And we are alive. Welcome back to another action packed edition of the another 71 podcast as always. I'm your humble host, Jeff Elliott, a licensed CPA in the state of Kansas by the grace of God and the chagrin of many happy Wednesdays to you. Today is Wednesday, August. I wanna say April, August 11th, 2021.

This is another 71 podcast, number 94. And if you are listening live and you want to, um, ask me a question, hit me up in the chat or raise your hand. Having some issues with my, uh, air pod pro keeps working out of my ear as I speak the show must go on. All right. So again, if you have a question for the podcast, let me know.

All right. Starting things off the CPA exam pass rates for Q2 2021 are in the book. And some interesting things. So first of all, nothing crazy happened. Um, just here's the past rates from top to bottom, BEC 63% regulation and 59% auditing 50% far is 43%. And if you haven't looked at the pass rates, you can go to another 70 one.com and read.

We've been tracking the CPA exam pass rates for the last 15, 16 years. And so here's the deal. This is Q2 2021. Um, so BEC is up versus atypical Q2 far on the other hand is down and versus prior years auditing have the lowest Q2 of, um, Since since 2016. So it was strong for the last five years as it was low this time.

And, um, and then regulation has also had a strong showing, uh, relative to prior years. So here are my takeaways and I actually wrote all this out. I'm just gonna read what I wrote. So short-term Q2 scores are typically lower due to tax season, but far and auditing were lower than usual than a typical Q2.

It would be easy to attribute this to the forthcoming July. This is obviously back in Q2, July, 2021 CPA exam changes with people shuffling to take things, to take exams like auditing and BEC, and then, uh, because people, it was recommended to take far and regulation after July because of the content.

That was jobs out of those exams, like hypers discontinued operations, pension, the state tax, and T, but if this were true, then BEC and auditing would both be down, but only auditing drops. Whereas BEC climbed in the end is probably a weird mix of taxis and random luck, CPA exam changes and good old fashioned, who knows.

So again, Q2, 2021 CPA exam pass rates are out. Nothing too crazy. If you go on the low 71 to look at at BEC I mean, Q2 for BEC was 63%. I mean 10 years ago, BEC was, uh, Q2 was 46%. So, uh, BEC has, has spiked since then. So anyway, that's the CPA exam, pass rates, starting things out with Denise. Hey Jeff, I'm beginning my CPA exam preparation.

How many weeks should I plan for each test? So I actually get this question a lot and I answer it in ranges so far and regulation I would take, um, I think seven weeks is the sweet spot, but between six and eight weeks, never more than eight weeks. And for, for auditing and, um, BEC yeah, five-ish weeks. For ninja we have the four week and the seven week and then just study planner.

And so four weeks, if you're like under the gun cramming and seven weeks, while seven weeks is perfect for regulation and, um, auditing and BEC seven weeks is, is more than enough. So, um, again, never more than eight weeks for any exam ever, ever, ever. If you have someone, some expert out there telling you to study more than eight weeks, they're 100% wrong.

You can, you can have me email me and I'll explain why, but I'll tell you why. Uh, when you're sitting for the CPA exam, you're not, you're not going to become an expert on CPA exam topics. You are, you are studying information. To become competent enough to score a 75 on your respective CPA exam session.

And what does passing the CPA exam mean? It means that, um, so you pass the CPA Exam, get your initial license to mean that you meet the minimum requirements, and do it to protect the public interest. It doesn't mean that you're an expert. You can then go on and become an expert in state tax or, or auditing or governmental accounting, et cetera.

But, um, you're not going, you're not going to become an expert on the content anyway. And the more, the more time that you spend beyond eight weeks, you get diminishing returns on your time. I get emails, Jeff, I passed, or I studied for three months and I scored a 63. This time I'll ask, which is 10 points lower than last.

And, um, you know, I think I'm stupid. Well, you're not stupid. You just, you studied for too long because, um, the further and further that you get away from week one, week, two week three, the less and less you were going to remember that information. And so, um, that's why you want to cram all the info in your head, roll into a Prometric, barf it out and then leave.

And you know, if you, if your desire is to open up your own CPA firm, you tax prep and do estate planning, estate tax planning, um, you're, you're likely never going to touch governmental auditing or government governmental accounting. Again, unless you like to take on, um, some client, um, you know, that has their books quarter and a Gatsby now.

If you do take on that client, then you have to be obviously competent. So then you will have to become pretty much an expert in governmental accounting. So you're back in the study, but for purposes of the CPA exam, um, you just need, you need to know enough about government and accounting to be dangerous, to go in there and barf it out on exam day.

So that's how many weeks you should spend on your CPA exam preparation, going to the chat. I invited some ninjas online. You can raise your hand if you want to. Uh, if you want to be alive, you don't, you will not be on camera. So you don't have to, uh, you can just, it'll be audio only, uh, S Barry. I'm assuming I can read this out loud.

Hey Jeff. Um, I failed rag with the 70 in June supplementing with ninja CPA for my second. Go at that tomorrow morning with the 2021 changes. What can I expect with regards to question work wording? What, tell me to use 2021 values or provide them what an, a question should, should testers be looking for to help indicate what rules they should be defaulting to?

No, I don't think he'll tell you 2021 or anything. I think it'll, I think, um, it'll just give you the number that you need. So like for instance, section 1 79 is indexed for inflation. So the question is what does the AICPA test for section 1 79? And I asked them about this and I'm like, do they, do they memorize the, uh, the base number of, of 1 million.

Two and a half million or do they memorize the inflation adjusted numbers? Because there's a big difference. And the AI CPA exam team told me that, um, the candidates will have enough, we'll have the info required to answer the question. So that tells me that they're going to give you the number, um, just in general.

