Shuchi is a weekly Club 75 Blogger as she documents her journey through the CPA Exam. She has been a member of Another71.com's Club 75 since April 2010.
Last week, New York was hit with a heat wave like no other. Needless to say, jumping in the pool or taking a long nap in an air-conditioned room sounded much better than studying and staring at BEC material.
Yet, somehow I reminded myself that the clock is ticking and my past experience with BEC still hurt like a nasty bee sting. What is it about BEC that makes one underestimate it?
Perhaps since, after studying vigorously for FAR, compared to FAR, BEC material looks so much lighter? But I know better. Its like a mirage-you think you can totally get that 75 but instead you end up with a miserable score and confusion as to what went wrong.
If there is one thing Ive learned from taking the CPA exams, it is that you cant just memorize all the material. You must learn it, understand it and be able to apply it. So, somehow pushing away the thoughts of being in the pool, I started studying by reviewing the chapter on Corporate Governance.
I have to say having taken BEC last year, seeing audit in it was a bit surprising! I knew there were changes made to BEC, but I hadnt gotten a chance to look at them first hand.
I took some notes and totally started to get overwhelmed with all the acronyms. Instead of understanding COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations), I started thinking of the restaurant chain COSI and reading about ERM (Enterprise Risk Management) made me simply want to squirm.
Thankfully, once I did some MCQs and reread my notes, most of it is making sense. I just hope I can remember everything on the d-day! Just when I thought okay, I can do this, I found myself reviewing and getting nervous over Cost Accounting material. I hope by working out the MCQs will help again so thats what I plan to tackle this week.
Meanwhile I hear the clock ticking. When I had finished with FAR two weeks ago, I thought OK, one week vacation and I will have six weeks to study for BEC. Somehow time has flown and I have less than five weeks left, and I am starting to get nervous again.
Still trying to implement Jeffs ELL plan, but it has been hard to get back into the study mode, and I have hit the snooze button very easily all week for that early morning hour I am supposed to put in. I have only been able to study an hour during lunch and an hour in the evening, but I did make up the hours over the weekend.
I am motivating myself to study harder the next few weeks by dreaming of that hot summer day, when I will be done, and will be jumping in a pool and reading a book totally unrelated to CPA. Happy studying everyone!
