Posts tagged: Gleim AUD

Tools for Studying: Small Notebooks & Shorter Study Sessions

June 13, 2013, by No comments yet

Written By CPA Candidate Jaime C. for the Gleim CPA Blog.

Up to this point, I have been answering AUD questions in study sessions of one to three study units at a time. This week, I started creating shorter study sessions (usually 20 questions) containing questions from all of the study units. This way, I cannot rely on the previous questions to give me hints for subsequent questions. I feel that this gives me a wide variety and really tests my knowledge. As my testing date gets closer and closer, this will help me determine which areas need additional focus and further clarification. When I was in college, I remember hearing that we tend to focus our studying on areas we already know. I need to make sure my studying focuses on the areas that result in low scores on the practice exams.

I have been writing down the study topics that I want to address in a small notebook. There are several topics that are still tripping me up in the study sessions, such as audit testing to confirm valuation, existence, completeness, and rights and obligations. In addition, I want to make sure I spend more time concentrating on audit reports and the various modified versions. I also need to make sure that I spend plenty of time using the simulations online and in the book.

Although I am reaching the final stages of studying for AUD, I am nervous that I will have to study again and retake the exam in the second testing window. I will, however, carry on with a positive attitude and not worry about the possibility of failing. I am ready to get this done, and I am excited to start looking at new material for another section of the CPA exam.

 

CPA Studying Over A Long Road Trip

February 20, 2013, by No comments yet

 

Written By Guest Blogger Jaime C.

My husband and I recently took a long weekend trip to visit family eight hours away.  I knew my study time over the weekend would be limited and I can easily get carsick while reading.  Therefore, I downloaded the CPA Auditing Audio Review to listen to on the road.  The files downloaded quickly to my laptop and I simply added the files to iTunes.  After syncing and charging my iPod, I was ready for a long road trip across four states.

While my husband drove and listed to football coverage, I listened to the CPA Auditing Audio Review.  I enjoyed listening to study units I had already covered, as well as some new ones.  Recapping older material helped reinforce my knowledge, and beginning new information was motivating.  I discovered that when I listen to new material, I would prefer to have a small notepad to jot down things to look up later in the book, as well as acronyms and lists.

Since I didn’t have a notepad in the car, I kept a mental list of items to look up when I got home.  For instance, I opened the AUD book to Study Unit 5 to familiarize myself with the commonly used flowchart symbols.  Additionally, I looked over the flow charts for Study Units 6 and 7.  Fortunately, Study Unit 6 lists the page numbers of the flowcharts, which made them easy to find.

If fellow CPA Exam candidates have not done so already, I encourage everyone to download the Audio Review and always have it readily available on your iPod or other portable device.  You can listen in the car, at the gym, and while doing household chores, etc.  The opportunities to listen and learn are endless!

 

Study Scheduling – Work/Life Balance

January 4, 2013, by No comments yet

Written By Guest Blogger Jaime C.

Hello, fellow CPA exam candidates!

I recently read blog postings from other CPA candidates about the sacrifices they make to increase study time. Several candidates have plans to skip social dinners, not go to the movies with their families, and even miss weddings in order to study. I admire this dedication and discipline. I, however, have yet to master the discipline to make studying my main focus. While I work really well under pressure, I have found that “cramming” in the last weekend or two before the exam does not lead to a passing score.

I continue to work on finding a happy medium between studying and participating in social gatherings. With that said, I have not opened my AUD book in exactly one week. My intentions to tackle the simulation exams were pushed aside.

Now that I have my Notice to Schedule and plan to sit for the exam in roughly 6-7 weeks, I need to cover the remaining study units and knock out as many practice exams as possible by following the original plan from my Gleim Counselor. Since I have already covered several study units, I will now be able to focus on practice exams and simulations.

Here is my six-week schedule for one exam section:
Week 1: Complete Study Units 1-4
Week 2: Complete Study Units 5-8
Week 3: Complete Study Units 9-12
Week 4: Complete Study Units 13-16
Week 5: Complete Study Units 17-20
Week 6: Cumulative review of weak areas

I plan to add studying to my calendar just like any other appointment or get-together.

 

My Notice To Schedule Has Arrived – CPA Exam

January 4, 2013, by No comments yet

 

Written By Guest Blogger Jaime C.

My Notice to Schedule arrived via email this week. Immediately, I jumped on the NASBA website for the link to the Prometric website. I entered in my zip code and a local testing center popped up. Since there is only two weeks left in this testing window, the only time available was a week and half later. In addition to the local testing center, the three next closest sites were between one to four hours away. I wouldn’t mind traveling a bit to take the exam; however, the open dates were essentially the same.

