In this SuperfastCPA podcast interview, you’ll hear how Ram passed his CPA exams while working full-time and still having time to spend with his family after adopting the SuperfastCPA strategies.
IMPORTANT LINKS:
Master your study process by attending one of our free study training workshops:
https://www.superfastcpa.com/study-secrets/
Episode Timestamps
- 00:00 Intro
- 03:13 The Biggest Obstacles Ram Faced Studying in the Beginning
- 05:13 Got SuperfastCPA and Started to Pass
- 06:33 Ram’s Active Study Time is Spent on Grinding Multiple Choice Questions
- 08:08 Utilizing the SuperfastCPA Strategies and Study Materials
- 09:01 Passed FAR and Started Passing the Rest
- 12:11 The Feeling of Finally Passing Your Last CPA Exam
- 13:53 The Reason Why Ram Stayed Motivated to Finish the CPA Exams
- 15:20 One Thing Ram Did that Helped His CPA Journey
- 16:30 Stick to a Strategy on Test Day
- 17:41 Ram Did a Two Week Cram Doing Sets Daily for Repeated Exposure
- 21:32 The Biggest Change Ram Did Studying Before and After He Started to Pass
- 24:16 Ram Talks About How Hard it is Studying for the CPA Exams
- 28:39 The Value Ram Got from SuperfastCPA
- 31:28 How Ram Felt Using the Questions First Approach
- 32:57 Scheduling Exams on a Monday is Key
- 34:08 Always Made Sure to Do Multiple TBS’s 48 Hours Before the Exams
- 35:26 You Need to Make Sacrifices for it to Work
- 38:07 Ram on Balancing Family, Friends and Activities
- 40:59 Having the Mission Statement by His Computer Kept Ram Motivated
- 43:59 Ram’s Daily Study Routine
- 47:05 Sharing His Experience with BAR
- 52:05 Listened to All SuperfastCPA Discipline Audio Notes to Decide Which Discipline to Take
- 55:37 Finding About His Final Passing Score And Getting His Evenings Back
- 58:29 Top Tips for People Still Struggling with Their Study Process
Interview Transcript
Ram: [00:00:00] I fell into that trap. I fell into that trap of thinking, oh, I can just read the book, watch the video, and that’s going to be actual like productive studying. And that was not. So once I flipped the switch and I changed my whole study strategy and I started seeing results, I never looked back, you know, and that honestly started with SuperfastCPA.
Logan: Welcome to another episode of the CPA exam experience podcast from SuperfastCPA, I’m Logan. And in today’s video, you’re going to hear Nate and I talking to Ram.
Now Ram had a long journey. He was going for the CPA exam for almost seven years. Almost seven years ago, he started studying for the CPA exam, once he was eligible out of school and that was in 2017. He spent three years trying to pass the CPA exam. He took the exam six times and failed six times in that three-year period. So just think of that, he was spending all that time studying for three years. And he failed six times [00:01:00] during that three years.
So his whole life was controlled by the CPA exam. He would work and stay late after work and study, and it was just miserable and super difficult.
In 2020, COVID happened and he decided that he was just going to kind of leave it alone for a bit. He, it was still hanging over his head. And he still studied for it a little bit, but he switched from public accounting to industry accounting for awhile.
But as time went on, he got married. He had two kids and he realized, you know what, I want to get back into public accounting because I want to have that kind of a career. So he started studying for the CPA exam, but this time around, he found SuperfastCPA and he went from studying again for three years and failing six exams in those three years to passing all of his exams. And again, he was busy. He had work, he had two kids. He has a wife .
And in this interview, you’ll see what a huge difference it made in his life to be able to pass these exams without losing so much time.
He has a lot of fantastic advice in this interview. And I think you’re going to love it. And [00:02:00] I think the biggest thing that you can gain from this episode is perseverance. Knowing that you can get through the CPA exams. Ram was worrying about the CPA exams and taking exams off and on for seven years before he was able to pass these exams and all it took was changing his strategies, and tweaking his way of studying and his mindset just a little bit. And he was able to pass the exams.
And that means that you can too. So if you’re struggling with the CPA exams and you’ve been going through them for a long time, maybe even years, or if you know somebody who is going through that, make sure you show them this podcast episode and the other podcast episodes for SuperfastCPA.
Before we jump into the interview. I just want to give everyone a reminder about the SuperfastCPA training webinar on superfastcpa.com. We teach the key ingredients to passing the CPA exam. And this webinar is usually the thing that gets people into SuperfastCPA.
It’s usually how people are introduced to SuperfastCPA. And as you’ve seen in all these episodes, if you’ve watched any of the podcast episodes, just watching that one hour webinar makes a huge difference because from then on [00:03:00] people know the effective way of studying and then they might even get the pro course and the SuperfastCPA study bundle, and that helps them pass even more quickly.
Make sure you go check that out. And with that, let’s dive straight into the interview with Ram
The Biggest Obstacles Ram Faced Studying in the Beginning
Nate: When you started studying, what were some of just the biggest obstacles you ran into in the beginning? Before using SuperfastCPA, I guess.
Ram: Right. So my CPA journey started back in 2017. Um, I didn’t originally, uh, go into accounting. Originally, I got my undergrad degree in econ and finance. I worked for a little bit and then I decided, you know, I really like accounting. I want to pursue this. So then I went back to school, took all the credits, all the classes to be eligible to sit for the CPA exam.
And once I became eligible to sit for the CPA exam, I started studying right away, which was in 2017, which is when I first got my first gig in public accounting. So during that time, I was working full time for this midsize CPA firm. I was [00:04:00] studying through the, uh, with the Becker because that’s my firm gave us and I was a great, um, and I would, you know, just do the same process that all of my other interns and other, other people that was studying for do. Watch the video, do the questions and gonna go through that whole process.
I did that for three years. I failed six exams within that three year period. And it wasn’t even like I was failing. Like in the 50s, 60s, I was getting 74, 73, 72, 71. And so over the course of three years, I failed, uh, BEC twice or BEC three times, audit twice and FAR once. And then COVID happened, 2020, and this is when I started feeling, I was like, man, I don’t know if this is for me, I don’t know what to do, and I ended up leaving public accounting, I went to go work for one of my clients for about two years, and then I told myself, oh, I’m going to study, I’m going to study, never really got to it, [00:05:00] life happened, I got married, I had two kids, you know, just stuff happens, and then, and then I decided, you know I’m looking for a new job, man.
It’s like, oh, if I go back to public accounting, gotta get the CPA. I got to.
Got SuperfastCPA and Started to Pass
Ram: So then right before I switched over to my current job at a large public accounting firm, um, I picked up SuperfastCPA cause I’ve seen it. You’ve seen your videos on wanting to pass. And I was like, you know what? This just makes sense.
Let me just, let me watch the one hour video, finally. And, uh, and, and I was like, Let me get it. Let me get it. I’m just gonna get the PRO course. So I got the PRO course plus, I pretty much got the entire big bundle. And, and I went through the whole PRO course at first and I remember hearing somebody say, oh, I’m gonna, I listened, I watched the whole PRO course, um, every time I started a new exams to kind of like reset. And I did that for the first couple. Um, but then I say, I stopped watching the PRO courses. Um, and then I started [00:06:00] using it. And the first three months in the 2023, last year, I studied for FAR for the, uh, for like three, four months straight, and I got an 88 and I was like, mind blown.
