In this SuperfastCPA podcast interview, you’ll hear how Josh woke up one day, and decided it was time to just finish his CPA once and for all. After that, he put in the time and created a daily routine that led to him passing all 4 CPA exams in 6 months.
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Episode Timestamps
- 00:00 Intro
- 02:51 Josh’s CPA Journey
- 04:53 Finding SuperfastCPA
- 06:27 Why the Farming Analogy Made Sense for Josh
- 08:15 How Josh Realized He Was Studying Wrong
- 09:35 The Difference of the Questions First Approach
- 11:36 Did 36,000 questions over 6 months
- 12:31 Josh’s Daily Study Routine
- 13:59 CPA Exams Timeline
- 17:02 How He Knew that the Questions First Approach is Working
- 18:52 Time Management is Important on Test Day
- 20:59 Dealing with Difficult Topics
- 22:32 How Josh Approached Sims and Weekend Study
- 24:11 Josh Knew Where to Improve on His Retakes
- 26:16 Utilizing the SuperfastCPA Study Tools
- 27:32 Felt Guilty About Teaching Goals to His Children, Josh’s Motivation and Why
- 30:07 Wrote Motivational Quotes 5 Minutes Before the CPA Exam Starts
- 30:34 Took A Bit of Time to Re-Verify to Be Able to Take the Exams Again
- 31:48 Fasting Before the Exams, Josh’s Routine Before and On Test Day
- 35:25 How Josh Used the SuperfastCPA Audio Notes
- 37:35 Just Stuck to the Same Simple Process of Questions First
- 39:32 The Time it Took for the Strategies to Click
- 41:41 Top Tips for People Still Struggling with their Study Process
Interview Transcript
Josh Bell: [00:00:00] It was always in the back of my mind. Like, this was out there and I felt kind of guilty not going for it. And so, I just woke up one day, because I was telling my children, like you know, do your best, you know, do best in school. I always felt hypocritical saying that to my son or like my daughter.
And it’s like, well, I’m not doing my best. I can go out and get this license. It’s something I can attain.
Logan: Welcome to another episode of the CPA Exam Experience Podcast from SuperfastCPA. I’m Logan and in today’s episode, you’re going to hear Nate and I talking to Josh.
Now, Josh has a pretty typical start to his CPA exam journey. A lot of people do this. He tried doing the CPA exam right out of college and didn’t really do that well. He didn’t have a ton of discipline, didn’t really know how to study for it, and ended up not doing well and kind of just left it behind and started focusing on his career.
Fast forward to when he’s almost 40, he wakes up in the morning and decides, you know what? I need to get the CPA exam. I’m going to do it.
And so from that point on, he [00:01:00] kind of starts doing the whole process. He starts getting signed up. He starts getting his CPA review course. And then one day when he was at a work conference, what a lot of people do, he looked up fast ways to pass the CPA exam, and he started seeing the YouTube ads for SuperfastCPA because of that, or probably because of that.
And he had seen them before, but he had never really paid attention to them. But then he decided to, you know what, I’m going to sign up for the webinar. He watched it, ended up deciding to buy the PRO course.
And from there, he started studying with the SuperfastCPA strategies.
And as you’ll see in this interview, Josh was really good at focusing on the most important thing, which is the multiple choice questions. He did so many multiple choice questions. I think you’ll hear in the interview, he did upwards of 36,000 multiple choice questions throughout his whole process. And he was able to pass his exams in about five to six months.
And that was with taking the exams seven times total. He passed one of them on his first try and then all the other ones, his second try. So again, he took seven exams in about five or six months, passed all of them, and almost exclusively focused on the multiple choice questions. And of course you’ll hear how he applied the other [00:02:00] SuperfastCPA strategies as well, throughout this interview.
But I think this interview is a great interview for people who are wondering if they can do the CPA exams. Is now a good time, should they do it right out of college, can I even do it when I’m in my forties? You know, whatever the questions you have, this is a great interview to show you that you can, no matter where you are in your life, you can pass the CPA exams and Josh is a great example of that.
So we’re gonna get into the interview in just a second, but just before we dive into the interview, I just want to remind everyone about the SuperfastCPA training webinar on superfastcpa.com. This is the same webinar that Josh watched to ultimately become a PRO member of SuperfastCPA.
We teach the key ingredients in this one hour free webinar. So you want to go check it out. You want to sign up for it because again, we’re going to teach you the key ingredients to passing the CPA exam in just one hour and it will save you so much time struggling with this process, just like it saved Josh so much time, so make sure you check that out. And with all that, let’s dive into the interview with Josh.
Josh’s CPA Journey
Nate: You were just mentioning you grew up in Texas and so, and then when it came to, you were studying for the CPA and you saw [00:03:00] us on YouTube, it sounds like let’s go from there.
Josh Bell: Yeah, so I was, I remember it very vividly I was in a conference in San antonio and I was, so I, I took the exam out of college in 2007 and, um, you know, I was 24, wasn’t very disciplined and didn’t study very long and bombs, I mean, I got a 47 on BEC. And so I kind of, you know, gave up at that point, did some other things. You know, my career journey can’t progressed and I had kind of been thinking about it for a while so I’ll kind of start at that point, I was, I remember during covid, I was working from home. I had a lot of time. Of course, everybody else. I started thinking about, should I, you know, get the, try and get my license again. So I signed up with the state board got on my, because I had to read sign up at that point, because my original,
Logan: Yeah.
Josh Bell: Um, all the paperwork had expired. So, I re-signed up, you know, got ready to go and then I got covid. And then I kind of put it on [00:04:00] hold and then I ended up getting a new job and then I was like, okay, do I really want to do this? But then like 1 day I woke up and I remember it was like around my 40th birthday. I woke up and I said, I’m gonna, I really want to do this. I want to get my license at that point.
So, um, I remember I was, um, at a conference and might’ve been San Antonio, might’ve been somewhere else and I was researching, how to best do this. Cause I had, I had Roger at that point, uh, UWorld CPA and I was going through the, you know, the chapter by chapter and watching the videos and it was just taking me forever.
