In this SuperfastCPA podcast episode, you’ll hear how KC passed his CPA exams five months faster than his projected 11-month timeline. You’ll learn a ton of great tips about how to study for the CPA exam effectively and efficiently, and how to pass your CPA exams faster. You’ll also hear KC’s experience and tips with Becker CPA practice exams vs actual scores on test day.
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Watch the interview on Youtube…
Table of Contents
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Episode Timestamps
- 00:00 KC interview
- 05:16 Started Reviewing Using the Traditional Approach
- 07:41 How KC Discovered SuperfastCPA
- 10:21 His Study Breakthrough
- 12:44 Transitioning to a New Study Timeline
- 18:19 “I would just trust the process…”
- 19:27 Failing After Passing the First Exam
- 21:04 11 Months Projection Turned Only Almost 6 Months to Finish the Exams
- 22:31 “I didn’t feel the pressure to study more…”
- 25:16 Why He Thinks It Works Much Better
- 28:32 His Process of Using the Flashcards
- 34:03 3 Tips for People Who are Currently Studying
SuperfastCPA Reviews: KC’s Story
KC: Yeah so I had, once again I updated an Excel sheet with like, this is what I need to do every day. So if I had all of that checked off, I’d marked everything off for the day, then I knew I was good, I was like, I’m- I’m covered, I’m fine. That was, I think that it actually helped me a lot cause it was like, okay, this is an attainable goal.
Like get this done today and you’ve accomplished what you need to do. So that gave me some freedom. If I was done at like 6:00 PM with all of those than I didn’t, I was fine. I didn’t feel the pressure to study more.
Nate: Welcome to episode 90 of the CPA exam experience podcast from SuperfastCPA. I’m Nate and in today’s interview, you’re going to hear me talk with KC. So KC was nice enough to do this interview twice basically. The first time we did an interview, it was close to a year ago and I didn’t realize it while we were on the call but then afterwards, the files were corrupted,
couldn’t use them. So a few months later, we got back on, did the interview for a second time. The second time ended up being a better interview anyways. And the big story with KC was he’s a big planner, he had mapped out how long this whole thing was going to take him. And he had his time budgeted for the CPA exams to take him over a year. A few weeks or a month or two of starting the process
just kind of doing the traditional approach, he found SuperfastCPA, watched the free training, got our program and then passed all four much, much faster than even he was planning on. And his daily process became much easier and he was able to spend less time sitting in front of his review course while passing faster than he had even planned on.
So in this interview, you’re just gonna hear the specifics of how he did that. Like the other interviews we talk about pretty much every aspect of the study process, the breakthroughs he had, what things were working for him that were more effective that helped him be more efficient than when he started the study process, and everything in between.
So before we get into the interview, I just want to mention two things. The first thing, which I just mentioned, pretty much every person you’ve heard on these interviews starts by watching one of our free study training webinars. So if you have not watched one of those, or you’re wondering where to start, that is where you should start. Sign up for one of the free one hour trainings.
The link will be down in the description if you’re watching this on YouTube or we’ll just be in the show notes or the description for the podcast episode even if you’re just listening to this in Apple podcasts. So look in the description, there’ll be a link to that or it’s the main thing on our homepage at superfastcpa.com.
The second thing is our monthly podcasts giveaway. So you just enter your name and email, each month, we give away three pairs of Powerbeat Pro headphones to three of our listeners or three random people who have entered the giveaway. And the idea behind the headphones is just kind of goes along with our audio notes.
Audio is such a helpful medium for CPA review or anything you’re trying to learn but while you’re trying to pass these exams our audio notes, especially because you can just listen to them and be racking up study time, improving your retention and understanding of the different topics while you’re washing dishes at night, while you’re preparing your meals,
when you’re going on walks, tons of people mentioned walking their dogs, while you exercise and then whenever you’re in your car, just whenever it makes sense and you can’t be looking at your phone, you can be listening to audio. So that’s the idea with giving away the Powerbeat Pro headphones each month.
So sign up for that. And with that being said, let’s get into the interview with KC.
All right. So, uh, remind me again, are you in Kansas?
KC: I’m in Oklahoma. So…
Nate: Oklahoma.
KC: Yeah. Same thing. There’s a lot of corn and cattle and that’s about it.
