In this SuperfastCPA podcast interview, you’ll hear how Christina went from struggling for years with the CPA, to passing all 4 in 6 months, and it came down to mastering her mindset.
IMPORTANT LINKS:
Master your study process by attending one of our free study training workshops:
https://www.superfastcpa.com/study-secrets/
Episode Timestamps
- 00:00 Intro
- 02:50 Why Christina Decided to Take Accounting and Pursue Her CPA
- 03:54 The Trap Christina Fell Into, Studying for the CPA Exams the First Time
- 05:24 Had to Stop Study Due to a Tragedy and Never Finding Time to Study
- 07:25 Failed Audit Multiple Times, Finding SuperfastCPA
- 09:22 Changing Her Habits and Mindset
- 11:34 Christina’s Study Routine
- 13:47 Helping Out with Long Term Retention
- 17:55 Saving the Flashcards for the Weekend and Committing to a Routine
- 20:17 Passing All Four on First Try After Studying with SuperfastCPA
- 22:12 Found BEC to be the Most Difficult
- 23:02 Didn’t Need to Retake REG, Ended Up Getting a Higher Score
- 23:41 Felt Relieved to Passed All Four Before the End of the Year
- 24:50 Rewarding Herself with a Drink After Finishing the CPA Exams
- 25:23 Started to Get Back Into Running Again
- 28:22 Keeping the Study Routine Enabled Christina Free Time
- 29:59 Listening to SuperfastCPA Podcasts to Pick Up Tips
- 30:45 Conditioned Herself to Wake Up Early for Four Months
- 32:34 Christina Made Sure She is Well Rested for Her Morning Study
- 33:32 Having a Unique Alarm Clock to Wake You Up Helps
- 34:51 Christine Did a Lot of Work on Forming New Habits
- 38:04 Flashcards and Final Review Study Process
- 40:33 Test Day Tips She Got from the Podcasts
- 43:26 Top Tips for People Still Struggling with their Study Process
Interview Transcript
Christina: [00:00:00] The mindset stuff is interwoven throughout all of your material and every interview, you know, you have to get your mindset right. And that was the big missing piece for me over and above technique. So that really helped, and then the audio notes were a big deal for me because, you absorb that whether you realize it or not if you just listen to it over and over again. , yeah, those were the biggest things that made a difference in teaching me how to study and not just, you know, what to study is the biggest deal that changed it for me.
Christina: Welcome to another episode of the CPA Exam Experience podcast from SuperfastCPA. I’m Nate, and in today’s interview, you’re going to hear us talk with Christina.
So we’ve talked about mindset type stuff before in some of the other interviews, but there is a lot of unique things in this interview with Christina that we’ve never really covered before, and [00:01:00] I’ll leave it up to Christina to kind of tell her own story. But, if you are taking these exams later in life, meaning you’ve been out of school for a few years or even more than a few years, you’re going to find this interview extremely helpful.
And this is something that I know for a fact a lot of people out there need to hear this. There’s this gap between wanting to study and pass these exams, and then the realities of, you know, life when you’re 25 or 30 years old there is this thing that you have to figure out in between those two to make the passing and the studying every day even possible. And that is kind of what Christina talks a lot about which we’ve never talked much about on any of these other interviews.
So before we get into the interview, I just got to mention our free study training webinar. These webinars are an hour long. And it’s one hour that you can invest for free that will literally save you months and months of time and frustration from trying to figure this stuff out on your own through trial and error. [00:02:00] The main idea behind these webinars is that there are five or six key strategies that if you make all five or six of these things part of your daily and weekly process, it is honestly hard to go wrong.
And unfortunately, with the traditional way of studying for the CPA exams, there’s pretty much zero of these core things as part of that process. So you’ll find this webinar extremely helpful.
And if you’re wondering where to start with SuperfastCPA or with the study process in general for that matter, This webinar will answer all those questions for you. So, the link to those trainings will be down in the description of this video or the podcast episode description.
And with that out of the way, let’s get into the interview with Christina.
Christina: Do you, have you listened to any of these other interviews? You kind of know how these go.
Yes, I think I’ve listened to almost all of them,
Nate: yeah, it’ll be, uh, like that basically.
Why Christina Decided to Take Accounting and Pursue Her CPA
Nate: So yeah, let’s just go back to the beginning for you. Like what got you into accounting originally and, and then what made you decide you wanted to do the CPA?
Christina: Well, [00:03:00] I pretty much knew from my first accounting class in high school that that’s what I wanted to do. I didn’t necessarily know about the CPA license, you know, back then, but I’ve always worked in some kind of bookkeeping. Um, and then I, I did get an associate degree in accounting way back early 2000s.
Um, and then I went back to school around 2010 to finish my 150 hours to sit for the exam. Um, at that time I was single parent with three kids and you know, just knew that that was my best option for being able to support them, is finishing my degree. So I, I started to take the exam in 2014, um, and then didn’t pass audit and BEC and kind of just gave up for a few years after that.
Nate: Okay. So yeah, let’s, let’s kind of start there.
The Trap Christina Fell Into, Studying for the CPA Exams the First Time
Nate: So what were you doing to study then? And like looking back, what do you feel like wasn’t [00:04:00] working, you know, about that, those attempts in 2014?
