9/5 Week Recap

Study recap- so not as good as hoped (is it ever?), but overall not terrible. I managed to get a few hours in nearly every day. Some days the study juices just flow. Other days, I keep asking myself if it is worth my time since I don’t seem to be retaining anything. It’s very frustrating! The hardest thing for me about the CPA exam is that realistically, you’ll never know EVERYTHING in the book. It’s just pretty impossible. My goal is to know about ¾ of it (haha), But seriously, it’s tough to know what to study thoroughly and what not to study thoroughly. There is just SO MUCH information.

We have been packing like crazy people, since we are moving out of our house this Saturday. It doesn’t help with the ‘motivation to study’ but it is what it is. Hopefully I’ll be able to log some later nights this week and next week. Once the packing gets done we’ll hopefully be able to relax a bit and I can take some time to study, without feeling like I am being pulled in 500 directions. I think the best thing that worked for me is picking up the kids from daycare, coming home, eating with the family, spending some time with the kids and then heading out to study right around their bedtime, having my husband put them to bed. That way, I can study for a couple of hours and still get home and in bed without it being so late. I get so distracted studying at home. When I go out I leave the computer at home so there aren’t any temptations for checking email or Facebook.

I am also thinking about re-watching some of the lectures. I think now that I have studied the material more, if I watch the lectures again it might all make more sense to me. It’s 3-4 hours per module though, so hard to fit it in one night unless I stay up until midnight, which I might just have to do…

Here’s to coffee!

Weekend Recap

BEC is less than a month away now and I still feel like I have plenty of studying to do. However, since I took the ENTIRE Labor Day weekend off, you may assume that I am not stressed out about this.

Wrong. I am.

We went out of town for Labor Day, and I knew that there was no way I was going to have time getting any quality studying in, so I decided to quit joking with myself and decided to leave the books at home. I didn't miss them...

But now Labor Day is over and BEC is looming over my head again. It's a stressful time to be studying. We are moving in 2 weeks, closing on a house at the end of the month, and my husband is running a marathon the day after my BEC exam. We are tag-teaming the kids so he can find time to run and I can find time to study. Sleep is sort of a joke. I can usually have both of my kids asleep by 8:00. Between 8:00 and the time I go to bed I need to get some quality studying and some quality packing done. Easier said than done. My morning begin at 5:15, so by 8:00 I'm already quite worn out. Pulling out the BEC books is a chore, but I have to push it this month.

You know its bad when you make a pot of coffee at 5:00 pm just to get through the evening!

My goal this week is to drop the kids off at home (I do daycare pickup) and then immediately head out to study two days this week. I'll be home by 7:30-8:00 so that I can help get them into bed and then work on packing. The other days I'll just study after the kids are in bed and have my husband pack at night. I won't see the kids as much as I would like, but I rationalize this by knowing if I don't pass this thing, and have to take it again that will be more time away from them. Get er done.

My motto this month is "this too shall pass." We have terrible timing, my husband and I, right before Audit I was interviewing and accepting a new job, family was moving to Australia, it was my birthday, and a family wedding. Now...buying a house, moving, new daycare, picking out paint colors, buying a washer and dryer...ugh.

Be back later this week to let you know how it went!

Introductions

Let me introduce myself. I’m a 28 year old married, full-time working, mother of two, and I am taking on the CPA exams. You can just call me Mrs. Crazy. Oh, and we are buying a house and moving this month. Mrs. Crazy it is.

Originally I went to school and got a Psychology degree. In other words, upon graduation, I was faced with the same question as when I started school, What do I want to do? I got my first job in the “real world” working at a brokerage firm, after a year with the company I transferred to their accounting department. I decided I was hooked on Accounting and should head back to school for another degree and more student loans. The more the merrier right?

So 5 months after getting married I went back to school. January 2007. Fast forward one month and I find out I’m pregnant. Yikes! Not exactly part of the “plan” but we were still happy. After one semester school was put on hold. We welcomed our daughter in October of 2007, and 6 short months later made a big move from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest. Fast forward another month and I was pregnant again. This time on purpose. An accounting degree was the furthest thing from my mind. My son was born in February of 2009 and when he was just a little guy of 10 days old, we moved back to the Midwest. Six weeks later I went back to school. I finally graduated with an Accounting degree in December 2010.

The CPA exams were always part of my plans. Being 4 credits short of the requirements to take the exams I landed an internship at a public firm during Busy Season 2011. I had a great experience at the firm. Loved the piles of work and the overall business. Didn’t like Partner’s breathing down my neck, and hated the fact that I only saw my 2 kids a handful of hours each WEEK. However, I decided I would go back to the firm in the fall, and we’d just make due during busy season. However in July, just 2 months ago, I landed a Corporate Accounting job at a large, highly respected, corporation, and quickly accepted. So far, I am loving the work-life balance.

So now, the CPA exam. I started studying after busy season. I took Audit on July 6^th 2011, and I am STILL waiting on the score. Overall I think it went okay, you never can tell. I thought the MCQ’s were okay, but didn’t get more difficult as the exam went on. The SIMS were okay too. I felt great about 3, okay about 2, and clueless on about 2. We’ll see what happens. Audit was never my strong point.

BEC is scheduled for October 1^st. I rescheduled my original test date of August 18^th, since starting a new job and buying a house was stealing time away from studying. (Heck, who am I kidding, working full-time, being married, and having a 2 year old and a 3 year old take time away from studying)! I study during my lunch hours and after the kids go to bed. I study Sunday afternoons as well, and I actually even study a bit at work during slower times (don’t worry, cleared with my boss). Do I study as much as I should? No. But I do the best I can and try to be as balanced as possible. I depend on a lot of coffee to keep me motivated.

Please join me as I blog weekly about my frustrations, my studying, my exam taking, and my victories as I work towards putting those 3 little letters after my name.