I was like, this works. And ever since that day, I’ve nonstop just talk about SuperfastCPA to any, cause I work with a lot of colleagues or, you know, people that also started for CPA. And I was just like, listen, this is the strategy. This is gonna work. And if you follow it, you do it, you, you dedicate that time, you sacrifice whatever time, and God knows I was sacrificing a lot.
Ram’s Active Study Time is Spent on Grinding Multiple Choice Questions
Ram: And then my, you know, my life was really hectic at this point. No, I, at this point I had two kids. I have a full time job, got a house, got a wife, got kids. And, you know, and then, um, I really tried to stick to, you know, the setting in the morning, but it just did not work with my schedule, you know, cause I have to wake up at five, six o’clock in the morning, get the kids breakfast and lunch ready, get my wife’s breakfast lunch ready.
She’s a teacher. So she’s out the door and then I have to get the kids to [00:07:00] daycare, come back home. By the time I come back home, it’s nine, nine 30. Yeah. So yeah, that really didn’t work with me. So I would, you know, I implemented all the strategies I worked in the evening. Actually, I, I, I, uh, study in the evening, so.
Put the, you know, it worked from 9 to 6, 6 to 8 was family time, dinner time, and then put the kids to sleep, and then from 9 to 12, 1, 2 o’clock, sometimes it was really late. Grinding. Just grinding. Every day. Non stop multiple choice questions. I tell you right now, I never read the book. Granted. This was my coming back to studying.
So I had already kind of gone through the BEC material, the audit material, the FAR material, but I’ve been working for a long time now. I’ve been studying. Um, so I kind of just went full head on into the nonstop multiple choice questions. That’s all I did. Just banging through multiple choice questions, you know, constantly going through once, going through [00:08:00] them twice, following the strategies of don’t even try to, and I did watch all the videos, but I watched it on my own time.
Utilizing the SuperfastCPA Strategies and Study Materials
Ram: So my active studying time purely just focused on the SuperfastCPA strategies, whether it was just nonstop multiple choice. You know, going from one chapter to the next, going them over again, and just making sure I’m answering every question, exposing myself to all this, as much CPA material as I can.
So that, I did at least two, three hours a night, and then during the day I would do the mini quizzes, that was huge. Um, listening to audio notes when I’m going to sleep, commuting, any, any free time, long drives, any, just nonstop, just exposing myself to CPA material. And that’s what I really would just push to everybody else.
Like, if you want to pass the exam, some people can just study, you know, on their first try and get it. I wasn’t that person. That wasn’t me. That wasn’t my [00:09:00] experience ever.
Passed FAR and Started Passing the Rest
Ram: And, so I, I, I passed FAR, and that set the clock. That, that, that started the clock for me. I was like, alright. That huge, huge motivation boost.
And that was around May, 2023. And then the whole summer went by. I was kind of like slacking on studying on BEC. I took BEC. I ended up failing it with a 71. And I was like, man, I didn’t do everything I needed to do. And I was just in a new job. So I was whatever. And then I just moved on to audit in November of 2027, 2023. And, and then I studied nonstop for that and I ended up passing that with the 77 in, in December, right before 2023 ended. So I went into 2024 with, I went into 2024 with two pass scores, which was huge for me ’cause before 2023, I never passed anything.
Nate: Mm-Hmm.
Ram: So for me that was huge. And then as soon as I took audit.
That same day, [00:10:00] I went right into REG literally on the drive home. I’m listening to REG audio notes. Like that’s, that’s how much I was just like, I’m going to cool. So I did about two and a half months of studying for REG. And I took that on February 5th. I found, I took, and I wasn’t going to find out that score until late May.
And then I took BAR, um, in early, mid, early May, mid May, and so I had to, because of the timeline of when the scores were going to be released, I couldn’t wait for my score to make sure, so I just went right into studying for BAR after I took REG, but I was feeling pretty good, so, and I felt confident, I was like, it can go either way, I’m not really sure, um, but whatever, I had to move on, because I was like, I’m not going to waste time.
So I studied for, then I started studying for BAR, which I failed BAR four, BEC four times. And that was just, and it was all in the 70s too, so it was so frustrating that I could not pass the exam. But once I took [00:11:00] BAR, I was like, oh, this is great. Half BEC, half FAR. And I killed it in FAR. So for me, and then also I work, uh, I have experience working in governmental accounting.
So all those government, all those government questions, easy. I was not too stressed about those. So, I took BAR and then I found out my REG score in, I think, like late May and I got an 84. So I never passed a CPA exam on the first try. So that was huge. And I was like, man, even this REG, I don’t even work in REG. I don’t even work in tax.
Nate: I was going to ask that. Yeah. You don’t, you’re, you work in audit, right?
Ram: I work in audit. Yeah. So I’ve been working in audit for almost seven years now. Um, and, and now, and then I was waiting. Then after I took that last exam, I was like, all right, now it’s up to, you know, and I had a, I had a schedule planned from last.
I said, okay, I’m going to take this exam in February, BAR in May, when it was at the end of that period, that testing period, and I’m going to find out [00:12:00] in the end of May and the end of June. So I said, okay, if this happens, then if I fail, then I know I have to take it before July 31st. And if that, no, I just plan ahead of time and I hit every mark.
The Feeling of Finally Passing Your Last CPA Exam
Ram: And then at the end of June, right before I went on vacation, I found out I passed BAR with an 80 and everything just like this, released all the stress, all the anxiety from the last seven years just passed, just went by and I was like, I’m finally done. And it was just a crazy journey. And honestly, I couldn’t, I couldn’t believe it.
I really couldn’t believe it that I finally got it done with. And I, I really, I really put that achievement to SuperfastCPA and just the strategies that I learned and the way, changing the way I, I, I changed the way I studied, the way I approached the exam, the way I looked at the exam. I’m not studying to learn all the information I’m studying to pass the exam.
Nate: Yeah.
Ram: And as I did that, practicing this, now that’s what you are [00:13:00] pushing, you know, making sure you said it. You’re, you’re, you’re gonna start realizing, oh, there’s trends in the types of, in the topics that they’re testing and what they’re gonna be asking you for that topic. You don’t need to learn a hundred percent of everything for that topic.
You need to learn a hundred percent of what they’re gonna be asking you related to that topic. And that’s what I, what I would tell everybody or tell my peers and friends that are also studying for CPA exam. It’s like, this is, this is how you pass exam. Yeah, you’re gonna learn way more information from the questions because they want to tell you what the answer is and why is the answer to the other, the other answer.
They can tell you why those aren’t the answers. And those, and those explanations will also feed into questions on other questions if they, if they reworded differently. So that’s why I would always tell people, you know, you can, you can really learn so much from just the practice questions. Yeah. And that’s literally what I was doing.
The Reason Why Ram Stayed Motivated to Finish the CPA Exams
Ram: You know, I would, you know, it is hard. Honestly, it was tough. Some nights I just didn’t want to study. And, but [00:14:00] I would keep pushing myself. And now it’s thinking about my kids and I’m like, Hey, I gotta, I gotta get this done. I want to, my wife, she sacrificed so much time. You know, she, she was with me through all the exams I failed, she knew exactly like what I was going through. And as she saw me passing exams, she started seeing the light of the tunnel, just like me.
Nate: Yeah. That’s awesome, man. Well, congrats. That’s really cool to hear.
Ram: And then the best news, I just last week, I got the email finally saying, hey, everything’s been approved.