And I remember calculating, I said, man, if I go on this pace, it’s going to take me six months just to do FAR.
Logan: Mm-Hmm.
Josh Bell: And I go, I don’t have time. I mean, I have, I have an eighth grader and a fifth grader at this point. I’m married, I’m a corporate controller at a company in Fort Worth. I don’t have time for that.
Finding SuperfastCPA
Josh Bell: So I actually started Googling like, you know, fast way to study or like quick way, like just [00:05:00] shortcut to CPA, like all the buzzwords, I guess, you know, YouTube flagged that and your videos kept popping up and had seen your videos prior to that, prior to my journey and I was just like, Oh yeah, I’m not ready for that. But I signed up for the free trial. Did the, like I was at a night, it was like eight o’clock at night. Yeah. The webinar,
I listened to what you had to say. And I signed up for the PRO version and I remember very vividly what stuck out to me. It’s been a while, but. It was the farming analogy. I remember saying that I remember just thinking like, Oh my gosh, that’s so stupidly simple. Why didn’t I do that before?
Nate: Right. Yeah.
Josh Bell: And so that’s really what clicked. And I went from basically college model, watch the lecture, take notes, read the book, then take the questions. Okay, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll do what he has to say. I was still kind of skeptical. So I’m like, this cannot work. Like, how am I supposed to
Logan: Yeah.
Josh Bell: Get this right? I think I even emailed you at one point and said, like, how, how do I, I mean, if I don’t know, am [00:06:00] I just guessing? And you’re like, yeah, you basically just, just, you put an answer down and that’s how you learn. I’m like, that just doesn’t, okay, I’ll try it. That point, once I started doing it, it clicked.
Nate: Yeah.
Josh Bell: That’s really how my journey began. So, um, that’s what worked for me. So, um, the rest is history, so to speak.
Nate: Awesome.
Logan: Mm-Hmm.
Nate: Yeah. That’s, uh, that no one’s mentioned that exact part of the webinar before, but yeah, the, uh, yeah, the farming analogy. Okay.
Why the Farming Analogy Made Sense for Josh
Josh Bell: Yeah. My, the reason I thought my grandfather was a farmer and I’d been on farms and I’m like, okay, that makes sense. You don’t just, the seeds, water it and come back in 6 months and expect to have corn or whatever laying around, so.
Nate: Mm-hmm.
Josh Bell: Um.
Nate: Yup.
Josh Bell: Yeah, and so, when I started doing that, it really freed up a lot of my time and I took everything you took to heart. I studied in the morning. I got up at 4:30 and studied because my kids have after school activities, sports, you know, extracurriculars. So I don’t have time to wait till after work by then I’m pretty tired. [00:07:00] So I did the two hour, 430 to 6:30, what surprisingly helped me out a lot was the audio notes driving to work. Um, I’m not a big like podcaster by nature. I usually listen to music when I’m doing things, but that really helped me kind of passively learn. And I even remember driving to 1 of the tests, listening to 1 of your, uh, audio notes, 1 of the 1st questions was something I just listened to. Like, I was exiting the car.
Logan: Perfect.
Josh Bell: And yet, 1 or 2 questions can be the difference between a 75 and a 73 so I was like, and that’s, that’s really, you know, um, it’s really awesome that I did that and that you have that tool. So, um, I, I did the two hours in the morning. I did the audio notes on the way to work and then I took the mini quizzes at lunch. That’s really what I did, um, throughout the day.
If I had time after work and I had the energy, I would maybe get an hour in, but that’s pretty much what I did. Uh, I never took a day off. I, Sunday through Saturday, every day. So I tried to make time and [00:08:00] it really became a process, not of like intellect or IQ, but of discipline at that point, I tell people, because a lot of people have reached out to me and said, you know, how did you do that? And it’s just being consistent every day, putting the time in. So if you put time in, you’ll pass.
How Josh Realized He Was Studying Wrong
Nate: So, uh, before, you know, you watched our webinar and started following the two hours a day, every morning thing. When were you studying before that? Was it just kind of a haphazard process?
Josh Bell: Yeah, it was like, yeah, after work or I’ll put it off to the weekend when I have more time. And, you know, you talk about it in your, in your, your series. I, you know, I picked Roger because, you know, he’s funny, you know, he’s energetic, I would watch his videos and then I would go to the questions and it’s like, well, did he even talk about this or so then you’re rewatching the video, trying to find he’s talking about and, you know, it may or not be in there.
You may not be able to find it. And that’s when I realized like, this isn’t going to work. I’m going to be here months. [00:09:00] And you know, you have a window to take it and then to pass. So, um, that’s when. I realized, okay, A I can’t study after work. I don’t have enough time working. I need to change my approach. I got, I got really frustrated and that’s and I put it off at that point when I was doing the traditional method because I was like, I just I don’t think I’m cut out for this. Like, I don’t have the time I’m doing something wrong, so I really kind of dove into, like, what am I doing wrong? It must be the process because I know a lot of CPAs, know, they’re smart, but like, they’re not any smarter than I am. Like, so I got to do something wrong with my process at that point.
Nate: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
The Difference of the Questions First Approach
Logan: The kind of following that, so, you know, before you’re watching lectures going to drive through the questions and you’re like, I don’t even understand this at all. What was your, so you not only switched from doing the evenings, switched to the mornings, but what was your for the quick, like, how did that change?
How did your view of the questions change? And how did you study using the questions?
Josh Bell: Yeah, it got to where the [00:10:00] questions fed you the information that you’re going to see on the exam. So before it was watch the lecture, take notes, hopefully I’ll retain some of that to where when I went to the questions only mode, it was okay. I’m seeing this question over and over again out of the 100 questions in this chapter.
I’ve seen this this topic, you know, 40 percent of the time. So I must need to know that. So if I’m not retaining that aspect of the exam, I might be in trouble. So it got to where, and I tell people this too, that have asked like, yeah, you, you learn by doing the questions. It’s like you said in the, in your videos, like you’re not tested on how well you could read the chapter or watch the lecture.