Nate: Do
KC: The Oklahoma actually grew up like 10 miles south of Kansas border. Um, and then now I’m in Tulsa.
Nate: Nice. All right. And then how long has it been since you finished, you got your fourth passing score?
KC: So I took that last one in the middle of June of 2021. So got the score like a month after that. So what’s that, eight or nine months?
Nate: Yeah. So I think we did the interview the first time pretty close to when you had got your score cause that was like six months ago, I think.
KC: Yeah, that sounds right. I think we did that in like August. August, September. So just a couple of months. One or two months after that.
Nate: Yeah. Okay. So I re pulled up what you had said originally in the little form thing.
KC: Oh yeah.
Nate: Okay. So yeah. So the thing that I do remember is you had like a spreadsheet where you had planned out how long it was going to take you? And, uh, you ended up finishing way before your own projection or something like that. So is that, is that, that was you, right? That told me that?
KC: Yup, yeah. That was me. Yeah.
Nate: Yeah. So, so what you wrote here was I went from planning two to three months for each test to just four to six weeks.
Started Reviewing Using the Traditional Approach
Nate: So I know it’s second time you’re telling me this but going back to the beginning of your study process, uh, when you started, you just had a review course and just kind of jumped into the lessons the normal way?
KC: Yep. Yeah. So I got Becker, um, like the full, full plan of that. Um, but I just started going through basically looking at the modules. How many modules are in each or what is it chapters for each test and how many modules in each chapter? And I was like, okay, if I can do one a day, starting in like October of 2020, I guess. I would have finished like September of 2021. And I was like never missing a day, never failing a test, like if everything was perfect.
Um, and I just like, I put it in a sheet like a Google sheet and to track that, so that’s yeah, how I started and it was open up the computer at night, watch the 30 minutes if you’re lucky or an hour and a half, if you’re not lucky video, take the multiple choice questions. They even had skills practice, extra stuff, I think.
And then the simulated, or the SIM question that they had for each module. So, yeah, that’s how I started.
Nate: Just going through every single little thing? And, uh, how, how many hours a night were you studying to do that?
KC: That was probably, like of actual studying probably three hours and I’d probably like take breaks in the middle so it probably took four or five but actually looking at the, spending time doing it, three hours.
Nate: And you were working at that time?
KC: Yup. Still I was working and doing my MBA program at the same time as I was doing that initially.
Nate: How did you even.. So if you work eight hours in a day and then you study for five hours, I mean, you pretty much did nothing else?
KC: Yeah. Yeah. It was basically that was it. Um, so luckily I would do like all my MBA stuff, it was the online program. So I was doing it fully online just because I had to have it, like Oklahoma is one of them you have to have 150 hours to sit for the exams. So I needed almost that entire program before you even sit, And then I would basically focus all of my weekends on the MBA stuff and then just to do CPA studying every day.
Um, so yeah, it was a lot, a lot of hours, not much, not much free time. So..
How KC Discovered SuperfastCPA
Nate: And then, so did you, did you take a section following just that same format or where, where across or where in that timeline did you come across our strategies or whatever.
KC: Yeah. So I think I know back when I first started studying, everybody’s like Googling whatever.
And, um, at some point I saw one of your ads on a YouTube video and that was early on and I was kinda like, ah, I don’t think I need it. I can do this on my own. I’ve already bought Becker, I don’t need to do anything else. Uh, And so, yeah, then I did all of FAR through Becker. So I think I started back to the beginning of October and got finally got done with all of those studying in Becker, like right before Christmas.
So almost two and a half to three months just to get through Becker once. Um, which obviously that’s a long one too. And then I took one of their stimulated exams. And got like a 40 or something on it. Like, I did awful. It wasn’t even when I was, I, I, like, I remember stats were popping up and I like walked out of the-
I got up from the kitchen, walked to my wife and I was like, I can’t do it, I’m not going to be a CPA. There’s no, there’s no way. Um, so we talked about it and then I took like a week off after that because I was like, this is crazy. What am I going to do? Um, so from like Christmas till new years, I was like, I’m not gonna think about it.
Just, like take a break for, for a week here. Um, and then at some point in that week, I came back across, I saw your ad again or something happened. So then I took did that first hour or two hour introduction to your stuff, and I was like, this is like, why didn’t I just do this from the beginning? This makes so much sense.