Christina: Well, the first thing is I wasn’t very disciplined. I had gotten used to, you know, doing school online and, you know, I could cram and pass exams at the last minute, um, because I had to.
Logan: Yeah.
Christina: And then my boss purchased Wiley for me. And I, you know, being a good accountant, I wanted to check all the boxes that I had accomplished that lesson for the day.
Um, so in the beginning, that was the trap I fell into. I didn’t really know that there were other ways to study for it when I first started trying to pass it again. And I did not retain what I was learning.
Nate: Yeah, so, uh, I think, actually, I think we were probably studying around the same time because I passed in 2013, 2014, but anyway, and I was using Wiley,
Christina: yeah.
Nate: But my dashboard was like a, a train wreck because I didn’t care about getting it all green or 100%. Um, [00:05:00] anyways.
Christina: Yeah.
Nate: So, yeah, that’s a very common thing to hear, whether it’s like Wiley or Surgent or Becker, you know, I get why the review courses have that dashboard and your progress tracker built in,
Christina: Right.
Nate: But it’s just, it’s very, uh, arbitrary, you know, you could press play on the video, walk away and not even watch it and come back
Christina: Right.
Nate: Check out that you, you know, got this percentage, anyway.
Had to Stop Study Due to a Tragedy and Never Finding Time to Study
Nate: So, okay. So that’s 2014. Um, so you took two exams and failed them and then, what happened then? You just decided this isn’t the time for me or what, uh, what caused the gap in studying?
Christina: The, the gap was really several years of some pretty intense life events that happened. We lost several people that we were close to. Um, two of them were in a very violent, unexpected way. So I, I had a lot of grief. My kids had a lot of grief that we were dealing with, which caused a lot of my autoimmune [00:06:00] issues to flare up.
I was still working full time for accounting firms, you know, during that whole period. And you know, I would switch jobs because they would say, well, we’ll give you time to study at work. And immediately my schedule would fill up with, you know, client work, and I just could not study at work because of the workload.
So I just never could figure out a way to study at home that was efficient and effective. Um, So I, I really just gave up and worked, got, got some help for the grief and started working on my health issues because I knew that I couldn’t commit to the CPA exam the way I needed to until I was past that.
So around 2019 is when I started feeling like, okay, maybe I could do this again.
Logan: Yeah.
Nate: I mean, stuff like that, you know, the CPA pretty quickly is not that important, you know.
Christina: Right.
Nate: So.
Logan: And that kind of shows. And, and, and I do think that’s an important thing to talk [00:07:00] about, you know, maybe we don’t talk about it very much on the podcast, uh, as far as like, cause you know, we’re always like, go, go, go, you got to do it no matter.
Christina: Right.
Logan: But there are definitely things that happen in life that are just a really big deal.
Christina: Right.
Logan: And it is important to be in a place where you can, where you can dedicate to the CPA exam. And if you’re not quite in a place
Christina: Right.
Logan: To do that, then that’s understandable, you know, so I think that’s an important note that you have there.
Failed Audit Multiple Times, Finding SuperfastCPA
Logan: So around 2019, you get there, like you, you’re like, I, I think I can kind of get into this. Did you discover SuperfastCPA around then, or what was, what was your journey from then on?
From 2019 until, you know, until now?
Christina: Well, let me look at my notes here. Um, in November of 2020, I passed REG, which I work in tax a lot so, you know, I think I just had enough base knowledge of REG to, to pass it doing it the old way. And then in November, I took audit again and got a 72 and it was [00:08:00] at that point that I was like, okay, this is not going to work because I failed audit twice at that point.
Once in 2014, and then that year, so I think I started, you know, doing what most people do, searching up YouTube videos on how do I study better, um, and came across your channel, um, and I did listen to the webinar but then COVID happened. So that, that kind of derailed my studying because we were, I work in a very small firm and we just had so much work that year.
Um, I, I think a lot of accountants experienced an increase in their workload, you know, in 2020 and 2021, especially. So in November of that year, I, I knew about your method, but I really didn’t apply it the way I should. Um, I was just kind of halfway doing your method and then going back and forth to my old way of studying, which was, you know, trying to go [00:09:00] through the whole module.
And I failed audit again with a 74. So that was very discouraging. Um, and then I had a grandson that was born in December of that year. So I took a whole year off of just, okay, I need to spend some time with my family and, you know, really connect with my grandson and got through tax season.
Changing Her Habits and Mindset
Christina: Um, and then I also found atomic habits around that time.
It seems like you base a lot of your methods off of, that book was life changing. Um, cause I really started working on my mindset because before that I, I wanted the CPA license, but I resented having to study. You know, I looked at it like this is a chore, this is something I, you know, I don’t want to do this, but I have to.
So I did a lot of work on changing my habits, changing my mindset to this is something I get to do. I’m excited about studying, you know, I can do it. I’m going to make the time and set up my life [00:10:00] to be able to do it. So really, the end of 2022 is when I started doing a lot of that work as far as mindset.