It’s, that’s what really kind of clicked. It’s like, yeah, we’re taking a test on multiple choice and sims. I need to do multiple choice and Sims. And that’s how I learned best was just constantly doing it. You don’t learn how to ride a bicycle by reading about how to ride a bicycle. You have to go out and do it.
So that’s how I equated that.
Nate: Yeah. That’s, uh, um, [00:11:00] yeah. I mean, in my opinion, obviously that’s like the, the way to study for these, you know, if you’re going to take what you have to do on test day is the kind of key performance indicator then, it only makes sense that that’s the main thing you’ve got to learn how to do or get good at doing.
And so, you know, a lot of people talk about learning styles and, or what’s the best way you learn. But really, I mean, if you’re going to go in and pass these exams at some point, you’ve got to figure that out, the MCQs and the sims. And it’s like a, it’s like a set of skills, you know, that you can get good at.
Did 36,000 questions over 6 months
Josh Bell: I probably overdid it. I actually calculated, uh, Roger has a thing in his software. I did 36, 000 questions over the six months,
Nate: Wow.
Josh Bell: to like 200 a day. It’s like, it sounds like a lot in total, but you can break it down daily. It’s like 200 or something, I really, that’s how I figured out the best way to do it.
Like it, I think I have one page of notes from the fourth test. I don’t have any flashcards and I don’t [00:12:00] even know where my books are at this point there and they’re lost probably. I never looked at the book. It really was just cramming, spamming those questions over and over again.
Yeah, you start to see them, you know, repeated, but that’s good because then you kind of remember why you missed it the first time or why you got it wrong the first time. And then when you’re on the exam, you don’t have the exact same question, but you can kind of memory recall back to, okay, when I was studying, this is how I do that problem. Or this is what it’s wanting me to know at that point.
Nate: Yeah.
Josh’s Daily Study Routine
Logan: So that, was that, what was your, what did your two hour session look like then? Was it just straight questions the whole time? Like did you do a re-review as well or like how did
Because you did so many questions so I’m just curious like what that looked like.
Josh Bell: Yeah. I would start off like day one, it’d be chapter one, right. And then day two in theory would be chapter two, first 90 minutes and then the last 30 would be the cumulative re-review chapter one and two and so forth. So by theory, like day 21, you know, [00:13:00] you’re doing chapter 21 and then re-review of chapters one through 21. I would try and get like the main core of the questions done like in three to four weeks. I never studied longer than six weeks. Depending on the exam, I think that’s the most was FAR. Um, like BEC, audit, I think I did that in like four weeks total. Um, I try and do like two to three weeks, the main like crux of the material, and then like two weeks re-review.
And at that point, I would just do sets of 30 at that point, once I’d gone through all the, all the chapters. That way, um, because if it’s random, I don’t know what’s coming. If you go chapter by chapter at that point and kind of, okay, this is on bond, or this is on leases. So, once I’d kind of done the whole sections. I would then do like a randomized sets. And that’s where I really tried and do like few hundred a day, just random. once I had a certain like daily average, I know I was ready for the, for the exam, usually about 85%.
Nate: Yeah.
CPA Exams Timeline
Logan: So with [00:14:00] your, so just to kind of like with the weeks that you just barely said, it sounds like once you started doing it this way, roughly you spent maybe like four or five months. Does that sound about right?
Josh Bell: Yeah.
Logan: What was your timeline?
Josh Bell: Um, took BEC. So I didn’t pass all of them the first time and I’m not, I’m not ashamed to say that, I took, cause I’m, I’m 41 now. I don’t have time for all this stuff. Uh, so, but I took, if I failed a test, I would then retake it within like two weeks and just do the same model.
Nate: Yeah.
Josh Bell: But yeah, once I, I think I started August, I took, um, BEC in August, and then I took FAR early February, and then I didn’t get the results for FAR this year, of course, till June because of the, the testing change.
But, um, at that point in February, I knew I’d passed, felt pretty good. So from August to February, that was my window of time. So yeah, once I started this process, that’s all I did. I didn’t change anything else. I didn’t watch any lectures. didn’t take any notes, [00:15:00] um, because that was working for me, uh, even when, so I took audit first, so I took, took BEC first, sorry, made a 73 and then I got the results back and early on I thought, okay, I’m going to assume I pass all of them. So I’ve already gone ahead and moved on to audit. I actually got my, that’s why I get confused because I I got my, my BEC results back like the two days before I was gonna take audit I had failed. So I was really mad going into the test for audit.
I was like, ah, I failed. took audit and then waited for my results to get back. Passed that the first time. I think being an auditor early, my career helped. Then at that point I retook BEC, like three weeks, got a a 73 to an 86,
Nate: Oh, wow.
Josh Bell: Took REG and then took FAR.
Logan: Okay.
Nate: Okay.
Josh Bell: I failed, I failed REG with the 73 as well. Retook it, got a perfect score 75 and then, uh, I did take FAR on 2 weeks notice at the end of December to try to beat the window because I [00:16:00] didn’t want to take it in 2024 and then wait 4 months. And I took that like two weeks notice and got like a 62 then I knew I failed that but, um, retook in February passed with a 78 I think so.
Logan: Nice.
Josh Bell: It was pretty much just spamming questions and then you know if I failed it I just said okay that’s fine you get to retake it no big deal. I did this for myself nobody else so I didn’t really feel ashamed about failing it’s just part of life so.
Nate: Right.
Josh Bell: Just looked at as a learning opportunity.
Logan: And when did you find out your final score? Like, when did you know you had passed?
Josh Bell: so I took the last section in February and then I was supposed to hear back like that.
Yeah, that June, but they actually released it that week early. They, they never do that. They released it, I was actually on some of the Reddit forums and people were freaking out getting their scores. And I was like, what are y’all talking about?
I don’t, they’re not coming out till next week. And I looked and it said past and that’s all I cared about. I didn’t look at the score till later that night. And I was like, I passed, I’m done. Yeah, I was like, I think it was around Memorial day, uh, around that [00:17:00] timeframe.
