Hi guys! Take time to read the CPA Tips. Though it is longer, you will learn a lot of ideas on how, when, why, and what to review. Also, it will inspire you. You may also share your tips and reviewers to read, in the comment section.
1. PRAY ask God's help. You may do this once in your entire review term. Remember GOD will always listen to your request, so the next thing for you to do is to give your best effort to achieve your goal. It doesn't matter how many books you've fished for the exam, what matter is your determination to learn and absorb every concepts written on your review materials. Take note that praying without doing anything will not provide good results, so the best thing to do is to DO YOUR PART.
2. SELF STUDY SCHEDULE scheduling your review will help you to manage and monitor your target knowledge to be learning in your everyday routine. Make sure that your schedules are manageable and flexible, put enough time to rest (let say, the duration of your review for every topic is 1 hour then after that you will have 30 mins. Break). Take note that you don't have to force yourself to review when you're not in the mood to do it, it's only a waste of time.
3. ORGANIZE your review materials and if you can afford, buy a voice recorder. Be resourceful but prioritize to review those materials given by the review center.
4. Review your textbooks... reviewers are only summaries, its still better to go back to your textbooks, it will help you to recall the concepts and the how's and why's of it. See to it that for every chapters of your text book you've learned the how's and why's.. absorb every concepts, practice solving as much as possible until you vomit those questions away. practice answering questions using procedural methods and analysis method... i got that from Mr. Dayag of ReSA review center. Here's a big tip you can see the accounting part of the topics by just understanding the definition of the terms...
5. The most important of all.. have a healthy body.. do not over do yourself. For every topics that you've finished, reward yourself. Take your breakfast everyday... never ever go to the review center with an empty stomach..
6. Last but not the least.. try to compete with others, try to set some goals like being in the top 10 for every quizzes given by the review professors.. it will trigger your self confidence in the exam and it will motivate you more in doing your best in reviewing every topics of your books.
Other tips that could help you..
- If you're sure that you will take the board exam after the review, register early at the PRC. I know that this will give pressure to you but the good thing about this is that, you will be forced to review well and ahead of others. transform the negative vibes to a positive then you will see the result.
- Build up your self confidence and be consistent on your performance.. if you got low score or failing grades to your 1st,2nd or 3rd quizzes try to move up... having a failing grade doesn't mean stopping. when you are down the only thing to do is to go up.. you can do it, don't give up.
- Learn to breath well.. our brain needs oxygen.. so breath normally even though your having a hard time answering every question in your reviewers and quizzes.. this will help you avoiding headache and block-out when taking the exam.
- Practice answering theories and problems 2 minutes each.. improve your reading comprehension my friends. there are lots of tricky question in the exam so be diligent in answering, remember each point has a big effect to your average. no one is perfect but try to be one in taking this big fight to your career.
- CPA exam is just the first step of your dreams and there are lots of challenges to come so don't stop learning
A simple advice, face the pressure and learn to handle it. Read and comprehend, do not memorize. I'll say it again it doesn't matter how many books or review materials you've finished or problems you've solved, the important thing is you fully understand the concept of every topics and you know how to twist it.
CPA passers don't have doubts when they took the board exam. Even an average student can pass it, its all about confidence and determination and most of all have faith in GOD.
Guys, eat bubble gum when you're taking the actual board this will help you to feel relax when answering questions.... don't ignore this simple tip it's very effective. try this when you're taking quizzes, pre-board and final pre-board and you'll see.
FA VALIX: Very handy for quick concept reviews. Don’t expect to read these books like its undergrad time.
P1 VALIX: Classic practice material.
BLT SORIANO: Basic foundation concepts and questions. The information you get and RETAIN here will go a long way.
MAS AGAMATA: Very good concept study/review for those forgotten topics.
MAS ROQUE: Short highly summarized concepts. Goes straight to the heart of what’s important. Practice solving MAS here.
AUDPROB ROQUE: Answered it during undergrad. Still a great source of practice material.
AUDPROB OCAMPO: Answered it during undergrad. Still a great source of practice material.
AT SALOSAGCOL: Very good resource for fundamental concepts.
TOA VALIX: Theory questions are exhaustive.
AT WILEY: Increasing wiley-sourced board questions make it a must-have during review
TAX VALENCIA: Very comprehensive taxation resource. Make sure you have read these books during undergrad.
CRC LAW handouts by Maam SAGANA: highly organized material which boosts efficiency in absorbing information.
Business Law and Taxation: (To be separated)
Reviewer Profile: Atty. Dante Dela Cruz
Power Tip: Attend every class.