I’m like, I’ve wasted all this time watching the lectures. I’ve wasted all these other like time, all these other things. I wasn’t even learning it. Um, so I saw that and saw the price and I was like, this, there’s no, no way this isn’t worth it. Um, so then I bought it there. So I bought that like probably like January 1 right at the beginning of the year.
and studied basically just as a review on FAR for three weeks or three weeks or so and took FAR on February 1st and got an 87 on it. The actual test on February 1st got 87.
Nate: That’s a better, that’s a better story that I remember. That’s awesome.
KC: Oh it was crazy… just because just the way to study over that month I was like, I learned so much more in that month doing it this way than the three months before. So..
His Study Breakthrough
Nate: Uh, so, so since you had, um, how did you approach that though specifically? Because you’d been through all the FAR material, so how did you actually study those, in that month or whatever it was, three weeks before you took the exam?
KC: Yeah. I think basically what I did I think I downloaded the notes and started going through the notes for your notes for FAR. Tried to get through those like at least once a week, maybe twice a week.
Um, so I got through those four or five, six times there. Um, was just taking your little five quick, quick quizzes, uh, 5-question quizzes. I mean, nonstop, um, as much as I could during that and then went back and just did, I think I did all the multiple choice questions for FAR that Becker had. So I don’t think I looked at another SIM or I think I just did basically multiple choice questions and your notes.
Um, and like, I mean hundreds of questions a day.
Nate: Yeah. So that kind of the main, I guess the main change you made or the realization you had once you saw our webinar was just kind of like using the questions to learn in the same context as you’ll see it on test day? Is that kind of how you-
That’s like the breakthrough you had?
KC: Yeah, so I, because if I were to sign into my Becker right now, if I looked at FAR, it would show you did, for FAR I did all the multiple choice questions. I did 100% of the Sims. I did 100% of basically everything. But if I looked at, AUD, BEC, or REG, it would be a hundred percent of multiple choice questions.
And a couple of them had 0% SIMs, 0%, like, just because I realized… I learned better that way, but also I think it works better for everyone to at least start that way.
Nate: Yeah, I know. And that’s right. Yeah. So sometimes I’ll get questions about like my, my learning style and, and stuff like that. And that can apply and, you know, for some things but, the fact is, is like everybody that’s going to take the exam you have to know how to answer the multiple choice and the SIMS. Even yet, like what you’re going to see on the exam. And so it only makes sense to spend most of your time on that exact thing. Um, yeah.
Transitioning to a New Study Timeline
Nate: Yeah. So, okay. So, so you finished FAR and then did you, uh, were you like, I- I know how to study now, so I’m going to only give myself a month for the next one or how did you kind of adjust your timeline?
KC: Yeah. So I basically scrapped that schedule that said do one module a day. And I said, how many multiple choice questions can I do a day, is what I changed it to. So I think I changed it to like 60 new multiple choice, multiple choice questions and 60 review or something like that. Um, so then it was just how many MCQs does AUD have? If it has 600, which it’s more than that,
it would be 10 days cause I could do 60 a day, something to that effect. Um, so I just started using that as how long it would take me to get through a test. Um, so yeah, that’s basically how I transitioned to it.
Nate: No, that’s, that’s a really good, uh, concrete tip I guess for, cause, you said, you said you’re using Becker, right?
KC: Yeah.
Nate: Yeah. And so I guess really any review course, I’m sure you can see how many multiple choice they have for whatever section. And then it’s pretty simple if you want to test in four weeks or well that’s- how did you do that? Did you say I’d, I’m dividing my, the number of audit questions by 30 days? Or how many days did you use?
KC: I think I divided it by. Uh, I could probably pull up the sheet. I think it was 60. I think my number, I think that’s what it was. So I would divide it by the multiple choice questions to see how long it would take me to get through those.
Nate: Oh, so you use, I want to do 60 new ones a day and however many days that is. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah.
KC: Yeah. So that would make some of the test take longer and some like REG took longer than the others because I was doing it based on the questions. Um, and I knew I could get through those in a certain amount of time like I would study in the mornings. I switched to that also and would get through those in the mornings.