Nate: All right.
Logan: That’s awesome.
Nate: Uh, yeah.
How He Knew that the Questions First Approach is Working
Nate: So in the beginning you said, you know, you had kind of mapped it out where. Okay, based on my current progress, how long this has taken me to get through each lesson. This is going to take me six months to do one section. Um, how long was it after starting kind of our strategies that you just realized, okay, this feels like it’s working and it’s, I’m getting through this so much faster.
Like how did you trim down that timeline so much? And how’d you decide that?
Josh Bell: Uh, so I immediately switched to mornings and you know, you’re doing better based on your trending score each day. So when you start off and you’re kind of just guessing, I always started off no matter what section it was around like 60%, the first day or two, it was like 60, 61, and then you start to trend upwards, you know, okay, now I’m getting 72%, right, 80%. And so I always knew like that first week, every time I started a new [00:18:00] section, that first week was always kind of rough. It’s like, man, I’m, I don’t know any of this stuff like, you know, I did this in college, but I don’t remember any of this material, but you kind of remember, you know, you’re, you’re training yourself.
And then like that second pass through, it’s like, okay, now it’s clicking. And then that third pass through it’s like, okay, got it. I know what they’re asking. I know what they want to see on the test. And then I would say after the second section, so BEC, then audit. Once I got to REG, I’d kind of really mastered the process and I was able to do a few hundred questions a day. Uh, when I first started, I was only doing like 50, maybe, maybe a hundred. So it was kind of a slog, but once I really mastered it, I remember day before I took REG, I did 600 questions that day.
Yeah, you can do more like some tests you can do more of the, there’s easier, but REG, I was able to really crank those out.
And, um, yeah, FAR, it was a little bit harder. FAR I would do like 200 a day, maybe 300.
Time Management is Important on Test Day
Logan: So, I mean, with what you’re saying there, I mean, you must, you were just super practiced at the question. So how did that [00:19:00] translate to test day? Like, you able to fly through the multiple choice questions or did you still kind of pace yourself or what did that look like?
Josh Bell: Yeah. So I had a, like a format, a formula, so to speak, once I got to test day. I knew like, I need to be done by testlet one within whatever it was an hour or testlet two, you know, two hours. So I, I would write that down on the pink sheet of paper that gave you. And so I knew like. I have to do so many per minute or less, you know, it’s like, you know, you have to do one every 90 seconds, whatever the math is. So it really helped me, you know, get through the test. Cause that’s what, that was my problem with, uh, failing BEC the first time I ran out of time at the end. And so I really started looking at, okay, what is like, what’s the game here? Like, what do I have to do to kind of beat the system? A lot of it’s time management.
You know, if you don’t, if you run out of time and you’re on the last sim, you’re in trouble. So really having that routine down and able to speed through the questions helps you not only on multiple choice but the sims as well because the sims are just like an elaborate multiple [00:20:00] choice at that point. So I tried to give myself a buffer going into the sims because I was, I was, I was a little bit weaker on the sims to be honest just and that’s my style. I was able to get through the multiple choice pretty fast and then I needed more time on the sims.
Nate: Yeah. Um, going back. So I think it’s clear that you must have gone in and watched our PRO videos, I’m guessing. Okay.
Josh Bell: Yeah.
Nate: So you just, what, set aside a day’s worth of study time or something or a weekend to just watch those and get really clear on the strategies?
Josh Bell: Yeah. I was, I was, I think I was in my office here and just said, okay, I’m going to watch these videos and then just, I was already kind of sold at that point. I was like, okay, this makes sense but I wanted to kinda get the background and I really wanted to know, okay, what’s the why behind the, the madness there, like, and what does a daily session look like? Um, like, do I just do randomized questions? Am I just gonna pick a chapter. Like, what do I do? So that really helped me out at that point. Yeah.
Dealing with Difficult Topics
Logan: And, [00:21:00] and with the pro course, I mean you watched it all the way through, um, you know Nate and I constantly talk about all this stuff from the PRO course. Um, you know, something we mentioned a lot is flash cards, but you were mentioning you didn’t really take notes or flash cards so with that, what was your strategy for learning the things that you really struggled with it? Was it just repeat questions or did you have some other method of it as well?
Josh Bell: Yeah. If, if I was hung up on like one, a topic or two, I try to remind myself that, you know, like FAR has 240 topics or whatever it is, you know, I try to remind myself like that may or may not even be tested on test day, so I don’t want to spend a lot of time on something that may or may not be on the test or may have one question. If I was going into the test and I had a general overall knowledge of the material and knew I was going to be okay because, yeah, I may not know this 1 topic, but I know the other 50 and so, but just doing the randomized sets the end there of the 30 questions. [00:22:00] Hopefully you pick up on bits and pieces of the topics you need to know. And if not, then you’re not going to have, you’re not gonna be perfect going into test today. And you kind of have to live with that. It’s not like getting out of that mindset of college. Like I got to get an A, you know, you’re not trying to get an A. You’re just trying to pass. At least I was, I’m just trying to pass
Nate: Right.
Josh Bell: Wasn’t trying to get, yeah, I wasn’t trying to get like 95 and get that what is it? Elijah Watts award, I didn’t care about that. I was just trying to get through this.
Nate: Yeah, exactly.
Josh Bell: I’m over that stuff. So my goal was to do what I needed to do and get out. And for the most part, that’s what happened.
Logan: Nice.
How Josh Approached Sims and Weekend Study
Logan: Did you, so you’ve, you’ve talked a lot about multiple choice questions. Did you have a strategy for the sims? Did you study those at all? Or what did that look like? Okay, so you didn’t touch the sims. Did you study extra on the weekends at all?
Josh Bell: Yes, yes. So I don’t know, the sims. I’ll get, the sims on Roger to me weren’t the same as the actual exam and they do their best, but it’s just not the same. The multiple choice was really good. I did a few sims just to get [00:23:00] the lay of the land, kind of what are they wanting to know? I just, didn’t click with me.
