SuperfastCPA Reviews: How Anthony is Passing His CPA Exams

If you feel like you have to constantly say no to friends and family to study… it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.

In this episode you’ll hear how Anthony is balancing both the CPA exams and quality time with friends & family.

Episode Resources

• Link to the podcast giveaway…
• Link to the free study training so you can save yourself a ton of time…

EPISODE TIMESTAMPS

• 00:00 Anthony Interview
• 02:11 Podcast Giveaway – Powerbeats Pro
• 07:00 Anthony’s Daily Routine
• 08:20 Finding the SuperfastCPA Podcast
• 09:25 The 6 “key ingredients”
• 10:39 How Anthony used the SuperfastCPA app through his day
• 11:47 Why the review notes are so helpful
• 12:52 How Anthony uses the audio notes
• 14:17 How Anthony takes the evenings off
• 15:13 Don’t underestimate studying on your phone
• 16:40 How Anthony studied on the weekends
• 17:37 Test day tips for the simulations
• 18:09 How Anthony took notes in his own words
• 19:14 “What was the hardest part about the study process?”
• 19:52 Two types of getting discouraged
• 20:57 How Anthony would simplify the material
• 21:32 Anthony’s process for a final review
• 22:50 Getting used to studying in the morning
• 23:20 How to feel on top of your day
• 24:39 The mindset required for the CPA exams
• 25:43 Anthony’s top tips to current CPA candidates
• 26:13 Even on your worst days, just do something

Anthony: Yeah, that was actually the benefits of this program with SuperfastCPA, where you could actually have the extra time at night where you don’t have to be studying like the full, like 10 or like 12 hours and stuff like that. That’s crazy. But it actually works super good. So like anytime there was like, say like a graduation party, I know I would be able to get my studying in like in the morning and do what I had to do.

And then I’llbe able to just forget about it for that day. And then be like in the moment with my family and stuff like that.

Nate: Welcome to episode 67 of the CPA exam experience podcast from SuperfastCPA. I’m Nate, and in today’s interview, you’re going to hear me talk with Anthony. So Anthony is in the middle of his CPA study process, at the time of the interview, he had passed FAR, and then now I believe, he’s now done with REG as well.

So he’s done with the two hard ones and, in this interview, you’ll just hear. Kind of his daily process. he actually, he found us through the podcast originally. And then of course he ended up watching one of the free study trainings that I’m always talking about. And I might as well throw that in right now, if you have not taken the time to watch one of those, and you’re not a customer, if you’re a customer, watch the pro videos.

That’s like everything from beginning to end. How every part of the study process should work. That’s obviously the best thing, but if you’re not a customer, but your a listener to the podcast, the best place for you to start to get a concise, linear overview of how our study strategies work, how you can get a lot more out of your current review course in a lot less time than you want to watch one of our free study training webinars. You can do that at our main site at superfastcpa.com, it’s the main thing at the top of the homepage. You just pick a time that will work for you, and then watch the whole thing. It takes one hour, but it’s one hour that will literally save you months and months of time. Again, if you’re a listener to this, at this point, you probably heard that pretty much every person that’s come on here on the podcast, they started by watching one of those free trainings.

Podcast Giveaway – Powerbeats Pro

Nate: Now the second thing, small announcement, we are restarting the giveaway. So probably my favorite item in the world that I use the most are these nice little Powerbeat Pros. I actually have two pairs of these. I keep one in my car for when I’m grocery shopping or whatever, anywhere I go.

So anyways, we’re going to give away three pairs of these things and the giveaway is based on essentially, if you’re a listener, just leaving a review for the podcast. And, I’m pretty sure on Spotify podcasts, you can’t even leave reviews. So mainly this is for apple podcasts or iTunes podcasts. But if where you listen to this, you can leave a review, you can leave a review of the podcast, take a screenshot and submit it.

The URL to enter the giveaway is superfastcpa.com/enter. And we’ll also put a link in the description or on the episode page on the website. Again, this is episode 67 with Anthony. So the giveaway, the structure will be, there’s more details once you, you have to enter your name and email to enter the giveaway, because then there’ll be separate communications to people that enter the giveaway.

