CPA Exam REG prep continues … 8/20/09

Last night (or this morning),

12:30am – 12:50am Bankruptcy MCQs 1 – 3 (I also “printed” a PDF file of the whole session, the questions, answer options, answer questions, and testlinks. I found out that this was quicker than printing and saving a question at a time and then combining the files later on. Duh! The only problem is that it is not focused on the areas that I would like to review. Anyway, may be it’s best that I save time now, and then pick and choose what I review later on.)

7:00am – 7:30am Backruptcy MCQs 3 – 10

Lunch with team.

5:56pm – 7:31pm Bankruptcy MCQs 11 – 45. Done with it. I will probably need to review the “exceptions” e.g. what a trustee cannot do, what cannot be discharged, etc.

7:50pm – 8:39pm Commercial Paper MCQs 1 – 22

Break to walk-around, grab something to eat, read the Wall Street Journal. Learnt that the SEC is playing catch-up, technology-wise, when it comes to the advances in trading.

8:58pm – 10:44pm Commercial Paper MCQs 23 – 65. Done with it. Need to review Holder in Due Course (HDC). I think I will be okay even if I just read the summaries on “real defenses” and “personal defenses”.

Today, I decided to give myself three challenges:

1 – No Internet until 10pm (unless it was work related and even then, it had to be something that was critical to my work, for example, printing bank statements to reconcile cash.)

2 – Sit up straight.

3 – No touching my face.

The last two are a problem, especially when I am thinking or focusing and I am burrowing through the monitor! I would say, I was 75% okay on the last two, and 100% on the first one! It was not easy at all. I will try to repeat these goals tomorrow and may be until I take the exam. I will elaborate on the benefits later.

Now, let me check my email and other blogs before I head out!

Here is how my spreadsheet looks:

It is a wonderful life!

CPA Exam REG prep continues… 8/19/09

Got home around 12:30am last night or this morning because I left (this conference room) around 12:00am. I decided to study some more when I got home because my stomach was killing me. I had a banana on the way out, and for the past couple of months, my stomach has not been taking bananas well. Anyway, I decided on Module 31, Property.

According to my spreadsheet, this is supposed to have 43 MCQs, yet it has 53 in the Wiley Testprep CD/database – which is good; the more the better. I only managed to get through 10 questions, and I had to sleep because the stomachache worsened, and I was also tired. My reward for studying tonight is reading this post: http://www.personalfinanceplaybook.com/2009/08/only-a-business-owner-can-sell-like-a-business-owner/

 12:45am – 1:22am Property (Module 31) MCQs 01-10

2:24pm – 3:24pm Property (Module 31) MCQs 11-31 (while having lunch)

6:50pm – 7:44pm Property (Module 31) MCQs 31-53. Now I know about Mortgagor and Mortgagee’s rights, deeds (execution, recording, types), Property types, and rights. My favorite has been various State laws regarding recording deeds, Notice, Race, and Notice-Race! I noticed that I was taking almost 4 minutes a question (average) but it is because I was reading all the text links on the questions regardless of whether I got the question right or wrong. I am studying, not just test-taking. If I found the information useful or reviewable, I was printing it, PDF, and saving the file to folder on my desktop. At the end, I combined the pages into one file. Here I have 50 pages to review! There are some pages that have only 5-10 lines, so it is not too much.

 Okay, dinner break! I went a Japanese Restaurant. That’s all the info I can give out right now. I got Chicken Teriyaki, Vegetables & Steamed Rice – YUM! It is kind of nice to shake off the hunger and sleepiness with some “not-home-made-food”. I talked a little bit with the guy who was making my food, Pablo, and he mentioned that a few weeks ago, I used to go there (to the Japanese restaurant) frequently, but I now, it is “long time no see”! I tried to explain that I was busy with work and school, and I am studying during lunch… but I am not sure he understood since his English is not as good as his Spanish. It is people like that that make me want to learn Spanish… so that we can converse. It was kind of nice to know that he remembered me going there frequently, months ago. Anyway, let me eat and get back to studying. May be another 10 minutes? Start at 8:30pm? Deal!

