Clarissa is a new NINJA CPA Blogger.

I originally started this journey back in 2009, but came up short on both parts that I took, then I lost my job and all motivation flew out the window to actually taking and passing the exam. So in a way, I gave up back then.

Then in early 2013, I made it a goal to finally pass the CPA exam. I started with BEC and scored a 60. Then I tried to take AUD a month and half later before all of the changes to AUD took place and scored a 62. For both of those tests, I only used a review book.

I went through it page by page taking my own notes using the NINJA method, but I never really answered the questions. I didn’t have a testbank, so the only questions I had were in the review book I was using. I think I may have answered questions in the first 3 or 4 chapters, but that was it.

Then I was able to get a testbank, and I retook BEC in July. I scored a 72. And I had planned to retake AUD at the end of August, but life got in the way and I ended up rescheduling AUD for October.

Well, life really got in the way in September. I lost my apartment to a fire along with all my review books. I lost 2 weeks of study time for AUD and still took the test at the beginning of October with only a small amount of final review studying. I scored a 63.

I also had an NTS for FAR at the time, so that was next on my list of studying. With the holiday season, losing another job and still not passing a part of the exam, my FAR studies weren’t going the greatest. I took FAR at the beginning of January, a day before my NTS expired. I scored a 71. I felt like my test was way too easy anyway and really had no clue as to how I scored on that test.

Right now I’m restudying for FAR that I’m taking at the beginning of April since the information is still pretty fresh. But I’ve changed my method for how I’m studying this time around, thanks to reading advice on the Another71 Forum from so many others.

I’m going through the entire review book, page by page, reading and taking my own notes. Then I’m going to the test bank and working thousands of questions and SIMs for the final two weeks before my exam. And I’m actually looking forward to taking FAR this time around because I feel much more confident about the material since going through the book completely.

In my previous studies, I’d go through the book, but usually skipped the last few chapters because I was running out of time and needed to do my final review of questions. The questions help solidify the information in my head for me, but I didn’t have a complete foundation of the information before with not completing the book.

My goal with being a NINJA blogger is to have the extra accountability to keep up with my studies the way I know I should be. I’ve been on the forum for about a year now and I love following the other bloggers and reading advice from others on the forum, so I’m really hoping this is the final thing I need to add to finally start passing this exam.