The board has approved, I live in New York state. So the board approved my, all the, all the application and I should be getting my license in the next couple of weeks. So
Logan: That’s awesome.
Ram: That’s a good feeling.
Logan: That’s awesome. So you’ll be officially a CPA.
Ram: Yeah. I’m like checking every day on the online verification system.
What is it?
Nate: Yeah. I mean, after something like that, something you battled with for seven years, um, you know, I, [00:15:00] like some people, like you said, like some people. Take it the first few times and just pass and sure they studied hard and, you know, put in the time, but it wasn’t this thing they were like fighting and messing up their life for years.
So the relief you experienced was just, it’s got to be huge after something like that.
One Thing Ram Did that Helped His CPA Journey
Ram: It really was and, you know, and I would tell that people, just other, other applicant of people taking the exams and it’s, it’s, it’s not easy sometimes, you know, it’s, it takes a lot of strength and determination. And if you don’t have, I see, you know, I’m in, I’m in so many different like support groups and, and, and your platform.
You know, I try to like comment and, and interact with others, trying to keep people motivated because that’s what I needed, you know, reading other people, reading other people’s messages, you know, yeah, it helps. It does help. And I think I recommend that for any kind of any candidate that’s looking to take the CPA, you know, [00:16:00] find these different groups, join them.
Be active in them, see other folks, see what they’re doing, see what works for other people. You know, but I did get a lot of people reaching out to me about, you know, Hey, what’s on the exam? What’s this and that, you know, it’s, that doesn’t really help. Cause what I would just say is you got to practice everything.
You never know what’s going to be on, you never know what’s going to be on exam, but if you practice everything, you’re going to be exposing yourself to all these different material when it actually comes to test day, you’re not going to be surprised.
Stick to a Strategy on Test Day
Ram: And next, what I would tell people is, you know, you got to stick to the strategy.
You got to stick to a strategy when it comes to test day. You can’t get overwhelmed in, in one or two questions and it just messes up your mood. Because if you’re feeling, if you get caught up on one question, where you think, oh, I need to, I need to figure it out, it’s going to mess you up in the TBS, in the TBS section.
So I would tell people, you know, you got to stick to minute, minute and a half each question. That’s generally the [00:17:00] kind of, generally the, the normal advice that people would get, you know, run through the run through testlet one and two within 40 to 45 minutes each and the more time you have for the, the task based simulations the better because you never know there’s going to be tasks that might take you five minutes But then there’s another one that might take you 30 minutes and, and surprisingly, they give you a lot more resources within those task based simulations than what I would imagine. They were giving us all the formulas, like I took BAR, every task based simulation had the formula resource in there.
And I was like, oh, wow. You don’t really need to memorize those formulas. They give it to you. You just got to know which one to use. Um.
Nate: Yeah.
Ram Did a Two Week Cram Doing Sets Daily for Repeated Exposure
Ram: But, but what I would tell people is, you know, and the, the best type of strategy for studying I thought was the most helpful was doing the sets. So I said, once you get through all the material, once you get through all the questions, this is what you got to do for two weeks up into the exam. You know, I know people say the 48 hour cram and [00:18:00] for me, it was like a two, two week cram, like just nonstop. You’re basically doing simulated exams every day. You know, you’re doing two testlets of 30 multiple choice questions. Then you do two to three, um, two to three or three to four tasks, three simulations, and that’s considered one set.
And that’s what I would tell people. I was like, you do that as many times as possible. You’re going to be exposing yourself to as much CPA material as you can. And by the time it comes to, by the time it comes to test day, you’ve been doing this already for two weeks. So you’re not going to get flustered.
You know how to, you know, how to react when there’s a question you don’t know you move on or you guess, and the questions that, you know, the ones that you read it for five seconds and boom, you know, the answer, those ones you have to get, and then the ones where you have to do a calculation or you may have to do, um, just kind of murmur a little bit, you know, take your time, but if you can’t get it, move on and stick and watch the clock, watch the clock, because then you can easily just get caught up in a question and let this [00:19:00] time slip.
And then you’re, once you get flustered, that feeling is very hard to get away, get away from. And that happened to me one time when I was like, Oh man, I’m not sure. But luckily it happened in a task based simulation where I was already past I remember when I took REG, I got past the REG simulat uh, multiple choice testlets in an hour, and I was like, surprised.
And I remember seeing questions that were citing specific sections, and I was like, I’ve never seen this in any of my practice questions. Why are they citing, you know, IRS section, blah, blah, blah. And I’m like, this can’t be a question. This can’t be, I think this is a test or a practice. One of those, um, those questions, right.
And I was like, and I think it was right. I think I was right because I ended up getting a four and all the questions that I wasn’t sure about were the questions that were citing specific IRS sections. And I was like, either those are, those don’t count and I’m going to be fine or I’m going [00:20:00] to fail by like very close.
And I ended up passing with a good score. So that was really, really helpful on my end. But I remember after the exam, I went back to all my study, which I was like, they don’t, they don’t cite anything like that in any question. So I said, this is, this has to be one of those, um, uh, practice questions that they’re testing to see if they want to actually add it to the CPA.
Nate: Yeah.
Logan: Yeah.
Ram: Um, Oh,
Logan: I was, uh, so I was gonna, I had a comment and then I did, I did have a question as well. So I agree. Like it can be really hard to get over that feeling flustered in the exam. Like if you let that happen, I remember my first exam when I was taking audit, I had never been to a testing center before ever like that.
And you know, they had the headphones, like the, to block out the noise and everything. And I remember I could not stop thinking about how uncomfortable the headphones were and how lat and so I kept taking them off and then people kept, I could, and then it was annoying me that all everybody’s clicking [00:21:00] cause I was so nervous, like, um, so I was like really flustered and, but eventually I just kind of had to like, just zone it all out and get into that Zen moment.
And, but anyway, like it can get, I agree, like it can get really hard to get past that fluster, like from feeling nervous or running into a question. Uh, but if you’re prepared like you were, then it, then you’ll be able to push past that one question and you’ll do your best on it. And then you can kind of just kill, uh, do the rest really well, you know?
So anyway, I like that experience.
The Biggest Change Ram Did Studying Before and After He Started to Pass
Logan: One, one thing I kind of wanted to, you know, you’ve shared a lot, uh, about the whole experience so far. One thing I wanted to go back to, to kind of, so we can kind of start breaking it down is, you know, you were doing it for three years previously and you were failing, um, and you ran into, I mean, you’ve failed six exams, but I think you were probably still studying in the evening then compared to studying in the evening when you were [00:22:00] passing exams.
Oh, right. I talked a bit about this, but what was like. What was the game changer, like why was studying four or five hours previously not translating to a passing exam? Whereas studying, you know, three or four hours, however long you were studying in the evenings. What was that change?
Ram: The biggest difference was the amount of time I put into practicing multiple choice questions.
I wasted so much time doing, like, following the video, highlighting the book, you know, the time where I’m not actually practicing questions. And that’s why I tell people that, you know, that are starting first exam, focus on the multiple choice questions. You will learn so much more information about actually the actual exam than what you’re going to be reading in the book.
Now, Becker, they have changed their, their kind of set up the way they structure their videos. They’re not hour long, they’re kind of micro videos. And then they give you the book to kind of just have as, as a, but personally never read, I never read the REG book, [00:23:00] never read, I don’t even have the BAR book. I just studied via the, the, the review course and, and, and then the SuperfastCPA, um, uh, resources, the audio notes was excellent.
