with my family when score release happened and i had the joy (sarcasm) of having my entire family there when i found out i got a 61…..a “might as well not have showed up” score imo…knocked the wind out of my sails. spent the next month or so stabilizing our living situation and working (in industry in Tax so jun-sep=super busy).

Sat for AUD again in Nov having put in many more hours than i thought was necessary (i was chalking up the fail to all the “life” that happened the 2 weeks prior). walked in much more confident and walked out very hopeful that i had passed. got the score back with a 71….wth…i had studied constantly i had done MCQs…i had earned a pass (the CPA exam scoffs at those who think they have “earned” a pass).

after this fail i realized i needed some new questions so i bought Jeff’s MCQs (amazing product and i recommend it to anyone i find that is taking the exam) and that helped show me how under prepared i was for the exam. sat for a 3rd time (side note….this was a decent ego check among your coworkers) in late Feb and finally passed.

Talk about relief….I had the hardest one out of the way and could move on to BEC. I really enjoy the topics in BEC (besides COSO) and was able to knock that one out in April before work got busy again.

After passing that one i was convinced that i had figured these out and would be able to pass the next couple no problem(lol), At this time i started transitioning roles in my tax dept and was stuck doing two roles for the next 4-5 months due to HRs inability to do basic HR things.

Was working 14 hr days from may-sept since it was the busy season for both roles so i didnt take REG until OCT. I figured i would take REG next because its tax and i work in tax so it shouldnt be that bad right? (HA). walked in to it knowing i was probably underprepared but had a decent shot. failed with a 69…frustrating but not unexpected.

I changed jobs late in 14 and moved to a placed that had much better hours, shorter commute, and would be a huge career boost (from a breadth of experience point of view).

I had been interviewing and trying to decide on the job switch right when i was studying and taking REG so the fail wasnt unexpected (are you noticing an excuse tread on the fails yet??).

Schedule to take it again in Feb and purchased the NTS for both REG and FAR (i was confident…lol). walked in to the feb REG feeling prepared.

I crushed the SIMS and knew i crushed them because i found most of them in the authoritative lit but wasnt sure about the mcq portion.

Still, i was feeling confident because i knew i did well on the sims….73 (stronger sims weaker mcqs). Ok well i am close, just need to up my mcqs because my sims are fine. scheduled to take it again in apr and FAR in may.

was getting seriously discouraged (both my dad and boss pointed out the irony that the one i was having the most trouble with was the one that was over my profession….thanks guys, well aware :D).

Took REG in mid Apr and started studying for FAR end of may (since i only had one more quarter before AUD expired. felt much better about the mcqs in REG this time and much worse about the sims. found out i failed reg again 3 days before i took FAR.

was able to push back FAR to the first weekend in Jun (cant remember why…i think the flooding in texas opened up spots in jun everywhere??). the extra week gave me 7 weeks total to prep for FAR and that was enough, passed with a 78. I thought FAR was the easiest because it is all accounting so it is all logical. (side note: the section that will be the hardest for you is entirely unique to you. for me FAR and BEC were the easiest but objectively they are all hard and it just depends on what your bent is.) I passed FAR with the ninja MCQs and the blitz videos, i didnt even watch more than 15-20% of my course videos for far (did i mention Jeff’s products are amazing!!).

This meant i had one more death match with REG. win and i am done. Lose and i have to pass the two worst section in one quarter or i am back to only having 1 section left.

You would think that i would be super motivated for this last test right now but i really really really wasnt. I was tired of studying and tired of spending hours and hours on Saturdays studying and tired of staying after work to study and getting @#$@ from the cleaning people for trying to get my wife to divorce me.

I studied all through july and then AUG came and i started to get nervous. I was not happy with how prepared i was (test was end of aug). I started writing down every mcq i got wrong and started targeting the specific areas i knew i was weaker in. In the last 3 weeks i put in 100 hours of MCQs plus almost that many listening to audio, writing notes, watching blitz (thank you jeff for the mcq challenge for blitz access!!!) etc.

walked into the exam dreading the possibility of a fail. came out knowing that i did well on the SIMS again and fairly confident on the MCQs.

Normally the further away from taking an exam the less confident i feel about my passing possibilities (even on the ones where i passed) but this time, the further away i got the more convinced i was that i had done everything i could have up to that point and that i had a decent shot at passing.

in the 2 weeks or so between the test and score release i checked the NASBA page every single day even though i knew it wouldnt be there. woke up 2am test release day, knew i wouldnt be able to go back to sleep if i didnt check….passed with an 82.

(turns out this wasnt really that short)

anyway, honestly i couldnt have done it without Jeff’s products. I highly highly highly recommend the MCQs and the audio (especially for AUD…it was invaluable for AUD). I also heavily utilized the notes and the blitz videos.

I really appreciate all the time he puts into making his products top notch and the fact that he works really really hard to make them affordable. i sunk a bunch of money because i decided to take parts multiple times so the fact that everything was very affordable was huge.

hope this is encouraging! this exam was very discouraging for me on multiple points, so just know that you CAN do this and you should make full use of Jeff’s awesome products.

AUD - 75
BEC - 77
FAR - 78
REG - 82

AUD: 61-67-75 (Thanks ninja aud)
BEC: 77
FAR: 78
REG:69-73-70-82

Aud-75 3x I knew i never liked you
Bec-77 1x being in the bubble is stressful
Reg-82 4x its not me its you...and no we cant be friends
Far-78 1x easiest section