It's good to, um, so for instance, um, I scored a 92 on regulation, memorizing, walking into my exam, having the section one, the section 1 79 number memorized. And, and I think, um, the medical deduction memorized or percentage memorized. And, um, I don't mean that as a humblebrag, you can go on another 71.

Look at my scores, um, from back in the day when it wasn't very serious. But, um, I say that to say, I didn't memorize any thresholds or phase outs other than 1 79. And I scored 92 taxes, also my best subject. So I hope that's helpful. I don't, I don't think you're going to need to memorize any 2021 specific numbers.

It's just, well, you are going to have to know the 2021 numbers, but that's just what there is, there are no other numbers to memorize. It's just the 2021 tax law adjusted back to TCJ. So the care act right now is in effect for tax purposes, like, like real life, but for CPA exam purposes, it's not testable. And, and so like the net operating loss rules, it's back to that 80% threshold.

So that's the difference between real life and CPA exam life. But all that to say, I wouldn't worry about it. Regulation is more conceptual and people realize it's because the ACPA can't go in and change their database for just every whim of Congress. And so I wouldn't worry about it. The call and the chat says, how long do you recommend studying for a retake?

Just found out I failed auditing what a 64. Um, so I recommend studying for a retake the same as if you were studying for the first time. And the reason for that is people oftentimes go in and they'll fail and then they'll think, okay, I'm just a cram away. I'm just a few points away. And then what will happen is oftentimes they will score, score lower than they did before.

And then they think they're stupid and everything's, um, uh, terrible and the CPA exam isn't for them. And that's just not the case. So for auditing, I would study for five weeks. I have between five and seven weeks. The ninja study planner is four weeks and seven weeks. So I would just study for, um, seven weeks for auditing.

So, um, do not cut corners on your retake and because when you took the CPA Exam, you are, you were exam ready, like, so for those topics that you scored well in, you were exam ready on that day. You're not exam ready. Now you need to go back and re-study those sections. And then, um, the areas that you are on the weekend, you need to strengthen it.

No.

All right. Follow up. Um, I know there's controversy about the business meal expense. It was historically 50% deductible and now it's 100% deductible for meals from restaurants. Does this change? Your answer is a hundred percent, a hundred percent in the care act. I can't remember, but historically it's 50% and it's, it's back to 50%.

So I don't remember if the, if the cares act was, was the 100% deal, but, um, it's, it's back to what it was prior to the cares act, which has 50% Alexandra says taking far this Friday. Any suggestions on how to spend today and tomorrow? Yay. Big day for you tomorrow. Um, wait, no two days. Okay. So you were two days out you're in this chat because you're a ninja.

So you have the ninja notes. I would, I would read the ninja notes, um, at least one more time today, twice on Thursday. And when you wake up in the morning, once again on Friday, and if you can't on Friday, At least read through like your three weakest sections now, today and tomorrow, and even Friday morning, I was always a big proponent of studying right up to the moment of your CPA Exam.

And that's why I liked the 1:00 PM testing time because I had to give a six and get the coffee going and, um, and then study and then just cram. It was an awful day, but that's just, that's how I did my exam. So for the rest of the day today, Thursday, and then Friday morning, start with your weakest topic first in the MCQ.

So from here on out, it's just ninja notes, ninja MCQ. Now, if you drive somewhere ninja to audio, you have to listen to me more. They'll start for you. Um, but it's just ninja notes and the Dempsey Q from here on out, start with, with your weakest topic first you're taking far. And so your weakest topic, governmental county, not for profit, pick one and do 20 questions over one of them.

And if you score 50% do another 20, hopefully it's quieter than 50%, but, um, you keep doing these mini testlets of 20 questions until, um, until you're scoring in the seventies and then, then you move on to your next week or so. Not for profit, then your government and then do a set of 20 bangs. You hit 70% move on to your next week.

Yes. Which is leases or whatever. And then that's how you do that. You just keep cranking it on MCQ, always in study mode, never in practice mode, hate practice exams, waste of time, inefficient use of your time and ninja notes all the way through

D Raz says, how accurate is the ninja trending score? I have not tracked it scientifically. So, um, which would mean taking people's training scores and then emailing them and asking them what their actual exam score was to them. Uh, so anecdotally, just from reading responses, The training score typically seems to be, uh, like within three to five points of, of their exam.

And that's just, and that's just me reading some comments like, oh, the turn, the score is pretty close. Like, I don't remember a time at least recently, like, whoa, trending score was 65 or 20 score was 95 and the score was 65. I don't, I don't remember that because I would dig into that like, okay, what's the deal here?

Um, so just anecdotally, most people say that it's fairly close back to the questions. I just resubscribed to ninja after failing the far section for my fifth time with a 67, my other scores were 59, 68, 70. My primary course is Roger CPA Review. Now, here I am with my sixth attempt scheduled here. I'm set. Three and a half weeks.

I want to know if you have any tips to help, because I'm almost on the verge of throwing in the towel and saying, I guess this isn't for me. And do you think I should reset my data and the MCQs for the dojo? Uh, yes. Reset your data for sure. Cause you just need a clean slate. So bar 67, then dipped to 59, then up to 68, then up to 70.

So as your four, so the second time you scored eight points lower. My guess is that you are crammed, that's usually the case. Um, and then you started, oh, 67 59, 68 52 and then 70. So we're going up, down, up, down, up. So, uh, so let's, let's hope that this goes up. So last time he scored a seven. All right, three and a half weeks.