And then when he started adding all, and then obviously the mini quizzes, I would tell people, even if they didn’t have SuperfastCPA, you know, you can still do mini quizzes on the Becker app. You know, as long as you’re just exposing yourself to those types of questions every day. If you do mini quiz 10 times a day, that’s extra 50 questions a day on top of your main study session. And then the biggest thing was always doing re-review if, even if you don’t study at all, one day, at least do one re review testlet, because then you’re continuously exposing yourself to the CPA material that you studied on day one. to whenever, whether it’s day 10, day 50, day 100, whatever it is, how long it takes to study, you’re still exposing yourself to that material every day.
And that’s why I always tell people, you know, [00:24:00] just, and I’m a huge advocate for just, you know, making sure of studying every day and granted, there was days where I didn’t, I didn’t want to study or I didn’t even study, but I would make sure I would still put in the time and time and effort when I needed to.
Ram Talks About How Hard it is Studying for the CPA Exams
Ram: And it was, it was hard. It was, it was very hard. It was draining. Um, you know, but I knew, and it took a toll on me long term, um, you know, just with the stress and everything. But I think once I started seeing the actual progress, started seeing myself pass, and started seeing myself pass, then I started like feeling more motivated.
And positive towards this whole experience of taking CPA exams. And it was hard. It was definitely a roller coaster. Uh, I’m sure a lot of other candidates, you know, have similar experiences. Um, but I’ve heard a lot of, from a lot of your old videos, you know, people who, you know, they’re working or they’re different, [00:25:00] different experiences of, you know, having family or kids or, or boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever the case is, you know, it, it’s hard.
It’s not just hard on you. It’s also hard on the person that, you know, your significant other, especially since they’re the ones seeing you because you’re sacrificing that time that you could be spending with them to study for the CPA. And a lot of people don’t want to do that. They don’t want to sacrifice that time.
And I don’t know what else to say, but you have to, you have to sacrifice some time, whether it’s your own personal time or time with someone else, or time with your kids or your family, you have to. And that’s just, you know, that’s just the truth of it, the truth of the matter, you know, and it’s, it’s hard to hear because this is gonna, this is, you know, ideally could be a year, year and a half of your life.
You know, but it could be more, it could be, it could be a me, you know, it could be seven years of your life where you’re just, you know, but, you know, it can be seven years of your life where you think, are you going to pass on your first try? [00:26:00] I was probably, it’s probably hubris at my point where I just thought, oh, I got this, I can do this.
And then after failing one after another, after another, that gets demoralizing. It’s hard. It’s hard. And, you know, I think part of that, that’s why I took a two year hiatus. Because like it was, it just wasn’t mentally there. And I wanted to, I wanted to study, I wanted to do it, but you know, it’s also a financial commitment.
Nate: Yeah.
Ram: You know, a lot of these firms, they’re not gonna, they’re not gonna reimburse you until you pass all four. So if you’re not, if you’re not passing and you’re still buying all these exams, it’s pricey. And, uh, you know, that’s another, that’s another reason, you know, and then also these review courses, if you don’t work for a firm, that’s going to offer it to you, you know, you have to put that money out yourself.
And that’s also another financial commitment there. So, you know, fortunately I, I had, I was able to get these resources through my job and, and, uh, and I took [00:27:00] advantage.
Nate: Yeah. Yeah. Like you said, uh, you know, your first three years, if you’re putting in all this time and effort, so it sounds like you didn’t have problems with the consistency thing.
Like you were sitting down studying hours every day, but at a certain point, if that’s not like, that’s fine putting in that time, if you’re passing. But if you’re not, yeah, you would just naturally start to think, okay, why am I doing this to myself?
Ram: And then another thing is like, people will say I’m putting all this time in, but is that time actually like, is it the right kind of time where you’re actually being productive in your study?
For me, I was putting two, three hours a day when I was, when I first started studying, I would work all day and then I would stay in the office late, stay for an extra couple hours, three, four hours and study. And then I would head home at night, granted I didn’t have any wife or kids at the time, so I was able to do that.
But, during that time, if you’re just, you know, you’re not [00:28:00] practicing the question, just going back to practicing the question. Like, people aren’t, they’re not putting 90 percent of their time practicing the questions they’re putting maybe 50 percent of their time practicing the question. And then the other 50 percent reading the book, highlighting, or less, highlighting, highlighting the book, watching the video, thinking that’s going to help you. I fell into that trap. I fell into that trap of thinking, Oh, I can just read the book, watch the video. And that’s going to be actual like productive studying. And that was not. So once I flipped the switch and I changed my whole study strategy and I started seeing results, I never looked back, you know, and that honestly started with SuperfastCPA.
The Value Ram Got from SuperfastCPA
Ram: I, I feel like I had watched a video originally, but I didn’t, like what I didn’t do those, but once I watched it back in December of 2022, and I was like, I gotta do some, I gotta change the way I approached this exam. And once I did that. You know, honestly, you don’t even need to purchase it, your, your product after watching the one hour video, but I wanted to, [00:29:00] because what I got, the value that I got from that one hour video was so good.
I was like, no, I need to see what else is there and then see how it was being implemented, how it was being implemented in your study strategy. And, and it was helpful, you know, it jumpstarted, it jumpstarted me to get to how I need to study. I need to relearn how to study for this exam. And that’s, that’s what it took for me to do it.
And that’s what I tell people now. I just said, listen, you got to implement, this worked for me. You know, if you’re doing something else and it’s not working for you or you are doing something else and it doesn’t work for you, great. But if it’s not working for you, try this. This is proven, you know, proven for me.
And then it’s also proven for all these other people that has, that’s following these same strategies. And. I think people don’t want to put in the time or put, or want to trust the process. You don’t want to trust the process and you’re like, oh, no, what do you mean don’t answer the question? Just get the answer.
I did that so many times I would just, if it was a new [00:30:00] topic, I would just kind of, I would just get the answer, go through them, read everything, and then go through the same testlet again and for a specific topic. You know, I, I, most of the time I get all the questions right, if I miss something, then I’d go through the questions again, and then I’d move on, and then I’d re-review afterwards.
That, that main study session, that, that practice of doing it that way, was, was the main, was the key.
Nate: Yeah, it’s you get, you get like, you get good at answering questions. Like the thing people don’t realize, I think is you’re trying to learn the material, but you’re also trying to perfect your own, like the efficiency of your own study process.
Ram: Exactly.
Nate: That’s the part that a lot of people don’t think about. So they’re putting in time, but there’s never really, they’re not ever really evaluating is this working? How could I do this differently? What, what could be more, how can I be more strategic about [00:31:00] this? But Yeah. This whole thing is about two things, learning the material, but also creating a very effective, uh, study process.
And that’s, yeah, I think just a lot of people just jump into it like you in the beginning and you know, you had two college degrees or probably depending on your state. So you think, or most people have a master’s. So they’re like, I know how to study. You know, and then these exams are different. Yeah.
How Ram Felt Using the Questions First Approach
Ram: It’s definitely not the same kind of studying and, you know, like I thought the, like the first, the first two exams was FAR and audit that I passed. I had previously studied for those before. So I said, you know, doing this kind of, this study strategy where I just go right into the question and only do that, I think that could work. But I was kind of nervous when I started studying for REG because I’ve never studied for REG before and I’m not a tax person.