Um, and then 2023 during that tax season, I was working on a plan. Um, and then at the end of tax season, I, I took a trip to go see family and June 1st, I started studying. Um, that whole tax season, I decided I’m going to get up at four o’clock because studying at home does not work for me. I, I have a little bit of ADD.
It’s too distracting at home. So, I got up at 4 o’clock every morning, got to work, and the first two hours of my day before anybody even got to the office, that’s when I would study. Um, so, that’s how I started getting back into taking the exams in 23.
Logan: That, that’s ex, that’s exactly what I had to do. Um, I was diagnosed with ADHD 2022, the end of 2022. Um, [00:11:00] and, I started learning a lot more about like, Oh, is this is how I really learned and things like that
Christina: Right.
Logan: And I had to do the same thing where I had to go into work and at work, cause I just couldn’t do it at home.
Christina: Yeah.
Logan: Gonna get distracted by my kids or by my wife or homework or something, but
Christina: Right.
Logan: Being able to go into that quiet office space ’cause I had a key, you know, maybe not, not everybody has a key to their office, but
Christina: Right.
Logan: I had a key so I could just go in. So that’s, that’s awesome that you were able to do that. So you were there before anybody showed up were already done with your studying for the day you even started work, so that’s awesome.
Christina: Right.
Christina’s Study Routine
Christina: I was, I was gonna say, um, I, I have about a 45 minute commute to work, so I would, I also used i-75’s videos when I started back in 23 because I, I could understand the way he explained it, made sense to me, um, and the Wiley videos I just would check out. I could not get through a whole video. My brain would be thinking about something else.
So my strategy [00:12:00] was, on the way to work, I would listen to whatever that day’s videos were. Before I even started the exam, I would sit down and do a spreadsheet of, this is how many questions are in the test bank. This is how many questions I need to go through in each day to get to, to have, to be done with the test bank a week before the exam.
So that was kind of how I did it as I figured out how many questions I needed to complete in a day. And then I would listen to that new section videos, you know, I would just play them in the background on my way to work. Um, and then I would do the re-review questions, 30 question quiz First thing when I got to work and then I would do the questions for the new section. Sometimes I would do sims, but not always. Every once in a while, I would throw a few in there, but the sims were just overwhelming to me, so I just stuck with the test bank questions, and I would filter it to only give me the ones I hadn’t answered before, because that had been a real problem before, is I [00:13:00] would just memorize the answers, because they would keep showing me the same questions
Logan: Mm-hmm
Christina: Over and over again, so I filtered it to not show me any of the questions I had already answered, and that really was effective, I think, for me.
And then on my way home, I would listen to your audio notes. Um, and I would listen to those throughout the day too. I would just let it play over and over again. Sometimes I would be listening. Sometimes I wouldn’t, but it would just be playing. Um, or I was mowing the yard outside or doing other things, doing dishes.
I would have my earbuds in and I just have your notes playing in the background the whole time. Um, and I would do the mini quizzes. Every once in a while, I’d maybe do three or four of those during the day, just any time I thought.
Helping Out with Long Term Retention
Logan: I just wanted to clarify. So when you found SuperfastCPA, you did watch the webinar. At what point did you decide to purchase? What did you purchase? Did you purchase the PRO course and the Study Bundle? I’m assuming you purchased the Study [00:14:00] Bundle because you had the audio notes but, so did you have the full bundle?
Christina: I just had the study bundle. I did not do the PRO, um, and actually I had purchased FAR in like 2021. And just, I never sat for that exam. I paid for it and, you know, that was around the time that my grandson was born and it just didn’t work out. But when I started back in 23, I purchased the other three modules, the study bundles for all three at that time, so.
Logan: And then, and then from there that’s what you were then you were talking about the mini quizzes. You were using the audio notes, and how did you use the mini quizzes?
Christina: If I was tempted to get on social media. I would just do a quiz first, um, and I deleted the all games, everything off of my phone, um, so they were still on my phone, I could find them, but it took like three more steps to get to it, so I took them off of my main page to make it harder, that’s another Atomic Habits, uh, [00:15:00] method that really works because you’re just so used to clicking on games or whatever when you’re sitting,
Nate: Yeah, introducing friction into things you want to like do less or removing friction from the things you want to, you know,
Christina: Right.
Nate: Yeah.
Christina: Yeah. Or if we went somewhere in the car and I was with my family, I would pull out my phone and do a few quizzes on the drive there, you know. So that’s really the only thing I use the quizzes for. So I maybe did three or four a day.
Nate: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, but even that, um, know, it just, it’s like each time throughout the day that you kind of run this stuff across your brain, it’s just much more impactful than one study session in the morning. And then you don’t look at CPA stuff again until the next day,
Christina: Right.
Nate: Just makes a big difference. It’s that whole retrieval learning uh, what do they call it? Like spaced repetition.
Christina: Right.
One thing about ADHD is my short term memory. It takes a lot of work to get information from my short term [00:16:00] memory to long term. So all of the things that we’ve discussed in your method really helps to get past that barrier of moving from short term knowledge to long term. So that’s, that was the big game changer for me was all of those different methods really helped with that.
Nate: Uh, do you mean like the re-review and then just the mini sessions kind of just using audios
Christina: Yes.
