Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Impatience Strikes

8 days remaining (adjusted to final test date - saved 9 days over October 2009 estimate)
Mood - Annoyed
Study Time – 3.0 hours (385.5 total - FAR: 105.5 - BEC: 74.5 - REG: 118.0 - AUD: 89.5)
Scores:  AUD-94, REG-97, BEC-93

I must have lost focus or something tonight.  My impatience cost me about 5% on my score easily.  I lost another 5% to very minor or RTCDQ issues.  I skimmed the FAR-6 materials (Pensions).  I then took a quick quiz of 10 questions and got 80%.  I then did a progress test that included every section except FAR-7 (that is tomorrow night's reading/review).  I got 70 out of the 87 questions (80%).  While that isn't horrible, I've done much better the last couple of nights and expected better from myself.  In reviewing the progress test, most of what I missed were very stupid things that I should have caught.  I could tell my overall focus was off tonight, so I'm hoping for a rebound tomorrow night.  Not horrible, but not what I wanted to get tonight.
On a side note, I really haven't looked at any of the ratios in the book yet.  I know I've had 2-3 questions on ratios from my other exams, but nothing too difficult.  I'm debating on how much time, if any, to put into it.  They aren't really difficult and I'll have the spare time to do it, I just really don't want to.  I'll look at it next week closer to the exam.

5 comments:

  1. Hey! I am on lecture 5. The material is killing me. Am I the only one not understanding the material (BONDS)?? Will it start to come together after doing the homework problems?? As of now, it is sucking out my energy.

    Hang in there, you are almost there!

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  2. I am actually on BEC, I am done with all of my dvd's, which I worked the required questions for each chapter, after I finished watching each DVD.

    Now, I am on to review. I am starting with the first chapter, and reading my notes, then working all problems for each chapter, then repeating through the entire book.

    Once this is done, I planned on starting answering questions from the software until doomsday.

    Also, I have made a formula sheet with every formula from the book, I thought I would rewrite this until they were etched in my brain.

    Does this sound like a good plan of attack?

    Or should I work the software in, while doing book questions.

    Your insight is appreciated, I am yet to pass one and still trying to figure out what method works.

    Thanks

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  3. I typically do the homework software after each live lecture. For BEC I was having trouble with BEC-3 & BEC-5. I finally went back on those and watched one topic in a lecture then stopped and did the software homework for that topic before moving on to the next bit. It was very helpful for nailing down the topics in those two lectures.

    I had a 2 page cheat sheet for BEC that I studied off of for my last two days covering some of the major items. I actually scanned it in and you can download it. It got scanned in backwards, but you can download it and then just rotate it within adobe. It can be found at http://www.dalesines.com/cpa-exam/BEC.pdf .

    BEC was the first section that scared me. This was one top of my expectation of it being the easiest. I spent almost all of my study time solely on BEC-3 & BEC-5. The lectures don't really cover the Direct Materials and Labor Variances well. The PURE and DA-DS passkeys are almost ignored in the lecture. Using that bit though got me through a half dozen very easy questions. I have it drawn out how I figured it out and used it on the bottom left of page 2 on my cheat sheet. It was really easy, but it took me a bit to figure out what they were trying to do.

    Good luck with BEC. If you have any questions or would like to know how I studied a specific topic shoot me an email (link on right column of blog).

    Doing the homework at least after each full lecture is important. Too many times through this exam I've seen topics covered that I thought I understood only to be humbled by the questions. Working the homework questions is part of the learning process and should probably be done as you work through the lectures rather than at the end.

    That being said, if what you are doing is working for you don't stop. I know some that have to do the topic, homework, topic homework cycle through everything. I've typically done it lecture, then homework, lecture, homework and that has mostly worked for me. I saw someone on Antoher71.com that did FAR in sets of three (FAR1-3 then homework, FAR4-6 then homework).

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  4. I am back to studying for BEC as well. Thanks for the ratio cheat-sheet. I'm studying each section and will continue to do over and over until I'm in the 90% range. Only then will I move away, but come back weekly for refresher. Hope this works.

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  5. Progress tests are a great way to make sure you stay current on stuff you've already done without taking loads of time. I'm glad to hear my badly written sheet might do some good for others.

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