But, as I was going through the questions and doing, going through the same process, I was like, this is way easier to learn the material [00:32:00] than me reading the book, watching the video. I did watch the videos on my own time, but on my own time. I never had watching the CPA review material, the videos as part of my main study session.
When it came to my main study session, at least a minimum of two hours, first 90 minutes, new, new material, last 30 minutes, uh, uh, practice testlet, uh, multiple choice of everything. And that was, that was the secret sauce right there. That’s no, whether I, now would go through as many, many, many, um, topics as I can and during that first, like, uh, uh, during going through the new material.
And sometimes, I’m gonna lie, I didn’t want to do the re-review, but it, you know, or I would do a shorter version, I would do maybe 20 questions instead of 30, and I was, and that, but that still helped, it still, you know, as long as you stay consistent in seeing the material, and then after I finished all the material, it’s just constant, going through the set, doing as many sets as possible.
Scheduling Exams on a Monday is Key
Ram: And then I, uh, another thing, I always [00:33:00] scheduled my exams, after you said it, I always scheduled my exams for Monday.
Monday morning, that was, for me, that was key. I think one, one of the exams I did it for a Monday, like, afternoon, like, 11, 12 p. m. Because there wasn’t early morning available. But Monday morning, every time. And that, that was key for me. Because, you know, you’re right, you have Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And I think for one of the exams, I took like a week before, a week off.
I took, it was like Thanksgiving week. I took that week off. And then I took that, following Monday, I took audit. And that was super helpful too, because I needed that time. And that, the audit, I’ve been working in audit for seven years. And that was my lowest score. So, I thought I killed it. Honestly, I thought I did really well.
I was, I was in the eighties and I saw that score guys, something sounds like I’ll take it.
Nate: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s funny too. Cause, uh, even just that little thing, scheduling it on a Monday, um, you know, so many people fail with, like you said, [00:34:00] 72, 73, 74, 48 hours of studying right before you walk in can easily be worth five, maybe even 10 points.
Always Made Sure to Do Multiple TBS’s 48 Hours Before the Exams
Ram: Yeah. I agree 100 percent agree because you’re basically putting yourself in a position. And if you’re doing it the right way, you know, you’re taking a simulated exam Saturday, simulated exam Sunday. Um, I always waited to do my simulated exams till that week before. So I would do a simulated exam, I’d do the sets, I’d do simulated exam.
I’d try to just take, get as much exposure to CPA material questions as I could. And that, that was just the key right there. And then, you know, for some people, they don’t need to see simulated, um, the sims, like the TBS. They don’t need to see it, but for me, I needed to get exposure to that.
And I swear I saw at least a couple, like a couple, two or three of the exact same sims in my exams, uh, over the different, different, um, over the different exams, I, so, so, so doing that, doing that practice of just going to the, you know, going to the [00:35:00] question, doing testlets, practice testlets, and then doing the test simulation, you know, you never know what you’re going to see.
You know, so it was. It was, it was good.
Nate: So I was going to ask you, so you basically took the, I don’t know, the idea from the 48 hour cram session where two sets of 30 and then some sims, and you just applied that through two weeks before.
Ram: Right?
Nate: Yeah.
Ram: Exactly. I mean.
Logan: That’s what I did too. Yeah.
You Need to Make Sacrifices for it to Work
Ram: And that helped because what you’re doing, on the structure of the exam is doing two testlets, multiple choice, and then you’re doing your sims.
So I figured if I can do that every day, at least one, at least one set a day, I’m basically taking a simulated exam every day. So, and then on the weekends you could try to do as many, you could do as many as you can, you know, cause you have more time, but also then it was hard to study on the weekends because my wife and kids, you know, I need to want to go somewhere.
I want to do this or, you know, so I would have to, you know, I would have to give it a little bit or it has to take, you know, [00:36:00] spend time with the kids or spend time with her or, or whatever the case was, but you know, it’s not like I had to sacrifice a lot of time regarding, regarding spending time with my friends and family and going out, I still got to do all those things.
Because the fact that I was studying every day, I was putting in the time. You know, people say, oh, I, you know, I have no life, I can’t. Yeah, to a certain extent, I’m not doing as many things as I did, was doing before. But I still got to do a lot of fun things. I still got to travel. I still got to go do stuff.
You got to, or go out with friends, go to dinner. You know, you know, but most of the time, yeah, you got to sacrifice time, especially if you’re working full time, if you have a family, you know, or if you’re not a morning person, it’s hard for me. I’m not a morning person, but I also didn’t have the time in the morning, so I had to study in the evening.
I had to, and that was rough because you’re tired after a long day at work, you know, and then you have, if you have kids, then [00:37:00] you have to spend time with your kids and making sure you’re present for them. And then after you put them to bed, get right back into it. And, you know, that’s what I did for many, many years.
And, um, but this last, this last year and a half, you know, that’s what I, that’s, that’s what my routine was. And, you know, get, you know, getting through the exams was huge. And once I did that, you know, then I just started like just feeling it all in and it just, it was well worth it in the end. Sorry, Logan, what were you gonna say?
Logan: Oh no, you’re good. I was gonna say that, um, one comment I had was I, I liked that you did that like two weeks final review. That’s kind of what I had to do because I was in a similar situation. I had, still have two children and, um, I knew I was going to really struggle to study for eight hours on the weekends.
That was not going to be a possibility.
Ram: I don’t have the time to do that.
Logan: Yeah, so I purposely did exactly what you did where I [00:38:00] Instead of doing like one week or five days of final review, I purposefully left two weeks just to still make sure I got a lot of that practice.
Ram on Balancing Family, Friends and Activities
Logan: Um, and then kind of, you kind of already mentioned it, but I just wanted to maybe ask some, some specifics.
What were you able to maintain hobby wise, friend wise, activity wise, you know, even though you had to make some sacrifices? What, what difference did all this, did this strategy make in your life to be able to still maintain those things? Because you basically said, I still had a life, you know? So what, what were you able to still maintain by following these strategies?
Ram: So, I mean, there’s some like, you know, it’s hard to have a lot of hobbies when you have kids.
Logan: Yeah.
Ram: They see me working full time. But, you know, we did do a lot of traveling. Um, I don’t know. We definitely didn’t allow ourselves not to enjoy ourselves and to be able to. So I had to, you know, when we did want to go somewhere, I would, you know, sacrifice that time.
I wouldn’t be studying because I was with my family. Or, you [00:39:00] know, there was days on the weekends where, yeah, some of our friends invited us to go out. We’d go out. I’m not going to punish myself and not enjoy myself and not be able to kind of stay, still be happy, but I will still be able to, you know, if there was a day I didn’t want to study, I didn’t study.
Right. Because I, we were going to do something and that was fine. I, we went to a lot of weddings. So we went to, um, you know, we took my kids to, uh, Great Wolf Lodge. No, we did stuff. We actually did stuff like that. And, uh, and then also I had to travel for work a lot of the time too. So sometimes if I traveled and then the evening times you’re going out to dinner with your coworkers and, you know, sometimes I would be able to study sometimes wasn’t able to study.
So there was still time where, but I think the fact that if you can consistently make sure you’re putting in the time, majority of the time, I think in the end, when it came to, Oh, how many hours a week, like that’s generally a question, because like how many hours a week you put in, I was probably putting in like 20 or 30 hours a week, you know, it depends.