Let's assume that you're starting from scratch in three and a half weeks. Follow the ninja study planner four weeks out. You want to, so you have Roger CPA Review, Roger CPA Review plus ninja nail the videos. Now the concepts that with your Roger CPA Review videos, get through those maybe in a week and week and a half of ninja MCQ taking notes, taking notes of your Roger CPA Review videos, if you can.

But the most important thing is to get through them in a week. The timeline and the time budget is more important. We can spend a half an inch MCQ three days rewriting your notes no more than three days, but really hit it hard. So, and then the remaining few days left to do your final review, which is hitting your weakest topics.

First in the MCQ due 20 question mini testlets and work. Backwards. So, and you know what, if you score, uh, south of 75, again, don't throw in the towel. There's no need to, um, you can always retake it. You can always read, take your CPA Exam. You can always adjust your study approach because eventually you will pass.

I know, I know of someone, they were a member, they took 23 exam sections. And did people make kind of nasty comments like in the chat or whatever? Like, yeah. Are they, are they a licensed CPA today? Um, well the pass, the pass, the CPA exam. I don't, I don't know about their licensing. Um, but yeah, I passed the CPA exam.

Does their performance on governmental accounting have anything to do with them being able to be an excellent tax preparer? No. So never thrown away. All right back to the questions. Josh says regulations notes. Say net operating loss for 2018 and beyond are limited to 80% tax one coming carried forward.

Indefinitely. I believe this is wrong. Um, because of the care act, this changed to 2018 to 2020, and has no limit on tax long jump. He carried back five and forward indefinitely, then beginning in 2021 as the 80% limit he carried forward indefinitely. Am I correct? Uh, you're correct. And I am correct for both.

Correct. All right. So you are correct for real life, 2021 tax prep. You are correct for the 2021 CPA exam prep. I am correct. The reason for that is the CPA told the CPA Exam providers that, and that's the, one of the benefits of being, uh, using AI CPA, licensed materials, like ninja. Several other courses are that, um, we have a connection with the AICPA and they said, Hey guys, uh, we are not testing the care act anymore.

Um, so the care act was tested September, 2020 through December, 2020. And then beginning July 1st, 2021, the care act was no longer tested back to TC J law. I said, Hey, this doesn't match the ASAP policy on new pronouncements, which is, um, a new, new tax law is in effect six that's after the enactment date or the effective date, whichever is later.

And so the cares act. Uh, testable through, uh, July. And, um, they just said, this is what we're doing. And the care act is no longer testable. And I double and triple check that because that's a big deal. Uh, it affects NOL. It affects, um, the medical deduction, 10% versus seven and a half percent, the charitable contribution deduction, 25% versus 10%.

So a lot of things, it, impacts a lot of things. So, um, you and I are both correct just for different reasons. All right. Never done this before, going to Jacob on the phone. Hey, Jeff. Uh, so, uh, found out yesterday, made a 70 on the far, um, I've passed BEC and audit, and this is the first time. First time I've taken.

Would say failed it with a 70, um, my 18 month clock runs out in April, but I'm 20% through the materials for reg. So I'm trying to decide, do I go back to studying for four or five more weeks to try to get those five extra points and then come back to reg once we've got through? Or do I keep on plugging in the rig?

So 20% for rag means like, like you're, you're, you're a weekend to it, right? Yeah. I'm about 20% through the material. Well, I think for now you were going to have to start from scratch anyway, just as, just as a, as a general practice, starting from scratch, um, on a, on a retake. And so it really comes down to which exam do you want to take next?

Gotcha. So if you want to jump back far, you're not that far, you're not that far into, um, regulation. You can do it, but if it were me, I would just take a break from far away. And I would, I would say with reg, I mean, you're already a week into it, you're you don't lose a week of study time and you're going to have to reset it for far anyway.

Um, how, how are you feeling about that? Yeah, I was, I think mentally I was leaning towards going back on far, just because, uh, you know, when I go in through the questions I performed pretty well, I, you know, I'm kind of feeling like it might've been more of. Test day jitters, you know, maybe get tricked, you know, tricked on a few, but I don't know that mentally I'll be able to focus on reg with the fail of fat hanging over my head is kind of what I'm worried about.

Okay. Yeah. So, I mean, I kind of see it going on either way, so, and you know, yourself better. So then in that case, I would jump back far. I mean, you can, you can, uh, justify it either way. I mean, if you were four weeks in a regulation, then I would say, I would say no. Um, but one week I would just chalk it up to just getting a little bit familiar with the material and jump back into far.

However, don't make the mistake of, I mean, if you're super strong in an area, then you can maybe hit it, hit it last. If you're super strong and inventory then hit it last, but make sure that you recover everything. Um, Gotcha. Sounds good. Appreciate it. Yeah. My pleasure jumping back to the questions.

Priscilla says I'm having trouble passing, audit. I'm using Becker CPA Review's, but it's taking too long. Getting through the material. I forget the info that I learned in the earlier chapters. I need a plan. Can you help? Yeah. So this is why you only spend between five, seven. Yeah. Between five and seven weeks on an exam, because it takes too long to get to the material.

You start to forget things like you said, I forget the info I learned in the earlier chapters. And, uh, and then, so you, so that's your time budget, but then you also have, um, a methodology that you need, which I recommend the ninja framework. I'm biased because I created it, but the ninja framework and really all it is, is.

It's a way of maximizing your study efficiency. I think it's maximizing your study effectiveness too, but efficiency. So if you go to Video one question set of questions or videos, chapter one, question chapter one, videos, chapter two questions, chapter two, by week seven or eight, you're going to have to go back and redo those questions.

Okay. Because you're just going to forget them. So you nail the concepts, get through all the concepts, take notes, then you do non-stop multiple-choice questions, take notes. So you're done, you're done with the concepts done with the notes. Then you take all those notes and you rewrite them, causing you to relearn the material.

