Plan A, B, and C

I could easily sit here and be depressed and have this woe is me attitude but I will not, I'm not going to have a pity party and complaining takes too much time. Instead I've decided on my action plan.

I will be calling Prometric first thing tomorrow. I'm hoping the testing window will get extended until the second week of September. If it does then I will be taking FAR during the second week. This week isn't a good time to take FAR because I have plans. May sound crazy but thinking about FAR wasn't in my plans. I'm going away mid week and I have a ton of things to do related to that, I'm not going to add more stress to my week, I'm trying to live a stress free as possible life. I feel like I have a good grasp on FAR. I took some quizzes today and I was scoring in the 80's and 90's. I definitely want to work on some more sims but other than that I feel good.

Now if NASBA doesn't extend the window I will have no choice but to take FAR until 10/1. Wasn't in my plan but hey I gotta deal with it. If I take FAR on 10/1 I will be taking Audit before 11/15. That means that I will be starting my Audit study in about 2 weeks.

So yeah at this point it time my situation is not the best but hey it could be worst....

???????? Days Until FAR

Well thanks to Hurricane Irene Prometric is closed on Sunday. I'm totally clueless on whats going to happen because the lines to NASBA and Prometric are either busy or closed.

My feelings are bitter sweet. Happy because that means more study time but sad because I just want to get this over with. I'm taking a break from it all tonight and tomorrow I will be calling Prometric and studying.

3 Days Until FAR.... I think??

Ok so Hurricane Irene is trying to mess up my flow, at least temporarily it is.

I called Prometric today and the testing center has a strong possiblity of being closed on Sunday ( I have to call back tomorrow).

At first I was a little upset but an extra day of studying would be great. There is no way I'm waiting until next window while all of this is fresh in my brain. My prayer is that I get to take the exam on Monday. I'm actually flying out of town on Wednesday so Monday would be perfect since it give me one day to prepare for my travels. So we shall see.....

Anyway on to the good stuff

So as of tonight I have done quizzes on every single chapter in Becker. I've also answered 1141 Becker questions alone. As far as Wiley questions I would estimate around 350 questions. The Becker questions do not count the quizzes I've taken so if I had to give my best estimate in all it would be around 1700 questions (OMG!!!!) I've also done a ton of sims.

Of course there are areas I want to read on but as far as doing a boat load of questions, I'm going to keep that to a minimum. I need to save my brain power for test day,

So of course I'll be back with another update tomorrow...and hopefully a confirmed test date.

FAR Notes- Indirect Method of Cash Flows- Hope it Helps

So today some light bulbs when off and I thought that I would share. While working some practice questions with cash flows I could not rationalize how to figure out the reconciliation to cash. I kept getting mixed up on what to add and subtract when trying to back out certain things from net income (you know the indirect method)

This is one of the problems I got stuck on

Sooooooo this is how I figured it out and then it all made sense. First let me tell you that journal entries are your friends. If you know what side to put a increase and decrease on you already know the answer.

So here it is

Accts Receivable increased by $6000 Dr. Accounts Receivable $6000

Allowance Uncoll Acct Increased $200 Cr. Allowance $200

(remember allowance is a contra rec so its a normal credit balance. Increases are Cr. decreases are Dr.

Prepaid Rent Decreases by $4200 Cr. Prepaid Expense $4200

(this is where I was getting confused. I couldnt understand the effect on cash and what direction it should go since its a prepaid)

Accounts Payable Increases $3000 Cr. Accounts Payable $3000

Now I know what your saying, the entry doesn't balance and yes your correct but setting up the j/e will show you what to add and what to subtract from net income. Net Income has a normal credit balance so you add all the credits to Net Income and Subtract the Debits. And your answer is

$150,000+$3000+4200+200-6000 = $151,400

Hope that helped!

4 Days Until FAR

Tonight started off pretty bad. Seems like I was getting everything wrong. I got so frustrated and felt like screaming. However by the end of the night I was scoring in the high 70's to low 80's. Some sections have high 60's but I'm going to review those again. Honestly as a CPA candidate you will never feel 100% ready, and you won't master everything but you just need to be familiar with alot of topics, so you might as well just do your best and put your all and then pray for the best. That's what I'm going to do.

Tonight I did practice quizzes on F2-5. My weakest area was F2, 1 hour later and some dumb mistakes I know look out for. I feel that if I get in at least another 2 days of full studying I'll be prepared enough to pass. Tonight I put in about 4.5 hours. Tomorrow I plan to put in atleast 8 hours, Friday 4-5 hours and Saturday I will only be re-reading sims and text and relaxing. No questions. I need to save all my brain power for Sunday.

And that's todays update....

p.s. I think tomorrow is going to be a great study day I have a feeling my update will be 10 times better

5 Days Until.FAR

Please forgive me...I'm drained...all I will say is that I did A LOT today...my memory is more and more refreshed and to top it off I will be working a half day on Thursday so I can come home and study. Never thought I would be this happy to study

Sincerely,

The Life of A CPA Candidate

Until Tomorrow

Oh and P.S. I hope todays earthquake is shaking some favor in my direction ;)

6 Days Until FAR

I'm beyond exhausted. My brain is fried and back is killing me. Ive been up since 5:30 am. I did 4 TBS's and I did bonds and other ransom questions at work.

I also reviewed my Wiley focus notes on the train.

Came home and did a ton of Govt questions...the results weren't too bad. I've actually learned a lot.

Now NFP that's another story. I blame that on just doing the questions and no reading. I'm going to get up at 5:30 tomorrow to turn that around.

6 days and I pray to be 75% CPA!