So some nights, you [00:40:00] know, sometimes it was just two hours. Sometimes it was three, four hours, you know, but I would generally start around nine, 10 o’clock and then I would go to 12, one, you know, maybe two, but, and that was hard. And then again, at two, that’s, that’s late. And then I got to wake up at six again, you know, it’s, it wasn’t, it wasn’t easy, that’s for sure.
So, but it’s a sacrifice and, um, you got to do what you got to do at the end of the day. And obviously it worked out in the end because the results show that I passed.
Nate: Yeah.
Ram: I wouldn’t recommend that, but you know, you got to do what you got to do.
Logan: Yeah.
Nate: Well, no, I think, I think that whole, that question, and that actually came up in the forum the other day, someone was like, is it okay to just take a day off here and there?
And, uh, like, I don’t know, years ago, my opinion, I had more rigid opinions. These interviews have changed kind of how I think about a lot of the stuff. Um, cause people do things slightly differently. Like for me, it was always no days off ever, no matter what I have to do.
Having the Mission Statement by His Compputer Kept Ram Motivated
Ram: [00:41:00] That’s going to give yourself the best chance to pass. You don’t waste. Oh, another huge thing that was, was the mission statement that I had on my wall, right? This is me looking at my computer. It was right behind my, my, my, my, my desktop screen. I’m looking at it every day. I’m really big on positive affirmations. So I have different affirmations around. I read it.
Keeps me motivated. So whatever you got to do to keep yourself motivated, do it. You know, whether it’s, you know, doing, so doing that, um, doing that, um, the CPA mission statement, I know I remember I wrote that when I first got it and I followed, I printed it out, I put it up and I looked at it all the time.
I would share it with people. I would tell people like, this is what I did. This is what I’m doing to keep myself motivated. And you know, it worked. Yeah, it worked. Um, and now I share that with people. I tell people, actually, I keep it right here in my, in my little, I keep it printed right here. No, I just that’s even [00:42:00] on the same form.
I took it down, but I didn’t want to, you know, I took it down because now I don’t need it. But I look at it, I’m gonna keep this just like. remind myself what I had to go through to, to get here, to get to this feeling of, oh man, it’s finally done. You know, like one of my good buddies I used to work with, he, he’s, he’s been struggling with this exam and I’m sharing all the strategies that I did to help me, to help me pass.
And no, he’s trying, you know, he’s trying for sure, but it’s tough to see him fail, you know, especially since I know he’s putting in the time and effort. I know he is, but he also has two kids and he’s passed a couple exams or one or two exams, but you know, it’s hard. It’s hard.
Nate: Do you have him doing, uh, just The majority of his time on questions, at least.
Ram: I, exactly what I told him. And he said it’s been a very, it’s been a more positive experience studying now that he’s doing it. Cause he, you know, he’s probably going to do another, uh, doing the other approach. And I’ve been telling him [00:43:00] since I’ve been starting, once I, once he started seeing me pass, you know, he was like, I got to get it done too.
And, and he was going forward, he was failing. And I’m like, what are you doing? I was like, what are you doing? What approach are you taking? Try this. And then once he started trying, his study experience has been a lot easier. It’s been a lot better. And he’s, he feels that he’s getting a lot more, he’s getting a lot more retention and practicing the questions.
And I hope it works out for him, you know, and, uh, because I’m always like, I always like keeping up with him. So anytime I know that there’s an exam, uh, release date, I reach out to him. What are you waiting for? What score? What score are you waiting for or not? Good luck. You know, something like that. We have to keep them because we all, we all need a community to keep us motivated, to keep us, you know, keep supporting each other.
Cause God knows this CPA exam is not easy and, uh, it can, you can easily get demoralized and just want to quit, you know, but you need that strength and determination, um, to keep going.
Nate: Yeah.
Ram’s Daily Study Routine
Nate: Um, [00:44:00] so, let’s, how, how did like the average day, I mean, you kind of mentioned this, but you know, you also mentioned using our study tools, like the audio.
So like on your average day, you would get up, uh, did you commute? Is that where you’d listen to the audios? Like what would you use specifically throughout the day?
Ram: Fortunately, I have a job where we are, my company’s office policy is hybrid. So majority of the time I’m working from home, which is nice. So what I would do is I wake up around five, six o’clock, get my kids and stuff ready.
My wife’s lunch and breakfast ready. She’s out of the door by seven. And then I have to get ready. Then I get my kids ready. And then I dropped them off at daycare, come back home. Come back home 9, 9 30, 9 to 6 I’m working and then in that time during work, I’m, you know, trying to find ways to study. So like instead of scrolling, I’m doing a mini quiz or, or I’m listening or, or I have the, [00:45:00] the review course videos for the topics that I’m studying.
In the background while I’m working. It’s not part of my active studying, but it’s like, I’m listening, I’m hearing the material. I can hear it come in. Um, some, after I had gone through all the material during that time, I would just do more questions instead of watching videos because I had already gone through all the videos.
Um, I didn’t refer a lot to videos just because I felt that it wasn’t as necessary as, or it’s not as beneficial as practicing questions. Practicing questions, you’re getting that exposure to the material types of questions you’re going to see on a actual exam. And then, um, after work, you know, do family stuff and then get back to my desk by nine, eight, nine o’clock.
I don’t know. I’d try to like aim for, and then you just get to work, get to study, get to practicing questions. That was my main studying session. That was my main study session. And, um, the, the tools that I, that helped me the [00:46:00] most was the, was the audio, the audio notes, um, the, the mini quizzes, and then also I did like reading, I didn’t read the book, the actual like review course book, um, I looked at it, kind of flipped the pages, but, um, I found that I didn’t need, I didn’t need to.
Um, and I, I did read through the review notes that came with your resource tools. Um, and what I did was I, I probably didn’t need to do this, but I printed them out and I got it binded so I could kind of read it like that. Because I didn’t want to read through the book, I’d rather read through your notes.
Because I thought the notes were much more concise on like what you actually need to know. It had a lot of examples. And, you know, I’m big on journal entries, so knowing the journal entries was huge, um, for like the topics that, the exams that, that you need to know the journal entries BAR did, BAR, you kind of needed to know journal entries, but it was more about theory and like topics like that.
[00:47:00] Um, but FAR obviously you need to know the journal entries. If you don’t know your journal entries, you’re going to have a hard time on the exam.
Sharing His Experience with BAR
Logan: I actually would, I thought, I thought that would be a good cause you know, you’re kind of, one of the first that we’re doing in this new set of, uh, podcast interviews, we haven’t really interviewed a lot of people or anybody who’s taken BAR, really any of the discipline exams or not very much anyway.
So you don’t have to tell us like the material necessarily, but like, what was your, experience with BAR because we’ve thought that that will be by far the most difficult discipline exam. Maybe even the most difficult exam in general, but what was your experience with that? What helped you get through BAR?
Nate: Or or compared to BEC?
Ram: Well
Logan: Compared to BEC. Yeah. Yeah
Ram: So I had looked at all the stats statistics based on like and what strategy I should be doing I should use to when I’m looking at the disciplines and I saw like most people would have taken ISC, I, uh, IS, yeah, the, the internal systems and compliance, um, or controls. And [00:48:00] mainly because it was just a lot of remembering and understanding, right?
And if you look, and I remember seeing this test, like, it was like 80 percent pass rate, which was crazy. I was like, whoa, why didn’t I take this? But, but I wanted to take BAR because mainly I work in public accounting and that’s, it was more related to what my job function was. So I figured, you know, I’m going to have the best, um, probably had the best opportunity to do this and it’s less questions.