So you're learning material twice, which I think is the effective, the more effective way of studying. And um, and then, then you have your final review. That's when it all comes together. And IN all comes together. And to start with your weakest topic first and work backwards, working sets of 20 questions.

So for auditing, you know, your week on audit sampling, and then you're weak on internal control, you just hit your, you keep doing 20 question sets until, until you hit 70% arbitrary threshold, and then you move on. Hope. That's a helpful question. What is your best recommendation to study if Fiberon 20 days review ninja notes and do two final exam rehearsals?

Yeah. So go to no 70 one.com and we have. It's hard to pass any CPA exam section in 20 days. It's actually how I pass auditing and 20 days and the, the high level, um, breakdown of it is you're essentially skipping the nail, the concepts. So your nonstop MCQ becomes your nail, the concepts, ultimately, I mean, I think you can study for any exam section this way.

I mean, you'll find a lot of people out there who, um, say that they pass just by doing the multiple-choice questions. Um, so nail the concepts via your MCQ and then take notes and then spend three days. So if you're doing a full seven week deal, then you would rewrite for a week, but under this condensed schedule it's for three days and then do your final review.

And then the question about. Do you do Pratt practice exams or exam rehearsals? No. Never, or unless you really want to, but I hate practice exams. I don't think they're an efficient or an effective use of your time. I don't think that you spent four hours on it. I don't think you know, any more than you did about yourself.

Um, four hours later, other than, um, you know, you could have false encouragement, you score 90% Payless, 90%. Great. Is that an, does that translate to a real CPA exam score? No. Um, it could. I mean, it's, you know, chances are you're, you're doing well, but a 70 you score a 55. Well, that could, um, that could cause you to be.

Disheartened and, you know, you want to quit probably the most, the most important time during the entire exam prep is like that final week. So if you are just kind of moody and don't want to study, because you scored so poorly on your practice exam, um, then you could just, you know, turn what was going to be a successful exam into a failure.

Um, um, I needed it unnecessarily, so I'm a huge fan of the study mode. So you do question one, it's like the answer, read the answer. Explanation. You get it. Correct. Move on. You don't get it. Correct. Figure out why to write down the fact nugget and then move on to question two. Oh, that's helpful. Harold writes.

I already started studying far with another CPA review, I've access to the lectures, MCQ simulations, et cetera. And I also received a book for the far section. I only purchased the section. My question is, does the ninja review include a book as ninja has to be used in combination with another review?

Or can I use it with another course? Okay. So the question is, um, can you go ninja only, or do you need to supplement with ninja? Most people use ninja as a supplement because most people already have a review course, but the time that they even hear of us, we don't market on campuses and we don't fly around the country going to all these, uh, university meetings and taking your accounting professors out to dinner and, um, picking up the bar tab, et cetera.

Um, so that they'll let us in their classroom because who pays for that? You do so, um, you can, most people use ninja as a supplement. And so do you wanna use ninja as a supplement? You still use the ninja framework and the other concepts with your main CPA review course intense notes over your review course nonstop, MCQ over your review course, or this is a retake ninja MCQ.

Then you just rewrite the notes that you've been taking, and then it all comes together. This is when you definitely switched to the ninja MCQ and worked your 20 question mini testlets starting with your weakest topic first and moving backward all the time, reading your ninja notes and your ninja and listening, listening to your nudge audio.

And one of the best days of your life will be when you don't have to listen to me in your car anymore. So shout out to Snapple. BHT. My wife got me hooked on it. Um, either a drink of choice, red bull. Okay. Now back to ninja. Okay. If you are, if you don't want to use your main CP review course, or it expired, then you can switch to ninja.

Only plenty of people do that. Essentially. Now the concepts with your ninja book, and then just barring taking intense notes over both in JMCQ all the way. Take notes of your ninja. MCQ. Just rewrite your notes. If you don't, if you didn't take good notes or if you just don't want to rewrite your own notes, then rewrite the ninja notes.

That's fine too. Then it all comes together. Final review. And we just start with your topic first and work backward and be ready for exam day. So both paths are just fine. And so again, you can use ninja as a supplement or, um, nudge only either way. Okay. Question in the. Jenny. Do you have any tricks or suggestions on memorizing all of the formulas for BEC when I took BEC so I was lazy and I only studied one formula and it was for inventory accounting, how to solve our cost of goods, sold algebraically.

And so I memorized one aspect of that formula and then I can solve for any variable algebraically. So there's that, um, if it's in the ninja notes, I would at least be able to solve algebraically to be reasonably competent on it. And, um, Jenny, I don't know if you've watched any of ninja Mike's sparring videos of our cost accounting and, um, financial performance measures, et cetera.

But I would, I would watch those as well. The long and short of it is to definitely memorize, um, the cost of goods sold, how to, um, solve for that algebraically. Don't know if that's helpful. Ashley says, is there any way to get the ninja book or is it always online? Well, um, it's online in like a PDF embed, but you can always download it.

And so then it's in Adobe or whatever, and you can print it out. So you have full printing rights. If you ever run into an issue, staples or Kinkos or whatever, um, you can always email me. I can send an email. It says, Hey, you have the rights to print it out. So. ABI says I'm testing after July. Please tell me what are the applicable rates for regulation and corporate charitable contribution is 10% or 25% and medical expenses, 10% or 75%.

Okay. So this is good. Cause I get emails. Uh, Jeff, your materials are wrong and I'm starting to doubt I didn't sign up for ninja. Okay. If your review course is using the 10% number for medical expenses for schedule a, um, that is correct for real life. That is not correct for CPA exam purposes because the 10% medical expense number was for the carers act.