Well, I am one minute over, because I was reading Todd’s interview of Michael Gerber, and I was consumed! I have stopped about one third of the way in. It is really nice. So far, I feel that sometimes you see successful people and you “envy” them, and then you hear them talk… to hear how they got where they are, and you are just inspired to be better at what you do, to some day be able to tell a similar story, and hopefully, somebody will become inspired by your story,… sort of PAY IT FORWARD.

Now, study!

I forgot to mention that I like classical music, so the past couple of days I have been listening to ClassicalMusicAmerica on iTunes, and it is one of the best classical music radio stations I have ever listened to. When I become a CPA, I will probably send them some sponsorship/thank you money!

 When I want to smile or laugh, I sometimes go to this awesome site: http://1000awesomethings.com/

 8:49pm – 10:56pm, done with Module 24: Sales. Now I know remedies available to buyers and sellers, product liability, risk of loss and title, how the UCC statute of frauds is different from the “regular” or “general” statute of statute of frauds. This reminds me of the first time I read business law, I think it was 11 or 12 years ago at PAEC. I haven’t touched anything similar to it since. I thought accounting was way to go then, and then I changed my mind, and now I am back with it, but I don’t know for how long. I am not sure if I want to be an accountant for life. My goal is to be certified, become really good at it, (which I think I am getting there in the real world) and then become a consultant (IT & Accounting). After doing that for a couple of years, I would love to play chess professionally. Why am I saying all this? I don’t know. I just thought I should put it out there.

I am going to drive home. I think I will make it home by 11:45pm. I will probably put in another hour or so and then hit the bed. I think I am doing okay on my studying. The items highlighted green are ones that I have done in Wiley 14.0 this week. The ones highlighted turquoise are the ones that I did a couple of weeks ago in Gleim TestPrep CD. .The ones that are unhighlighted or highlighted red are the ones that are not done. [Red because they are too big and too important!] I will get there!

It is a wonderful life!

CPA Exam REG Prep Continues … 8/18/09

This was inspiring to me today:

 To Write or To Commute?

http://www.thomasjstanley.com/blog-articles/25/To_Write_or_To_Commute.html#

“How long did it take me to write The Millionaire Next Door?  I wrote the entire 477-page manuscript in about 180 days, or 43,200 minutes.  I wrote on average for four hours each and every day, about 240 minutes a day.”

Studied my notes in the car at lunch. 

7:42pm – 9:22pm Finished Transactions in Property. Took a break to prepare dinner (soup), change printer toner, create an Evernote template for the day, etc.

 No need to write notes. It’s slow and it is taking up study time, which I don’t have. I am just printing the questions and notes that I think I will need to review. I am also trusting my brain to recall anything that I have seen, reviewed, heard, skimmed, or made a mental note to remember! (Sounds like “The Secret”, but I really believe that statement. It is part of my “mission statement”.

  9:25pm – 9:42pm – break: checked another71 and twitter to see if AUD is out. It looks like it is not out. It was interesting just reading the comments of all the people who have passed, failed, or are still waiting for the results! You see that you are not alone in the thoughts and emotions that go with taking the exam. My advice to myself is, put in the time, that way you don’t have to work on stuff last minute, and you don’t blame yourself that you had the potential but you didn’t take the chance! I hope I won’t (blame myself). I was wondering if, say, I found out that the results were out, would I have the discipline to wait and stay away from finding out? I would like to stay away, but I can see myself thinking, “I will log in, but I will not click the Examination Score Inquiry  and then current exam results”! Ha ha! I just tried it for fun:

 

Of course I cut out my AICPA ID# and EXAM DATE… Phew!

Enough rest, let’s study.

