I read an interesting article on the belief in God at http://25yearsofprogramming.com/blog/20061206.htm some of the ideas include the following:

Title: “How did a belief in god begin and why is it so universal and enduring?”

Questions raised and answered, and other ideas:

“It is human instinct to believe all occurrences are intentionally caused.”

“Psychologists say children want authority, guidance, and reassurance. Grown-ups want those things, too.”

“Dreams and voices in people’s heads personify the great unknown.”

“Intermittent reward is the strongest type of reinforcement.”

“Reward for what? How did prayer begin?”

“What is intermittent reward?”

“Sacrifice inspires commitment.”

“Conclusion: if gods didn’t exist, humans would create them.”

Here is a link to what the song means

I was searching for various things online, and I ended up at Successful Blog -> http://successful-blog.com - and while there, I searched around, and found this interesting question that interviewees get asked all the time. I have been asked that question my fair share, but I have never given it much thought outside the job scenario. The question may go something like this: Why should we hire you? or What separates you from all the other candidates that seem to be equally qualified for the position?

One way to approach the question, is to think about the things that you have or you are, that is common to all other candidates or most of them, and cross those out, and whatever remains, is what separates you from the others, good or bad. Usually people will focus on the good (because that’s what the interviewers expect). Usually.

That is about work, and the public image. How about privately? If you were to look deep inside, and try to find out why you are here, what would you come up with? Why did God find it necessary for you to be here? How would the world be different without you? How is the world different with you in it? May be those questions may be hard to answer, and they may focus on the past. How about going forward. Why should you still be here? Why should God give you another instant, second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year… to live? How would you like to be remembered when you die? How would you like your impact (i.e. past) to be when the hour comes? Answers to the last four questions may provide a platform for effective living.

I will spend sometime answering those questions. I think that if those questions are answered, applying for a job would not be just applying for a job, spending time with family would have a different meaning, etc. Life takes on new meaning. We now have different motives for our actions.

God answers many hidden (and unhidden) prayers, only if we learn to look.

Example 1:

A person, X, goes through a test for which one of the conditions for success is to be free from any life-threatening diseases. Most of the diseases being tested in this test are infectious. It will take months or years for the person to get results back as various people are testing the samples, analyzing the results, and sending their recommendation to a central unit that makes the final decision on success or failure of the test. X is worried that through contacts with another person or other persons, contraction of one of the diseases may have occurred. X starts to pray for mercy and grace that everything turns out well. At times X is worried and stops praying because, what can it change, and other times, prayers rules the day or the week, for another (selfish) reason.

Coincidentally, P, one of the people with whom X had contact goes through a test that has a few tests similar to what X had. P’s results will come out much quicker because for one reason or another, the decision-makers on P need the results as soon as possible. It is an expedited case. P is congratulated on being successful in the test. P shares the results with X. X is happy for P, and excited for X-self. God has indirectly answered X’s prayers, or has at least provided solid evidence for hope.

 Example 2:

P has a problem that will take several hours or days or months or years to be resolved. P prays to God for guidance, strength, faith, and a happy ending, if it is God’s will. Most prayers are like this one, whereby the solutions may be wanted now, but it usually will take a while for the situation to play itself out. Thus, when one prays for success or happiness in such cases, one is asking God for so many things, usually without knowing it, and God answers those unknown, but vital, prayers without the person knowing or acknowledging that tons of big time prayers have been answered. Let me go through examples of prayers which are loaded with hidden prayers.

Prayers:

-          A dear one is sick and everyone is sick. P prays for the dear one’s recovery. That is the unhidden prayer. Now with this unhidden prayer, come at least the following hidden prayers. That P lives long enough to see the recovery. That anybody who is negatively affected by the sickness, for example, caretakers, workmates, of the dear one, will be given relief.

-          P is waiting for interview results that will take weeks to come out. The results will be sent through international mail. Prays to get positive results and that the feedback period should be normal (that is, no delays). Here are some hidden prayers. That all the critical people in the process live, at least until they perform their part of the process. That all the hazards against the mail do not happen. That P lives to see the results.

-          P needs shoes. P prays for God to provide the shoes from whoever, soon enough, if it is His will. Other than the hidden prayer for life, there is hidden prayer for the legs to be there, and to be functional, and for the things that the legs and the person need the shoe for to continue being there. If it is to walk to a job, a hidden prayer is for the employer’s life, P’s continued employment, and so on.