And then, I set a reminder on my phone to do your five question quizzes, like every hour, every two hours. So I’ll do that throughout the day and then read the notes and do review at night.
Nate: So, so one question on that, that sometimes I hear is like people will say like, well, what if I get caught at work, doing my CPA study on my phone or something?
I mean, um, I think it’s pretty normal for like, you know, people get calls or texts if someone’s on their phone for five minutes, every hour, it’s no big deal. I mean, is that something you even worried about or would you try to just take like a walk around the office to do it or…
KC: Yeah, I would usually like, there were definitely times I missed it. I don’t know if I ever worried about that necessarily. I think like where we’re at now, especially with so many people working from home and just the transitioning we’ve had over the last couple of years. I think that’s less of a worry for most people. Maybe it is still for some but then I’m like, okay then during your lunch.
Yeah, catch up there and do four sets during lunch and four sets at the end of the day instead of one every hour.
Nate: Right. Right. And that, and that’s what I tell people. I was just kind of wondering, you know, for the benefit of people that listen to this is just…
KC: No, I was like, yeah, I was lucky in that. I didn’t necessarily have to worry about it that much. Um, so yeah. I know that’s not possible for everybody but yeah. I was fortunate.
Nate: Yeah. But that’s a very common thing. Uh, with the people that I interview which means, you know, they’ve figured this out and they’ve been passing their exams. That’s a very common thing is that they build in some, uh, maybe not a trigger. Just, just some way of reminding themselves like you said every hour or as much as possible.
But the other idea I hear all the time is, if they get a text or some notification they want to open, they just force themselves to first do five questions or read a few pages in the notes. Just something like that.
KC: Yeah. That’s a really good one too.
Nate: I mean, just, just some way of trying to actually build it into your day throughout multiple times.
KC: Yeah, definitely.
Nate: so when you- the FAR thing, that’s one thing because you had been through all the material but then when you moved on to the next section, you were strictly doing multiple choice questions but I’m sure you ran into topics where you could just tell you needed more background info,
so did you, did you kind of use the video lectures as needed or did you pretty much not use them at all? Or how did that work?
KC: I did not really use the video lectures. I did have the books and I would flip through those a couple, of sometimes if I needed to read what they had or show another example. Um, but I didn’t, I don’t think I ever went back to another video lecture after that.
Um, I did use the books a little bit and that’s also like, some people learn better by reading. Some people learn better by being taught. So you have to know yourself a little bit. Um, but I also wouldn’t do that at first. If I didn’t understand it, I just kept going. And then as I reviewed, I, I would realize it’s the ones I needed more help on.
And that’s where like the flashcards and things like that coming. Yeah. So, because I’m like, I don’t, I didn’t need to know everything if I don’t know 15% of it, I’ll be fine. I’ll be okay. That’s kind of my thought process on it. I didn’t want to spend the time trying to, uh, watch a video lecture for an hour to figure, figure out what I might get one question on.
“I would just trust the process…”
Nate: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so, so basically if you came to a topic that going through just the questions, it was still really difficult and you weren’t really understanding it. You would either try to find the specific thing you needed from the textbook or sometimes you just kind of leave it behind and just know that I know I’m going to kind of progressively hit this over and over as the next, the next few weeks go by.
KC: Yeah. It was rare for me to open textbooks. I would, I would just trust the process. Um, I’m going to, I would just join me that I like- trust the process. Like as you see these questions, as you see them in the multiple you’re, as I say for me, you let’s hear from Becker and assuming the notes that I’m reading.
You’re just going to get hit with it so many times. You’re going to get a grasp of it to understand it. Um, so there were some things like, I, I’m not intact. So REG had some more in-depth things to understand just didn’t have a great understanding of. So that’s probably where I spent some time in the textbook, but I don’t think I did it. And then the others at all.
Failing After Passing the First Exam
Nate: Okay. And, uh, let’s see. And so you went four for four then? Or did you have any, uh, stumbles?
KC: No. So I did have a stumble after passing FAR on February 1st. I was like, this is the, like, this is the path forward. It’s going to be a piece of cake. I’m going to be fine. Cause I obviously got a good score on FAR too and I didn’t didn’t know if I would, I wasn’t that confident in it.