Um, the FCPA is not testing on the care act and they haven't since July, since, uh, January 1st. So really since January 1st, the regulation rules for things like net operating loss, charitable contribution. Medical expenses. It all reverted back to the pre cares act, AKA T CJA rules. So, um, as we stand right now, July, 2000, this is August, August, 2021 through December, 2021.

And then I guess, um, even through June of 2022, because the new tax laws won't be testable until June of 2022, that's going to test the seven and a half percent number of charitable corporate charitable contributions that was raised to 25% because of the care act. But it's back to 10%, uh, through TCJ and.

And I have no problem answering that email as many times as it comes through, but hopefully answering the question helps at least raise the confidence and the materials because ninja is 110% correct in this area. Not saying I don't ever make mistakes. Cause I just asked my wife. But in this instance, uh, we are correcting the question on Reddit, glass, nerd, house.

I'm planning. I'm planning out my last few weeks of work before mid August. And wondering which program to do the practice exams and Roger CPA Review or ninja with Roger CPA Review, the Sims are all or nothing. And grading is this how the practice exams are too, is one practice exam enough? Or should I aim to do more than one?

Finding four hours of uninterrupted time is really tricky working 30 plus hours and two kids at home. So if one will suffice, I'd rather just hit the MCQs really hard instead. Thanks for the advice. Uh, as I said previously, another question, I hate practice, practice exams. So I wouldn't do them. I only do the questions in study mode.

Um, it's just four hours spent, like you said, four hours is hard to come by working full time to kids at home, et cetera. It's hard for me to just get a podcast without kids knocking on my window. So I can't imagine trying to, uh, um, which it's already happened twice and I just ignore them and they look at the window and see that daddy's talking to someone on the computer.

So, yeah. Um, whether you, you do the Roger CPA Review questions or the ninja MCQ questions for file, or you can actually do both. I would just do them in study mode, hit the MCQ really hard. That's helpful back to the chat that says. I bought the Sergeant course last year and I was afraid to take the test. I finally took it last June.

So last year you got a 56. I have two kids and a full-time job and a part-time remote two days per week. It's hard to keep up in this study and mode. And I, and I rescheduled my retake for far on September 7th. I'm just starting to study. I don't know where to start. Everything seems difficult for me. So where are we standing right now on August 11th.

So your far exam is in less than a month and full-time job two kids two days a week. You're either way or another part-time job. I'm not quite understanding that you're busy. That's the long short of it. You're busy. Okay. So the first question is. Can you postpone far? Sometimes that's a good idea because it gives you more breathing room.

Sometimes that's a bad idea because you just, you just kind of kick the can down the road and then you spend two weeks later being busy with life and procrastinating. So if you can reschedule your CPA Exam and you'd actually like to put more study time in, then it's a good idea. If you're just going to procrastinate anyway, or just life doesn't allow you to, despite your best intentions, then stick with your CPA Exam date.

Okay. So let's assume that you're going to stick with your CPA Exam date. Uh, you have the ninja study planner of four weeks for so far, and really all that means is you just have to take everything that you would study in seven weeks and condense it into four weeks. So in theory, you're studying well, you should always stay 20 hours a week anyway, but in theory, you're studying.

25 hours a week. Now, if you can't get 25 hours a weekend, even during four, I mean, if you can get 80 hours and for far, and it's just like an intense 80 hours, it's four weeks, you cram it all in, go barf it out on exam day. I'm okay with that. It's not ideal, but you know, that's just life and the CPA exam.

So, um, so obviously follow the ninja framework, you know, the concepts, okay. You're using Surgent CPA Review and ninja, I assume. So, um, nail the concept and while I'm answering this, you're welcome to answer, but in the chat. So, you know the concept with your surgical course, and this is a retake. So, you know, the concepts and your Sergeant course pick intense notes is a retake.

So you switch from your ninja and premier Sergeant MCQ into ninja MCQ. And the reason why you switch is because. If you notice any questions a bunch of times with another provider, it's a good idea to get just another look at things. And I think that's always helpful to people. You can, you can start to memorize questions and kind of cheat.

Um, so, so now the concepts. Yeah. So both Sergeant, and then I think you can clarify the other concepts, surgeon, intense notes surgeon not have MCQ with your ninja MCQ, take notes of your ninja MCQ. Now this is like, so now the content you have the concepts with Sergeant, this is like a week, that's it. And then you shut it off and you move it into JMCQ. It's 10 days, that's it.

And then you need to start your final review. And so it's great. If you can take notes of your, of your ninja MCQ, but if you're like two days into your week and you know, you're still just taking too many notes, Stop taking notes, then you just need to go, go, go, go, go. Um, or be more selective as you, how you take notes.

Like you don't have to write one piece, you can kind of bullet point it a little bit more. That's what I would do. And then obviously you can rewrite your notes. If you have time, it's a luxury. It's effective, but it really is a luxury no more than three days doing that. And then you start your final review, weakest topic, first 20 question mini testlets and work backwards.

Okay. That was so that yeah, four weeks you can do it. It's not going to be fun and life is going to get in the way. And you're just going to have to decide that when you're parenting your parenting, like at the same time, same thing for me with working, like if I'm trying to answer emails or whatever, during family time, like it's easy to get annoyed at your kids.

Like they're interrupting me. Actually you are interrupting them, you were interrupting their time. And so, um, you know, maybe you cheat a little bit by putting it on puppy, dog pals for an hour. Knock it out. Some CQ, I don't know what your kids are into we're in puppy, dog pals. And well, we actually have the full, the full range.