Nate: Or quizzes throughout the day? Is that what you’re talking about?
Christina: Yes. Just exposing yourself to it over and over again.
Nate: Yeah. I mean, it’s hard to go wrong, whether you have ADHD or not. I think that’s just, just makes sense, right? Like instead of
Christina: Right.
Nate: Seeing each topic twice, the traditional method, um, running it through your head 50, 100 times through your study window is just, obviously going to work better.
Christina: Right.
Nate: So, okay. When you started going to your office two hours in the morning, that’s when things really took off, I’m guessing? The consistency behind, you know, the strategies.
Christina: Yes, [00:17:00] and I’ve, I’ve got up at four o’clock every single morning, whether it was the weekend or not. That was really important for me to be
Logan: Mm-hmm
Christina: 100 percent consistent every single day, um, which there were a few times I didn’t get a full two hours of study in, but almost every day I would do the same thing every day.
Nate: Yeah. just solves a lot of problems. Just then you don’t have to fight yourself about, well, today I’ll study tonight because of this and, as soon as you start introducing all these decisions about how you’re going to, again, an atomic habits thing, you,
Christina: Right,
Nate: when you have to make decisions based on taking the steps towards like a goal, it just gets less and less likely. Um, so. I guess you described what the 2 hours consisted of, you would do the, the 30 re-review questions 1st, then kind of the planting seeds or the, uh, like, your new questions for the day on the new topic.
Saving the Flashcards for the Weekend and Committing to a Routine
Nate: What did you do about like flashcards or, you know, [00:18:00] things you repeatedly missed or found, like topics you found difficult?
How did you deal with those differently?
Christina: I normally save the flashcards for the weekends. Um, I would kind of have an idea of what I was struggling with by the end of the week. And then part, I would study about four hours on Saturday and Sunday. Um, and that’s when I would sit down and make flashcards of, you know, formulas and things like that.
But I was just having a hard time getting it to stick in my head. Um, and I would try to read your, I printed out the notes. And I would try to read those on the weekend, too, just all the way through. So those were really the only two things I did different on the weekends.
Nate: Okay.
Christina: What I found is once I got in the habit of getting up at the same time every day and getting into the habit of studying during the week, it wasn’t as hard to study from home on the weekends because that was just my routine.
Logan: Mm
Nate: Okay.
Christina: So it became easier to study from home once I got started.
Nate: [00:19:00] Yeah. Yeah. I, the consistency is, uh, I mean, it’s, it’s, I dunno, it sounds obvious or everyone’s like, yeah, I know I should study every day or at the same time, but that’s probably like the number one thing that people don’t do is and just that
Christina: Right.
Nate: the, I don’t know, the easiest thing to solve really, you just, you got to commit to the same time, same place or whatever, same, just the same routine every day.
Christina: Right.
Nate: And then the strategies, conversely, the strategies don’t matter at all. If you’re not making
Christina: Right.
Nate: The time to study every day. I mean, it doesn’t matter what good ideas you have about studying. if you’re not just making the time every day.
Christina: Right, the consistency was the game changer. I mean, the methods, yeah, you can tweak those, but if you’re not sitting down every single day to do something, and there were days that I had a lot of things going on that I might have only gotten one 30 question quiz in, you know, but I still did something, [00:20:00] even if I couldn’t do the full day that I had planned, and I would still, no matter what was going on, I would still listen to the audios, I do the mini quizzes, you know, those days, but that wasn’t very many handful of days that I, you know, didn’t do the full two hours.
Nate: Mm hmm.
Passing All Four on First Try After Studying with SuperfastCPA
Nate: Uh, so, okay, so you start going into work at 4 a. m. to study. Did you lose your REG, your pass, your REG passing score, or how did, like, what happened after you committed to the two hours? You just started passing exams?
Christina: Yeah, when I went back in 23, I passed all four the first time. Um, and I, I started with audit because that was the one that kept, you know, stopping my progress. Um, and yes, I did lose my REG credit, um, in between, and then I took REG after, well, I guess I took audit first, and I got an 85 that time, which was amazing to me after getting a 72 and a 74, um.
Logan: [00:21:00] Mm-hmm.
Christina: It kind of gave me some confidence, um, and the other thing I did different for audit, because I’d taken it so many times, I did not watch the videos, or, you know, I did listen to the audio notes, but I went straight to the test bank and I only gave myself like 27 days. So all I did was,
Nate: Okay.
Christina: You know, test bank over and over and over again. And then at the end, I tried to get through all the questions that I missed, you know, along with taking notes and flashcards and all of that. But I just totally skipped the videos for, for that and just kept reading the notes over and over again.
Um, And I did quite a few sims for audit because I felt like that’s what kept making the difference is I just couldn’t do well enough on the sims to pass. So I was very happy with my score once I started using your method.
Nate: Yeah, that’s, yeah, yeah, from a few fails to an 85 and then, like you said, that would just be the big [00:22:00] validation that okay, very motivating. I’m guessing, right?
Christina: Right. Yes.
Nate: I can keep doing this getting up at four because this is going to work.
Christina: It’s working.
Nate: For the other ones and they’ll finally get this done. Yeah.