I stared at the calendar on my wall, counted the days and tried to convince myself that an adjustment to take the exam two months earlier than originally planned was feasible. I figured that if I moved up the AUD exam, I could move on to another section and be ahead of my anticipated timeline.

After much consideration and discussing my options with my husband, I decided to wait until the next testing window. I have not nearly covered the amount of material necessary to sit for the exam and two weeks was not going to give me enough time. No one is pushing or pressuring me to take the exam so allowing more time to adequately cover the material is my best option.

With a final decision made to sit for the CPA exam in the next testing window, the pressure to cram and study all hours of the day was eliminated. Needless to say, my motivation tanked this week. Instead, I worked on house projects and ran errands with my husband all weekend. It is refreshing not to cram and feel pressured to study, study, study. I can get back on track this week with regular studying in the evenings. I also plan to focus on the simulations rather than multiple-choice questions this week.

 

My Retake of the CPA Audit Exam

December 20, 2012, by No comments yet

Written By Guest Blogger Kathy R.

Finally, my retake of the CPA Audit exam is complete. I am hoping that I passed.

The day before the exam, I felt confident that I knew the material. I actually stopped studying/reviewing the material around 7:00 p.m. I did my best to go to bed before midnight, but of course my anxiety started to get the best of me and I did not go to bed until 2:00 a.m. My alarm clock went off at 6:00 a.m. After hitting the snooze button a couple of times, I got out of bed, showered, boiled 2 eggs, and made my wheat grass drink. I drove 40 minutes to the testing site to find a long line to check in. I started my exam around 8:00 a.m. For the most part, the exam was consistently paced. The multiple-choice questions were straightforward. Overall I felt the Audit exam was very similar to the Gleim CPA review material. I am definitely hoping, praying, and wishing for a passing score.

During my review process of the Audit material, I finally realized that I was missing questions because I was not reading the question carefully and identifying the key words. My new method for completing the multiple-choice questions is to read the question, then immediately take out the two answers that I feel are incorrect. Then I re-read the question and try to determine the one or two words in the sentence that will help me to answer the question correctly. When I started using the method described above, my scores started improving by approximately 15%. I started studying for the CPA Business exam yesterday, and this new method seems to be working for me.

Stay tuned for the results of my CPA Audit exam and my CPA Business exam. It would be wonderful to have at least one exam passed by the end of the year. Two exams passed would be the most wonderful end of the year present ever.

 

Juggling Life and Focusing On EA Exam Studying

December 20, 2012, by No comments yet

 

Written By Guest Blogger KP.

This past week of studying has been a bit distracting. I have so many things on my mind (work, school, employment offers), but it feels good to be back in the swing of things with studying again. I got through my first full study unit this past week (the intro study unit to corporations), although it took me all week to get through it. I thought it would be beneficial for me to study a little bit each day in order to feel like I don’t have to dedicate so much time on the weekend to studying a full study unit, which is what I was originally doing. I feel like I just don’t have time for that currently. My semester will ease up a bit in 2-3 weeks when one of my classes ends, so I will have a lot more time to study again and hopefully still reach my goal of finishing the three EA exams in a one-year period. However, because I am studying a little bit each day rather than in one long sitting, I feel like I’m just not retaining as much.

It is a bit discouraging too because if I take the job offer that I am leaning toward, I will need a solid foundation of corporate tax right away; therefore, I really need to retain this business tax material, especially the study units on corporations. I know that it will be easier for me to retain things again when life calms down, but somehow I just need to find some way to keep plugging along with one study unit a week. However, this weekend I think I will attack study unit 12 (the section on corporate formation) by doing a long study session over the weekend. Once I get through nine more study units, I can start the software material. This always makes me feel better because it really reinforces concepts for me and it will give me the confidence I need to set an exam date!

 

Looking Back At My CPA Exam – It’s All About The Timing

October 25, 2012, by No comments yet

Written By Guest Blogger Christine L.

Taking all four parts of the CPA exam in four months is not how most people choose to do it, but for me, it was logical that I try. I didn’t have a job; scheduling conflicts forced me to push graduation out a semester, and graduating in the summer didn’t sound that exciting. So I tried it. I did it, and it was hard. It would have been hard no matter how I did it, but I it could have been easier had I known some things I know now.

I already had some things to say about academics, but really, the academics were not harder than my classes. It’s the volume of these things that makes them hard. It took me more hours than I thought it would. Some study units took more than six hours, some took less, but on day one, I didn’t know how it would add up. There are people who will tell you that you can do it in half of the hours I spent. Of course first-time pass rates for these exams are not real high, and you might wonder if there is some relationship between these two facts. I wanted to pass more than I wanted to spend my time elsewhere. That sort of contradicts the part where I wanted to pass all four parts in four months, and this was an issue. I was always chasing after myself—if I take a break now, will I be able to make it up tomorrow? Studying for hours was never a problem. The problem is that I had to keep each day’s hours reasonable if I wanted to keep going for four months, but I miscalculated because my experience with the first exam led me to underestimate how many hours I’d spend on the last exam.

