In this episode you’ll hear me talk with Matthew, who found SuperfastCPA 1/4 of the way into his CPA journey. After nailing his first attempt, Matthew had two failed sections and knew he had to fine-tune his study process. Matthew and I discuss all of the breakthroughs he had that led him to going 3 for 3 once he made a few tweaks to his process.
Table of Contents
Transcript of the Episode:
Matthew [00:00:00] I think it’s clear as day that there’s just so much content and like a lot of people say in these podcasts, you start to lose it. You start to lose it with the way that you were doing it before, where you’re just trying to get through, you know, and you’re not really… like you talk about reinforcing it. So you end up kind of getting through and then you take the questions on the exam and, you know, you haven’t touched something in a long period of time. You know if I’m standing for two months, I might not have got back to that subject and, you know, maybe at all.
Nate [00:00:32] Right.
Matthew [00:00:33] So the reinforcement piece was huge for me.
Nate [00:00:36] Welcome to Episode 36of the CPA Exam Experience podcast from SuperfastCPA. I’m Nate. And in today’s episode, you’re going to hear me talk with Matthew. Matthew is a SuperfastCPA customer and now a CPA. We recorded this weeks ago and we’re just getting back into publishing these interviews that we’d recorded week after week and we’re going to record new ones in the future.
Nate [00:01:00] So we’re getting back into publishing these. I really like these interviews. We get so many emails and comments about these interviews that they are very, very helpful for people that are currently studying because you get to hear a just a wide range of, from different CPA candidates about the things that going from struggling in the beginning usually, and then a lot of cases. This is the case with Matthew. He passed this first section, no problem, which was actually FAR, but then he ran into issues with the next two, and so it really messed with his confidence for a while because he was really high coming off of passing FAR, and he scored really high on FAR and then failing the next two sections in a row and just wondering, OK, what happened, what’s going on with my study process? Anyway, So to hear from this this wide range of experiences and in the at the end of the day, you know, within the course of these half hour interviews, you just get to hear from candidate after candidate about the things that really started clicking that allowed them to start passing their exams and finishing their CPA exams. So they’re obviously helpful in that sense. So in this interview, Matthew, we go through his whole study process. We kind of touch all areas of the CPA study process. So you’ll find it very helpful, regardless with what parts you’re currently struggling with. Maybe you’re struggling with the whole process in general. But like the other interviews, we talked through a lot of very specific strategies based on specific parts like simulations, final review, going through new material calculation questions, how to make sure you’re really understanding something, just all those different things that are key to the process. Now, before we get into this interview, I want to mention two things. First, if this is the first thing you’re hearing from us from SuperfastCPA, you’ll hear Matthew mentioned our “Study Hacks” or the free one hour training. You probably heard that in other episodes. That is where you should start, if you’re brand new to SuperfastCPA. It’s a free training that we do. It’s in webinar format. And what we do is we walk you through our study framework that we teach to our clients and customers. And so you can see how our study process works. Basically, the big picture of how we view the study process, how we teach you to view the study process, and then how you would study differently based on that. So “studying to pass” versus studying to “learn it all” are two very different things. And the key claim with this, these free trainings is, it’s one hour that will save you months and months of time and frustration and likely hundreds of dollars from avoiding failing sections. You can save yourself all that hassle by attending one of these free trainings. So to do that, it’s the main thing on our homepage, SuperfastCPA.com, it’s the top thing, at the page you can click a link, see the upcoming training times, register for one of those, or you can text PASSNOW to 44222, and we’ll send you back a link. The other thing I want to mention is our giveaway. So this is new. This is for January 2021. If you are listening to this in the future, most likely we’re going to keep these going. We might change them a little bit month to month, but for the month of January, we are doing a productivity giveaway. So instead of… we’ve done giveaways in the past with like Amazon gift cards or some kind of electronic device, and those are OK. But this is just a lot more specific. So this is based on episode 35 of the podcast. So if you go back and you listen to Episode 35, that podcast is titled Habits versus Goals or Both. And so we talk through the idea of well, habits versus goals or combining both and then the give away, the items in the giveaway or based on that we’re giving away three of these bundles. We’re calling this “Nate’s favorites”, which are my favorite items specifically for I mean, whatever you want to call it, the study process/someone who works on their computer all day like all of us do. So it includes a cold brew coffee maker, a… this big, nice hourglass, that’s exactly at between 50 minutes to 60 minutes, you’ve got to listen to the episode for why I’m including these specific items, then a standing desk adapter I guess you would say, it allows you to set this on your desk and it has these clickable different heights so that you can move it to your desired height so that you can do these 60 minute study sessions standing up. It just helps you stay more engaged. Again, listen to the episode episode 35 for all the details on why I’m including each of these items, then an essential oil diffuser kit. Again, listen to the episode regardless of how hokey you think that is. My favorite desktop calculator, this nice big Casio calculator with big buttons, the a little USB fan. Again, listen to the episode, and then the thing that I’m sitting on right now, a, the Purple brand like the Purple mattress, but they make seat cushions.