So we will be giving away two pairs if you are a SuperfastCPA customer and you enter the giveaway, and then one pair to a, just, a listener, who’s not a customer. I know there are a lot of people. based on the downloads, that’s clear that there’s a lot of people that listen to these episodes that aren’t customers.

So if you’re in that segment, that’s great. We appreciate you being a listener. But you can enter the giveaway just the same and you have a chance to win one of these and it will be a rolling giveaway. So currently we’re going to keep this going for several months.

At least we’ll be doing the three pairs every month. And if you enter, once you don’t have to enter again, and it’s on a, like an entry system, you’ll see, once you opt into the giveaway, there are additional ways that you can earn more entries, and then we just randomly draw them. So the more entries, the bigger, the chance you have of winning one of the pairs of headphones.

So these are my favorite headphones. Again, it’s the Powerbeat Pro that had the hook on the ear. Basically when I’m at home, I have one of these in one ear and you can listen to podcasts to your heart’s content or audio books or whatever it is. I mean for you, if you’re working on your exams, the key point, and the reason we’re doing this giveaway is you can listen to audio notes constantly when you’re around the house. These are awesome. And we’re doing three pairs of these. Enter the giveaway, SuperfastCPA.com/enter. So back to this interview with Anthony, he just has a lot of really good practical tips,

He mentions that he up until the point where we did the interview, he had listened to all the previous episodes. So he’s a big listener of the podcast and gives the podcast interviews a lot of credit. For kind of forming just how his daily routine works and you’ll hear him describe his daily study routine and how he still has time.

Nate: He doesn’t really study in the evenings because he gets it all done the first part of the day. So he still has time in the evenings to hang out with his friends, go to parties, just do the stuff you would normally do in the evenings at the same time, he’s just passing each section one by one, because he has a solid study process in place and a solid daily routine that lets him take the evenings off.

So with all that being said, let’s get into this interview with Anthony.

All right. Well, where are you located?

Anthony: I’m in Danbury, Connecticut.

Nate: Nice. So you’ve heard some of the previous episodes, so yeah, we basically just talk through your study experience so far. And like, in the past, we’ve kind of always done interviews with people that were done with all four, but this time I thought,

it’d be good to hear from people that are like currently. somewhere in the middle too. So yeah. On your thing, it says you’re done with one, right?

Anthony: Yeah. I finished FAR and then right now I’m doing REG, or I’m studying for REG.

Nate: That’s awesome. So you passed FAR, so you’ve got it FAR locked up.

That’s seriously like 80% of the battle. If you pass FAR, you know, you have a process that will work and you just repeat it basically. So, yeah, let’s just start from the beginning. how long have you been studying total? Like when did you start the CPA process?

Anthony: So basically, this past May I graduated from college, and then that June, I started studying, like basically full-time.

Anthony’s Daily Routine

Nate: Nice. And so when you started, what did you, oh, go ahead.

Anthony: Yeah. when I started. So basically I had a Google Excel or Google sheets and I like basically uploaded,all like my schedule So every day I would put what modules I needed to get done in order to basically spread out how many weeks I wanted to complete FAR in.

So like for example, like day one, I’ll do module one and two, or like F1 module. I use Becker by the way.

And then, so every day I’d basically, outline what modules I needed to get done. So basically outlined my schedule for the day. starting off at Like at six and then from six to seven, I would work out every single day, go for a run or just lift at my house and then eat some breakfast.

And then starting at 8:30, I would see on my to-do list, which is like the spreadsheet and see what modules they needed to get done for that day. And then, I literally heard every single podcast, so I try to implement every single thing I can from every. Interviewee. So basically I did that two hour study session in the morning and, and that really helped me a lot.

I figured out that basically organizing your day and like what you needed to get done is easy to help you stay on track. And every day I would just do that and I would find myself not getting behind and like being on top of my actual studying. So that was really good for me.

Finding the SuperfastCPA Podcast

Nate: Nice. so from the beginning, before you even really started, you had found our podcast and started formulating kind of a plan before you even really started studying?

Is that what you’re saying?