Um, so I took AUD next and I think I gave myself. I think I’m still giving myself it was either five or six weeks. So it was like for four weeks to get through the material and then like 10 days to review. So I still get myself a pretty good review window there. And I ended up getting a 74 on that. Um, and I think part of it was
like I probably was kind of cocky going into it like, oh, I got an 87 on FAR. No way I struggling AUD. Like, there’s a lot of overlap. I’ll be fine. Um, like I just didn’t, I should’ve, I could have tried harder. I could work harder during that period. It’s my own fault. Um, so yeah, so I got a 74 there and then that was like a four week window though.
So I’d already started studying for REG for like four weeks before I got that AUD score. So then I finished REG and then took AUD like the second time, like two weeks after I took a REG since I was so close, I was like, I can cover it. Um, so I took those pretty much back to back and passed both of those and then finished with that.
11 Months Projection Turned Only Almost 6 Months to Finish the Exams
Nate: Nice. Yeah. That’s awesome. And so you. You had like 11 months projected originally, and then it went down to what was your total time? Like eight months or something or less?
KC: So like studying with your method it would have been like five and a half. Is that right? I guess that’s probably from first test til last test.
You have the studying before that, but yeah, February 1st I took the first one, and June 15th, I took the last one.
Nate: Yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah. I, I can’t remember if this was you, did you end up finishing before some big thing you had?
KC: Yes. Yeah. So we had booked a trip to Hawaii on, I think it was June 15th. So I took the test that morning and then flew out that afternoon and basically was like, well, whatever happened happened, we’ll see.
Um, that was the first time I didn’t have to study in seven months. So that pretty much just took it out of my mind for took it out of my mind for a week. And then thankfully passed that one. Got the score, like the week after we got back.
Nate: Nice.
Yeah. That’s awesome. So as far as time spent, you were, you said you were doing five hours, four to five hours a night, your first kind of two, two or three months of FAR, and then you switched to the morning,
“I didn’t feel the pressure to study more…”
Nate: so were you mainly just doing the, basically my question is how much dedicated study time where you had to like sit in front of your review course where you’re doing each day after you switched to our study methods?
KC: Yeah, it was probably, so I did start studying pretty much every morning. Um, I didn’t do a full two hours. I think I did, like I had to get through 60, like I was saying new multiple choice questions. So brand new, hadn’t looked at them yet. I had to get through 60 in the morning. And then I would set myself, I had to do like you’re 30 review every day, 30 that you’ve already done. Um, so there were some mornings I didn’t get to that some mornings I did.
Um, so it was probably like an hour and a half in the morning, and an hour in the evening, plus all plus all the multiple choice questions on your app throughout the day. So dedicated in front of my Becker course, it was probably close to two hours, hour and a half, two hours.
Nate: Okay. So, so it kind of, I mean you, you still studied in the morning and a little bit at night but overall it made your days kind of less intense altogether?
KC: Definitely. Yeah. And I think some of that’s just because I knew I’d still have some time in the evening. it wasn’t, I wasn’t gonna spend all evening doing it.
Nate: Right.
KC: Um, but also like my personality is kind of, which I think I’ve heard you mention this before either on a different on one of the earlier podcasts of somebody else, but like, I couldn’t enjoy the other times that I wasn’t studying because I was just thinking, oh, I should be studying so I can get this done and out of the way.
Nate: Yeah.
KC: Um, so that’s just kind of the way my personality fit like, is. I knew, well I just want to, I just want to get it over with, I got I just want to be done with it. So I’m going to study as much as I can. and I would be happier doing that than you’ve been trying to enjoy some, uh, some break time.
Nate: Yeah. But if you, if you kind of nailed it in the morning and then did your little mini sessions throughout the day and then your review at night after that, could you kind of mentally disengage and just relax a little bit?
KC: Yeah. Yeah. So I had, once again I updated an Excel sheet with like, this is what I need to do every day. So if I had all of that checked off, I’d marked everything off for the day then I knew I was good. I was like, I’m- I’m covered. I’m fine. Um, that was, I think that it actually helped me a lot cause it was like, okay, this is an attainable goal.
Like get this done today and you’ve accomplished what you need to do. Um, so that gave me some freedom. If I was done at like 6:00 PM with all of those than I didn’t, I was fine. I didn’t feel the pressure to study more.