Nate [00:06:02] This thing will change your life. So all told, all totaled up. These, this is worth like $350. We’re giving away three of these for the giveaway. There’s three winners. There is one random drawing. And then the second one is the person with the most points. So once you sign up for the giveaway, there are different ways to earn “points” in the giveaway, like subscribing to our YouTube channel, leaving a review for this podcast. You’ll see them on the page after you sign up for the giveaway. And it’s just your name and email address to enter the giveaway. So if you do that, you’re entered, you at least have a chance. So one random drawing, then someone with the most points, or the person with the most points. And then the third one is if someone that you referred wins the random drawing, you will also win a bundle. So those three things. So you don’t need to worry about referring other people because it dilutes the candidate pool to win, because if you’re, one of your referrals wins, then you win one of the bundles as well.
Nate [00:07:02] So this giveaway will run until January 31st and then on February 1st, we’ll choose the three winners. So I would give you the URL, but it’s really long because it’s based on that episode. So to get the details, you just need to look up episode 35 of the podcast. You can either go to our website, click on podcasts at the top find episode 35, read the details on that page or you can listen to the podcast from your podcast app episode 35. And it will, we will mention the actual URLs in that podcast. But for your own good first of all and then for the explanation of the giveaway and the rationale behind the certain items we’re giving away, listen to the full episode. And it also will be very helpful for just the idea of setting goals… Currently because we’re just we just started the new year. But again, if you’re listening to this in the future, that topic is always relevant. All right.
Nate [00:07:53] So with all that being said, let’s get into this interview with Matthew.
Matthew [00:08:00] …Around June, June 10th, I believe I took my last exam. And then found out within the it was like 11 days or something, the way the windows fell at that point in time that I found out I passed.
Nate [00:08:13] Nice. Yeah, that’s a big, big relief, right?
Matthew [00:08:16] Oh You know it.
Matthew [00:08:19] Yeah. A lot of studying and. It’s extremely time consuming, but well worth it at the end.
Nate [00:08:27] Yeah, so do you work in public accounting or are you in industry?
Matthew [00:08:32] No, I’ve been in industry since I got out of college. I started at an energy company when I got my undergrad, worked there for about five years and been working at a manufacturing company now for a little while.
Nate [00:08:46] OK, so so for you, what was there to get like the next position to it, get to a point where you needed your CPA or what? What pushed you to do the CPA?
How Matthew Got Into Accounting
Matthew [00:09:00] Yeah, so was started back in high school when I just got interested in, in just the accounting class. It was something that kind of stuck with me and, you know, that I went to my undergrad and I started as just a general business major. But after the first semester, I realized that the management major is such a broad, such a broad major that I wanted to refine my skills and focus on a set industry or a set environment. And so I chose accounting. And it’s kind of just I’ve been drawn to it. I enjoy I enjoy doing it. It’s certainly challenging.