I just said I’m better off doing multiple choice. And on the weekends I would do more of like a six hour session. Uh, I would do the morning and then, um, I’d have to stop, my daughter has swim on Saturdays at that point. I would take her to that, get lunch, do like a two to four session. And then I would do like a six to eight at that point. kind of three, two hour blocks and do the same on Sunday. So I was doing, what is that? Six and six on the weekends and then two to three during the week. And that’s what, that’s all I needed.
Yeah, that was my life for six months. I didn’t really do anything else on the weekend. It was tough telling people, no, I can’t go do this thing. But, my wife, I told my wife, you know, I’m going to have, I’m going to be kind of a loser for a little bit here. I’m going to be, you know, Mr. Antisocial, but she understood.
Nate: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s easier to do when it’s working, right? I mean, you know, we’ve heard from a lot of people that they studied really [00:24:00] hard, stopped doing all social things or anything they like doing. And that went on for years and they just kept, you know, kind of failing, just barely missing. So yeah.
Josh Knew Where to Improve on His Retakes
Josh Bell: Even when I failed. I kind of knew what happened like, okay, I, I messed up here. Time management was an issue. It was never like, Oh, it wasn’t prepared. Like I knew kind of where to, going forward in the re-review.
Logan: And you were always really close, too. It seems
Times that you failed, you were only a couple of points off.
Josh Bell: Yeah. Two points away. Yeah. And that’s, you almost wish you bomb it at that point. Cause you’re like, cause it’s not like you don’t retake it and you’re not trying to get those two points back, you’re trying to get 75 back cause it’s a new test. Um, so that was always frustrating. But. I just looked at it as an opportunity to grow at that point.
Nate: Yeah. But at the same time, I mean, to get a close failing score. It’s better, you know, when you’re only spending two hours a day studying.
Whereas if you were just putting in five or six hours a day, you know, and then you’re like, then you have to [00:25:00] wonder, okay, I’m putting in more time than recommended. Like, why is this not working?
Whereas, yeah, like you said, you can just kind of iterate your way up to okay. I missed that by two points.
Josh Bell: Right.
Nate: Three more weeks of exactly what I was doing will get me there.
Josh Bell: Like, I know for BEC, so I took BEC when that was still BEC, I know on that it was the writing portion I have a great template and I just kind of probably throw some stuff down. I really nailed that going into the re-review on REG. I think it was just like a sim that I just kind of panicked on. And then FAR, um, I don’t really count that first fail because I just ran out of time. But yeah, it was just really down your process at that point.
Logan: Yeah.
Josh Bell: Doing the questions only. It makes the overall process really simple. There’s just not much to it. It’s, you know, if you fail, all right, well, just, do that again and do better. There’s, there’s, there’s not like, oh, I got to read the book and watch the lecture. It’s just no, like go in and I [00:26:00] think everyone in the back of their mind knows, like, they know what they’re weak at. They kind of lie to themselves. Like, oh, I, I was ready, but I always knew like, oh, I didn’t know this section on REG.
I didn’t need to go probably maybe cram that chap a little bit harder this time or being honest with myself, you know, what I do, do not know.
Utilizing the SuperfastCPA Study Tools
Logan: You mentioned, uh, a little bit ago, you also mentioned like using our audio notes and the mini quizzes. Uh, can you kind of reiterate what you did day to day to use those? Like, did you have a goal or was it just. At this time of day, I’m doing this. Like, what was your strategy with those?
Josh Bell: Yeah. So my whole day, I had to be very structured, right, because before it was more chaotic and that didn’t work, right. It was the morning sessions and then listen to the audio notes going to work. I worked about 30 minutes away, listen to a good chunk and then I always leave for lunch, so I would do the mini quizzes at lunch. And so that was kind of my time to myself where I could, you know, eat something, you know, do maybe 20, 30 questions, [00:27:00] you know, during my lunch break and then get back to work. And then after work, if I had some free time, come back up to the office up here and maybe do another hour of multiple choice. And that was really it.
Logan: And, and so you didn’t re you didn’t really use the review notes. Is that, is that right?
Josh Bell: No,
Logan: The SuperfastCPA review, okay, yeah.
Josh Bell: I don’t like to read things like, like that. Um, not how I learned. I learned really more through audio and then just spamming those questions. That’s how I learned.
Worked for me.
Nate: Yeah.
Felt Guilty About Teaching Goals to His Children, Josh’s Motivation and Why
Nate: Um, let’s see, oh, I had a question about, so you said, uh, you’re like, I turned 40. I wanted to get this done. Was that the main reason or was it like directly or immediately beneficial in the job you’re in? Or was it more just, I want to just do this for myself type thing.
Josh Bell: I didn’t do it for any kind of professional purpose or gain that will help, of course, but it was really the goal was out there and it was attainable and I hadn’t done it [00:28:00] yet. And I was, it was always in the back of my mind. Like, this was out there and I felt kind of guilty not going for it. And so I just woke up one day because I was telling my children, like, you know, do your best, you know, do best in school. I always felt hypocritical saying that to my son or like my daughter.
And it’s like, well, I’m not doing my best. I can go out and get this license. It’s something I can attain. So it was really, you know, you talked about, you know, in your session, you know, what, write down your why I wrote down my why I have it somewhere. It was, you know, I want my kids to be proud of me. I want to be proud of myself and I want to achieve this goal that I’d kind of put off for a long time. And it really helped me become more disciplined in my life. You know, you’re, you’re a different person at 40 than you are at 25. And when I took it at 25, I just, you know, took it to take it and that didn’t go well.
But, you know, really having a goal and keeping that in the back of my mind, I wrote down my why on my scratch paper on the exam, I always wrote down like the first thing I wrote off was the time, you know, testlet one be done. And that’d write down, you know, do this for [00:29:00] yourself, do it for your children, do it for your life. And that always, I would always look at that when I would be kind of frustrated and they’d say like, Oh, what am I doing? Look at your why, kind of refocus. That always kind of helped me stay grounded. And have like, I’d have a piece of paper when I was studying, like, you know, your why, you know, do it for your children, do it for yourself. so yeah, never really was for like, you know, I want to get a better job or different job, whatever. It was really just it for me, you know, and I didn’t, I didn’t tell anybody I was doing this outside of my family.