Why He Thinks It Works Much Better
Nate: Yeah. Um, going back to your, uh, to the first few months with FAR where you were doing everything, like the video lectures, just everything that Becker had like in your- I don’t know in your mind, what was the, why do you think it works so much better?
Because hypothetically or like on paper, that almost makes more sense, you know to get the full background, the whole lesson, and then do the questions and then the SIMS, and then you get to the end, you do that for two or three months and you get like a 40 or 50 on your first full practice exam. Just looking back, like, why do you think that just didn’t really translate or…
KC: Yeah, that’s a good question. Um, Probably like the main thing is, probably two things. One, the way I was learning the material and two, the way I was reviewing. So first, since I’m starting with multiple choice questions, I’m saying, okay, this is what they want to know. This is, so this is what I need to learn compared to watching an hour long or an hour and a half long video that I don’t even know how much I paid attention during that hour. Like my mind could have been, who knows where?
Nate: Right.
KC: Um, so I think starting with the multiple choice questions, even if you want to watch the videos, I would start with those because that’s going to tell you what you need to pick up from them.
Um, but then the other thing since I was just going module by module and not, I didn’t really review it all. So I was like, okay, I got a hundred percent of these questions done, it doesn’t mean I know any of them, I just got the right answer finally, so I moved on. Compared to now, once I start reviewing at least 30 questions a day, it’s like, oh, I need the score to be 80%.
I need to have a good understanding of this, I need to have a goal of getting 80% ride or getting a, as I get closer to the test getting 80 to 85% right. Um, so since I have those goals and being able to see, I’m not really improving that much. I’m sitting at like 60% on the review tests. I’m like, I need to learn the material better, so I need to focus on these questions. Where the first time I’m just, I’m just checking off, I’m not really learning compared to with those reviews it’s like, okay, you have to know the material.
Nate: Yeah. Yup, that is why I mean and again, I was basically asking that to get it in your own words just for the benefit of people that listen to this.
But yeah, that all makes sense to me. And that’s why I think that, uh, even with a lot of review courses are starting to build in like the whole adaptive thing and you take some big quiz and they tell you what you need to work on. I just think it’s better to kind of go through things manually. And those, those daily sets of 30.
I mean, it just makes sense, to constantly rereview all these lessons because on FAR you cover over 200 topics. So even if you go really deep and feel like you really understood it on day one by like day 45 or day 30. Yeah. You’re 29 days away and you’ve covered a hundred other topics by then, so yeah.
His Process of Using the Flashcards
Nate: so you mentioned flashcards. What was your process for doing that? Uh, would you kind of wait to see if you kept missing things in your daily sets of 30? Or how did you decide if something was worth stopping and writing out a flashcard for?
KC: Yeah, it was basically for the most part if I noticed, okay, I’m missing the same question over and over and over again.
Um, and I just knew I didn’t have a great understanding of the topic. Um, I would add it. Write, write it out. So I don’t think I would rarely do it that first time through. It was almost always only after doing the reviews, doing the reviews. Um, and I usually would have 30 to 50 for each test. So once I had to get an understanding I’d throw it out, um, but I felt like I had more than that.
It was going to be kind of just overwhelmingly also. So yeah, I try to keep it kind of in that range.
Nate: Yeah. Um, and then for your final review, you said you left a week or two usually. Is that-
KC: Yeah, for all of them? Yep. For all of them, except for that I left a week. Yeah, probably 10 days, um, on average.
So, and I would basically set up, so I actually am one that likes the simulated exams that Becker offers. I know that’s not a popular opinion which is fine. I think that’s where you have to learn what you like and what you don’t. Um, so I liked them. It gave me, one because that’s the only time I did simulated questions was in there. And another thing that-
Nate: Meaning the simulations? That’s the only time you looked at simulations?
KC: Yes.
Nate: Okay. Okay.
KC: So and then I would also do the AICPA sample exam that they have on their website, which if someone is not doing that, they should 100% be doing that because those are a great to have a good understanding of what you’re going to see on test day. Um, but back to Becker simulated questions or simulated exams.
So I had another sheet that someone put together on like Reddit and it showed like, okay, if you get a 55 on BEC or REG you’re going to pass on test day like based on averages.
Nate: I remember you saying that.