Matthew [00:09:42] But it was when I started trying to go for more senior level roles, senior accountant roles, you start to see that the CPA is the the factor that kind of sticks out there. And so, you know, if you have that on it, have it on there and have that title, then it looks a lot better for these employers out there.
Nate [00:10:03] Yeah, definitely. Yeah, just kind of, fulfills this big requirement that a lot of those higher level jobs, like you said, just have and just you don’t need to worry about you just… have it.
Matthew [00:10:18] Yeah. And it was a great it was a great thing for me to actually go through, especially because I didn’t start in public accounting. So public accounting, you’re getting sort of more of a broad spectrum of accounting. You get in all facets of it. You’re seeing all different types of industries and businesses. So to start in such a refined industry like the energy industry, it’s so, it’s so specialized and different than the rest. And they’re all they all have their differences. But, you know, it was important to to take this exam and see all the different aspects of accounting, fraud, all the reporting requirements and, you know, just the business law concepts, contracts and everything, which is a great experience to have to because it gives you a really good definition idea, understanding of the business, world and business in general. And I’ve heard on some of these podcasts to, you know, that’s that’s what’s key in business. And that’s why a lot of people are drawn to accounting, because you get pretty much all aspects of it, the ins and outs, which is great. And I love that.
Nate [00:11:33] Yeah. And you probably said this, but so you were were you out of school about five years before… Or actually… going back, did you do a master’s in accounting or did you do the 150 hours?
Nate [00:11:47] Yeah. So what happened was I did my undergrad graduated, worked for 18 years of about three years and I started, I had started a master’s program with dual Masters MBA MSA at the same time. So I started taking those classes and once I reached the 150 mark, I decided to put them on hold and focus on the CPA exam. And what was great about the master’s program was that they gave me the study materials, they gave me Wiley study materials. So it was great to be able to use those and get that as a part of the degree. And then so I focused on that for a little while. And now now that I’m done, I’m finishing up my master’s degrees.
Nate [00:12:29] Nice. OK, and and so when did you… well, not necessarily when, but when you started the CPA study process, you had Whiley, like you said. And how did you approach it in the beginning?
Passing FAR on the First Try
Matthew [00:12:44] Yeah. So in the beginning. So I took my first exam on financial reporting. I thought that that would be a great starting point because of just the experiences I had had, you know, closes, and I was basically doing financial reporting at that time. No law concepts, no contracts, nothing like that. So I just kind of followed the program, the Wiley program, and it’s similar to like Becker and stuff. You know, they lay out when you want to take the exam, when you start studying, they kind of map it out for you. You watch the video lectures, you read the study texts, you do the questions, kind of repeat the cycle over and over again until you get through the sections. So that’s how I did my first exam. And for financial reporting, I ended up getting an 86 and passing the first time. So I was, that was honestly huge for me and my, you know, for lack of a better term, my ego, try to do the same things for the next one. But it was after finding SuperfastCPA, you know, you realize that the differences in the strategies for studying. So I tried to do that again for my second one. And I failed. And I then I had I had did BEC. I heard from some people that that was one of the easier ones. But I figured, I’ll take that one next, and hopefully it’s a, it’s a meatball, you know. But uh, but I failed it, you know. And so that was kind of discouraging, you know. And so that was my first setback and. And yeah, but but I started doing it the way they they, I guess, instructed you with the software.
Nate [00:14:28] Ok… Ok, so you passed FAR, just doing it the normal way. At what point did you come across our training or whatever you found from us first.
Matthew [00:14:40] Yeah. So…
Nate [00:14:40] Was it after FAR? Or,
Matthew [00:14:42] No. So I started trying to do it again that same way for BEC and ended up failing. But it was either after failing BEC, I also felt REG right afterwards. So two in a row and failed, so it was, was like a dagger in the heart, but I knew I was going to come back and get it. So it was it was somewhere around that point in time that I found it and it was really kind of like you’re umm, your Study Hacks or whatever you call it. I think it was Study Hacks or something.