Found BEC to be the Most Difficult
Christina: I took BEC next because that was the other one that I did not pass in 2014. Um, and that was probably the hardest one for me to study for because like everybody says, it’s all random topics that don’t seem very connected. Wasn’t really interested in economics in college. You know, um, I was, it, it was a struggle to sit down and study for that every day.
Um, I really didn’t know how I would do, but I think I, I may have gotten lucky on the sims. On that one they just happened to be ones that I knew better. Um, but I got a 76 on that one and I was thrilled to have that 76 because It meant I didn’t have to take that one again um
Logan: Yes.
Christina: Yeah
Logan: Yeah, I had, I got a 75 on [00:23:00] BEC and it was like, Oh, that was so close.
Didn’t Need to Retake REG, Ended Up Getting a Higher Score
Christina: Yes. Well by then I had lost my REG credit so I took REG next and I I didn’t give myself very much time on that again because I, I do that every day so I felt pretty confident going into REG. Um, took the exam and then found out that my state was extending the credit, so I really didn’t even have to retake REG, if I would have just waited, but I had already
Logan: That’s brutal.
Christina: Paid for it. Yeah, but I ended up, the first time I had a 78 and the second time I got an 89 on it, so, um, I just, I didn’t get too sidetracked with it, I thought, you know what, I could get upset but, that’s not even the point. I’ll just keep going.
Felt Relieved to Passed All Four Before the End of the Year
Christina: Um, and pretty much immediately started studying for FAR. That exam seemed intimidating to me just because of the volume of information.
So I did give myself a little longer on that one. I think I studied for nine weeks. Um, and sat for that one in [00:24:00] December and then found out on the 27th that I passed that one. Um, I think I got an 84 on FAR, so that was a good Christmas present.
Nate: Yeah.
Christina: So it took me about six months once I started using your method.
Nate: That’s awesome. After. Yeah. And so, I mean, I mean, I know what you’re going to say, and it’s just the biggest relief ever, but what did it feel like to, after that, you know, a long period ups and downs, just finding out you had passed all four. I mean, just how did that feel,
Christina: Such a relief.
Nate: At that point?
Christina: It was life changing. I think I was on a high for several weeks after that. It felt so much better going into tax season and not having that dread of, well, here we go again, another year, I haven’t passed the exam. And, you know, it was definitely like a weight had lifted off.
Nate: Yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome.
Rewarding Herself with a Drink After Finishing the CPA Exams
Nate: Um, did you, uh, I don’t know, did you go on a trip or reward yourself with anything?
Christina: Not really, um, we just had a lot going on, haven’t been able to [00:25:00] take trips. I did make my husband take me out and get a margarita after I passed. That was really the only thing I splurged on. But,
Nate: Best margarita ever just with that feeling of
Christina: It was,
Nate: You know, of being done. And then, yeah, just,
Christina: Yeah, I’m a pretty conservative person. I don’t normally do that. So I was like, I have earned this drink. But that was about the only thing we’ve done so far.
Started to Get Back Into Running Again
Christina: I would like to take a big trip at some point, um, but really the only other thing I’ve done since then is I started running again. So I’m training for a half marathon. That’s the first one I’ve done in probably 10 years because, you know, I just felt like if I can’t study for the exam, I probably shouldn’t do other, other things.
So I’ve kind of gotten back into running this summer. That’s been fun.
Nate: Yeah. I mean, that’s, we, we hear that kind of that idea a lot.
And I was going to ask, uh, once you built that habit of 4 AM, just, I don’t know, did [00:26:00] you do anything like to, you probably don’t still get up at 4 AM, but I’m guessing do you run in the mornings now?
Christina: Yeah,
Nate: You train?
Christina: Well, I, yes, and I, I think my body reset itself, so I don’t even have to set an alarm now, and I, I just wake up at four o’clock every day now, so I don’t know if that will change, but it makes it easier to, to get up and do other things, um, which is really great for your health, you know, to be able to get up and go work out first thing in the morning, so yeah, that, that habit has carried over, and you know, I plan to continue to do new things and use that time to learn and take care of myself.
Nate: Yeah, and that’s I mean, again, just having the exams out of the way. Um, I don’t know, you can just do something like that or just that there, you know, you’re, you just don’t have to study anymore. But it was this thing that you did for months. And, uh, yeah, like I said, we hear that a lot. Just someone, they finally, they [00:27:00] get to the point with studying that they’re like, okay. I’ve just got to get up early, do this every day, just commit to the routine. And then once they passed, they, they keep that routine. And I don’t know, we’ve heard lots of things. Someone still gets up to like, learn a new language or, uh, that’s when they work out now or just all kinds of stuff. And it’s,
Christina: Yes.
Nate: Yeah, it’s just, I mean, it’s a good thing, obviously.
Christina: That, that’s the main thing I was lacking before is discipline. I, I just could not be consistent and stick with anything, really. Um, so the CPA exam really helped me with becoming more disciplined as a person, you know, and keeping those commitments to yourself because that’s not, that’s the worst feeling is when you say I’m going to study today and then you don’t over time that just is really discouraging to yourself that you’re not keeping that commitment to yourself to do it.