We have an 18 year old down to like a two month old. So we're into, uh, all the, all the stuff that 18 year old bikes to all of the stuff that, uh, that a three or four year old, like sometimes it's the same thing. Well not, but the three and four year olds, sometimes they'll agree on a, um, on that puppy dog pals anymore.

But, um, what's the show with the dogs and their cops. Um, when Nickelodeon. You'll know what I'm talking about anyway. Or one of them is a cop, who rescues people. Anyway, going back to the questions, I don't know what to do anymore. Jeanette Jeanette writes in paw patrol. Thank you, Bob Mitchell. Yes.

Okay.

Jeanette writes in, I don't know what to do anymore. The CPA exam has been the only obstacle to my dreams and I keep failing over and over and over. I guess it's time to quit without knowing your circumstances, even without knowing your circumstances. I can tell you that it's not time to quit, because if you are smart enough to become exam eligible, um, it means that you have the work ethic, obviously.

Yes. Get your college degree, get your requisite hours to get the equivalent of an accounting degree. If you're 150 hours and go through all the hoops of getting your NTS and getting NAZA approval, et cetera, et cetera. And so, um, so you are, you have the work ethic to do it, and you're smart enough to do it.

The question is, and I don't know anything about your study plan. It's just a question that came in actually on, on a YouTube, on YouTube. Um, so the question is what do you do when you don't feel like you're smart enough to pass the CPA exam? And I'm not going to even mention ninja? Well, I guess I just said, but, um, I'm not gonna turn this into how to pass with ninja because that's not the point.

Um, so the question is how are you studying? Well, first, are you studying, are you studying 10 hours a week or are you studying 20 hours a week? You're not saying 20 hours. You, it changed that, how are you studying? Are you studying the conventional way? And this is when I'll plug the ninja framework.

At least you can use it with any course. Are you doing it? The old school way of just, um, chapter one videos, chapter one questions, or are you more effectively and efficiently doing, you know, the concepts, intense notes, nonstop, MCQ, then you rewrite your notes, then you do your, uh, your questions in reverse order weakest to your, um, your strengths.

So how are you studying your review course? Do you, is your cpa review course working for you? Meaning, I mean, I'm of the mindset that you can pass with any review course, but sometimes people just grow to hate their review. Course. I let people just grow to hate me. Sick of listening to the ninja audio and they just like, um, that's okay.

I get sick of myself too. So if you don't want to get up and study in the morning, then you should probably switch courses because if you're like me, I just can't stand the instructors' mannerisms or refuse to study anymore. Uh, is that a little petty? Yes. A little shallow. Yes. Is it reality? Could be, you might just need to punt and get a different course.

Um, and so are you studying, how are you studying and then what are you studying with? Those are three questions to ask Jeanette. I don't have a way to respond to you because I think even if it's deleted, it still needs to be questioned, but I just saw it in the middle of the action. That's a good question. Um, you can, uh, directly email me and tell me more about your situation, Jeff, at another second, one.com going back to the chat.

I'm in the same boat as her referring to Jeanette, I'm studying for regulation, 58, 67, 71 73. Don't like quitting. Okay. So 71 73, like, you know what comes after 71 and 73, right? 75. Um, but that's only true if you don't fall into the trap, if you don't fall into the retake trap, the trap of like, Hey, I scored a 73, I'm only two points away, but you're not, you are 75 points away.

And so, um, do everything that you did to get that 73, everything like. Repeat what you did and then you need to, so there's some sections that you're some topics that you're weaker on. So let's hit those extra hard. Uh, maybe last time you didn't rewrite the ninja notes. So during the ninja chat, so you're, you at least have access to the ninja notes.

Um, so maybe last time you didn't rewrite the notes or you didn't rewrite the initial notes. So let's time, let's rewrite the ninja notes and or maybe you didn't follow the ninja framework explicitly this time. Let's do that last time. You didn't watch any barring lectures. So let's pick three topics and hit those really hard.

And, but the most important thing is that you don't cut any corners and that you do exactly what you did to score a 73. And then. And then just do everything I just said. And I know that from experience I scored, so you scored 71 73 on regulation. I scored 74, 74 on regulation and it costs me my fair credit.

And so if you're going to lose an exam far as the, the worst one to lose. So I went from being one point away from being a CPA to only having to pass than I wanted to pass out. I wanted to, uh, I want to throw a pity party. I wanted to blame the AICPA one to blame, um, everyone, except for myself, I got over at about, for about a week.

And, um, and so the long and short of it was, I didn't want to study and. I hated AMT your kids these days. Have it so easy. No more AMT. When I saw that the ACPA got rid of AMT, I thought that was a cool way to go. Because number one, I don't have to like having it in the materials anymore. I just hate AMT. I just think it's a stupid concept anyway.

It's that anti capitalistic comment or concept anyway, and I hate it. So anyway, so by over, um, and then like time exchanges. Okay. Like Chinese changes. Sure. Whatever, but lifetime exchanges when there's a liability swap. Ooh. Uh, that's a little bit tougher. I don't want to study it and it costs me. And so 74, 74, then I got my butt in gear and I scored a 92.

And I'm not because I'm super smart. You can read my, my exam history and, uh, you know, that's not the case, but, um,

I did study more efficiently and effectively. I had more discipline and it just so happens that tax law, for some reason, tax law and auditing it just clicks with my brain. Um, so, um, that's why I passed auditing after two and a half weeks just by cramming, not because I procrastinated and I was under the gun.

And then, um, I made that big jump just because tax again, clicks in my brain anyway. And, um, business law, I don't know. I just kinda, I kinda like it. It's weird. Uh, and then everything I just said with studying everything that I did to get to that 74 and then hitting my topics, I just didn't want to. So you know which topics you need to hit really?

