In this episode we’ll discuss how to study for two CPA exams at once, which I have some experience in as I took AUD and FAR 4 days apart and passed both.
Transcript:
Hello and welcome to Episode 6 of the CPA Exam Experience podcast from SuperfastCPA. I’m Nate, and today we are going to talk about how to study for two CPA exams at once. This, uh… I mean, I get asked this all the time, but it was actually this morning that a reader or a customer … user, emailed me and just asked me how to do that, because what a lot of people are having issues with right now is they had a section scheduled and then, you know, there’s the whole Coronavirus thing going on and the testing centers are shut down.
They’re supposed to open up soon, but no one really knows if they’re actually going to be able to stick to that schedule. And so a lot of people are prepared, like right now to sit for a certain section and then they have another one scheduled in a month or two. So I’ve been getting this question a lot. So that’s what we’re going to answer in this video. Now, I do have some experience with this.
If you’re a SuperfastCPA follower, you’ve seen this little picture because this is my proof, my claim to fame, how I passed all four sections in one three month period. That was after failing FAR once. And then I, you know, figured out how to really study. But in this process, I took FAR and AUD four days apart. You can see here October 22nd and October 26th. Four days apart, I believe it was… Well, I have no idea. I guess it was like a Monday and a Thursday.
I’m not really sure, but it was four days apart, as you can see What happened was, I had my audit test set on that date, October 26th, I guess. And, you know, however, whenever it was before that I had taken FAR, then got my score back, realized I had failed and I didn’t want to move my audit date back or anything. So I just set FAR, my FAR retake up against the audit. The original audit date.
And that was that’s what it was four days apart. And luckily, I passed both, so.
So those strategies… that’s, the point of showing you that is, I know how to do this. Which I proved. And. I will show you how best to do this in a very time friendly manner. So here’s what we’ll cover. When to NOT study for two exams at once, because that’s important, but there are situations that arrive like this Coronavirus thing that might make it, might give a legitimate reason to actually do it.
The other time… uh, sorry, we’re not there yet. When you might need to study for the two exams at once and then to avoid it if possible. How your failed score, like the actual score you get, should dictate how you approach the retake and whether or not to push the next one back or, you know, focus solely on that or try to study for two at once. And then how to study for two sections at once why you’re really here. But these other things matter. Or else. I mean, I wouldn’t it wouldn’t have included him. These other things matter. So we’ll we’ll go over those first now before we get into that. The marketing people are telling me I should do more of this. So.
Please like subscribe, comment, review, the podcast and the YouTube videos that we are starting to make more of… whoops.
So it makes sense. Like this is a free way to support what we’re doing. Keep this kind of content coming. Subscribing to the podcast and on YouTube. Most of all, though, currently, leave a review in the iTunes podcast app. If you’re finding these episodes helpful, that’s what would help us the most, currently… Subscribing on YouTube, you know, leaving comments on the YouTube videos, not just random comments. We do have a a a little prompt for you to make this easier.
So today’s viewer poll for this video, whenever you’re watching this video in the future or today, it doesn’t matter. Answer this question in the comments below. What section have you personally struggled with the most? And then why? And you might think that’s FAR or REG, but not always, because something like AUD, if you have never worked as an auditor.
Audit is very confusing and hard because all of it sounds the same, but it’s all very different, obviously. So audit can really throw people for a loop if they’ve never worked in auditing. So anyways, leave your response to that in the comments below this video.
When to Study for Two CPA Exams at Once
So when to not study for two exams at once? The first most obvious reason is if you don’t have an actual reason to. And I do get asked this. I get emails about this someone. And usually what it is is they’ll they will say, I’m not working right now. So I have all day, every day to study. I’m thinking about studying for FAR and REG at the same time and just dividing my day in half. No, don’t do that.
That makes absolutely no sense. And you’ll probably fail both. But you don’t want to be going through like the the actual learning process. You don’t want to be going through a section for the first time. You don’t want to be doing that twice at once. That’s very hard. And as we’ll get into typically how this should work is you will have one section that is new that you’re going through for the first time where you’re studying under the typical format. Just going lesson by lesson. And then you have another section where you’re doing a restudy, you know, if you failed it or you’re just trying to maintain and we’ll get to that, but never do it for no reason just to study two at once. That doesn’t make any sense.
If you want if you have like a three month window from when you finished your masters until you start your full time job, if that’s what it is, you’d be much better off to set the two six weeks apart. And so it’s just all day, every day as (whoops), all day, every day is one section. And then you you take that section, then you do the next one. Now, here’s the score thing.
What Did You Score on Your Last Exam?
If you failed with less than a 60, I would recommend if you can make it work. You know, don’t schedule a new one yet. I would just go back to that section and approach the restudy as if you’re just starting over. So that’s my advice on that. Now, everything else we’re going to talk about as if you scored like a 61 or above between a 61 and 74, of course. If you’re new to SuperfastCPA and you just happened upon this video and you don’t know about our study approach that we teach our clients and customers, then watch one of our study trainings. And you can do that by texting PASSNOW to 44222 and you’ll be sent a link. You can watch a free study training.