So yeah, that carries over into a lot of different areas in [00:28:00] life.
Nate: it does. That’s, uh, another one of my favorites, the seven habits of highly effective people. Um, he, he talks about that. If keeping promises to yourself is just like the difference in really productive people and, you know, the opposite.
Christina: Right. Okay.
Nate: Um, I had a question in there. Let’s see. Logan, you got any questions?
Keeping the Study Routine Enabled Christina Free Time
Logan: Um, I was going to ask kind of along the lines of, and maybe, maybe you didn’t, weren’t able to do too much else because it was all you could do just to study in the morning and then you had work and all your other responsibilities was there. What did having this consistency allow you to do or have in your life that you weren’t able to do before,
Christina: Well, as long as I got my study,
Logan: Like after work and stuff like that?
Christina: Right. Um, I really didn’t change much in the evenings. I got my studying done. And as long as I was done, if I had something I needed to do, I just did it. You know, whether [00:29:00] it was, you know, running errands or hanging out with people. Um, I didn’t feel guilty if I, you know, didn’t study at night because I knew I already had everything that I had committed to do done during the day. That was the big difference from before I would study every second.
Logan: Did your family notice a difference?
Christina: Yeah. Um, now there was a little bit of a difference because two of my kids were out of the house when I started studying again. So, um,
Logan: That probably made it a little easier too.
Christina: It made it a little bit easier. Yeah. But you know, he’s, my son was a senior, so there was a lot of activities and things like that that I don’t even know that they really noticed studying that much because I pretty much had it done in the mornings.
So other than telling them, yeah, I have to study tomorrow. They, they really didn’t notice me sitting there the whole time studying until it got down to the week before the test. And then I would, I would study it every second I could that last week.
Listening to SuperfastCPA Podcasts to Pick Up Tips
Nate: Um, [00:30:00] you mentioned you’ve listened to almost all these podcasts. Like, when did you, when did you listen to those?
Christina: That’s what I would do in the evenings. A lot of times. Because my brain was just ready to shut off. I couldn’t study anymore. I didn’t want to get into the habit of, like, watching TV every night. Or, you know, I wanted to keep those kind of things to a minimum. So if I just couldn’t take any more information in, I would go and listen to podcasts.
And it was just very encouraging. And you pick up little things here and there that people have done that was very helpful, um, but mostly just to stay motivated. And I would just do that, you know, a few evenings a week once my brain was full.
Nate: Gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense. okay.
Conditioned Herself to Wake Up Early for Four Months
Nate: So I remember my question. So when you started getting up at 4 A.M., how long was it? Like how long was it a huge struggle to just force yourself to get up at 4 A.M. and then to [00:31:00] where you just got used to it. Was that like two weeks, three weeks?
Christina: Probably two weeks, but I had started way before I started studying because that whole tax season, I, I decided I’m going to start this during tax season so that my body’s already used to doing this. So during tax season, I was doing that same thing. I would get to the office, You know two hours earlier than everyone else and I would have a lot of stuff done before anyone else have even got there.
So when it came time to start studying for the exam I didn’t want it to have to get past that habit formation. So I really did that for about four months before I started studying, you know, to get in the habit. And I think that really helped because I didn’t have to get past that hurdle of completely changing how I do everything. I kind of stepped into it.
Nate: Yeah.
Christina: But when I did start studying, it took a couple of weeks to get used to, okay, I’m here studying now, not working on tax returns or, you [00:32:00] know, client work that first two hours.
Nate: Um, I mean, so we just kind of get that question a lot. Well, not a lot, but a decent amount of people listen to our webinar. And like, how do you, I can’t even, like, I’m not a morning person. We hear that constantly. I’m not a morning person. And then from these podcasts, you know, we’ve had a lot of converts people that are like, well, I always thought I wasn’t a morning person until I just committed to, you know, studying early in the morning. And now kind of like you said, I love getting up early now, so anyways.
Christina Made Sure She is Well Rested for Her Morning Study
Nate: Did you, any specific things you did, like, did you aim to be in bed by, were you rigid about what time you went to bed? Or was it more just brute force, of what happened the night before, making sure you woke up at 4:00 AM
Christina: Um, I generally would try to be in bed by 9:30, um, I, I don’t sleep well normally anyway. So that was one of the things that I really tried to work on before I even started [00:33:00] back in 2023. I really worked on improving my sleep. Because you can’t answer complex questions if you’re fatigued and, you know, so I made sure I had good rest, um, even if it meant I went to bed at eight o’clock the night before because I was tired.
Um, I felt like it was more productive to stop the studying in the evening and go to bed, you know, sometimes you can’t do that if you have activities or things you need to do but generally I would try to be in bed by 9:30 at the latest.
Having a Unique Alarm Clock to Wake You Up Helps
Nate: And then just at four, you just a normal alarm. You didn’t do anything crazy like one of those alarm clocks that breaks into pieces and you have to put it together before it’ll stop.
Christina: No I did get one that
Nate: I’d recommended that to people.
Christina: That sounds fun, but no, I didn’t do that. Uh, I did get one that has a light on it that gradually wakes up. You know, it slowly starts increasing the light in your room. So I did get a alarm that does that. [00:34:00] And nine times out of ten, I’ll wake up just from the light coming on before the alarm ever goes off.