Nate [00:15:14] Yeah. Yeah.
Matthew [00:15:15] And just like most of the other people, it just kind of resonated with me, you know, and made it it gave you a little bit of a different approach in terms of how to study, because truthfully, I was I never really studied in school up until like my last years in college. And so any effective study habits and things like that were never, never anything I had gone through and my work experience. So after seeing that, it certainly helped give me a different mindset and set me on, I think, a different path. And from there, I passed three in a row, so..
Nate [00:15:51] Nice. That’s awesome. OK, going back to FAR, you were obviously working full time when you were studying for that, right?
Matthew [00:16:01] Yeah. Yeah.
Nate [00:16:02] And so when did you study during the day, at that point?
1.5 Hour Commutes at 3am
Matthew [00:16:07] So. You know, that job, the energy when I was at the energy company early on, I was driving about an hour and a half each way to work each day.
Nate [00:16:18] Oh, wow…
Matthew [00:16:20] A lot of traffic, but it’s an hour with no traffic. So it was always like an hour or so, three hours a day in the car. So, you know that the audio notes were like they were my go to. So I spent a lot of time doing that.
Matthew [00:16:36] So I used to try and get into the office of like, geez, I would get there five o’clock and nobody showed up till nine. I would get there like five, five, 30 and study for a couple hours in the office with nobody else there for a while.
Nate [00:16:48] You would, you would get there at 5:00 in the morning?
Matthew [00:16:51] Oh yeah. Because…
Nate [00:16:51] So you’re leaving home at 3:00 in the morning? 3:30?
Matthew [00:16:56] Oh yearh, 3, 3:30, 4:00am so, depending, but the plus is there’s no traffic at that time. So, it’s a smooth ride, I can do some studying and then you know, it’s kind of out of the way at that point. You know, if you did it and now you can do is when you’re laying in bed or something or something you can focus on like the little quizzes or just take practice questions or, you know, whatever. But obviously, if you don’t drive an hour and half each way, you don’t have to go to a place like that.
Nate [00:17:23] That’s quite… yeah, that’s a big commute.
Matthew [00:17:26] Yeah, I also, when I got the new job, it’s about 15 minutes from my house. I would just wake up early sometimes before the workday. And obviously the commute was so short so I could study before work, put in a couple hours there and do the same thing at night with the questions.
Nate [00:17:44] Gotcha. OK, so did you did you move jobs during FAR then? So you had, you didn’t have to have the 3 hour commute anymore?
Matthew [00:17:54] I had just passed FAR and then I got a new job, and I basically immediately started studying for the next one. The way I kind of laid it out, is I like to study in like… some people are doing it in crazy amounts of time. God bless them for doing that. But, you know, I uh, I prepared like two, two and a half months sometimes for the exam.
Running into Issues with BEC and REG
Matthew [00:18:16] Initially, it was to get through the materials the way they the software told me to do it. But after that, it was more so I would get through the materials in plenty of time and then I would just really want that time to do a ton of multiple choice questions and just don’t stop until the last minute.
Matthew [00:18:36] So, yeah, about two and a half months between each exam.
Nate [00:18:43] OK. And so, yeah, so with our stuff, some people, like you said, the we have the Study Hacks videos, the strategy videos, whatever you want to call them. Some people adopt that approach with their main review course and then they use our study tools a bunch throughout the day as well. Some people just get mainly our study tools and just kind of use those, but they still kind of study their own way with their review course for their main sessions. So were the strategies in the Study Hacks did you adopt those or was it mostly you were just using the study tools like on the like the audios and stuff?