 One can add more to the list of prayers and the hidden, tag-on, appended unexpressed prayers that go with it. A critical aspect of the hidden prayers is that if you remove the hidden prayers, the clear unhidden prayers do not make sense. Since God has purpose for everything, we have grown to assume that He will take care of all those other things as well. If one needed proof that God is Omniscient, the hidden prayers that are answered as well should provide a little bit of proof, or at least food for thought.

I was reading some an interview that the Atlantic did with one of the participants in the “Harvard Grant Study”. The participant is Ben Bradlee, who is quoted as having said, “I haven’t been unhappy in my life“. It is amazing to read about people’s lives. Here is an except, one of the many parts of the interview that I liked:

“And I graduated so sloppily. As a matter of fact, I got out and “graduated” and then they told me that I hadn’t, which I knew, I hadn’t taken one exam that was required of people who majored in English, which was the English, Shakespeare, Greek exam, there was a special exam you had to take in all three of those subjects. So, when I was on a destroyer in the second war, and my dad was anxious that I graduate really, he arranged to have the exam sent to me on my destroyer. I got it right after the Saipan campaign was over, and we were coming back, we had been hit in Saipan and we were coming back, so I took the test and I was in the Captain’s state room all by myself, and the entire ship knew I was taking a test. At one point there was a knock on the door, and some seaman came in and said, “The officer of the deck presents his compliments and the shortest verse in the Bible is ‘Jesus wept.’” And that was the message. But, I mean it was considered a great joke. So six months later or whatever it was I got word that I had passed.And then I got my degree.”

Here is the full interview.

Here are more links about the Harvard Study.

Steve — Michelle and I were heartbroken to learn this morning of the death of our dear friend, Senator Ted Kennedy. For nearly five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well-being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts. His ideas and ideals are stamped on scores of laws and reflected in millions of lives — in seniors who know new dignity; in families that know new opportunity; in children who know education’s promise; and in all who can pursue their dream in an America that is more equal and more just, including me. In the United States Senate, I can think of no one who engendered greater respect or affection from members of both sides of the aisle. His seriousness of purpose was perpetually matched by humility, warmth and good cheer. He battled passionately on the Senate floor for the causes that he held dear, and yet still maintained warm friendships across party lines. And that’s one reason he became not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy. I personally valued his wise counsel in the Senate, where, regardless of the swirl of events, he always had time for a new colleague. I cherished his confidence and momentous support in my race for the Presidency. And even as he waged a valiant struggle with a mortal illness, I’ve benefited as President from his encouragement and wisdom. His fight gave us the opportunity we were denied when his brothers John and Robert were taken from us: the blessing of time to say thank you and goodbye. The outpouring of love, gratitude and fond memories to which we’ve all borne witness is a testament to the way this singular figure in American history touched so many lives. For America, he was a defender of a dream. For his family, he was a guardian. Our hearts and prayers go out to them today — to his wonderful wife, Vicki, his children Ted Jr., Patrick and Kara, his grandchildren and his extended family. Today, our country mourns. We say goodbye to a friend and a true leader who challenged us all to live out our noblest values. And we give thanks for his memory, which inspires us still. Sincerely, President Barack Obama

I took the Regulation (REG) section of the CPA exams today. I think I had a rougher time than I had with AUD. I don’t know if my “complaints” that the exam was tough are “dependable” any more, since I have had something to say about the earlier 3 exams and luckily, I passed them. But I had said AUD was rough, and I barely passed it with a 77. I would be surprised if I hit 70. Well, I may score 65, or 90. I overstudied this past week (and yes, up to today) and I confused myself along the way. At times during the exam, I had to dig deep. I closed my eyes with my hands to focus and try to remember some things a few times … and I came out blank one too many times! I am attempted to look up the things I was not sure of, but I think I will not. As I came out of the exam and I was talking to one of the ladies at prometric, I mentioned to her that I would start studying for REG again tonight so that I can be ready to retake it. She said, “no, just wait, it will be okay.” Well, I thought, she could be right. I worried about AUD, and it came out okay. May be this will come out okay. Like Auditing and Attestation, there were times when I was mad at myself for not being sure about what to do. I knew I had read the stuff, I had worked on a multiple choice question similar to that question, but I could not remember the concept/idea. When I study, I almost always go for the idea. I don’t care about the figures, rates, etc. I can “back into” the rates or figures if I know what needs to be done and I have only forgotten what percentage or rate of something. Anyway, this time around, I think I stuffed my brain with too many concepts in a short time than it had to process them and come in handy. I did my best during the exam. I cannot say I did my best in the preparation, except for the last 10 days or so.