Bye. You know, picture yourself driving to the CPA Exam center. And the ones that you're praying that they don't ask you about. Those are the topics that you need to hit really hard. If that's helpful. Jack writes in, I scored a 58 on the far, right before the CPA Exam changes. First time I have ever taken an exam using only Becker CPA Review, what do I need to do to pass the next time?

Well, so you have to decide if you want to just keep using only Becker CPA Review, or if you want to supplement with something, obviously, uh, I'm going to recommend ninja I'm 110% biased, but you want to, you want to, um, you know, supplement with any other test bank, Lyme test bank while they test bank. And JMCQ try all, whatever you want to use, um, or just go back or only that you can choose that path as well.

But, um, you scored your 58. So the question is, um, we're used to it. So did you study five hours, 10 hours, 20 hours. How did you study? Did you study the old way of video one video chapter one question chapter one, video chapter two questions after two, or did you use the ninja framework, which is, you know, the concepts, intense notes, nonstop, MCQ, rewrite your notes and all comes together and final review.

So how did you study and then, and then finally you want to just keep using Becker CPA Review and take your new study methodology just with Becker CPA Review, or do you want to take your new study methodology and add ninja or do test bank or load test bank, whatever you wanna use. So those are some questions that, so that is literally how you pass next time going from 58 to 75.

And you change your study methodology 110%. I can tell you there's something flawed in your, in your study methodology. I don't know exactly what you did, but I just, I just know that there's. Just from experience, then you have to answer the question. Um, do you need to switch your review materials? Nick, right saying, Hey, Jeff ninja has been critical and helped me pass foreign audit.

Used it extensively for BEC you got a 74 on my first page out waiting for the retake grade tomorrow in the event, I fail the tips in particular for take three. Yeah. So retaking a 74 is the same as retaking a 54. Got to start from scratch. What did you do to get to that? 74, many people will, uh, talk corners.

And so for BEC, um, last time you just punted cost accounting because you have. And so this time you're just going to hit cost accounting, really hard. Jump back in there and take these. I'm just using a habit. I have a pedicle this time. I'm just going to jump back in there and take it after hitting Costa county real hard.

Uh, if you do that, you're going to score a 64. You're going to score worse and because all of the other sections performance measures it, uh, microeconomics, thankfully macro macro economics, wasn't that big of a deal, but it's no longer testable. So, um, so microeconomics you were exam ready whenever it was a few weeks ago, you took your, took the, and got the 74.

You're not exam ready today. So you need to restudy all of those plus hit and you're in this example, cost accounting really hard. And then go in and take your CPA Exam for study schedule. Um, so be four to seven weeks. And that's how you do it, Amy, from the CPA, from the Facebook CPA exam study groups. So I will plug that if you go to Facebook and type in the CPA exam city group, you'll see the ninja is hopefully, uh, joining us on Facebook.

And, um, so yeah, Amy writes in, okay, I'm back. I failed. I failed with a 73 and a 71. I really am frustrated. I'm not sure how to get myself over the hump. I'm doing all the sections. I feel like I just want this weight off my shoulders getting it done. So when people ask me why I'm a CPA, I can finally not feel like a loser.

I can say yes, it's really just a personal goal. And I want it. I'm having a hard time. I'm back to the drawing board today. Any suggestions? So I've answered this question many times, just from a tactical perspective.

But we want to answer this question. So the tactical perspective is, um, you know, four to seven weeks follow the ninja study framework. Um, so I'm gonna tackle this time with a psychological perspective. So the question is, why do you want to be a CPA? Because you mentioned it's a personal goal of yours.

It's not going to help you at work. So why do you wanna see, why do you wanna be a CPA if you want to be a CPA because your grandfather has that goal for you or your father or mother, um, or it's, it's someone else's goal for you and you're not going to study. It's like if there was someone else's goal for you to run a marathon, like I hate running.

That's why I played soccer. I played soccer throughout my life. Um, I hate running, which is why the goalkeeper worked out great for me. I hate running. And so if someone wanted, if someone's goal for me was to run a marathon, I'm not going to work real well. Unless I decided that I wanted to run a marathon and then I'm going to get my butt out of bed in the morning, then I'm going to, so I had a relative run a marathon.

And so I just, I know this from just kind of following his regimen. Like you just like, you never actually fully run a marathon and it's like three miles, five miles, 10 miles, 13 miles. Maybe you get up to like 15 miles or something. I'm like, I'm not going to be out running 10, 15 miles. If it's someone else's goal to run a marathon.

Yeah. If it's, why do you want to be a CPA if it's, if it's your own personal goal. And so even if, so you said it's your, it's your own personal goal, but, but why? Um, if it's, if it's just because you, you don't want to feel like the ACPA has defeated you or it's always going to bother you just because you didn't do it, or because someone told you that you weren't smart enough to do it, or just because people just in general just don't expect it to happen.

Like this, expect you to always be a bookkeeper. Um, so like, these are all real things. And, um, I, personally, I want to be a CPA just because we'll start it out. Why did I get my accounting degree? It's because, um, I want my grandpa to be proud of. So he was an accountant. He wasn't proud of me anyway, but I want to be, I want to be just like him.

He was an accountant back in the day, CFO during the, during the, well, he went to get his accounting degree during, during the depression. Um, I want to make him proud. Um, and so I want to be a CPA. Well, part of it was because I wanted him to be proud. And so like that, that's why when I had to call him and tell him, I had failed, like sucked really bad.

Um, that was the worst part of it. Besides telling my wife, sorry, honey. Another four to six weeks, eight weeks of you watching the kids while I study on a Saturday, that was probably actually worse. But, um, and so why did I want to be a CPA? Also, like I had this uncle who was a CPA. I wanted to prove him wrong.