Nobody at work knew I was doing this. so I did get a lot of questions like, you seem really tired lately. It’s like, oh yeah, it was, you know, weekend. It’s like, it was very private for me. And when I told people, they’re like, oh, I had no idea you were doing that. Yeah, I did it for myself. I didn’t, I didn’t want anybody else to know or ask questions. You know, my and kids knew my brothers and parents and that’s pretty much it, you know, really close circle.
Nate: Yeah, that’s cool.
Logan: With, I mean, that’s awesome. I really like your idea of writing down your why in the exam, you know, uh, if people have [00:30:00] time, I think that’s a good idea. Like just to have like a little bit of motivation,
Because you always have a little, yeah, like, is it like five minutes before it actually starts.
Wrote Motivational Quotes 5 Minutes Before the CPA Exam Starts
Josh Bell: They always have 5, the 5 minutes or whatever it is, it basically tells you the instructions, which I never really read it for the 1st time. I always knew what it was, I would always, you know, they, you know, they tell you to brain dump. I, I didn’t do that either cause I figured, if you didn’t know it at that point, you’re in trouble.
So I, I would just write down like, you know, little motivational quotes. Like, you know, tend to have a little test anxiety. So I’d write down like, you know, stay calm. Don’t panic. It’s just a dumb test. No big deal. Take it again next week if you don’t pass.
Took A Bit of Time to Re-Verify to Be Able to Take the Exams Again
Logan: And, and I’m curious with the, uh, so you got the exams passed, which is awesome. Have you, uh, were there other requirements? Like, did you, I’m assuming you already had your schooling done from way before cause you were able to sit for it before. And then did you have hours as well? Like, I’m just curious what, um, like.
Josh Bell: So yeah, you know, I was qualified to take this 2006 when I, [00:31:00] 2006, I graduated December, 2005. I was qualified at that point and I took it in 07, didn’t do very well. So I was, I did have to re, you know, kind of get recertified in terms of the qualifications, whatever. So I was always, um, able to take it.
So I had the hours, I had the 2000 hours of, uh, work under licensed CPA and everything else they make you take. So, yeah, I was always ready to go.
Logan: You didn’t have to do anything else. You were just like, get the exam done?
Josh Bell: No, just.
Logan: Which is nice.
Josh Bell: Yeah, just get the, all the paperwork. That’s a, you know, a little bit of time just to get everything sent into the state and have them look at it and review it and pay your fee.
That’s a three or four weeks. Just get that done, so.
Logan: But you’re officially CPA now, is that right?
Josh Bell: I’m in the, I’m in the system. You can look me up, yep.
State of Texas. One, two, six, two and three. That’s me.
Fasting Before the Exams, Josh’s Routine Before and On Test Day
Nate: Um, so you mentioned testing anxiety and kind of my thing is always, you know, you can maybe tell yourself some things at the testing center, try to control your [00:32:00] breathing, but really it’s, that’s going to be solved in your daily process. Like doing all these questions when you do so many MCQs, it just becomes this thing that you’re very familiar with.
And. stress you out. I mean, do you feel like that just the process, the nature of the process helped with the test day anxiety?
Josh Bell: Yeah. I mean, if you’re prepared going in. You know, it’s still stressful, but you know, you’ve done all you can do personally to be successful that day. Um, you may have, you know, a bad day, or you may not know something that’s on the test, but, you know, you’ve done everything those prior weeks to get prepared for that day. So, just a matter of performing at that point, but I did have a routine like, uh, going in after, uh, so 1st time I took BEC I ate ate breakfast that morning. And, um, I always do better on an empty stomach. So I ended up getting this very kind of rigid routine to where this is going to sound kind of weird, but I ended up not eating like 48 hours before test day.
Nate: [00:33:00] Oh, wow.
Josh Bell: A 48, on FAR, I was 72 hours. I just do much better. Mentally on an empty stomach, I just, just kind of a fasted state. I would always take the test on Saturday or Sunday, and I would always take it in the same location, if I could, uh, I live close to Dallas, but I hate Dallas so I went to Abilene instead.
I drive, I drove West to Abilene where I went to school and would have my last meal, usually Thursday, it was always Mexican food, and then I wouldn’t eat until after the exam was over, but I would like wear the same outfit going to the exam. It was, I mean, it was like, I took treated like game day, right? Like, you know.
Nate: Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Bell: I treat it like game day. Like would take it at the same time. So I knew like, okay, I got to get up at this time, get on the road. Same shirt, same shorts, same shoes. I drink energy drinks before the exam. I knew how much to drink, you know, I bring the same water bottle. [00:34:00] So I think just having that routine just made it more comfortable to where, you know, just less distractions, less, less things to worry about overall.
Nate: Yeah. I mean, I think that’s a really good tip, honestly. I mean, and multiple people have mentioned that they kind of came up with a test day routine. Uh, including wearing the same shirt. Didn’t you say that Logan?
Logan: Yeah. Yeah. I wore the same Metallica shirt every time. Yep.
Nate: Yeah. But yeah, I mean, uh, like you said, it just, those last 48 hours that matter a lot, just having nothing really to think about, or you just, you just kind of know how it’s going to be structured. I mean, I think there’s a lot, there’s a lot of things like you mentioned earlier, you hear, you heard something on the audio on your way in that, you know, gave you one question and one question can literally be the difference.
There’s so many little things throughout the whole study process that. You know, can be worth a question or two, like here and there and all those things add up.
Josh Bell: Yeah, just layering that knowledge day after day. [00:35:00] It, it compounds right versus the traditional way. You might study chapter 1 on day 1 and then, oh, I got to read, review that. Like, what do I, what am I learning here? So, yeah, that was a very vivid memory because it was literally, like, as I was, like, leaving my car, I heard something and it was like, 1 of the 1st questions.