Anthony: Yeah, like I was trying to. I like try to do a lot of research and I was trying to get like super motivated. So even before I was able to like study or like, you know, get my, eligibility and stuff like that, like my NTS, I try to like research everything. one day I was on Spotify and I was trying to look up like CPA podcasts.

Like I haven’t even seen any of the ads on YouTube or nothing like that. I was just, on Spotify, just trying to look up a CPA podcast to get me like in the mindset and stuff. I was like, oh shoot, like SuperfastCPA, so I started clicking on one and then I heard there was a podcast and like them sharing their stories and like some tips and tricks.

And I was like, wow, this is actually like very insightful. And then next thing you know, I’m like, hearing and listening to all of them and stuff like that.

Nate: Yeah, we’re starting to hear that more and more people finding us through the podcast. And so it’s like good for us, obviously.

The 6 “key ingredients”

Nate: And then also, the episodes, like you’re saying, they are really helpful because it’s just person after person talking through their whole experience in detail, like mistakes they made, stuff they didn’t realize and then breakthroughs they had. yeah, it’s instead of just starting this process, by yourself and not really knowing if you’re, doing it effectively or not. It just helps a lot to hear, all these different experiences about, okay, this is what works, I don’t know if you’ve ever watched that free, like the free webinar, but we go through those six ingredients.

Those came from doing these interviews. I was like, okay, every single person, they do some version of these five or six things. So anyways, I’m glad to hear you, found us through that. So you study your two hours in the morning using your Becker stuff, and then you use kind of our study tools throughout the day.

Is that kind of how you use them or how do you use our study tools in your process?

Anthony: So like after I, like started listening to the podcast, it was weird. Cause every time I would Google something on YouTube, your ad would actually pop up. So like the algorithm or something like, so then one day I clicked on that ad and then, saw the presentation.

How Anthony used the SuperfastCPA app through his day

Anthony: And then, yeah, so I got the bundle pack with,the study notes and the app. So basically, every night. I would try to line up, what would I be studying for, Becker that day. And then, I tried to read basically the night before of what I was going to do the next day. And then that morning, like right before my study session, I would just review that and then throughout my day,

the app is so good, like it’s easy to basically implement in your life and integrate it so easily because the Becker app is a little bit like hard, it’s like simple, but it’s like, the questions are like, you kinda need like a calculator and it’s, you can’t really, I can’t really do like the quick, like problems and like the app, like that.

But your app is like so good. And some of it was crazy. Cause some of the questions, like on test day, it was like literally super similar and the study notes were like super helpful. Like in governmental accounting, like for the, the fiduciary and like all those,type of,

Nate: Like the fund types?

Anthony: Yeah, like you broke it down and like how to understand, like the difference between them, just basically like read the word, just listen to what it’s actually like saying.

Why the review notes are so helpful

Nate: Yeah. That sounds like such obvious advice. Yeah. But, I’m glad you found them helpful. And yes, you’ve probably heard me say this, but the way we put our notes together, we’re not really trying to create just a summary of everything in every topic we use past exam questions because it’s that same idea, if you go into any lesson, you know, you can watch the whole video or read the whole chapter and it covers all this stuff. But if you go through the questions for that lesson, you’ll see that it really narrows down to the same four or five key things from the lesson. And so anyways, that’s how we create our notes so that it’s very focused on what you’re probably going to see on test day.

Anthony: Yeah, exactly. And sometimes I noticed, and even like Becker, they have extra stuff, but I knew what to focus on exactly in the notes like, oh, it’s not in notes. It’s probably not that important, but like for Becker it’s, there’s like a lot of a lot of stuff that like kinda, you might not see like stuff like that.

So it really helped a lot for that.

Nate: Yeah. I appreciate you saying that and I’m glad it’s been helpful. Do you use the audio is very much, or you mostly used the notes and the quizzes?

How Anthony uses the audio notes

Yeah, so like in my car rides or whenever I have to go somewhere, I would use the audio notes cause this summer, there was a lot of obstacles and stuff like that. Like graduation parties and like my cousin, like coming back and stuff like that. So everywhere I would go, I try to like, implement like the audio notes. And those were super helpful to the fact that I listened to them everywhere. So when I was like taking a shower or like making breakfast or going on my run, I would just try to integrate it wherever I can instead of obviously listening to music or just like watching like a YouTube video.