I didn’t spend enough time on REG. What I would do now is to take all the Gleim sample tests for every part first, and stat with the one with the lowest score and work down. You’d have to vary this though, depending on when the blackout month(s) fall into your planned schedule.

The real lesson I took away from this is that passing the CPA exams has as much to do with your life, your job, your school schedule, and your finances as it does with all that intellectual stuff. If you’ve taken 150 hours of accounting courses and done well, you’ve proven that you can handle the material. What’s left is about discipline and concentration and an awful lot of just keeping at it. Plan it out, think it through, know yourself, and let the test prep take care of itself.

 

Learning A Little About Everything

October 8, 2012, by No comments yet

 

Written By Guest Blogger Oprah M.

Yes, I can be a big procrastinator. I was recently discussing with someone about how I’m studying to take the CPA exam and how hard it is to find time to study. This person mentioned that instead of spending three hours on one study session, I should stick to short one-hour study sessions. That way I will feel like I am accomplishing something. So I try not to get down on myself for not getting in several hours at a time. I have a family so it’s difficult to completely stop doing certain things.

With the exam covering so much information, it’s important to learn something about every topic, rather than trying to know everything about a few topics. Sometimes, so much information is overwhelming. However, I’m still reading and doing multiple-choice questions daily. Even if I only get to answer a few questions, it helps prepare me for the test. If I go too many days without studying, I forget what I studied 3-4 days ago, so reviewing every day keeps me on point.

When reviewing the audit information, you notice that the multiple-choice questions are a word game. I’m testing well in Internal Control, Engagement Responsibilities, and Professional Responsibilities. For Risk Assessment and Responses to Assess Risks, I’m not testing well. I’m about average when reviewing Evidence and Reports. I’ll keep on doing more questions regarding risk assessment and assessed risks. I’m still learning information for evidence and reporting. While driving to work, I listen to the Gleim Audio reviews. When I get to work, I write down a few key concepts. Time in the car is quiet time and easy for me to focus.

 

The Waiting Begins

October 4, 2012, by No comments yet

 

Written By Guest Blogger Kathy R.

I took the CPA Audit Exam on Sunday August 26 and was so relieved when I completed my last testlet. I walked out of the testing room in a complete fog. I was psychically and mentally exhausted! On my way home I stopped by Whole Foods and picked up two crab cakes for dinner. Once I arrived home, I started dinner and took a shower to relax. The remainder of the evening was watching mindless TV to attempt to get my mind off the exam.

Going into the exam, I felt totally prepared due to my multiple-choice scores consistently being in the mid-eighties and I felt I had a good understanding of the material. The first testlet required a lot of reasoning skills to determine the correct answer. The second and third testlets were a lot easier. The fourth testlet (simulations) was material I had not studied before. It’s very hard to try to predict your scores, so all I can do is wait for the dreaded email from NASBA.

I am taking a week to two weeks off from studying to rejuvenate my brain cells. I will also attempt to catch up on personal things that I had pushed aside in the last couple weeks before I took the Audit Exam.

Going forward, I am unsure of what section to take next. I need to review the subject content in each of the three remaining sections and try to determine which of them will be the easiest to take and pass in November.

 

Making Adjustments To CPA Study Plan

September 30, 2012, by No comments yet

 

Studying and working a full-time job simultaneously is an art. You always have to make adjustments and realize when you need to spend more time studying or reviewing. After my vacation, life has been busy. Between trying to catch up on projects and email, studying took a back seat for a couple of days. Getting through each study unit is an accomplishment and it gets me closer to sitting for the exam.

I recently completed 40% of my Gleim review. I continue to make small goals for myself to keep moving forward. I continue to eliminate distractions by studying away from home as much as possible. I also started keeping track of my study time to keep me accountable. Based on the comments of others, I should spend at least 120 hours studying for the AUD exam.

When I need a break from reading, I’ll use the Gleim software to review questions. Gleim software gives you two options to choose from, a study option or a test option. When I want to learn, I use the study option and pick a specific topic to review. I also like how the Gleim software gives you the choice to review questions you’ve never seen, questions you’ve never answered, questions you’ve never answered correctly, or all of the available questions. This is a great opportunity to focus on weak areas. The interface is very user friendly and it’s easy to understand my performance from reviewing reports. Using the software reassures me that, if I study everything, there will be no surprises on exam day. I will continue using to Gleim test prep software up until I sit for the exam.

 

Keep studying and studying and studying!