9:45pm – 10:12pm Insurance 11MCQs. Taking the Getting Things Done (GTD) approach: Will this take more than 2 minutes? If the answer is no, do it now. In this case, this Module was small enough to be done in no time. Who knows, there could be a question on insurance Now I know what 80% co-insurance on property (buildings) is: an “incentive” for insured to maintain insurance equal to 80% of FMV of insured property… Of course this does not apply when property is totally destroyed. Yay! I like the formula for calculating the maximum that can be recovered in case of partial damage. Oh, well, next module!

 10:20pm – 11:24pm Debtor–Creditor Relationships Done with Module. Need to drive home now. I took a break to check on my boss who has travelled from USA to India for work.

Now I know about Sureties and Guarantors, personal defenses of a debtor, co-sureties, and their rights (contribution, exoneration, reimbursement, and subrogation). Some of the things are not necessarily new, because I have listened to them a bunch of times when I was driving and listening to the old (2007) Gleim CDs. However, recalling and applying that information is a different ball game. I am happy with my progress these past couple of days.

 

Tomorrow I will shoot to do a couple of things:

A 24 MCQs test, 2 modules with less than 60 questions, and then start on Individual Taxation.

 It is a wonderful life!

CPA Exam prep continues… 8/17/09

1:52PM – 2:52PM Lunch & went through Module22 Secured Transactions. Did 17 of the 34MCQs.

Roughly, 6pm – 7pm: relax a little. Read email, twitter, etc – found out that REG wave 1 is out (from Jeff at another71.com.

Watched the first minutes of “Nurturing Creativity: at TED. The other 10 minutes will by my reward for doing a couple of hours of studying REG.

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

7:10pm – 8:01pm completed Module 30, Secured Transactions. 34MCQ, 73.53%.

I am a little tired since I slept at 2:30am last night. I left work at around midnight, got home around 12:30am, Ate a little bit; probably almonds, and did the Federal Securities Acts and Antitrust Law Module. I am taking notes as I am studying, so it is taking a little bit longer than the budgeted 1 ½ minutes per MCQ. I think I am on schedule. I will now eat dinner – a samoosa – and then finish the TED video, 10 minutes or so, and then I will tackle my next Module. I have not decided what it will be.

8:34pm – My break is almost up. The TED video was inspiring. I have just learnt that I should not put off the ideas that come to my mind to blog about – most of which are spiritual in nature. It could be God speaking to me and asking me to write. So, once the exams are over, I will get back to blogging about non-CPA stuff.

Anyway, time to decide what to study next.

8:40PM – 10:00pm Module 34 – Transactions in Property. I am going to drive home and probably sleep. I will try to get up at 6am and finish module 34 off. 60MCQs.

It is a wonderful life!

CPA Exam REG continues … 8/16/09

8/16/09

I know I said I will not blog again until exam day… but I have changed my mind. No explanations.

This post was being written [in Microsoft Word] as I was studying… so the times are almost exact to the minute except the last one. It was my way of tracking what I was doing and thinking… so coming up with it didn’t take much. Future posts will be much shorter, as I have come up with the game plan for the rest of the days; see below!

**************

I decided to watch motivational videos, read some positive thinking articles, listen to productivity, self-improvement, wholesome things, and get back to reading my mission statement. This will be a daily routine. I will be doing some of the things between study sessions. I have analyzed the things that I like doing and I am going to use those as my rewards for the time I put in. Reading blogs, following soccer, munching almonds(!), talking to my girlfriend, dreaming about early retirement, etc. I have budgeted some time for each of those activities. One of the funniest is that I will earn 3 almonds for every hour I put in! So, at the end of the day, I may have 18 almonds waiting for me! Ha ha ha! Now, that sounds like a lot. We will see. It was wealth the drive to go and get 2 lbs of roasted unsalted almonds to last me til exam time in about 9 days. So, here we go!

