Let’s see it Auditors/AUD Candidates! Show your knowledge on our question of the week!
Go to Facebook to answer (just click on the link above and it will take you right there)!
Update/Answer!!!
Did you answer our AUD question of the week? If you answered A, you are correct! In planning, you are not required to determine the effectiveness of the controls, although you should try to obtain an understanding of the controls.
Written by guest blogger YL
There it was. A letter to me from the IRS! I opened it carefully and nervously. Oh, no!! I have to take a test before I can do taxes next year!! What to do? I must have some help, those tests can be tricky, I hear. I remembered a course I had taken several years ago with Gleim and looked it up on “Google”. “How nice,” I thought to myself, I can try it by working on the first section.” So I did. What a help! Somehow the repetitions and the challenge of trying to get 100% on every quiz and exam drive me on and now I am about to set a date for the taking of the exam even tho I just finished the first section – well, sort of – I haven’t gotten 100% on the last test yet!– more later.
If this is the first time you’ve visited our blog, welcome! There is still more to come and we are looking forward to providing you with information and support to guide you through your studies.
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Thank you and good luck with your studies!
Team Gleim
Written by Guest Blogger David G.
I am back to being able to study on a regular basis once again. This time of the year in tax is not an ideal time to start studying for your first section of the CPA exam. I almost feel as if I bit off a little more than I could chew, but I am surviving and I see the end approaching quickly. I can study a little in the mornings now, instead of falling asleep in my car when I put it in park and cut it off at work. I also am able to start studying some in the evenings, because now I get home before 10:00pm!
As my internship winds down and my semester ends, I am assessing where I am in my studies for the exam and trying to determine if I need to start over or just do heavy reviewing. I have been continuing with the sections, but I feel I have lost some of the knowledge of some of the first part of the book. I will keep all informed as I move forward after this “busy” season in tax. By the way, “busy” does not begin to describe the work load in public tax accounting leading up to March 15 and April 15. Maybe we should just call it crazy season from now on. Oh well, at least the pay is good.
The support of my family has been awesome. My wife encourages me daily and helps me keep my eye on the target. She does not push but does remind me of our goals and asks questions that are designed to motivate and direct my actions. As this day winds down I am going to sit down for dinner with my family, enjoy some great conversation and then settle in to study for just a few more minutes
The ICMA releases CMA grades approximately six weeks from the end of the month in which you’ve taken your test. This means candidates that sat for the exam in January should now be able to access their IMA Account Profile transcript at imanet.org and view their scores. The ICMA will also mail the grades to the candidates at the same time they are released online. Candidates who do not pass an exam part will receive a performance feedback report via postal mail.
We want to hear from those candidates who have recently sat for the CMA Exam. Feel free to contact us using the contact form or contact your personal counselor and tell us how we can improve our materials. Please limit your feedback to how Gleim can improve, as we are not asking candidates to divulge the nature of any questions or material found on the actual exam.
Good luck CMA Candidates! We look forward to hearing about your success!
Can you answer our CIA Question of the week? Go here to answer it!
A firm discounts never-before-discounted items. This action is an example of a:
A. Divergence from Industry Precedent.
B. Cross-parry.
C. Divergence from prior strategic objectives.
D. Bluff.
Written by Guest Blogger Anne R.
My in-laws arrived this past Friday in Madrid, along with my Gleim book! I am very excited to see family, and also excited to have my book finally! I was still on chapter 5 when they arrived, so I did not quite meet my goal of getting to chapter 6. This means I will have to do some extra studying in between my in-laws leaving and my mom coming to visit.
In my study plan I have allowed for barely studying while my in-laws and my mom are visiting, because I knew it was unrealistic to expect much. However, I am going to try and complete one chapter while they are here. The first few days they were here, we were very busy! We spent two days in Madrid, saw a Real Madrid futbol (soccer) game, and saw my husband’s basketball game. I didn’t study at all for about 5 days!
