Studying for the CPA exam
In case anyone was wondering, studying for the CPA exam is a SLOG. It’s completely expected, but the reality of it is even more sloggish than you might imagine.
Using Becker, I have 10 segments to study. Each segment has:
- four hours of lecture,
- five to six (more like seven to ten) hours of homework,
- at least one (usually two) sets of task-based simulation questions, which take two-ish hours each,
- 40-odd flashcards to review (if you paid extra for the flashcards, which I did), for which I usually budget 40 minutes to an hour, and
- a progress exam, which you can adjust the time on, but usually takes two hours.
For those of you in the cheap seats, that’s 17 hours of studying per segment, 21 if you use my more realistic 10 hours for homework.
That’s a lot of studying, especially when I am also working (at a temp job) 40 hours a week. It’s also a lot of studying if you consider that, based on when I want to take the exam (first week of November), I need to study 1.5 segments per week to give myself the recommended 2 week review period before the exam. We’ll see how that works out. Thus far, I’ve not be managing 1.5 segements. I’ve barely been managing one. I need to work on that.
As one of the lecturer’s said in the first segment, “Let’s talk about extraordinary events. You having fun between now and when you take the CPA exam, that should be an extraordinary event. It should be both unusually and infrequent.”
Job Searching
Meet the Firms (an on-campus event through the local Beta Alpha Psi chapter) was last night. There were 19 companies there of all different sizes, and I think it went pretty well.
This evening when I got home from work, I found out that at least one of the firms I talked to last night is interested in meeting with me for a first-round interview. *bounces* This is getting exciting.