And if I can master this material, I probably, so it was mostly, it was, it’s like half of the BEC profit are, from the original BEC exam. The best thing was no written communication. I feel like that was something that always, I didn’t, not that I struggled writing, writing those three communications, but it didn’t help probably.
Um, especially if you didn’t know a certain topic and you can, you can, it’s so much, you can be asked because it’s the computer generated. Um, it’s, it’s, it’s computer, um, uh, generally, uh, tested the way it grades that, but anyways, um, uh, [00:49:00] and, and then the fact that they took out all the IT questions, they took out any internal audit, there was some economic questions, a lot of cost accounting, a lot of business, business questions, and then.
I love the fact that the FAR exam had a lot of FAR questions, advanced economic questions. So like the research and development, um, you know, topics, leases, um, and then government. So, you know, I didn’t have any issues with the government. And it was a lot, it’s kind of on the easier end of the government questions.
It wasn’t, it wasn’t testing too much on the journal entries. It was just more like, Uh, specific knowledge about it, general knowledge, account names, or like remembering like Baba, you know, like book, a book, a budget, uh, whatever. I forget the whole thing, but, um.
Nate: I guess the way, I guess the way you did it, you almost took, so you took like 2023 FAR and then a big portion of that ended up on BAR again.
Ram: Exactly.
Nate: So that’s, I guess, yeah.
Ram: I would recommend if anyone [00:50:00] takes FAR and then take BAR right after that, um, I think that would be the recommended course of how you want to take the exam. Um, but I know I ended up getting an 80 on BAR, which was, I was like, oh, it was great.
It was a lot of calculations though. I remember using up to the last minute. I almost didn’t answer the last question because, and the time was running out, I, and that’s partially my fault because they would give us the calculations, the formulas, and I figured, you know what, let me take, that was already ahead of time, I was like, let me write some of these down on my scratch paper, just in case they don’t give it to me later, and I used like maybe 5 10 minutes of that time writing it down, and then when I got to the last, those last TBS, they gave it to me anyway.
I was like, Oh, shouldn’t I probably done that? So, um, so, but, you know, but it was a lot of like year over year, um, formulas that you need to calculate. And that took time. That takes about 10, 15, 20 minutes. You gotta look at the [00:51:00] questions, see what they answer, see what they’re asking you and then you want to make sure you’re, and then they give you like five different answers and you got to make sure you pick the right answer related to what the calculation is is spitting out.
And so, you know, doing those calculations when you have like when you’re like two, three minutes left. And you’re like, oh, you know, you know, it was, uh, it was, it wasn’t, it wasn’t bad at all. I didn’t find it hard. I thought that I was prepared and, um, it was not bad. Yeah. And it was nice that I didn’t have to do any written communication.
So, yeah,
Logan: I don’t think you said there, I think this could be a good idea for pretty much anybody doing, you know, cause everybody has to do a discipline exam now. I think that it might be a good idea, not always, but frequently to do the discipline exam right after whatever exam it kind of relates the most to.
So like if you just took FAR, maybe go to taking BAR because it’ll just kind of expand on what you just did. Or if you just barely took REG, maybe go do [00:52:00] TCP. You know, that could be a good idea for some people. That could be a good strategy for some people.
Listened to All SuperfastCPA Discipline Audio Notes to Decide Which Discipline to Take
Ram: Definitely a good strategy. I had a buddy who I worked, uh, who I worked with. He took REG, and then immediately he took TCP, and he ended up passing that. So, but, but, but, but, but, What I wanted to, since I knew the discipline was going to be my last exam, what I did was, uh, on, on Becker, what I did was I kind of did, I kind of did a practice run on all of them. I actually, actually, what was the final decision was I used your audio notes.
I listened to all the discipline audio notes. And I was like,
Nate: Really?
Ram: Yeah, because I wanted to get an idea
Nate: Of what’s covered?
Ram: What’s being covered. I heard TCP and I was like, this is not for me. I’m not doing this. Even though I just took REG and I was listening to TCP, I was like, Uh, I don’t think that’s for me. I don’t think I want to do that.
Because it was more advanced tax stuff. And I was like, I don’t think I want to do that. And then, uh, [00:53:00] the ISC. And I was like, oh, this is a lot of material. I don’t think I want to do this either. And it was, I figured, no, I’m really strong in accounting. Let me just stick to that. So then that’s what made me, when I, when I listened to BAR, I was like, this is, this is my kind of stuff.
So I stuck to that and I was like, oh, you know, I work in public accounting, this is going to be the most relevant to what I’m doing. And, uh, and they’re working out for me. So, yeah.
Nate: Yeah, makes sense.
Ram: I don’t commend everyone listening. Yeah. I don’t think everyone recommend everyone listening to all the material, but if it’s available, you know, I still have your app on my phone.
I like, I, I love using it. Um, it was the, honestly, the most used app that I use when I was studying for a CPA, you know, just being able to access it within two buttons. I can go to two push, two button, I can go to mini quiz.
Nate: Yes.
Ram: Just the accessibility. And exact, I know you mentioned that in your videos, like that accessibility, being able to just do it right away, not waste time.
You know, time is precious, especially when you’re starting for CPA and [00:54:00] you know, just being able to have access to all that resources. And you know, that was the best, definitely the best experience I’ve had.
Logan: I love what you said there where you were like, that was my most used app. That’s how it should be.
I’m constantly telling people, I mean, you know, people can take this with a grain of salt, but I’m always like, you should just take everything that’s distracting off of your phone And just have the SuperfastCPA app and then like, of course, necessities, but like, I love that you said that that was like your most used app because that’s the entire idea behind it.
That’s the whole idea. So that’s great.
Ram: It’s very well done too. And, and the fact that you’re always adding stuff, adding the, I know you guys added the read along, uh, read along review notes. I’ve used that a couple of times, but I don’t, when I’m listening to audio notes, I’m not, like, I don’t want to hold my phone and look at, you know, I did that sometimes, you know, when I was just kind of change it up a little bit, you know, but, um, that was nice to have that there too.
So.
Nate: Yeah. Yeah. And along with that, just what you said this earlier, uh, just the idea of exposing yourself to the [00:55:00] material throughout the day, as much as you can, like can only logically help. I mean, again, like Logan said, some emails they get, I’m like, listen, you’ve committed two college degrees just to take these exams.
Give yourself every possible chance of passing, which means just use our app all throughout the day. If instead of, uh, music and podcasts, listen to our audios or whenever you’d look at social media normally, just do a mini quiz, take a six month break and just get past like, yeah.
Ram: Yeah, exactly.
Nate: Um, well yes, we’re almost at an hour.
Finding About His Final Passing Score And Getting His Evenings Back
Nate: So, uh, two final things I wanted to ask, how, well, two part question, how nice has it been since you’ve been done to just have your evenings back, go to bed when you want, and then did you and your wife do anything, uh, do anything awesome to celebrate?
Ram: So, right. The day Ju, was June 26th is when the score was gonna come out, [00:56:00] because the official day was like June 27th.
Nate: Mm-Hmm.
Ram: But June 20 or, or
Logan: They always come out a day early.
Ram: Yeah. So we, uh, we planned a vacation. We were gonna do a road trip through the Midwest. So we went, we were drive to Indianapolis, St. Louis, Nashville, and then come back to New York. So we, we did that drive in the beginning of that drive. Um, we got to Indianapolis, and that, we got, we drove, I drove through the night, I got to my cousin’s house, and as soon as I got there, I knew the score was going to be up.