I was like, man, that’s great. You know, literally heard this 10 minutes ago. So, yeah, very grateful.
Nate: Yeah. Good head start.
How Josh Used the SuperfastCPA Audio Notes
Nate: Uh, with the audios, did you, cause we kind of recommend when you listen to the audios, you just kind of start from the beginning and work your way through over and over. Is that how you did the audios?
Josh Bell: Yeah, I’d listen to it on like one and a half or one and a quarter speed and just repeat. If I’m on audit that month, you know, about an hour a day in the car, so I can get through an hour. I think, I think the way I structured it was on the speed I had, because my drive to my test center was about an hour and a half, two hours. I can get through all the audio notes for that section on my drive to [00:36:00] the test. So that was very helpful. I can kind of, you know, hear everything on the way to the test, you know, on my drive. So if that’s worth 1 point, then that’s that’s great. I’ll take the 1 point.
Nate: And you were primarily, cause you did BEC, you were primarily using the 2023, like you, you were testing in 2023 and using our 2023, uh, stuff.
Josh Bell: Yeah. That’s why I took BEC 1st. I didn’t want to be a guinea pig for the new section. I didn’t I didn’t really know what it was going to be like. So, I did that. And then, um, audit after that because I think I read that there’s all this speculation for REG to be easier in 2024. Uh, I don’t know if that was true or not.
So I took audit next, and then REG and then FAR. So I kind of took it backwards from what some people do, but, uh, it worked for me.
Nate: Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Um, let’s see, we’ve kind of talked through everything.
Logan: Yeah. It’s pretty straightforward with your process. Just blazing through the questions pretty much, [00:37:00] you know.
Nate: Yeah.
Logan: Uh, which is perfect, you know, like, I think that, and Nate’s mentioned this in other podcasts or I’ve even when I’ve talked to other people when I was taking the exam, some people just make it too complicated. You know, they’re just doing too many different things. Um, and you know, I say that, I don’t mean, Oh, it’s bad to do anything more than just the multiple choice questions, but they’re just, a whole bunch of things that don’t actually matter when in the end, like you’ve mentioned many times, the multiple choice questions, that’s
Huge crux of it, you know?
Just Stuck to the Same Simple Process of Questions First
Josh Bell: I have a lot going on. I mean, I’m not, I’m not out of school like most people are to take it the normal way, right? They’re not, I’m not 24 anymore or whatever. So I had to simplify my life. I couldn’t make it complicated. And so that’s why before the traditional method, I was like, this is not going to work.
I just don’t have time for this. This is not very effective. And so really go into that multiple choice only model. And then once I started clicking, it’s like, okay, I’m understanding this. [00:38:00] I’m able to like, really, once I was doing randomized sets of 30 and getting like, you know, 85, 90 percent correct.
Okay. This is working. able to understand this. And then, know, proofs in the pudding. And once I started passing my exams, like, okay, this is working. I’m to do this
Nate: Yeah.
Josh Bell: For the next section. And like, I posted something on LinkedIn about my process and I got a lot of messages, like, well, what else did you do besides, did you read the book or did you. And it’s just funny, people think there’s like some magic formula and it’s like, I just, what I told you is what I did. I did questions. Well, what about for, for audit? Did you do that for audit too? And it’s like, I don’t know why the section would matter. Yeah, I did it for.
People get hung up on like, Oh, I’m, I’m struggling with AUD or I’m struggling with FAR. And yeah, I had the same struggles with certain sections, but you know, just keep cramming the questions. That’s what I did.
Nate: Yes. When you have a formulaic process of breaking down questions, um, you know, your process just becomes the same. And if something’s really complicated, there might be a few extra steps you add on, but you just, you start the same every time and then you just, [00:39:00] yeah, kind of.
Logan: I remember when I was doing the exams that, uh, you know, my process maybe changed slightly with each exam. And when I say that it was like, maybe for certain types of questions in this exam, this is how I have to break it down compared to other questions that I’ve done, but the focus never changed. It was just always the questions.
And, uh, so, you know, the, your process can evolve, but around the same center, like around the same center, you know, uh,
Nate: Yeah. The same key, yeah, strategies.
The Time it Took for the Strategies to Click
Nate: So, uh, from when you watched our webinar and then you got our course and watched the PRO course, and then you start studying that way. How long was it when you, you mentioned, okay, then I just, it started clicking and that’s when I knew this is like going to work. Was that a few days of studying this way or a couple of weeks?
Josh Bell: Uh, I would say the first week was kind of rough because it was just so different, you know, I just wasn’t used to that method. Um, but I kept at it because I knew the other way, the old way, it wasn’t working [00:40:00] either. And so sometimes you got to flip the script, right? So I’d say after that first week, when I kind of got through a couple of the, the chapters and I was on the re-review part and I was re-reviewing like chapter one and two, it was clicking.
It’s okay, now I understand what it was asking me, 3 or 4 days ago. Um, the 1st day of any chapter or any section, it’s always going to be like, what is it asking me? But once you kind of hit it again, then it starts making more sense. And so I would say that test the 1st week was always kind of rough because it was always just so new and it was so foreign.
But once you kind of came back to it at that point, that’s what it really started clicking. And like the audio notes and everything just kind of reinforced all that each day.
Logan: For some reason, when you were talking about that, I remembered one of my English professors in college, something that he would say would be like, to learn something. And this, he was kind of a weird phrase, but he, like, you have to wallow in it. Like you have to be like constantly in it and just diving into it, and that the, I think the reason [00:41:00] that made me think of that when you’re talking about the questions is, yeah, at first you’re like, uh, kind of uncomfortable, like being so deep into the questions without really understanding them very well, but you just stay there, you just keep at it and, and it, and it eventually comes with time and you kind of get comfortable with that with each new exam, you know.
Josh Bell: get comfortable with, with failure with getting the question wrong, because, you know, it’s part of the process.
Logan: Exactly.