Now we are slowing down and spending some time relaxing, and I studied for almost two hours yesterday. I’m not going to take a five day break again – I had to re-review everything from chapter 5. I plan to study 1-2 hours every day for the rest of their trip, I think this is possible, except on Saturday when we will go to visit another city. This is more studying than I thought I would do while having guests, so if I can get 1-2 hours in a day, that will be great!
I am planning to take Audit the first week of May, so I only have about 6 weeks to go! That is a very short time! On every exam I have taken so far, I always spend the two weeks leading up to the exam cramming for about 8 hours a day, leaving only 2-3 days to review. For this exam, if I have to “cram”, I want that time to happen about 4-5 weeks before the exam so that I can be more relaxed and have time to review for one or two weeks.
There are two ways to approach the order in which you may want to take the CPA Exam.
First, you may want to evaluate what area you are strongest in or if you have just taken a class that pertains to a section of the CPA Exam. It’s always an accomplishment to of course pass all the sections on the first try of course, but getting that first pass is especially important. This gives you encouragement and motivation to continue with the rest of the sections. So if you are more confident in one area, take that one first. Otherwise, here is the recommended order if you have an equal feeling of confidence toward all the sections or have just completed school:
1- FAR – This exam contains content that will be tested on other sections and helps prepare you for future sections. For instance FAR goes in detail on the financial statements, this will help you to prepare for auditing (which of course involves financial statements). Also, since FAR covers the most material, you have the most intense/comprehensive exam completed first.
2- AUD – AUD covers topics covered in FAR to a certain extent. As an example, you may will learn how to test liabilities and you should be familiar with amortization schedules. Amortizations schedules are covered on FAR so when you see this in AUD, you will not have to teach yourself amortization tables or try to figure out what is involved in them since you will just have seen them in FAR.
3- REG – REG had the lowest pass rates in 2011 and it is what I would consider to be the most difficult of the four exams (this will be different for everyone of course). That is one reason I don’t recommend taking it first (so you don’t feel defeated if you don’t pass), as well as the benefits of taking FAR first.
4- BEC – This exam has the least amount of material and you’ll know this right away if you compare the size of this book to your FAR book! However, don’t be fooled by BEC. Even though it’s short on content, it can still be very difficult. I would recommend taking this one last due to the lesser amount of content to study. Also, it can be very refreshing to see the smaller book/amount of material and start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Plus, by this point you will probably be feeling burned out from the other exams (at least slightly), and this exam may require less study time from you.
Please feel free to ask any questions by commenting or emailing us using the contact us link.
Good luck CPA Candidates!
Written by guest blogger Melissa L.
“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” – Oscar Wilde
The other day my friend reminded me of the above quote by Oscar Wilde. At the time, I smiled knowing that I am sure we all have plenty of “experience” we have learned from. But, later, as I was reviewing a quiz I had just taken during my CMA preparation, I remembered this quote.
It is human nature to dislike seeing quizzes with low scores. It is difficult to accept that low quiz scores are all part of the learning process. But, I would rather make these mistakes now during my review than later on the actual exam. I study the answer explanations and figure out where I went wrong. Did I misread the question, which seems to happen more often than I would like to admit? Did I make a math error? Did I apply the wrong concept? Once I figure out where I went wrong, I learn, I adjust, I move on and try to avoid making that mistake in the future.
When reading the Gleim System for Success (see links below), you will find references throughout about learning from one’s mistakes. An important part of the Gleim system is that you learn more from the questions that you answered incorrectly than from the questions you answered correctly. These questions give you an opportunity to understand why you made mistakes so that you make fewer of them on the actual exam.
In life, when we make a mistake, we may kick ourselves, but then chalk it up to experience. Studying for an exam shouldn’t be any different. To avoid being discouraged by my mistakes, I treat them not as mistakes, but rather as learning experiences.
Gleim System For Success for the CPA Exam
Gleim System For Success for the CMA Exam