KC: Yeah. So audit was one you need like a 67 on the simulated exams and Becker to pass on test day. So they talk about like a 15 point jump, but it’s really different based on the test.
so then I was like, okay, I can look at that sheet and see what I need. The week leading up to the test, I’ll be good or not. So like in the one I failed audit was the one that I was below that number on. Um, so I don’t think it’s true every time for every person it’s perfect. No, but they have like a thousand responses on their CPA candidates that have filled it in.
So they have a pretty good grasp of those numbers.
Nate: You set, you sent me that link, right?
KC: I might’ve. I don’t remember. I can I’ll send it again.
Nate: Yeah, I think you did, but yeah, yeah, no, that’s a, that’s interesting. Or that I mean, that’s a good, it’s specifically for Becker, right?
KC: Yeah, it is.
Nate: Most people are using Becker. Yeah.
KC: Yeah. I mean, might have them for others. I came across on Reddit at some point. This might be useful and it was, um, so yeah, so I did that during final review and then I made sure I understood those AICPA sample exams. I understood every question and why it was the answer. It was on those every time.
And I think that that helped a lot. Um, and then I would do like a couple hundred. That might be a little high. I would do like 150 multiple choice questions a day from Becker. Um, I would go through yours, your five question quizzes once an hour, and then I would get through that your notes. Um, some of them are shorter obviously than others, but I tried to get through your notes one or two times or every try and get to your notes at least once every two days, probably two or three days for those 10 days.
Nate: Yeah. That’s I mean, yeah, that’s, that’s solid. Uh, the, the, the final review again, what a lot of people do is they kind of go back to their weak areas and go really deep. But if you do that on five or six topics, again, any given exam tests you on like 150 to 200 topics, your, your time is just so much better spent doing cumulative review on, on everything.
Uh, cause it just, it brings things back, puts it in your short-term memory. Yeah. That when I failed FAR the first time, that was the main thing is like I got in the exam and I was seeing like fairly simple, you know, conceptual questions and just the way they were asking it, I just could not like, man, I know I covered this and I pretty much know this topic but they’re asking this one little thing.
And that was like where the whole idea of rereview clicked was when I was sitting in the testing center. So..
KC: Yeah, definitely.
Nate: All right. Well, uh, yeah, again, I appreciate you, uh, being willing to do this again so we could actually get it recorded this time. Um, but to end, and I don’t remember what you said last time.
3 Tips for People Who are Currently Studying
Nate: What would be your, what are like your top three tips to people that are still working on their exams?
KC: Okay, so top three. Um, I’ll try to only say three. I’ll try to get through them quick.
Nate: I mean, go ahead if you want to say five, go for it.
KC: So first things first, you have to know yourself. So I know that I needed a schedule that I could stick to and mark things off on.
Some people might not like that. I loved it. Um, so you have to know yourself. And then one, I think having a schedule is a good thing just to, so you can see, I can be done with this by this day. If you need to push it a little bit, move it a little bit. That’s fine. But you still are giving yourself a goal each day to accomplish and like Monday or Sunday night, you need to have everything caught up by then.
So you don’t start a new week behind.
Nate: Sorry. So as, so as a side, sorry, as a side note. So you weren’t using the exam planner in Becker then? You were basically, like you said, after your first exam, you would just take the total number of MCQs and divide it by 60 because that’s what you wanted to do. And that was basically and then, so you would make a daily thing in Excel.
So you weren’t using the exam planner in Becker?
KC: No, I wasn’t. So yeah, it had the date, how many new multiple choice questions to get through.
Nate: Okay.
KC: How many all the ones I need to review, how many of your five question quizzes I wanted to get done on that day. And how many pages are the notes that I needed to read or listen to.
And then I would just check the box as soon as I did one.
Nate: Yeah. That’s so solid though. I mean, that’s yeah. That’s so much better than using like your review course dashboard where like you said, watching the video it’s like you might zone out for the whole thing and it just cause it was playing, the software marks it off.
It just doesn’t really mean anything. But like those question-based checkpoints and you can check those off, you just know you’re making progress doing it that way.
KC: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Um, yeah, so that’s kinda two tips.. Let’s see I actually wrote a couple down. Um, the other one that I learned at some point in this, so everyone’s heard like the, you remember X percentage of what you hear and X percentage of what you read.