 

3:30pm – 4:02pm Test Session 24 MCQs

4:02pm – 4:45pm Study Session 24MCQs (done above)

4:46pm – 5:00pm listened to “JUST STARTED” http://www.43folders.com/2009/08/04/enough

Get okay with the fact that you can suck at times. You just have to start. Don’t think about, don’t wish, don’t plan … Get started on something. START! Procrastination dash à Give it 5 minutes, and just do it for 5 minutes and see how far you go. à Do it regularly. Give it time.

5:02pm – 5:28pm Test Session 24 MCQs

5:35pm – 6:23pm Study Session 24MCQs (done above)

6:25pm – 7:00pm

Break to eat lunch/dinner.

Back to listening the podcast at http://www.43folders.com/2009/08/04/enough while eating lunch/dinner.

More takeaways (some paraphrased):

You have to exercise the muscle that’s hard to exercise

You have to keep working on it

Have some tolerance for hanging on even when you don’t know when things are going

You have everything you need right now

You don’t do stuff coz it’s easy, you do it because it is tough.

Polish it – ask what could this become?

We all want to be good, we all hate to suck

You get good at stuff when you care a lot about it, and doing it a lot

People are scared of knowing how good they may or may not be at something

Read: Fake Rocks, Salami Commanders, and Just Enough to Start and stopped at The Switch Flips. Break is over.

7:06pm – 7:31pm Test Session 24 MCQs

7:33pm – 8:21pm Study Session 24MCQs (done above)

8:25pm – 8:45pm I have just finished working on an Evernote Template that will use to track my study time. It is one similar to what I use to track my time/activities at work. I think it will come in handy in tracking stuff done.

 For me, the most important thing is not necessarily sticking to the budgeted time, but to get the work done. Sometimes I will beat the scheduled time, at other times I will go over. It is all okay. I was wondering if I am wasting my time by doing the Test Mode, and then going back to do the same questions in Study Mode. Obviously, the Study Mode cannot be eliminated because I need to know whether I have something right or wrong. So, that leaves the Test Mode as an elimination candidate. I decided I could not eliminate that one for two reasons. First, I am practicing doing 24 questions within 30 minutes, which is my goal for the exam. Second, I need to go through the questions without truly knowing how I have done, which is the case in the exam. In my previous exam, I found out that when I did the test mode last minute, after using the study mode for months, I was expecting an answer/explanation to show up after I clicked my choice! So, I think I am doing okay. I may, or may not finish reading all the study units before the exam. I didn’t finish Business Economics and Concepts, but I passed with an 87, so it can be done, if I apply myself and master whatever I study. My scores have not been great. Consistently around 58%, which sucks! However, I have only actually read and completed 4 Study Units, so anything from the remaining 16 Study Units is … new. I have to dig deep to my tax classes or business law classes to remember some of the stuff. No excuses. I am just saying, it is only going to get better in the next couple of days. Well, it is 9:02pm, so I should take a walk , get some water, and then come back to work on simulations.

9:21pm – 10:20pm Worked on Simulations – (Refer to above Evernote screenshot).

 10:20pm – 10:44pm Decided to figure out a way to touch all modules/chapters in the Wiley book even though I am using the Gleim TestPrep CD to prepare for the exam. So, I made copies of the Tables of Contents in the Wiley book. My original plan was to Mark S when I have done at least 2 simulations on the module, R when I have read the chapter for at least an hour, Q when I have done 60 multiple choice questions strictly on the chapter, and then make sure that every day, I do different S, Q, and R. Thus in 5 days, I would have done 15 different modules or chapters in addition to the MCQs that are taking questions from all the Study Units in Gleim. While doing that, I decided to look at the number of MCQs in the Wiley Book… so I worked up the simple spreadsheet below:

 

 It looks like the Wiley Book has only 1044 questions, and from my calculations, I can hammer those out in 30 hours, if I spend about 1 ½ minutes per question. This is way less than the 2000+ questions on the Gleim TestPrep CD. So, my goal will be to go through all the Wiley questions and thus have touched all the chapters by Friday, 8/21/09. Saturday, I will read/skim here and there, and do simulations, and then on Sunday, I will get back to Gleim and just enjoy my life with a ton of 24 MCQs. Monday, 8/24/09, I will review my notebook and any other hand-written notes. Tuesday, 8/25/09, last minute review and take the exam. Then blog about my exam experience. Wednesday, I will enjoy the day. Thursday, I will check to see if my results for Auditing and Attestation (AUD) came out in wave 1. Lord, please give me the drive and the patience!