Josh Bell: So by those last couple of tests, you know, I didn’t view it as a negative. Okay, I’m, I’m at the beginning. I always viewed it towards the end there’s like, well, if I’m getting all of them, right, I’m ready to go. So I don’t need to study. But I’m not ready so that’s just part of the process to me.
Nate: Yeah. All right. Well, yeah. So we’ve kind of gone through everything.
Top Tips for People Still Struggling with their Study Process
Nate: Um, the thing we always end on, even if it’s stuff we already covered, if you could sum up your best three tips to people that are still trying to figure out their study process, what would those be?
Josh Bell: Study in the morning. Get it over with. That way you don’t have any excuse once the day is over to not study. And then I would say definitely do multiple [00:42:00] choice and I would say don’t put so much pressure on yourself to pass. Obviously, it’s important everyone, we’re all trying to get this certification, but don’t make it your life I’ve did that I made it my life and I don’t that was the best thing to do I should have probably been a little more grounded and balanced. Had a little more time for hobbies and friends.
And I would say carve out time for fun things. I made this pretty much kind of my focus as much as I could, mainly cause I think I kind of had to, maybe it’s cause I’m older. I felt like I was running out of time, but I would definitely say, keep yourself grounded. You know, don’t make it, you know, it’s not life and death.
You know, we’re not doctors. Um, you know, if the worst that happens is you take it over again. I know it sucks, you know, it costs money and it costs time, but that’s why I tell myself, you know, in the exam, if I don’t pass it, I’ll just take it, you know, two weeks, no big deal. Just stay more grounded.
Nate: Yeah.
Logan: Actually, I’m sorry. I know we just asked the last question, but I had, I had one more that came up [00:43:00] when you, you talked about studying in the morning and you also talked about having to get more disciplined with your life. Do you find, or do you feel that that has continued? Like, have you stayed more disciplined?
How does that, how has that translated after test day?
Josh Bell: I told myself that too, like once I finished this to not revert back to the old ways, so, you know, I kind of let the physical fitness working out kind of lapse. You know, when I was working, when I was studying, so kind of replacing studying with working out and, you know, you know, just being more disciplined, getting up early and, you know, reading or whatever it is, just being productive with my time.
It’s really helped, and it’s really helped with my family, with my job. Just overall, kind of, you know, what’s important to you and, and it kind of shows you, you can do it, right? You can get up at 4:30. It’s, it’s possible. It’s not fun, but a lot of things in life worth doing are not fun or easy. So you have to really make the sacrifice.
Logan: Awesome.
Nate: Yeah. The longer you live, all of the, uh, what is that word? The, uh, [00:44:00] something, the, what is the word? Something that you hear all the time. It’s a track, not trite. It’s a cliche. All the cliches,
Logan: Yeah.
Nate: All the cliches become true.
Josh Bell: It’s very true. And, you know, I, I’ve tried to instill that, you know, with other people that have asked or that are in school, like, you know, do what I did, you know, it worked for me. I’m not some genius, you know, I,
Nate: Yeah.
Josh Bell: I wish, but like, you know, this works. And so it’s just, you know, it’s literally working smarter, not harder, um.
Nate: Absolutely.
Yeah. Okay. If you could sum up how SuperfastCPA helped you directly. Just, I don’t know, in a few sentences, What were the biggest benefits you got?
Josh Bell: Yeah, so Superfast helped me in that provided a framework to best study, to make it the most efficient and that’s studying in the morning really focusing on the questions first model, you know, getting it done early in the morning, making it more efficient, supplementing that with your audio notes throughout the day and supplementing it with your mini [00:45:00] quizzes when you have free time throughout the day as well.
Nate: Awesome.
Yep. All right. Well, thanks, Josh, for doing the call. That was awesome, fun to hear your story. Uh, and I mean, we’ve had lots of people that passed. Or on this interview that passed later in life, but just another example that it’s definitely possible. It just gets a lot easier when you lock down the two hours every morning and then, you know, that consistency just enables you to progress in your process and everything else, so.
Anyways, I’m glad you found us through YouTube originally and congrats on being done.
All All right. Thank you. Thank you guys.
Logan: All right, that was the interview with Josh. Again, I think it was an awesome interview.
I love that he had such a great focus on doing the multiple choice questions, and he wasn’t worried about if he failed an exam. You know, again, he failed three exams, but that didn’t matter in the end. He was like, oh, you know what? I failed it. That’s okay. I’m gonna move on. He didn’t let it keep him back.
He just kept going until he was done with the exams. He’s a great example of not getting discouraged, and I love his focus on the multiple choice questions. Again, he said he did upwards of [00:46:00] 36,000 multiple choice questions. I don’t know if very many people have reached that amount of multiple choice questions, because again, he focused on what was most important, and that helped him pass the CPA exam.
And again, this interview is a reminder that no matter where you are in your life, whether you’re just out of college, whether you’re starting your career, or whether you’ve already been in your career for multiple years, just like Josh, you can pass these exams. Even if you have kids, if you have a family, if you have other responsibilities, you can still pass these exams, if you have the right mindset, the right strategies and the right dedication.
So I’m sure you loved this interview.
If you did like the interview, make sure to like it and leave a comment in the YouTube video or leave a rating in your favorite podcast app. This podcast is one of the best free resources out there for CPA exam candidates.
So make sure you share this podcast with other people who are going through the CPA exams. And also make sure you point them to watching the free one hour webinar and becoming a PRO member. Something I haven’t mentioned really very much yet in the podcast, but if you want extra help with the exams, make sure you check out on our YouTube page. We have multiple choice question walkthrough videos. In these videos, I go through five questions teaching about a topic in the blueprints.
And if you become a PRO member, you get [00:47:00] access to the full videos where I do 10 questions with the PRO members of SuperfastCPA. So this is just another great tool that you should start checking out. Again, on our YouTube page, check out our multiple choice question walkthrough videos. They will be super helpful. So share this podcast, share the webinar, share the multiple choice question walkthrough videos with everybody you know who is going through the CPA exams.
And with all that, I hope you liked the episode, and we will see you in the next one.