Anthony: I try to revolve my life around the audio notes, which is like became second nature where I could like know what was coming in the audio notes, which was awesome.

Nate: Yeah. Someone listening to them to that degree, yeah, it’s boring or whatever, and you’re listening to CPA stuff constantly, but, it’s the constant repetition is really just like the key to, you just keep making connections in your mind. It helps you retain everything because the worst thing that can happen is you spend all this time studying and then slowly forget all this stuff you spent so much time learning and then, you know, fail on test day.

That’s like the worst thing that can happen. And it helps, like you said, Audio is just such a good… I listen to podcasts constantly, audio books, like anything you want to learn, audio is such a helpful medium because you can just do it while you’re doing other stuff.

How Anthony takes the evenings off

Nate: So you said you studied in the morning and that’s very helpful to just lock it in. And so then do you, you have time in the evenings basically to still go out with friends or do stuff you would normally do or what does a typical day look like?

Anthony: Yeah, that was actually the benefits of this program with SuperfastCPA, where you could actually have the extra time at night where you don’t have to be studying like the full, like 10 or like 12 hours and stuff like that. That’s crazy. But it actually works super good. So like anytime there was like, say like a graduation party, I know I would be able to get my studying in like in the morning and do what I had to do.

And then I’llbe able to just forget about it for that day. And then be like in the moment with my family and stuff like that. Cause this summer, it was like a lot of graduations. Like my cousin came back from the army. My aunt had a baby and it was just like a lot of stuff, like 4th of July.

Don’t underestimate studying on your phone

Anthony: You know, there’s a lot of stuff going on, so, but with SuperfastCPA,, it was easy to basically not forget stuff, as well as keep integrating like the little stuff in your day to help you, keep progressing in your studying, which is awesome.

Nate: Yeah, it’s again, it’s just, we have smartphones, we take them everywhere.

And while you’re in this process, you’ve done years of school, thousands of dollars just to take these exams. Like you might as well just be using all possible time that you can, instead of looking at Reddit or Snapchat all day, and whenever you look at your phone, you might as well just be constantly making progress.

And that’s why, when I started SuperfastCPA, uh, studying from my phone was huge, but that was like, I don’t even know, eight years ago or so.

And there wasn’t any really good solutions for it to actually be simple to study from your phone. I just saw how helpful it was even though I was having to like, zoom in on, you know, trying to use an actual document on my phone was so annoying. And then zoom back out, go to the next page.

But yeah, just to have study tools, people underestimate how effective it can be to study from your phone, even if it’s just little five, 10 minute chunks. but once you make it a habit, like you said, I mean you can add an extra hour, two hours, three hours a day, just by going through your normal day, you know?

How Anthony studied on the weekends

Nate: Do you study differently on the weekends or what’s your process on the weekends?

For the weekends, I tried to get a little more studying in, so basically I would try it. Like actually, like the weekends are like more of my SIM days So on the weekdays, I’ll try to do more of the multiple choice.

Anthony: And then for the weekends, I would obviously do like the cumulative, every single chapter went over and try to do like the 33 questions and then the back-to-back 33 questions. And then focus on like Sims, cause for me on test day, It was the multiple choice is I got by super quick, which is like, basically so helpful.

the Sims are only like, like that part I had worry about spend most of my time on. So it was actually good that every weekend I would, go over the Sims and stuff like that. Just to just keep a idea of what type of stuff they would throw at you and like how to handle the exhibits.

Anthony: But if I have all the multiple choice done, like really quick, It would help to give me more time on the other testlets, which is awesome.

Test day tips for the simulations

Nate: Yeah. that’s really, what it’s all about on test day is just nailing the MCQs so that you have as much time as possible, so that you’re not rushed during the SIMs, you’re not freaking out. You can just take your time. Look at all the exhibits, like get it arranged or whatever. However you do the SIMs. The daily sets of 30 that just solves a lot of problems in advance. You get good at MCQs so that it’s just relatively simple on test day.

And then, like you said, you have the time to, to work on the SIMs.