If You Think You Failed Your Last CPA Exam Section
All right, now when to study for two exams at once. When you think you might have failed a section, and you want to maintain your knowledge of that section. I will give you an easy way to do that. That’s one situation.
The other time is when you you’ve gotten your score back and, you know, you failed the section, but you don’t want to move your next exam date or you want to retake it as soon as possible. Which again, if you scored 60 or above, that is what I recommend.
How Long to Wait Between Sections
You want to get back in the testing center basically as fast as possible, like I’m talking like three to four weeks because doing what I will tell you in the strategy part of this episode. If you scored above a 60, you can easily make up that 10 to 15 points over several weeks. Then the other situation is this current situation.
During this whole exam date testing center, uncertainty due to the Coronavirus. And then there’s probably other circumstances I haven’t explicitly mentioned. But, you know, when when you have a legitimate reason to try and maintain your knowledge of the previous section you’ve already studied, and then you’re moving on to learning or going through a new section for the first time.
So how to study for two exams at once again, this relies on you knowing the SuperfastCPA approach to studying and the two hour main session that we teach our, our customers. So if you are a customer and that’s not crystal clear, then go into your account and rewatch the Study Hacks videos. If not, attend one of our free trainings again, I mentioned this for an overview of how your main study session should be done. You can do that by texting PASSNOW to 44222 or go to superfastcpa.com/training. Pick an upcoming session. You will find this 1 hour training extremely valuable.
How to Study for Two CPA Exams at Once
So how to study for two exams at once? Here’s how it should work. You shouldn’t ever be in a situation where you’re learning new material for two sections at once. I already mentioned that. It should be where one section is new. And then one is a restudy or maintenance. Now for the new section, you simply follow the SuperfastCPA approach with your review course, doing that two hour session ideally in the morning. OK, so that’s that’s how you do that. That’s simple. The same as it always would be.
How to Restudy for a Failed CPA Section
Now for the restudy section, you set aside an hour a day for this and primarily what you will be doing is a set of 30 cumulative multiple choice questions. Then you review them just like you do, you know, again, if you know the SuperfastCPA approach to the two hour main session, you know that you end every session with 30 multiple choice questions. So because you’re done going through the material for the first time, it basically just narrows down to this.
How to Add 10-15 Points to Your Last Score
This is how you maintain that knowledge or, you know, gain that extra 10 to 15 points that you need. You’re going to do a set of 30 cumulative questions. Then you review them, make flashcards as needed, and then if you have time, a set of five to seven practice simulations. And then for the mini-sessions, this is just as crucial, so you obviously keep doing those. And by mini-sessions, again, if you’re new to SuperfastCPA, what this means is, you want to be studying from your phone and all the little chunks or the nooks and crannies of your day. Whenever you would normally pull out your phone and look at social media or just do time waster stuff like text memes to your friends.
You want to replace that for a few months until you pass these exams with using study supplements from your phone because every minute of studying counts and it helps, and when you can add in an extra one or two or three hours a day outside of your main study session using study supplements on your phone, that makes a absolutely huge difference in your retention and understanding, especially when you’re consistent every day.
So you’re doing these mini sessions and if you have the SuperfastCPA bundles or bundle, you have the review notes, the audio notes and our quizzes and the quizzes also include Mini Sims. So whenever you take a quiz on our app, you’re getting exposure to both multiple choice question content and simulation content.
SuperfastCPA “Mini-Sessions”
So, the idea with the mini sessions is, you simply split your day in half, such as AM and PM. So if you are studying, if your new section, lets say its audit. And your re uh, your restudy or your maintenance section is FAR, then in the morning you’d get up. You do the normal two hour session for audit as you’re moving through new material and then through the rest through the rest of your morning until lunch, all your many sessions would be on audit, on the, on the app reading the review notes, audio notes, taking quizzes.
Then after lunch, it just switches. You… you do FAR mini-sessions on the SuperfastsCPA app. Now, here’s the ideal situation to make this all clear. You do the new section in the morning using the standard SuperfastCPA two hour session right, we already said that. Now, if you can scrape together another hour in the morning to do those 30 multiple choice questions, then great. You just get it all out of the way in the morning. That would be ideal. But if not, you do that hour of your restudy or maintenance section at night. It’s just one hour and it’s a lot less mentally taxing than learning new material. So you can’t do it at night and it’s really no big deal.
The “30 Questions” Secret Sauce
You do the 30 questions if you’ve been doing, if you’ve been following the SuperfastCPA approach and you end each study session with those 30 multiple choice questions, you should be really good and quick at answering multiple choice questions at this point. You should be averaging one question per minute. And uh, so if you’re able to do that, when you have this hour, you’re getting through the 30 questions in 30 minutes or less sometimes. So then you would be able to fit in… and as the weeks go by, you’ll get quicker at the multiple choice questions. So you’ll have more time for the practice SIMs.
