Bobby is a NINJA CPA Blogger.

How long have you spent on a problem?

Have you seen problems that completely stump you and you spend 30 minutes digging through your materials trying to find out why the answer to the question is what it is?

Is that a valuable use of time?

I guess I wouldn't know since I haven't passed FAR yet, but it does make me wonder.

I was told by a hiring manager once that he gets accountants in all of the time that ay things like “Sir, I'll work tirelessly to find that missing $3 in the financials!” To which the manager thinks “I'm paying you $25 an hour, if you spend more than the pro-rated time on it, then I'm losing money.”

You take 30 minutes on a problem you learn about an obscure rule, and statistically speaking, it will not be on the test.

I'm into the “Do so many MCQs that you're sick of them” portion of the NINJA study method. There are some real clunkers out there, and I sure wonder about them, especially when it's eating up the time.

And we all know the CPA Exam is going to throw some occasional tricks in there. My problem is that I think everything is a trick. So the answer to “Which of these items should be expensed CAN'T be ‘supplies' because that's way too obvious. It's obviously a trap, so I'll choose PP&E.

I'm my own worst enemy and I don't have enough palms to put over my forehead sometimes. Hopefully I'll remember that as I continue.

Since it's probably against Jeff's policy for me to point fingers and accuse though, I'll just say that I have used the big names for questions, and they are filled with tricks. Too many in my opinion. It sends you to test day with a high case of paranoia.

One last thought on the subject of multiple-choice questions; does anyone make bizarre spreadsheets like I do? If not I should patent them. I have all of these scores and which problems I got wrong, and notes on why I got it wrong, and marks for ones that I got right but maybe it was a lucky guess or I was between two answers.

It's nice looking too. Color, easy to read. Why would it be? I obviously spent a lot of time on it because that's what us testers do when we're actually supposed to be studying.

We find other things. I bet all of your laundry is folded isn't it? And you're staring at the dryer waiting for the next load. GET…TO…WORK!! That's for all of us.