How Anthony took notes in his own words

Nate: The other thing I ask about is what’s your process for making your own notes or flashcards? Did you say you do it in Excel or? I can’t remember what you said…

I would have like my schedule on Excel, I would try to, but I would try to like, keep a word document up and sometimes I would join the, the Becker, like on Facebook, like the group and stuff. I like some people like, like a lot of people upload their notes there, so you can compare your notes and see what’s,like the, like what’s popular, the popular sections and like stuff like that. So I used to do that and then I’m like, kinda type my notes because if I type it, then I’ll like basically like read it and then type it, which is looking at it twice and stuff like that. And then, that helped a lot too.

Nate: Yeah. That’s just key is it doesn’t really matter if they’re flashcards or not, but just some way of taking the concepts that are difficult for you, for whatever reason, and putting them in your own words. That’s just like a, that’s a huge piece that I think a lot of people don’t really do.

Anthony: Yeah, exactly.

“What was the hardest part about the study process?”

Nate: So what,what’s been the hardest part of the study process for you?

The hardest part probably was like getting into the groove and stuff like that. like obviously FAR has a lot of material and like not, like losing focus or like motivation and stuff like that.

Anthony: Just trying to stay on track and kinda think about the end result. What’s to come after all this, but like listening to the podcast, it’s actually like pretty motivational and stuff, which is , kind of like made me want to keep going and stuff like never get discouraged, Cause some days you just don’t want to study or some days you just, just don’t want to do it, but you just gotta stay up, you know?

Two types of getting discouraged

Nate: Yeah. There’s two sides to it. when you have your study process really nailed down and figured out, and like, you do, you know, you, you passed FAR you know, what you’re doing is working.

It’s a lot easier, you have this sense of momentum and progress. Some days it’s still a battle just to get yourself to do it. But it’s really hard if you’re putting in a bunch of time and effort and it’s not paying off or you feel like you’re not making progress. And so that’s why, again, looking online trying to find strategies to follow, our podcast is a really good resource for that. Just being strategic about how you study if you’re only tool against this is like time, like I just need to watch the video again and again, and again. That typically it doesn’t work out that well, but yeah, just having a strategic approach and constantly reevaluating.

Okay. What am I doing, that’s working? What am I doing, that’s maybe not as effective? And not just blindly putting in time that if you don’t know what you’re doing is working.

How Anthony would simplify the material

Anthony: Yeah. And sometimes the audio, I mean the audio notes in the notes. They’re a good way to basically listen to the material in like a different way, explain it in a different way, which is easier to understand.

Cause sometimes like in the lectures I’ll be like, what did I just hear? I try to look up a video on YouTube, but I realized the notes simplified it. And I was like, wow, this is actually like that simple.

Yeah. The review courses, like you need the depth that they have for certain things, but it is, it’s easy to get lost in just the same reason.

Nate: It’s easy to get lost in how deep they go on every single topic.

Anthony’s process for a final review

Nate: How did you do a final review or what did you do the last few days before your exam?

Anthony: So the last few days, I kinda did like a two-week review.

So every day I would try to do like a chapter, like try to do basically all the multiple choices for that chapter. So first I would do I’d wake up and then do like the 33 questions for like all 10 modules. And then I would just focus on that first module, like that day, and then just try to do all the multiple choice and all the Sims, and then the next day I would just focus on one through 10 again, and then I’ll,narrow it down to module two. So every day I would try to do one module. And then, like I did the mock exams too in between, and I feel like to be honest, those kind of took a lot of time.

And if you just focus on just doing multiple choices, like you cut, you could probably get the same,results.

Nate: Yeah. I tell people like, okay, if you really want to do a full, like four hour mock exam, maybe do it once, but don’t do those over and over. it’s much more helpful to do smaller sets of 30 and then five to seven practice Sims, you’re accomplishing the same thing, but it’s really that practice of just sets of 30 and practice Sims.

So really we’ve gone through everything. what exam did you say you have next?