Now, if you have four hours each day, two hours in the morning, two hours at night, then you have plenty of time to do the full thing. For the restudy section, you do the 30 questions, 30 multiple choice questions, and then the full set of five to seven practice SIMs. So then you obviously review each of them after you’re done, make flashcards as needed. And that is that’s the restudy or the maintenance section.
Now, if you’re not to where you’re able to do 30 or one multiple choice question per minute, then that is the goal you’re working towards. And it takes this daily practice. You have to be doing this daily. You know, that’s that’s kind of like the uh, it should go without saying all of this, you are doing this every single day. You can’t miss days of studying.
Making Your Own CPA Flashcards
If you’re serious about passing these things. Now, when you go to review the 30, 30 multiple choice questions, it shouldn’t take a ton of time because at this point you should be getting 80 or 90 percent of them right. What you want to make flashcards for is the stuff that you keep missing or that, just for you personally is hard for you to remember or understand. For whatever reason, just the stuff that you personally keep struggling with whenever it comes up.
Those are the things that you make flashcards for and you write it down. You sit there and you explain it outloud to yourself until it makes sense. And then that is what you write down on your flashcards. You write it in your own words. And by the way, I keep doing this with my hand, but I mean digital flashcards like in Quizlet so that you can review them easily on your phone. All in one place. You don’t have to carry around 200 physical flashcards.
48 Mega Cram Session
The 48 hour mega cram session does not change. So when you get to the last 48 hours before your exam, whether it’s the new section or the retake section, pause the other section for those two days and you just do the mega cram session like normal. Now, if you’ve been diligent about writing your own flashcards, those will be the absolute gold at this point because they contain what you have personally struggled with to remember or struggled to understand. So, you review those flashcards relentlessly in that last 48 hours. You also want to read our review notes from start to finish like two or three times in those last 48 hours. And ideally, once all the way through, right before you walk into the exam, if you can get to the testing center early.
The same with your own flashcards. Work in sets of 30, 30 for the multiple choice questions. So, so this is in the last 48 hours, you work in these two hour blocks and you fit as many of these in in those two days as you can. The two hour block where you can actually sit with your review course would be thirty multiple choice questions, review them. Then do 30 more multiple choice questions, review them. Then a set of five to seven practice sims, then you review them. Make flashcards as needed. That’s what a two hour block would be for this final review or mega cram session. And you just fit in as many of those two hour blocks as you can. And then as you’re sitting around, you know, eating your meals or at night during those 48 hours, that’s when you go through your own written flashcards and reading the review notes just in your downtime on those two days and then, of course, the morning of the actual exam.
If you do all this every day, you will get a passing score. If you scored between a 60 like a 61 and a 74, and then you do this restudy. Even if you don’t have the new section, you’re going through that. This is the same formula for a restudy, but you can fit this in while you’re studying for, you’ve moved on to a new section as well. But if you do this, you will get a passing score. You will make up those 15 points, 10 or 15 points, how much you need. If you do this, this works and it will work. All right.
Now a word on the SuperfastCPA approach again, if you’re new to our videos or podcasts or whatever, we, what we teach our customers is how to have a two hour main study session. When you do this right, it’s more effective than someone studying four to five hours the normal way. And by normal way, I mean watching every video, reading every chapter and then doing all the practice questions. Now, we’re not talking about short cuts or any, like, magic tricks. You have to learn the information. But you can do it so much smarter and so much more effectively. And that’s what you’ll learn on these free trainings.
Putting It All Together…
Then you use the study supplements on your phone all through the rest of your day. The review notes, the audio notes, the quizzes. We already talked about that. For a free overview of the process. Again, you can go to superfastcpa.com/training. You will find this training incredibly helpful. You’ll have multiple aha moments. We frame the study process in a much different way and it will just make so much more sense after you see one of these trainings. You can also just text PASSNOW to 44222, and we will send you a link or you’ll be texted back a link to join one of the trainings or sign up for one of the trainings.
So again, if you found this valuable or helpful, please like subscribe, comment, review. The main thing currently that we’re looking for is reviews on the iTunes podcast app. Just search ‘superfastCPA’ and you’ll find the podcast. If you’re finding these helpful, then subscribe because we got a lot more of these things coming up. And this is just a free way for you to support what we’re doing with the this free… the free content side of things, so that we keep doing it.
Subscribe to the pod and YouTube. Like I said, most of all, leave a review. And then again, if you haven’t yet, the viewer poll for this video is “What section have you had the hardest time with and why?” And just kind of write out your experience in the comments below. So thank you for watching. Keep grinding every day and hopefully you get these over with in just a few months with our help.