So that was really effective for me to switch to that kind of an alarm. Because if I just set it on my phone, I would hit snooze and over and over and over again and never get up so, and I moved the clock where I had to get up to turn it off. So that helped too Um, because I couldn’t just reach over and turn it off.
Nate: Yeah. Yeah. No, again, those are like, again, the atomic habits thing. Like if your goal is to get up, no matter what, those two little things you said, the light coming on. So your body’s kind of, you know, I’ve read, I’ve seen those alarm clocks and it starts and it like starts your whole whatever.
Logan: Circadian rhythms.
Nate: Yeah. Like your waking up process. then the fact that you have to stand up out of bed too. Touch your alarm. Just that alone is, yeah.
Christina: Right,
Christine Did a Lot of Work on Forming New Habits
Christina: Yeah, I, I really had to do a lot of mind work on how to form new habits and really not just read it because I’m really bad about, I’ll [00:35:00] read all the time, but I don’t absorb it and put it into action. So, you know, that whole year that I took off, you know, between 2020-21 and when I started thinking about it again in 23, I really did a lot of work on changing my habits. And I think that’s really what a lot of people struggle with.
Nate: Yeah, exactly. That’s, yeah, that’s what I was going to say. That’s just a really good, that’s a really good point in general that just working on your, like yourself to even be in a place to, cause what you described is pretty rigorous, you know, you work full time, everyone works full time and it’s, everyone’s tired just from working full time. So introducing this two hour thing in the morning on top of working. Um, yeah, you did all this work to just get yourself to a place where you could do that. And that’s, uh, that’s a really good point. I mean, that’s kind of like a prerequisite to really doing this the way that it needs to be done. Yeah.
Christina: Right.
Nate: [00:36:00] Yeah. I think that’ll be, this’ll be really good for a lot of people to, to hear. That’s really an angle that I don’t think on any other interview really talked about, but that’s. Yeah, that’s
Christina: Right.
Nate: really good info or just a really good insight. Yeah. You have to, you have to get yourself and your, I don’t know, baseline or discipline to a place where this is even possible.
Christina: Right, and it never was before because it was a nice idea, but it wasn’t my main focus. So, if you’re still in the place of, I’d like to do this, this would be nice, you know, you’re probably not going to be successful until you get to the point where you commit to it and this is my life for the next six months. and You know, make that the priority, not to the exclusion of your family or other
Logan: commitments,
Pretty much. Yeah.
Christina: You have to get yourself there where
Logan: That’s pretty much
Christina: That’s your focus.
Logan: Nate talks about.
Christina: Yeah. I’ve run a couple of marathons years ago, and it’s the same mindset. You [00:37:00] have to, it’s a commitment, and you have to follow through or you’re not going to get to the end.
Nate: Right.
Logan: Yeah. The, I mean, you pretty much just described one of the main points of the PRO course. And that’s pretty cool cause you didn’t even have the PRO course. Nate talks about in the PRO course, difference of want, like, just like, Oh yeah, I, I kind of want this like, or
Christina: Mm-hmm.
Logan: And being committed, like
Christina: Right.
Logan: I’m going to make this happen, going to do whatever it takes. There is a big difference in that mindset. So it’s pretty cool that you kind of figured that out on your own with that, even without the PRO course
Christina: Yeah.
Nate: Yeah. Yeah. The wishful thinking versus like the all in commitment. Just. Like you don’t have to study all day 24/7, but you make this like, you kind of just pin your day around making this happen. You know, when you go to bed, when you wake up the 2 hours in the morning, um, the mini sessions throughout the day.
And if you do that, you, you know, you’re free in the evenings, but you’ve nailed it for the day. [00:38:00] Yeah, it’s just that, uh, that routine.
Christina: Exactly.
Nate: Um, let’s see.
Flashcards and Final Review Study Process
Nate: So we kind of talked about your, did we talk about flashcards? We do the, we, a little bit.
Christina: I did make them along the way, but I really didn’t review flashcards. Um, and I, I do better with paper, things on paper. So, I did not do electronic flashcards. I hand wrote my cards. Um, but I really didn’t look at them again until the very end when I was starting to review for the exam.
Nate: Okay. And then your final review, you said you would just save a week. Is that what, how you did a final review?
Christina: Yeah, I tried to have all of the main studying done a week before and then I would take two or three days and, um, and I don’t know that I’ve heard of anybody else doing this, but like I would take your study notes and type it, retype it into a Word document in an outline form to where it was like,
Nate: Hmm.
Christina: You know, very [00:39:00] quick and easy to just get through the outline versus trying to read the entire notes.
So, I would type that up, and just by typing it up, it helps solidify the information that I’d already been re-reviewing the whole time, but sometimes I would see things and go, oh yeah, I forgot that, you know. Um, so I would do that to print out, to take with me to the exam, um, and then I would review my flashcards.
And then about 48 hours out, I would clear my schedule. So, I would try to take my test on a Monday so that I could have the whole weekend just to read my notes, take quizzes, you know, do sims, um, and I, the sims, I changed the way I did those too before I would sit down and try to answer all the questions.