Matthew [00:19:20] I definitely adopted a lot of the a lot of the habits and stuff. It’s all it was all geared towards getting you to really think about being in the mindset for teaching and realizing the effort that it takes to get through it. But how how much of a reward it is at the end for being able to accomplish it. So, yeah, I definitely followed the hacks. But also, you know, I was always doing video lectures and always reading… at certain times I would read the audio, read the lecture notes, just sitting around, just kind of diddling on my phone like you say in the Study Hacks video. Any time you you’re on your phone, you know, you could pull up the lectures, or the study text and just kind of flip through it. And so I tried to do that a lot too. And the little quizzes were great, also, on the go.
Nate [00:20:11] Yeah, one question I have is, so what do you think the… So you pass FAR you know, but then you see and you basically execute the same study process for BEC and REG, but what do you think the disconnect was with those two sections? And your uh, like your study process? And then, you know, now that you’ve passed, looking back, what were you missing on those two sections, do you think, with the study process?
Matthew [00:20:39] Yeah, I think it’s clear as day that, like, there’s just so much content and like a lot of people say in these podcasts, you start to lose it. You start to lose it with the way that you were doing it before, where you’re just trying to get through, you know, and you’re not really… like you talk about reinforcing it, so end up kind of getting through and then you take the questions on the exam and you know, you haven’t touched something in a long period of time, if I’m studying for two months, I might not have got back to that subject and, you know, maybe at all. So the reinforcement piece was huge for me. When you talk about, you know, looking at the questions before going through the content.
Nate [00:21:23] Yeah,.
Re-Review Being the Key
Matthew [00:21:24] That’s… It’s seems so simple, but it makes so much sense because gave me every piece of information I needed to think about for the sections, because if the questions wrong, you know, that’s what you need to remember. So when you start to go through, you start to see, pick up on it and see like, oh yeah, there was a question on that. So that kind of helps you better understand it. But I think that was for me, huge, because at the end. At the very end. For the for the two that I had failed, that I was retaking them, I was just hammering home questions, I think the whole the whole time I plan to retake the time in between when I planned it and ended up taking the test, I think it was nothing but multiple choice questions. And a lot of people talk about, too, the questions are quirky and they have their own way about them. So it’s important to be in tune with kind of how they ask them what the structure is. You know, that’s your best ideas for finding a good answer. If you’re not sure things like that, those are important, too. So that’s why I like to take a lot of multiple choice. I mean, for a while anyways.
Nate [00:22:35] Yes, right. And so the the idea of rereview, kind of like daily rereview, that’s what we made our our notes and audios. that’s why they’re so short, so that you can get through them in a day or two of doing those little mini sessions or like you. I mean, if you were commuting three hours, you probably got through the audios like almost once a day.
Matthew [00:22:56] Yeah, I can almost recite it when I came back around.
Nate [00:23:01] That’s funny. That’s a lot of listening to my voice, but apparently it worked.
Nate [00:23:09] Did you also do the… One thing I talk about a lot is finishing a session with like a set of 30 questions. Did you, did you do that?
Matthew [00:23:18] Yeah, I would. I would do that, not all the time, because I was doing a ton of questions anyways. Right. But occasionally I would do not just what like… Each section has a certain set of practice questions and there’s a big test bank, but sometimes they want you to do it just to practice questions first. But I would do like a 30… uh, a 30 question quiz before a section. OK, but I would just do all the questions in that section, sometimes twenty five, thirty and then do the lesson.
Nate [00:23:53] OK, let’s see. Another question was what did your weekends look like? Did you study differently? Did you use those to catch up or do anything different than on weekdays or how would you use weekends for study?
Matthew [00:24:06] Yeah, so weekends were a lot of study. Sometimes four to six hours each day, maybe sometimes it could be less, could be two, two hours, if you had a good week or something like that, you’re kind of keeping up with the content of your main study course because it’s just making time for the multiple choice.
Matthew’s Approach for Simulations
Nate [00:24:28] So the next thing. What about Sims? Did you use practice Sims a lot or did you mostly rely on multiple choice to kind of learn the concepts and then just look at practice Sims a little bit to see what they looked like? So you at least had an idea. How did you prepare for the Sims?