Teaching Style: 40% Detailed Concepts 60% Humorous Examples. He establishes a relaxed atmosphere during lecture. When he teaches it’s like he is talking to you personally. It becomes easier to understand the complex topics of business law and taxation. However you have to really pay attention to the discussion because it can be fast. You just go to the restroom and when you come back the whole whiteboard is full of scribbles you will never understand unless you were really there to witness it.
Suggested Overall Strategy: Start the BLT review way earlier. Before the start of the review, I was done with Obligations and was about to finish Contracts. I wasn’t able to have a head start on taxation though. The buffer I had established in BL helped a lot to open up more time for me to focus on the heavy demands of taxation.
Mix effectiveness and efficiency. In business law, get a hold of the hand-outs from CRC. The lecture parts are highly organized and provide the important concepts in a straightforward way. Atty D’s discussions delve into the details of the concepts. His insights give you better grasp of the subject at hand. However, the amount of information can be overwhelming if not managed well. Always do your best not have backlogs.
Work on the hand-outs given. It should be the number one priority. Answer as if it will be your last time to see the hand-outs. It’s almost impossible to review these papers days before the actual examination.
Practical Accounting 1:
Reviewer Profile: Atty. Conrado T. Valix
Power Tip: Handouts are the Key.
Teaching Style: Problem-Answer approach. Answers the hand-outs given. If you have a good background in P1, his lectures simply become an affirmation of what you already know. He is slightly serious during discussions and might bore some but to be fair P1 is pretty straightforward and putting humor would be inefficient. Also, the magnificence and organization of his books had already saved my sorry *** during undergrad. He indicates items in the hand-outs that you should focus on. Mark and study them.
Suggested Overall Strategy: Practice. Achieve reasonable confidence on the topics. For example do not guess whether a given item is added or ignored in computing Cash. Uncover principles that will guide your decisions. In the actual board exams, there are numerous problems which are basic enough yet one might forget whether to include an element in the solution or not.
In the first half of the review (asset side) I have minimal backlogs since the concepts were only cash, inventory etc. During the second half (liabilities and equity) the number of concepts per week had greatly increased and P1 became a huge mountain to climb into. It was tough.
Do not underestimate the hand-outs. Just when you think you have established a sizable advanced study for the subjects, P1 hand-outs begin to pour. Before you know it, your buffer is gone.
Management Advisory Services
Reviewer Profile: Mr. Rodelio Roque
Power Tip: Attend every class. Concept over quantity.
Teaching Style: His lectures are very insightful. His humor gives a quick punch. He provides shortcuts and strategies to important concepts. The pace of his lectures pace are reasonable. Sometimes he will only have lectures and concept reviews, other times it will involve answering long problems in the hand-outs.
Suggested Overall Strategy: I highly suggest his book on MAS. His book and the hand-outs are enough to bring us average pips to passdom. The structure, difficulty and variety of theories and problems mirror that in the actual board exam.
Focus on key concepts. MAS is a high yield subject. By that I mean, what you studied and practiced will be put into good use during pre-boards and the actual boards itself. In every topic, list down key concepts which should never be forgotten. These critical concepts are expected to appear in a reasonably difficult MAS examination.
Mr. Roque’s hand-outs are a bit challenging and longer than the actual thing. What I did was to answer the hand-outs the best I can but would not dwell into harder problems. Instead, I gathered confidence through answering similar topics in his book which are easier to answer. I'm not saying ignore the hand-outs, just don’t let it crush your confidence just because you have only answered half of the what was given.
Practical Accounting 2: P2, for me, is the most challenging subject in college. During undergrad, we were trained to solve very complex advanced accounting problems and we usually wonder if this complexity is useful for the actual board exams. Maybe you’ve heard your upper batch friends that the actual is very much easier than what we are given in college. I ended up crawling out of P2 during my undergraduate years hoping the review would be a piece of cake by then.
Reviewer Profile: Mr. Chris German
Power Tip: Attend every class. Never get intimidated. Concept over Quantity.
Teaching Style: On the first few meetings, many will be awed and some will be intimidated by the way he solves the problems with only a calculator in his hands as he says “Calcu lang lang”. He lectures with the expectation that you have a reasonably good background in P2. For me, I kind of compare him to a drill sergeant. He pushes you out of your emotional and mental comfort zone. Every session you are up on your toes. There will be no mercy in here. If you are slow, become faster. If you are weak in this topic, improve. The P2 pre-boards are the most bloody among the subjects. You need to bring you’re A-game here.
Suggested Overall Strategy: Work hard on the first half of the review. The topics are heavier and more detailed. First half topics include: Partnerships, HOB, Special Revenue Recognition, and some part of Business Combination.
