Reading the Wiley book worked well for me for about the first 4 modules that I covered. I got to the Audit Sampling module and man oh man did I have zero motivation to read and take notes like I did in prior weeks. It took me almost a week to get through the material. This was the time I decided to change things up because I was slowly going back to hating studying. Who am I kidding, I hate studying but some days are worse than others.
Back in December Roger CPA Review had a competition on twitter where you had to tweet a study tip and you would be entered to win a free cram course. I was one of the winners chosen and I picked the Audit Cram. I will do a follow up post with the study tips I posted. The cram is good for 2 months and mine expires April 26 which is good since it will be after I take audit. My original plan with the cram was to watch it during my second last weekend before my exam. With Audit Sampling going so poorly I decided to read the chapter on Sampling in Roger's book instead of the Wiley textbook. The last time I took audit I dont think I really fully grasped sampling but this time around I think I finally have a hang of it. I started working on Internal Control on Sunday and got through half of Roger's cram book. Internal Control was another chapter I just skimmed as well. I did not take the time to learn the transaction cycles. I read everything in the book except for the transaction cycles.
I also have come to realize that when I have trouble grasping information I start getting distracted and out of frustration I stop studying. Not to mention I start biting my nails and its never good for anyone involved nor the nail polish on my nails. It's a crazy and scary sight. The picture below pretty much sums up what is going on when I get flustered.
What I have been doing now is to force myself to sit through it and try to explain the concepts out loud. I decided to work through all the transaction cycle problems to see what I remembered from last time before I read the book tonight. And quite frankly I do not remember much. I did every single CPAexcel question (I am a CPA exam review course whore. I will address that in my next post). Tonight my plan is to watch the video lecture for the cram under Internal Control and then read the book. I have also started keeping a separate notebook where I write all the formulas, mnemonics, and whatever little tricks I come up with to remember the information.
Oh in other news I downloaded a brainwave app by Banzailabs that seems to help me with focusing. I cannot listen to music when I study because I tend to focus on the music and the lyrics. I think they work but then again it could just be psychological.
I keep telling myself that I am going to pass. And pass in 2014 I shall!
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