Matthew [00:24:45] Yeah, so I did a Sims when I started financial reporting. So in the very beginning to kind of get an understanding of how they worked and how to move around in the software, get a feel for what it was going to be like during the exam. But. That was that was pretty much it. Truthfully, I didn’t do many Sims at all. I knew that they were their own breed of of questions. So, even in financial reporting in the beginning, I, I didn’t get through, I think, three of the SIMs on the exam, but somehow I ended up with a good score. So I must have done good at the multiple choice.
Nate [00:25:21] Yeah. Must must have been.
Matthew [00:25:23] Yeah. The, the, the simulations are pretty comprehensive sometimes, but they also have, you know, their quirks in terms of how the questions are asked and things like that. So it’s just a matter of after I took the first exam and failed two times, I kind of had an understanding of the way they worked. It’s just a matter of knowing the content.
Flagging Questions vs Flashcards
Nate [00:25:44] Correct. Yep. And then what was your, did you have a system for taking notes or making flashcards, anything where you were putting topics you struggled with in your own words?
Matthew [00:25:56] So what I used, which was good, I didn’t use flashcards, I was never good flashcard guy. What I used was, Wiley had the ability to flag the questions. So any time I got a question wrong, I would flag it. Any time I got a question right, but I guessed, I would flag it. So I knew that I didn’t really know it – just got lucky. So what I would do is at certain points in time, I would just take random 30 question quizzes on the flagged items and actually, closer to the end right before the exam day, I would do the same. I would pick mostly flagged items, because if there’s any extra stuff that I already know that flows in, I’m almost just wasting time at that point trying to nail any of the stuff that I didn’t know right before the exam. So that was, that was good for me. But no, no flashcards. Writing just takes too much time. I write really slow, so.
Nate [00:26:57] Yeah, OK. I do like that tip though about flagging questions all the way through, like I used Wiley too and I had started doing that. I mean, it’s kind of funny. Like I wrote a bunch of flashcards, but I stopped flagging questions and I would say it’s because I was like too lazy to flag them all. But I did write flash cards, but that just kind of goes to show. It’s like whatever you just figure things out, like you figure out what’s working for you.
Matthew [00:27:26] Exactly.
Nate [00:27:27] That was your way of identifying your problem areas.
Matthew [00:27:36] Yeah and that’s key, because you’re talking about that aspect of reinforcing. If you weren’t doing that as much with all the practice questions and stuff, you wouldn’t be getting a clearer picture of the areas that you need to focus on when you start to see all the different areas that you’re struggling with. So that’s that’s extremely important for improving your your scores on the exams.
Nate [00:27:58] Yeah. And then that goes into the next thing. What did you do for your final review? Like, I’m always preaching. If you’re doing enough re-review along the way, you don’t need a traditional two week long final review. But multiple people have kind of described what you did, where they would save a couple of weeks to just do a review like cumulative… cumulative review of just everything, because you’ve gone through topics quicker the first time and sounds like you were relying on your review process to really tune in. So how did how did that work? How many weeks did you leave yourself? And then again, just what did you do specifically in your final review?
Matthew [00:28:41] Yeah, so I figured that kind of like I talked about, the stuff that I flagged was that was what I was going to focus on for probably the last two weeks or so right before the exam, because I have been doing questions so long up until this point.
Matthew [00:28:56] So going over those flags, constant, constant quizzes, nonstop. If I had any any concepts that were discussed during the lectures as being important and I wasn’t doing well on them right before the exam, maybe I’d go back into the materials and touch up, touch up on and see if something will strike me to help me understand it a little better before the exam. But other than that, just banging out the questions, everybody says it’s so important to go through them. Yeah, there’s a lot of, I never even made it through. There’s a lot more…
Nate [00:29:33] Right, yeah that’s the same as me. I don’t think I did all the questions contained in Wiley, but I did a lot. What about test day itself? Maybe contrast the… Your two failed sections with when you had the break through and then went three for three on the last ones. What was your experience on test day like as far as where you were you running out of time on those two failed sections at all? And then did you get much faster when you passed the other three, what was your test day experience between those two?