Getting used to studying in the morning

Anthony: Oh, I have REG next so I’m trying to like, basically do the same, like routine and stuff for REG, you know, waking up early. I feel like I have to like, kind of be a morning person has got to fight through it.

get those hour sessions in and then you could just have the rest of the day. Cause it’s kind of hard to like play catch up if you do it. Like, I mean, if you, by all means, if you have to do it at night, but like, if you have the option, cause at night it’s harder. Cause like you have the full day, like the full day like that you just, you went through, you’re exhausted, you just want to relax and stuff.

How to feel on top of your day

Anthony: So once you get it out of the way I feel like it’s kinda good for you, you feel like on top of your day.

Nate: Oh, definitely. Again, it just helps with that momentum, it helps you feel more motivated because you just feel good that you did the big, important thing before you even leave the house.

Did you say you’re in your master’s program or you’re working right now?

Anthony: So actually, like my, my college had a program where it was an honors program, so I was able to take more credits, for my undergrad. So in my four years I just fulfilled the 120 credits or 150 credits.

And then I skipped the master’s. So in the fall, which is like next month, I’m going to start with my firm. They provided me my study program too. So I kind of like did the shortcut, but I wasn’t sure, cause some days I’d feel like, oh, like this is like difficult. did I need my master’s program to like, be able to pass the CPA?

And it’s not really like that.

Nate: No, it’s not. People email me all the time that have been out of school for 10 years or something and, for whatever reason in their career, they want to come back and do their CPA. And they always ask that. And I’m like, it’s not, the masters does not just magically prepare you to pass the CPA.

You still have to do. It’s it’s a very distinct, separate thing.

The mindset required for the CPA exams

Anthony: Yeah. And I feel like you don’t really have to be like the smartest person ever. Like you just have to be like, basically determined and. just stay motivated. Cause literally like anybody could do it, you don’t have to be like the one that you just like, felt like you were not that good of a student in college. Like it’s pretty easy to like, just flip the switch and just become a like kind of get this new mindset when you’re trying to tackle these exams. Cause, you could definitely do it.

Nate: Yeah, totally. It’s it’s what I talk about all the time. Making the all-in commitment. You do have to get to this point where you go to a new level of, even if you’re nailing your study process, you’re doing it in the mornings. So you can take the evenings off.

You still. You have to treat each day, take it seriously, nail the study process. And then, if you do that by the time it’s five or six or 7:00 PM, then you did a lot, you made a lot of progress and you just take the evenings off, don’t worry about it for the night time.

And then the second half of the weekends. So yeah. awesome, it sounds like you’re on a you’re on the right track.

Anthony’s top tips to current CPA candidates

Nate: Last question I always ask is what would be your top two or three tips you’d tell the people that are, you know, if someone was like really struggling or trying to figure out their own study process.

What would be your top tips to them?

Anthony: I would say,to never be discouraged. ’cause one thing, my professor taught me, like I remember, like he said, this quote, like failure is the tuition you pay for future success. So if you feel like you’re down right now,just got to push through it because there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Even on your worst days, just do something

Anthony: And, just to like day by day, just get aa little progress done. Cause if you do, like they say if you do 1% better every day, like by the end of the year, you’re going to be 365% better.

Nate: Yeah, there is a lot of power in just, even on your worst days just doing something. And a lot of times that’ll just kinda flip the switch and you end up doing more than you even planned on, but yes, I agree.

Well, I appreciate you doing the call, as you said, in your experience, people find these just really helpful to just hear other people’s experiences and, yeah, it’s good to hear from someone who’s, in the middle of the study experience, cause it’s fresh. Like you’re currently doing it every day.

Anthony: Appreciate you having me, it was an honor. Okay, so that was the interview with Anthony. Hope you found that very helpful. And again, if you did, please take a second to leave a review for the podcast. And if you’re going to do that, you might as well enter the giveaway I mentioned at the beginning of the episode at superfastcpa.com/enter.

Nate: And also if you have not ever taken the time to watch one of our free study trainings, make sure you do that. That’s the main thing on our homepage at superfastcpa.com. It takes an hour. It will give you several aha moments, make you view the study process much differently, which will just dictate how you actually spend your time studying.

And it will be much more effective, much more efficient to the point where you can literally spend less time sitting in front of your review course every day. So thank you for listening and we’ll see you on the next episode.