I did not like the fact that I waited almost 30 minutes before I could start the exam, but that’s okay. It was a busy day for the people at the site, and they were nice as usual. Anyway, after the fingerprinting, picture, emptying pockets, … came exam time. I logged in, and clicked through the first couple of screens, and then I stopped just before the last screen (before the exam starts) to write up how much time I would spend on each testlet and the start times. According to the Gleim Audios, the recommended start times were 3hs 0 min, 2hr 25 min, 1hr 50 min, 1hr 15min, and 0hr 40 minutes. I was two minutes behind on the first testlet, and that carried through to the second testlet. I think by the time I finished the third multiple choice testlet, I was 5 minutes behind schedule, which was okay. It was okay because I had 5 extra minutes (overall). I spent quite a bit of time on the research tab of the first simulation, may 20 minutes, which was not smart at all. I had planned to spend 7 minutes on each tab, and then move on to the next tab. So, I spent 8 minutes on the written part. That’s writing and reviewing. I spent may 2minutes, 4 minutes and 5 minutes on the other tabs… and then a huge amount of time on researching something, that I am sure I got wrong. I actually went back to it after completing the other tabs and researched some more! Urrghh! I was smart enough to just choose something and move on. I had may be 25 minutes for the other simulation. So, I guess I spent more than 20 minutes on the research, which is more time than I have spent on any exam question through all these exams. I think I was frustrated that I had spent sometime on the Wiley 14.0 simulations last night (or this morning between 1am and 4am) and I was able to find all the required IRC sections being asked. Anyway, I was lucky to find my research response within a minute on the second simulation, so I made up for some of the minutes lost earlier (6). The other tabs were as okay as the multiple choice testlets – which means, not great. I did what I could. The essays were the easiest part of the whole exam for.

Lessons learnt

Know the fundamentals

I was going over the notes that I wrote in my trusty moleskin notebook after FAR, BEC, and AUD exams – and a constant theme is KNOW THE FUNDAMENTALS. I think my problem is that I get the gist of the matter, but I also want to know the details so that I end up “being lost” in the details. So, if I am going to retake this section, I will focus on the fundamentals. What are fundamentals? Well, my definition of it is, it is something on which everything else seems to rest. The foundation, the common them. If you are reading a study unit, you can see that almost 80% of the questions are addressing a particular theme in one way or the other. Once you get that, everything thing that comes your way, has to be looked at from that point of view. Similar to a frame of reference. Ethics for example, the theme may be Google’s motto – “Do no evil” – of course, you can add a phrase or two, for example, “Do no evil, in reality or in appearance”. If you are talking about Property, you have to understand Basis, Adjusted Basis, and how everything else flows from there (gains and losses). All the exceptions and limitations are just details. If you are talking about Gross Income, knowing some of the definition may help… “from whatever source derived” etc. Well, that’s what I think. That’s what I think will work for me if I have to retake the exam. I think it worked enough today. We just have to wait another month to find out.

Last minute preparation helps, but it also sucks!

I got a few points from the work I did last night and this morning and up to an hour before the exam. I think that even if I had prepared well all along, I would still have put in some more hours of work yesterday, last night, and this morning. There was nothing more important to me to do in the last couple of days, up to the time of the exam, than study and prepare for the exam. So, if I have time, why not use that to study something or take another 20 multiple choice study session?

The part that sucks is that if you see something that you have not seen all along and it looks important, on the one hand, you are glad you have seen it. On the other hand, you are wondering what else is out there that you don’t know about, and may show up on your exam! It can demoralize you. I want to say it can also mess up your memory, for example, if what you are seeing contradicts what you studied and believed you understood. Should you change a month’s or a week’s work because of a moment’s glance?

Pace yourself

What can I say? I need to spread things out. The problem is not that I do things last minute. It is that when I start doing something, I go all the way, intensely, and then when I burn out or decide to give myself a break, I take a big break as if I am done with the thing. Of course, sometimes I am actually done with it! Whatever the case, the intensity is not sustainable for long periods of time. So, going forward, on my next big goal, I will spread my effort around.

Do it all

The exam tests a lot of material at the same time. You cannot study it all at the same time, even if you have a 10 day plan like I did. You have to “do it all” just like the exam does. What I mean by that is that every day or every other day, you have to do, say, a total 30 questions from all the chapters. That is about a question or two from each chapter. This keeps part of you on the whole picture and you don’t forget the things you studied a couple of days ago.

Master Taxation

In the exam, I noticed that I had an easier time with the third testlet which had more business law questions that tax questions. I only had 3 items that I really needed to review, and I think I totally guessed on just one of those. I think part of the reason is that I had done most of the business law when I started studying for REG, and then I stopped for a couple of weeks, and then went back to it and the rest of the stuff. So, I went over business law (obviously, excluding tax) a couple of times. This was not smart, considering that tax is (over) 60% of the exam! What can I say? [Hopefully, the third testlet was not "easier" because I blew the first two! Well, you know what I think about those "myths".]