Comparing Test Day Experiences
Matthew [00:30:04] Yeah, so to start my first test experience was just the nerves like everyone talks about. It was kind of the old way of studying, my old way of studying. So I just kind of got through it felt like I did terrible and somehow I had a good score. So like I said, I kept my boosting my motivation. But for the next two that I felt I could. I definitely felt like, come test day I was more overwhelmed with the content because I just feel like I’m trying to cram in, like with the quizzes, I mean, you just constantly take it, it’s repetitive. It gets you thinking, here I felt like I was just I was lost for everything that I had studied, second guessing myself and things like that. But when I when I went to the exams after SuperfastCPA, because I had done so many questions and like I felt like this was just another quiz, you know, and, you know, certainly I didn’t pass with flying colors like close to perfect and stuff. But I made it through and like you could see the improvement and the comfortability taking the exam. It just felt like another one of your quizzes and you did your best to get as high as you could, and, and I just felt confident at the end of all of them or more confident… Not like I knew I passed but more confidence than the first couple of times.
Nate [00:31:23] And that is that’s a big thing. I mean, really, there’s like 10 elements that kind of flow into that. You know, you’re doing so many questions throughout the study process and all these sets of 30. It just solves so many problems. It makes you just very comfortable answering multiple choice questions. So on test day you’re not freaking out. You’re not feeling overwhelmed. You cruise through the multiple choice questions. So then you have plenty of time to sit there and understand the Sims, first of all, what it’s asking. Yeah, yeah. It’s just kind of it just solves a lot of problems.
Matthew [00:31:59] Yep and so just to that point, like when I took the first exam FAR, like I said, I didn’t finish three of the Sims, and I was like plugging away until the very last minute, the last two exams I took. I had so much time for the Sims. I had like, I probably had like thirty minutes left on each exam, you know, what do I do? Do I look at it any longer, or am I going to second guess myself? You know, it’s like it definitely worked that it changes. I really feel like it just changed my approach to to taking an exam. And someone on the last podcast talked about, you know, just having that comfortability, taking, taking, taking an exam. It is like that they they do a lot of things to see how well of an exam taker you are, but also to see your knowledge and your skills. But it can be tricky. And so feeling any level of comfortability going in there, it just helps set you at ease and and gets you through a really good big chunk of the exam, which is multiple choice, and a lot of points and stuff so you can focus on those Sims, and try and understand them the best you can because they are difficult. They’re challenging, and so you need as much time as you can to get through.
Nate [00:33:15] Yep, Yeah. Well, yeah, that’s that’s basically everything I normally go through. You know, you made a lot of good points and it all just, the interesting thing you heard me say this on other interviews is everyone I’ve talked to on these interviews, they had their own ways of doing things in the details. But you all kind of did the same big, had the same big pillar things that you did, right.
Matthew [00:33:41] Yeah, Well thanks for thanks for helping me out, man.
Nate [00:33:46] Yeah. I’m glad I could help. You know, it’s, it is…
Matthew [00:33:48] I’ll never forget your voice that’s for sure.
Nate [00:33:52] I bet, that’s funny. That’s a lot of listening time. And so, so just to end, what do you think if you were going to give even if you even if we already covered it, what would you say would be your top two or three tips to people that are currently studying?
Matthew [00:34:08] Yeah. So my strategy, if I were to attack it again, is you got to make it through your actual study materials, like the lecture, video lectures and the study text, but have to reinforce it with the questions and especially the SuperfastCPA stuff that you can use on the go, the audio notes in the quiz and stuff. You have to get those questions in because that’s where you’re gonna, that’s where you’re going to get the most return is focusing on the way the questions are laid out, what certain things they’re looking for in your answers and whatnot. That’s, I think that’s the money maker right there.