 In the evernote screenshot above, the Wiley MCQs for Federal Securities Acts and Antitrust Law are what’s on the menu once I post this. I have already checked in the time… and by the way, I just found out that the Wiley CD has a few more questions than the book. For example, the chapter/module I am going to tackle next, the book has 44 questions while the CD has 56. That’s okay by me. Good thing I have a buffer in my plan!

I had said in my last post that I would give an update on how Saturday, 8/15/09, went. Well, let’s just say I did some decent studying. It looks like I will be heading home around midnight again. Not excuses, no accusations!

 Okay, I have to post this and start on those MCQs.

 It is a wonderful life!

CPA Exam prep REG – last post before the exam

Not much has changed in my motivation to study… well, until today, I guess. So, this is my last blog post until I take the exam in 10 days. [As I have mentioned before, my exam is on 8/25/09, at noon.]

I will post how today (Saturday, 8/15/09) went, and how I live(d) the 10 days before the exam in my next post.

Here is my daily plan:

1.5 hours do three (3) twenty-four (24) Multiple Choice Questions – test mode and then study mode.

1.5 hours do two (2) simulations

1 hour read/skim a study unit

1 hour do sixty (60) multiple choice questions in a study unit

We will see if I can cover enough ground in 50 hours to pass the CPA Regulation exam. [Of course, I have already put in about 25 hours or a little over that in the past few weeks.] Knowing my cramming habits, I may end up putting in a little more than the 50 hours, but it is going to be HEAVEN!

Until next time:

It is a wonderful life.

CPA Exam REG preparation (6 days to go)

On some days, I wonder what it takes to motivate some people to study… Why did I waste this weekend? I don’t know. May be it was easier to let some people/things upset me with things I don’t and shouldn’t care about. May be it was easier to post a Craigslist advert as I prepare to move out. May be it was easier to follow soccer online (by text!) and “see” Man Utd lose to Chelsea – that hurt! (The referee, FOY, or whatever his name is, stole that game from us!) May be it was easier to spend about 3 hours on 3 different days with AT&T customer service trying to get my internet service back, and then get my “high-speed” service back, and repeat myself a bunch of times. May be it was easier to wash dishes, cook, pack lunch for the rest of the week, do laundry, research car private party sales values, etc. May be it was easier to take a nap during the day… something that I am really bad at doing! (I can’t sleep if the sun is out!) May be it was easier just to make it tough on myself. Well, well… may be I should stop blogging and put in several hours of study.

What have I done, schoolwise, since the last post? I decided to read/study the handout from Yaeger CPA review. They are the guys I am supposed to be using for my study. I figured I should go over the handout, that way as I use the Gleim testprep CD for MCQs, I have an idea of what I am getting myself into. It is a little frustrating when you work your way up from “zero”. Well, I am not quite zero, as I have some decent accounting background (knowledge, experience, and smarts -;)

So, last night, as I was doing the laundry and cooking, I studied a little bit, and I also put in an hour at lunch. I intend to finish the handout tonight and then tomorrow, I can get back to MCQs.

My plan for the remaining study time is to do 20 questions of each study sub-unit. I think that is more efficient than trying to do all the questions of all the study units, which I did for FAR, AUD, and almost BEC.

I guess I have to go and do some studying.

It is a wonderful life.