Summary (What next?)

Overall, it has been a nice experience taking the CPA exams. I hope I will not have to retake REG. If I do, I am confident that I will do much better. I will try to do it the way I am proposing here and I think it will work.

I have a few other posts that I intend to post up regarding the CPA exam, and those will come when I am done with it all.

I think next week I will study for the Ethics exams so that if I have passed REG, then I can just go ahead and apply for the license.

Sweetheart, Chess, family, friends, books, blogs, dreams, success, happiness, righteousness, … all ye, here I cometh! 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+6 =?

It is a wonderful life!

Here is my rough guide to living the next 2 days with regard to preparing for the CPA exam’s Regulation (REG) section:

It is a wonderful life!

Praise be to God in the highest and peace to His people! I found out about 20 minutes ago that I have passed the CPA exam’s Auditing & Attestation section! Barely passed; 77.

Thanks to all the people who helped me in all sorts of ways. Thanks for the faith and encouragement. Thanks for the prayers. Thanks for reading the blog. Thanks for the comments. I am at the library studying REG which I am taking next Tuesday, so I have to get back to studying so that I can be 4 in 4! That would be exciting! I have to believe!

It is a wonderful life!

Last night after I got home, I decided to work on one more module.

12:30am – 1:08am Regulation of Employment and Environment 37MCQs.

12:30pm – 1:29pm Partnership Taxation MCQs 1-20

7:00pm – 8:54pm Partnership Taxation MCQs 21 – 46. Took about 5 minutes break. A little tired. I think decided that starting tomorrow, I will try to sleep at least 7 hours, and on the night before the exam, I will shoot for at least 8. I hope that I will stick to that plan!

This is 9:19pm. I have spent the last 25 minutes or so, reading a couple of pages I photocopied from my Wiley Book that I use to track the Modules completed, and do a quick “review” of the topics that are covered in the MCQs. I had photocopied some pages that talk about Researching Tax Issues, Examination Content, Taxes on the Regulation Exam. I just didn’t want to carry the whole book around, so I have about 13 pages that I carry around with me. Of course, I [always] spend a couple of hours reading the first couple of Chapters in the CPA review book, (the introduction to the CPA exam stuff.) I believe that those non-technical matter chapters have excellent information that is essential in understanding the exam. That is, the CPA exam as a concept and how to approach it. So, I will give those chapters another, probably on Sunday or Monday.

 Today, I challenged myself with the 3 challenges from yesterday. I have not done great when it comes to “sitting up straight” or “no touching face”, but I have done great with the “no Internet until 10pm” challenge. Another 33 minutes, and I will get to surf the net and see if AUD came out. I think I will stop here, and start working on Gift & Estate Tax. I am not sure if I will take a break before I finish that module to go on the Internet, or I will try to finish it first! Yesterday, I mentioned that I would talk about the benefits of not going on the Internet (for me) later on. Well, I can say that I feel like when I don’t get on the net, I get more accomplished, or I feel like I have accomplished something great. Part of it is because I am getting the studying done, the other part is that I am proving to myself that I can “live without the Internet”, albeit for a few hours. I am not sure whether I would be able to live without the Internet. I live without watching TV, but I was never a great TV watcher in the first place (except for watching soccer). Internet on the other hand, I am almost addicted. I have experienced some withdrawal symptoms these past couple of days! Time to go!

 9:35pm – 10:43pm Gift and Estate Tax. 36MCQs. I thought the treatment of this chapter Module, at least in the Questions Database, was weak. Most of the questions focused on Tax Return Preparers (which I knew a lot from having done Professional Conduct related chapters with Gleim TestPrep CD.

 I am not sure if I have mentioned that what I like about the Wiley study module MCQ “test bank” is that it has “text links” which you can use to read “excerpts” from the book dealing with the question. Some of the text links are several pages long, which can take long to read, but at the same time, makes up for (my) not reading the book. Gleim on the other hand, does not have text links, but the explanations to the questions are pretty detailed (or detailed enough). The fact that Gleim has a ton of MCQs, at least double what Wiley has, is a winner for me, especially if you have time to go over them (which I did for FAR and BEC). My plan is to compare the number of questions in Gleim to those in Wiley for Individual Taxation, and I will go with the higher number. I intend to do Individual Taxation and Corporate Taxation tomorrow. It will be a long day!

 Here is how my “progress spreadsheet” looks.

 It is a wonderful Life!