He actually never said I couldn't pass, but I just felt like he thought I couldn't. So all of these things motivated me to get it up. And studying those motivated me to study over lunch. Those motivated me to study at night when everyone else is in bed. Those motivated me to study bonds when I want to do anything but that.

So that's how you get over the hump of I scored 73 71. You get back to the 75. I, you can always answer the tech, the question tactically, but psychologically the psychological part is actually probably even more important because before you can even get to the, how do you do it? You need to answer the why of that's helpful,

Susan and the chat. As an example, and 16 working years, I have not completed a cash flow statement. So I'm learning that over.

Oh, sorry. I missed your first question. Okay. Um, Jeff. I graduated college in 2005. I've been working full time, but no instruction in years I'm sending for far, you still think seven weeks is still practical. Some things I'm completely relearning as an example, and working 16 years, I have not completed a cash flow statement.

So I'm learning that all over. Absolutely. So your average CPA candidate is 29, according to NASBA. Um, and so, um, 2000, well, so your 2005. Okay. So you are a little bit older than the average CPA candidate. Okay. That's fine. Because your, your basic CPA review, I mean, your basic CPA review course, it just kind of, rehashes what they taught you, um, in college, but at a high level.

So you need to know everything about far at a high level and some things at, you know, uh, At a more in-depth level, but you can learn cash flow statements by, by way by skimming the ninja book over cash flow statements, by watching one or two lectures, uh, ninja sparring lectures over cash flow and hammering a hundred multiple-choice questions over cash flow.

You do that, like, I'm not gonna say that you'll be exam ready for cash flows, but you'll be, I'd say pretty close. And so a CPA review course is not designed to, uh, teach you the information so that you can be competent at a level to where you can perform in industry doing that task. No, like once you become licensed and like your name and the three little letters after your name, like there's liability attached to that.

So you have to be like, um, I mean, there's, there's, what's called due professional care. You have to exercise, do professional care, and it's a level of care that an average CPA would perform, um, given the exact same set of circumstances. So that's what's expected of you. So if you start doing cash flow statements for people, then yeah, you're going to do a deep dive into some cashflow you're going to be doing, um, some you're going to be doing some targeted CAPE of our cash flow, but for exam purposes, it's like a refresher hammer, multiple-choice questions, um, you know, take notes over your multiple-choice questions or that topic.

And this goes for cash flows or any topic, any topic that you're feeling insecure about cash flows, governmental accounting, corporate tax, like corporate tax is big and scary. No, it's not. You just need to stay a little bit with your review course. So I hope that's helpful.

Dave from the CPA exam study group on Facebook, again, go to facebook.com. Search for a CPA exam study group. Join us. You'll see the ninjas got a 7,404 for those who have tried to retake far, did you have the same Sims again? I know where I struggled and I would focus on that topic, but I'm curious how to base the same Sims again, or how randomized is it each time?

So I've got emails from people like, dude is the AICPAtrolleying me because I got the same Sims again. They didn't tell me what sentence. I wouldn't have asked no exam, um, roles broken, but there was like from a, from a high-level perspective, like, is something wrong with me? I got the same sense. And I can just think that's a fluke.

Yeah. I just think it's a coincidence and, um, I don't know this to be true. So that's the caveat. And as a, as a general, as a general rule of thumb, you shouldn't say things that you don't know for sure if they're true, but my guests, if they're like, Hey Jeff, what would, what would be your guests on this? My guess is that the AICPA doesn't flag your unique candidate ID.

Hey, we've already given him Sam number 1 27. Don't give him SIM number 1 26. My guest at the AICPAis watching this. You can email me. Hey Jeff. Actually we do flag him. Remember 1 27. That's fine. Um, but my guess is that it's just the rain. And it's just a coincidence. So the bigger question is what are you going to do about that, about that 74 on the far?

Because if you cut corners and don't retake, like you should, you're going to score a 71 or 61. So you retake and do everything that you would have had you scored or do to get that 74. So everything that you did to get to that 74, plus you hit extra areas. Plus you studied a little bit differently.

Uh, you didn't fall into your framework last time. This time you'd do it, or you didn't apologize for your framework, but you didn't rewrite your notes this time you do it, or you didn't listen to the ninja audio and my annoying voice more than once this time you listen to it 10 times, et cetera. So that's how you, the more important question is how do you get over that 74 threshold?

Ben writes in. How would you approach partnerships when studying for far it's not mentioned in the updated blueprint from the ASAP. I just wanted to check real quick. Alright. So I see this question a lot. Partnerships are not in the CPA exam blueprint for now. However, it is still testable and I've confirmed that with the AICPA exams team, it is still testable.

Does that mean that it's likely to be heavily tested? No. So what I would do is I would just know the beginning journal entries for partnership accounting. Now, again, this is a partnership accounting, not partnership tax like is in regulations, partnership tax. Yeah, you really, you really need to know that partnership accounting.

I would just know the basics. I would know the basics, the basic journal entries and this foot bar. I would know the basic journal entries. If you have the ninja notes, there's a section on partnership accounting. Just memorize the basic journal entries and you should be good to go. All right, well that does it for this edition of another study.

One podcast. Do you have a question for me? You can email it to me, email me jeff@another71.com, click the forum in the footer and then go to the forum. And you'll see, ask Jeff at the very bottom. You can submit a question there, or you can go to another 70 one.com for slash ask.

Hyphen Jeff. That's pretty complicated. Actually, you can just shoot me an email. jeff@another71.com that does it for episode number 94 until next time be good. Everyone take care. And I will talk to you.