Again, concept over quantity. However, you will need practicing problems in order familiarize with the way problems are structured and phrased. Do not bank on finishing the Dayag book for your confidence. Your mentality should be that you should be confident enough to face any problem given to you. Our first pre-board exam in P2 was hell. Also, CPAR pretty much allows some of their most intelligent reviewers to give their killer questions in the first pre-board. Its actually a clincher subject for the top notcher - calibre students. Unfortunately for us average citizens, we will be answering the same exam.
Be diligent in answering the hand-outs. The CPAR P2 handouts are more comprehensive and harder than the reviewer book of Guerrerro. It’s made for discussion and efficient concept recall since all importance elements of a topic are already found in two or three items. I found it hard to answer the questions in the handouts so I made it a lecture aid. I followed German as he answered the items and gave real attention to the problems during the class discussion. After that I start answering reviewer books.
Theory Of Accounts
Reviewer Profile: Atty. Conrado T. Valix
Power Tip: P1 and TOA classes are combined. The more questions encountered the better.
Teaching Style: Teaching style of Sir Valix would be the same as the P1 discussion.
Suggested Overall Strategy: A lot of students say that studying for P1 and the FA books would be enough for them to make it through. This may be true but be careful, if you want to cement your success in this subject you still need to practice answering the TOA1 and 2 of Valix. There are certain topics (e.g framework, qualitative, FS elements, interim report, etc) which might not be stressed when studying P1. These silent topics may usually jumps over unsuspecting reviewees during the pre-boards and even the actual boards.
My references are the following:
1. Practical Accounting 1 - Conrado Valix (textbook & reviewer) Uberita (reviewer).. use both.
2. Practical Accounting 2 - Dayag (reviewer), Guerero and peralta(teXtbook and reviewer).. use Guerero and peralta for journal entries and use Dayag for problem solving and analysis.
3. Auditing Problem - Cabrera (applied auditing textbook; reviewer), Ocampo (reviewer), Roque (reviewer)...
4. Management Advisory Services - CMA/CFM (reviewer).. you can buy this one at Laryx bookstore infront of CPAR, Roque (reviewer), Louderback (reviewer), Agamata (reviewer).. Agamata is seldom used as reference because of the formula..
5. Theory of Accounts - Valix (reviewer), PFRS, PFRS for SME... spend lot of time reading both PFRS.
6. Auditing Theory - PSA, Auditing theory by Salosagcol, .... you can buy a PSA compilation at laryx and review centers.
7. Taxation - Valencia (textbook), Ampongan (reviewer)
8. LAW - Suarez (reviewer), Soriano (reviewer)...
Try to invest on this books... they are effective reference for the exam.. you don't need to buy it all.. the important thing is for you to understand the concept of every topic.. you'll gain other knowledge at the review center so listen attentively and try to record all the review session so that you can go back to those topics that you haven't learned well.
Keep It Fresh
Studying for the CPA exam is like learning a language. Consuming just a little bit each day is crucial to re-enforce what you have already studied as well as develop a solid study routine. Keep it fresh in you brain on a daily basis and you will retain much more information.
Screw the Media
Ditch the background music, log off your Facebook and Twitter accounts, and put your cell phone on airplane mode. Every time your phone vibrates or you get a new email notification the temptation to get sucked into the social media black hole becomes too strong. In fact, just close your internet browser altogether. Did you really sacrifice an hour of sleep so you could catch up on the latest celebrity dating gossip? Absolutely not.
Jam Out
Download a CPA review audio course and turn otherwise wasted hours into a high quality study session. Listen on your commute to and from work and suddenly you just came up with an extra 5-10 hours of studying each week!
Don’t drive? You’re not off the hook that easy. Here’s a list of other activities where an audio CPA review course can transform your idle time:
- Doing Laundry
- Working out at the gym
- On your lunch break
- While Jogging
- At the car wash
- Riding the bus, subway, taxi
- Airplane Flight
Work Hard, Play Hard
Plan one day a week to not even think about studying for the CPA exam. You deserve a break so make plans to see a movie with a friend, go watch sports with your bros, or have a shopping spree with your BFF. This “recharging day” will be something you look forward to all week long, especially when things become stressful.
Remind Yourself Why
I’m going to extend a challenge to you that will take less than a minute and provide you with an insane amount of motivation. Ready? One rule, you must do this right NOW so grab a piece of paper and a pen. Got it?
No seriously, I’ll wait.
Okay, now write down in as few words as possible why you want to pass the CPA exam. For me personally it was 2 things: #1 To get a $5,000 bonus and #2, to prove everyone wrong who told me there was no way I could pass all 4 sections in 9 months with a full-time job. Go post this somewhere in your room where you will see it everyday. Mine was on a white board right next to my door so every time I left I would see in it big bold red letters. This little reminder helped me to stay motivated at times when I felt like giving up and kept me in check by reminding me everyday that there is in fact a light at the end of the tunnel.
Note: Credits to the owner