CPA Exam REG preparation (8 days to go)

I am a little tired. I have just finished Study Unit 4, Contracts, 166 multiple choice questions. I did okay, 74%. I am sure that if I went over them again (LOL!) I would get at least 75%! Now I know what Quasi-Contracts, Liquidated Damages, Assignment of All Rights, Conditions Subsequent, Usury Statutes, Parol Evidence Rule, Statute of Frauds, Consideration,… have to do with Contracts. Respect to lawyers!

This is 11:19pm. Time for me to drive home. Eat, shower, and sleep. I was studying at the office.

After my last post, on the 4th, I looked at the possibility of rescheduling my exam date from the 25th to the 29th or later, and I could not “cost-effectively” do it. I could only extend the time by 2 days, to the 27th. I figured that since I will be working that week, anyway, I am not sure an extra 2 days will give me something that I cannot squeeze in the remaining time. So, I didn’t change the date.

I am looking forward to finishing Study Unit 5, Debtor-Credit Relationships, tomorrow. With note-taking and all that goes into doing MCQs before one reads the chapter, it looks like my average is 3 minutes a question. Obviously, there are questions that I spend 10 seconds on, and then there are others that I spend 10 minutes on. The latter because there is much new info and I am writing down main points that I will review on the 24th and 25th. I considered stopping this note-taking, but that would be too risky… I guess I should not change what worked for FAR and BEC, should I?

So, my count down is a little off, vis-a-vis the exam date, but that’s how I wanted it. When we hit zero (0), it is going to be crunch time

Well, I guess I should head out, that way I can make it home before midnight.

It is a wonderful life.

CPA Exam REG preparation (13 days to go)

Today was pretty busy at work. We have made some good progress. We should be able to print the draft financials by EOD tomorrow. I got home around 10:50pm. I stayed late because I had to do some reconciliations before I left and some of the accounts were a little problematic. Anyway, they will be fixed first thing tomorrow morning.

Preparation for REG did not happen today. I slept late last night. After I finished Study Unit 3, I decided to destress a little bit and I overdid it. I slept well past 2am, so I woke up around 7am today, all tired, and all I could do was get ready for work. Almost the whole accounting team went to lunch together, so no studying happened at lunch. I have worked continuously from around 1:30pm til 10:30pm or thereabout, so I didn’t study in the evening either. So, that’s a lost day. May be I could study instead of writing this? Sure, would it make up for the time lost? A little bit.

I will set up the next study unit, and then sleep. Hopefully, tomorrow, I will study before going to work. I know tomorrow will be a long day as well, so, the earliest I can hope to study as normal, would be Thursday.

Yesterday, I considered rescheduling my exam. May be I will.

It is a wonderful life.

CPA Exam REG preparation (14 days to go)

This will be a long no-study night for me; month end close is here. We need to finish up (at least with the draft financials) by this Wednesday night. A few people are going out of town, so we really don’t have much leeway.

Last night went almost as planned, so I am a little happy with that. I just went over the multiple choice questions at the AIPCA website. Obviously, I expected to see a few questions whose Study Units I had not gone over yet, as I was only two Study Units in. I did okay; 3 out of 5. I didn’t do the simulation for two reasons. It would have taken longer to do, and I think it was on a topic that I have not studied, so why waste time?

I woke up at 6am – I think – and I started studying at 6:15am.; Study Unit 3 is Agency.  There are 62 multiple choice questions in this Study Unit. I think I did about 20 or 25 by the time I stopped studying. I took a few notes. Most of the stuff I knew because I have been listening to CDs in my car when I drive, so I catch some things. Another reason is that Agency may be the easiest Study Unit in the whole “module” or section – I think. At lunch, I took my computer to one of the conference rooms and did a few multiple choice questions as I ate. I think I am not on question 50.

Anyway, I should get back to work, so that tomorrow can be a better/easier day, (workwise). I think I will do the remaining 12 questions when I get home, that way this Study Unit will be behind me.

It is a wonderful life.