So I, so I got it, I got to the house, took out my laptop, I went to look up my score, and I saw that I passed. So as soon as I passed that final exam, I was like, this is an amazing way to start my vacation.
Nate: Yeah, best trip of your life after that.
Logan: That’s awesome.
Ram: That’s what we did there. And then, um, after that, and I told my, and I told myself, I said, if I pass it on the, in the schedule that I passed, I’m gonna, I’m gonna go on a trip somewhere.
So hopefully in October, I’m going to go to Mexico and we’ll see if I get to go. But right now it’s this really [00:57:00] busy type of work. So it’s kind of tough. Um, Especially with our busy season and audit. Uh, but yeah, so I mean, besides that, you know, I haven’t really treated myself. I do want to treat myself. Uh, but, um, you know, I’m just, I’m just glad I finally I’m done with this.
Nate: Yes. Being done is just the best part. No matter what you do or by yourself. Yeah. It’s just.
Ram: And then after that, like after, after, after I took that final exam, no, and just waiting on my scores and my wife and I, we finally got our evenings back. So we watch our TV, we watch some shows, you know, we. Um, you know, we take, you know, we just be with each other more, you know, because the evening time she, I mean, I, I know I can bless her heart because she, she stood by me every, uh, all these years after, like, I would fail his exams and kind of just go through that depression.
Oh man, I can’t pass exams. Is this for me? What am I going to do? All that questioning myself, you know, she was always very supportive in that aspect. And, uh, you know, like, uh, I did this for me just as I did this for her just as much as I did for me. [00:58:00] And now, now, you know, I can put my, put my family, myself in a better position professionally to, to really move forward with my career and
Nate: Yeah.
Ram: You know, like, this is, this is why I did it. You know, so I can, I can, and then I can show my kids, you know, like, Hey, you know, we, this is po whatever you wanna put your mind to, it’s, you can do it. It’s gotta, you know, with strength and determination, you, you will be able to do it, you know? And, uh, you know, so that’s, it’s, it’s, it’s been a good experience.
Nate: That’s awesome, man. Awesome to hear.
Top Tips for People Still Struggling with Their Study Process
Nate: Uh, so last question we always ask, you’ve probably heard this on the other interviews, but even if it’s stuff we already covered, which we probably did, but just to sum things up like what would be your top three tips to people that are still struggling or, you know, trying to put together their own study process?
Ram: Whether it’s in the morning or the evening, you gotta stay consistent. Practice, practice, practice multiple choice questions. Stop focusing on reading the book. Coming from me, who did not read any of the books [00:59:00] that, from your review course, you don’t need to. You will learn everything you need to learn from the practice question. Whether what, whatever review course that you’re using, most people will probably use Becker or whatever you’re using, um, 95 percent of your time should be practicing multiple choice questions, task based simulations are just multiple, multiple choice questions in one question.
Nate: Yeah.
Ram: Right. So, you know, read everything, take your time. You got to stay composed when you’re doing it on test day. If you practice multiple choice questions, you practice doing the testlets, the sets, how, how we described earlier in the video, you will be prepared for that exam. And then you have to, it comes to a point where you need to make that realization where you need to make the sacrifice. If you want to pass the exam, most people are not those geniuses or people can just take it the first try and pass. I wasn’t like that. I know a lot of people aren’t like that.
No, it takes a lot of time and effort what you need to do. [01:00:00] Uh, but if put in the time. You expose yourself to CPA material every day, all different types of ways, you are, you are putting yourself in the best position to pass the exam. That like, people just think, oh, if I put in a couple hours and I’m doing it, I’m doing it.
If you, if you can question yourself about study strategy, then, you know, you’re not doing the right thing, but if you can, if you’re honest, if you’re honest to yourself, you tell yourself, you know, if you’re putting yourself in the best position to your start, you’re listening to audio notes, you’re practicing mini quizzes, any kind of free time that you have, you’re putting towards study for CPA, putting yourself in the best position.
You will, you will pass the exam. Without a doubt. You know, if you’re doing all the right things, you will pass the exam, but if you know you’re skipping days, or you’re not putting all the time that you should be putting into studying exams, yeah, you’re going to question yourself, and then when it comes to test day, yeah, you’re not going to be prepared, you’re not going to be, you [01:01:00] might pass. You may pass, you know, but you know, in the back of your head, you didn’t do everything you had to do.
So you have to cut the BS, you know, make the sacrifice to be honest. You have to.
Nate: Me and Logan always talk about that just anyways, but yes, we definitely agree. Yeah.
Ram: You have to, and then you put your, do all the right things. You follow all your tips from that one hour video, you will pass this exam. That’s it.
I, I, I tell everyone, and then I must have like recommended SuperfastCPA as like, you don’t have to buy a supplemental resource, but this is what I did and it was the best thing I did for me.
Nate: Yeah.
Ram: And now I can say I’m a CPA.
Nate: Well, I appreciate it, man. Yeah. So it was awesome to hear your story. Glad we did this call and, uh, yeah.
Glad you found that probably it was a YouTube ad originally. Well, you said that you saw our ads and they watched the, uh, the free training, but yeah, again, just congrats on being done. It was fun to hear your story.
Logan: Congratulations. [01:02:00]
Ram: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell my story. And, uh, you know, I just, uh, I’m huge on like helping other people pass the exam, you know, like giving them that support that they need and, you know, we all need it, we all needed it when you know, when we’re all practicing for the exam, studying for the exam, because it’s not easy.
Nate: Yeah. Well.
Ram: You guys can do it. You can do it. Everyone that’s watching the video, you can do it.
Logan: Yes.
Ram: With strength and determination, you will do it.
Nate: Yeah. Yeah, on that note, feel free to keep, uh, posting in the forum as much as you want.
I mean,
Ram: Will do.
Nate: You know, eventually you’ll get sick of it and forget about it, but.
Logan: You’ll get bored of it.
Ram: Appreciate it.
Logan: But we do. I mean, I have seen you do a few posts, so thanks for still doing that. Um, it is helpful. Yeah. Thank you.
Ram: Thank you Nate, thank you Logan. Yes.
Nate: Yeah, man. You’re welcome. It’s, it’s fun to hear these stories and just hear like a real, uh, I mean, just hear the whole story from people.
It’s yeah, it’s rewarding to [01:03:00] hear.
Logan: All right. That was the interview with Ram, I think it was a fantastic interview. Again, Ram gave a lot of great advice and again, I think the most important thing you can see from this interview is perseverance and knowing that you can get through these CPA exams.
Again, Ram was studying and struggling with these exams for almost seven years before he passed. And all it took was changing his strategies, changing the way he studied just a little bit. And he was able to start passing his exams. And that means you can too. Even if you’ve been struggling for a long time.
So if this is the first you’re hearing from us, make sure you go check out our free SuperfastCPA training webinar on superfastcpa.com. It’s only one hour and we will teach you the key ingredients to passing the CPA exam. You heard almost all of them here with Ram in this episode.
And also, if you liked the podcast interview, make sure to leave a rating in your favorite podcast app or leave a like, and a comment on the YouTube video.
Because this podcast is one of the best free training resources out there, for CPA exam candidates. Make sure you share it with everyone, you know, who is going through [01:04:00] the CPA exam.
I’m sure you love this interview with Ram, thank you for watching or listening, and we will see you in the next episode.