Nate [00:34:43] All right. Well, yeah. So I appreciate you doing the call. These are really valuable for us and for everyone listening. Like we get a lot of feedback on these, that people just find these really helpful and just hear over time kind of kind of a conglomeration of what’s worked for so many people, you know, it’s.
Matthew [00:35:04] Yeah it should motivate you to because when I passed one, I got high and then I got a real low with two failing scores. But, you know, it’ll keep you motivated to know that other people are following the same type of program as you and that it actually does work. It makes an impact.
Nate [00:35:19] Yeah. All right. We I appreciate it.
Matthew [00:35:22] Thanks a lot. I appreciate everything.
Nate [00:35:24] I’m happy to help you out. It is. It’s rewarding… Writing summaries of the tax code is not so much fun, but, yeah,.
Matthew [00:35:36] I’m sure you had a blast making all those videos…
Nate [00:35:40] Yeah, tons.
Nate [00:35:42] Yeah. But again, I appreciate you taking the time. It’s good to have… Before we did these podcasts, what I realized some people would write back, you know, but what I realized is like your best customers, the ones who take your advice and like use the stuff and pass, you don’t typically hear from them because they don’t really have a reason to get back in touch.
Matthew [00:36:05] Yeah, it makes sense.
Nate [00:36:06] We would obviously get some emails, but there’s so many good stories with these interviews we’ve done that I would have never heard.
Matthew [00:36:13] And it’s a real good feedback. It’s real. You know, real people like stories for for people all across the country and stuff. And like I said, if I was taking the exam now and I was seeing these videos and seeing all this, and I was following SuperfastCPA, I’d feel so, so confident that the program was going to work for me and I find something beneficial. So yeah, yeah, I would definitely go right after and purchase it again, so.
Nate [00:36:39] All right, man. Well, I appreciate it again and congrats on being done. That’s awesome.
Nate [00:36:45] Thank you very much, man. And thanks again for everything. All right.
Nate [00:36:51] All right. So that was the interview with Matthew. So a few things I want to point out. A few things that I really liked that he said was specifically when he talked about his experience the first so three sections, FAR which he passed. But he even mentions that he ran out of time and didn’t even look at the last three Sims. So, I mean, he must have really crushed the multiple choice questions on that first one. And then he failed BEC and REG and he felt stressed like he was running out of time, and then contrasting that with, after he had gone through or applied our study framework, which relies heavily on, again, doing what you will be doing on test day, going through a lot of questions, reading stuff in the context of the questions. That’s why our review notes are set up that way, anyways… and the audios. But he just mentioned how much more comfortable and at ease he felt and like the actual live exam after studying this way just felt like no big deal to him because he was so comfortable with answering exam questions. And I guess if you really sum it up, that is the entire reason why we advocate the study methods that we do, is so that you’re very, very comfortable and good at what you’ll be doing on test. And that sounds so obvious, but that really is not how the normal way of studying is set up. So if you haven’t attend one of our free trainings, you’ll get a really good overview of our study process. And I guarantee you the ideas will click and make a lot of sense to you. So you can do that at SuperfastCPA.com/training, rr you can just go to our homepage SuperfastCPA.com. And it’s the main thing on the home page. There’s a button just to look at the times, the upcoming times and register for a session where you can attend and pay attention for an hour, 60 to 90 minutes depending. So so do that and then listen to episode 35 to get the details on our giveaway. These bundles are clocking around $350-$400. These are real items we’re going to ship to you if you’re one of the three winners.
Nate [00:38:51] So listen to episode 35 for that, the rationale behind the items and you know, even if you don’t win, it’s just a really good discussion on the idea of setting goals, chunking that down into actual daily habits specifically for the CPA study process. So thank you for listening and we’ll see you on the next episode.