And this time all I would do is go in and answer enough that it would let me see the answer. Cause I, I really wasn’t trying to answer them all, I just wanted to see what the answers were. So that I knew what they were looking for, [00:40:00] different types of sims.
Nate: Exactly.
Christina: Um, so I would just pull up all the sims and just start kind of going through them until I couldn’t stand to keep going anymore on the weekend.
You know, before, um, trying to think if there’s something else I would do. The flashcards I would go through, but I would just pull out, I would end up with about 50 to a hundred cards flashcards by the end. So I would go through them once and just pull out the ones that I thought, okay, this is one that I really still don’t have nailed down.
And I would take those flashcards with me
Nate: Yeah,
Christina: To the exam.
Test Day Tips She Got from the Podcasts
Christina: So my testing center was like a two hour drive. So I would schedule my exam at 10, like 10 in the morning because I knew my brain is pretty much done by 2 or 3 in the afternoon, so afternoon exams didn’t work for me. So I would schedule it at 10 and get up my same time, 4 o’clock, go through the audio notes, flashcards.
Um, and then I would listen to the audio notes on the way to the exam, and then I would [00:41:00] get there early so that I could, right before I went in, I would go through those flashcards one more time, flip through my outline. I almost never got all the way through it, but it was just, helped me not be so nervous if I just saw it one more time, and then I would go in to take the test.
So, that last 48 hours was pretty intense, but I already knew the information, I just wanted to make sure that I, you know, saw a little bit of everything before going in to take it.
Nate: This is funny because, uh, you didn’t have the PRO course, but you’re describing several things that are exactly from the, like from the PRO course. The, uh,
Christina: That’s funny.
Nate: Yeah, maybe,
Christina: Yeah.
Nate: The, the setting your
Christina: Yeah, I could have heard it.
Nate: you have the 48 hours,
Christina: Mm hmm.
Nate: Taking your flashcards with you, um, that last 48 hours, just really hitting your flashcards. All that stuff is, and then the way you described the sims, same thing, not to
Christina: Yeah.
Nate: Sit there and stare at sims on the front end, just submit them, see how they [00:42:00] work, like, make sense of it, kind of reverse engineer them.
Christina: Right.
Nate: Yeah, that’s funny.
Christina: Well, and the, the i-75 videos, he, it was basically like answering multiple choice questions in the videos because I think the thing that really helped me with, with those videos was he really taught you how to look at a question and figure out what they’re asking for. And that was very difficult for me before was, I don’t really know what they’re looking for.
So it really helped to be able to eliminate the wrong answers and get it down to one or two that could be the right answer. So by the time I got to the exam, I had just done a ton of questions. Just over, I didn’t get through all the test banks on all the tests, but I got a good chunk of the whole test bank done before each exam.
Nate: Yeah. And, uh, I mean, like you said, you just, you just get good at answering questions. That’s.
Christina: Right.
Nate: Might sound I don’t know, a weird idea to someone that’s just [00:43:00] starting to study, but learning the material, but you’re also trying to, you’re trying to get good at what you need to do on test day. It’s like, it’s really
Christina: Right.
Nate: A skill. It’s not just about your, your knowledge of the subject matter. Yeah.
Christina: Right. It’s figuring out what are they looking for in this question. Because they will ask you trick questions. And I think I got a lot better at figuring out the obvious wrong answers.
Nate: Yeah. All right.
Top Tips for People Still Struggling with their Study Process
Nate: So we, uh, I think we kind of went through everything and we’re almost at an hour. So, um, I guess the last thing we always ask is if it’s, even if it’s stuff we already covered, what would be your best three tips to someone who’s still trying to figure out their own study process?
Christina: Definitely the consistency. You’ve got to do something every day. And it’s better if you do it at the same time every day. Just because that’s how our brains work. Um, so be consistent, start with the questions first, and then if you, if you don’t understand it, then you can go to your [00:44:00] videos. And then the third thing is just to listen to the audio as many times as you can and read the notes.
Um, that’d be my top three probably.
Nate: Yeah. Yeah. Well, thanks, Christina. I’m glad you did the call. That was awesome to hear your story. And especially I like these kinds of stories the best where, you know, you had this period of really struggling and this almost to where, like, how can I do this, you know, and then, uh, it all happens really quickly. Once you just kind of get the process nailed down.
Christina: Yeah. Yeah.
So you had these years of ups and downs, and then once you got it dialed in, six months, you pass all four. That’s awesome. So congrats on being done.
Thank you.
Nate: Yeah. All right.
So that was the interview with Christina. Like I said in the beginning, there was a bunch of things, not really about the mindset stuff but, like I said, there’s this series of things that’s going to have to happen between the reality of how busy life gets [00:45:00] and the ideal situation where you can sit down and study effectively every day. There’s this gap in between. And that’s what Christina talked about and had so many good ideas and insights on.
So if you found this episode helpful, take a second to share it with someone you know, who’s working on their CPA exams. These interviews collectively are the best, most helpful, free resource available anywhere for trying to put together your own effective CPA study process.
So thanks for watching or listening and we’ll see you on the next episode.