You know what I’m talking about. Um, someone on a podcast I was listening to at some point I was like, okay, there’s been a study done, it’s like the number one way to remember, because you remember the most of what you teach but you can like trick yourself into thinking you’re going to teach it so you’ll remember more. So like, as you’re answering multiple choice questions and then reading why things are right and why they’re wrong.
If you can put yourself in the mindset of, I’m going to have to teach this to someone else, it’ll force you to remember it better. Um, so I was doing that. I think that helped a lot and things were I knew I didn’t know well, I would actually force myself to teach them to my wife, even though she was like, this is, I will never in a million years care about this things but like some of those types of things, just like that’s part of how you learn.
Um, yeah, so I think that’s most of them. Last thing which probably should have been the first thing. Like, I don’t know why someone wouldn’t. Invest in SuperfastCPA like which I think I said this the first time we talked but, and I’m about to sound like an advertisement for you. And I promise I’m not getting paid to say it.
Nate: I appreciate it. Let’s hear it.
KC: Like, it’s the, I don’t know. I’m not sure what the cost is now, what I paid exactly but it’s like, not that much more than taking one test. So if it helps you pass one test that you would have failed, and it helps you pass a month earlier, which it’s going to, like for me, it helped me pass like five months earlier.
It’ll make your study process easier, not necessarily less word but easier to grasp and get through, like all of these things are worth probably thousands of dollars because you’re gonna get a raise sooner. Like all it, it makes no sense for me that someone wouldn’t just be willing to pay the small amount that it is.
Um, even like, and I know it feels like a lot, especially if you’re just studying, you don’t have a job, but trust me, you’ll make more. It’ll pay itself back so quickly. Um, so yeah, that’s, that’s the last thing that’s definitely should, uh, definitely should buy into SuperfastCPA.
Nate: Alright. Well, I appreciate it. Yeah. Um, I agree. But yeah, that’s like the whole thing is trying to, I mean, that’s why we have the free training is like listen, just listen to what I have to say and I promise this will make a lot of sense. Um, so yeah.
KC: Definitely. And I’m really glad that you doing the podcast cause that was like, those are coming out once a week.
So I’d be like just tired of studying or like frustrated for a section that was not fun or I didn’t enjoy, and I was like, okay, you listen to a podcast with someone that has either passed or had some success using these methods. Because I didn’t have anyone around me that was studying at the same time that I can study with.
So like getting to hear people talk about even passing or being done, even if you’ve only passed one or you haven’t passed any, it’s like, oh, I can, I can do it. Like if he can do that, I can do that.
Nate: Right.
KC: Um, so I really enjoyed these too. These were really helpful and for like momentum.
Nate: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. That’s the main thing we hear is just a, yeah, there are a lot of people out there that like you said, um, I don’t know if you’re working at like a private company and you’re kind of like the only one working on the CPA or whatever, or it’s, it’s just people’s defacto support group type thing to like be able to hear all these different stories and also all the strategies mixed in, it starts to like make more sense, cause you hear it from different angles and yeah.
KC: Oh, yeah. Yeah. And you learn tips of things that you wouldn’t have ever thought about for ways to study. And like, I’m sure people heard me say things today that they’re like, that’ll never work for me, I’m not doing that.
And that’s great because you have probably close to a hundred at this point of other episodes that people can go and listen to and find that stuff for them. So..
Nate: No, I- I really like your idea of there’s there’s a thousand ways of like doing this, but giving yourself a concrete checkpoints that if you can mark that off each day, you know, that you’ve made progress.
Whereas like, yeah, I watched, uh, I watched three hours of video lectures but that’s very ambiguous and that doesn’t directly help you answer questions. Um, yeah. Yeah. The idea of the checkpoints and just marking something down. Like I know I got done what I needed to. Yeah. That’s just such a good idea.
So that was the interview with KC. I’m sure you found that very helpful and motivating and you probably got a lot of tips about how you can improve your own study process yourself, pass your exams faster. But again, to get the cohesive approach from start to finish, the main thing you want to do is watch one of our free study training webinars.
You can sign up for one of those in the description to this episode or on our main website at superfastcpa.com. So thanks for listening and if you found this helpful, take the time to share this episode with someone you know who’s also working on their CPA exams.