Score update

I received  FAR score, its 70, got no emotion left and I am so numbed. I am exactly standing in the same position as I was last year. It feels depressing to think that way. May be I should lower my optimism a little and focus on productivity. I know, I am going self critical but I think I need to face my problems rather than numbing my pain.  I am determined as ever but I will be focusing more on my self development and will be critically watching my actions. I will try my best. It reminds me the quote

“Doing your best means never stop trying.”

Now what? Hmm...

 How do I change?

If I feel depressed I will sing.
If I feel sad I will laugh.
If I feel ill I will double my labour.
If I feel fear I will plunge ahead.
If I feel inferior I will wear new garments.
If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice.
If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come.
If I feel incompetent I will think of past success.
If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals.
Today I will be the master of my emotions.

-Og Mandino

JK Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure

My failure in REG by one percent made me very depressed. I tried my best not to analyze but I was a bit down. I watched this video at that moment and it inspired me a lot. J.K.Rowling is one of my favorite authors and I present you her video at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

Please click here for the text of the above speech

The emotional roller coaster...

Since I wrote FAR Exam, I went through a big enormous emotional roller coaster. I was pretty tired after this exam and when I was out of Prometric center, I felt very weak and slept for long hours. It was like I didn't had energy, even to move my hands. I slept long like REALLY LONG.. I hit bed around 6 in the evening and I got up around 8 in the morning.I went to see my doctor and He said,'"there is no disease for the symptoms you just mentioned , If you feel sleepy and tired, sleep".

I was little depressed about my performance but recovered early with friend's support. I went to shopping, movies , ate hot Chinese food,  and for two days believe me I completely forgot about exams and for the first time after I filed application with Nasba I felt free.

I am not sure whether this feeling spoiled me or gave me a hope of what life will be after I complete my exams. (If we look at the brighter side..)but the nagging feeling of not yet completing this exam follows us like a shadow. And friends if we can experience the feeling of freedom even for a while.. it instigates us.. Yes, I want to feel free. I want to do things I postponed for a long time. I know they are not that important but sometimes little pleasures of life spice up this journey.

But let me confess this actually made it hard  for me to open books again, but I will get over. Two days of depression and sickness and then fun time and then epic fail and now back to books.. Really the best and worst emotional roller coaster.

Felt Inspired..

My sister is my best friend and I call her and do all emotional vampirism on her till I feel better at times.. Today I called her and she heard calmly and really didn't said much, other than saying, " Its ok, you will do it next time. You already read every thing and did your hard work. Just don't analyze it, revise and you will do it fine.Confidence is a product of hard work, which you did, so don't worry about it".
 And then she told me about my niece, My niece is a two year old and an energy ball. A true definition for terrible two's, She never stops even for a second. We get fresh cleaning stuff just in a blink. Yesterday she played with a glass vase and broke it and it made a sharp deep cut on her hand and she was rushed to hospital. My sister told me,When the doctor was wrapping bandage on her hand, my niece was helping doctor to wrap it around with her other hand. She was not even thinking about her pain or the bleeding hand. She was taking the bandage and helping the doctor do the wrapping and was in the moment enjoying what she found amusing.
I felt so different when I heard this. Being a child is a blessing, like they don't care what others are thinking or whats happening around or What is the expected behavior out of them? They find their own happiness. They can make their pains their amusement.
It sounded so mature to be in the moment and take it as it comes and find beauty and happiness in what is happening around. I pray god to keep my heart and mind just like a child and keep me happy, enjoying every moment of life... Glad that I started unlearning on how I was taught to react and I give a damn to how others want me to react.
May God bless you with a heart like a child and find always happiness in the moment you live..

I wish...

I wish I can tell you that I passed REG.. Just saw the score.. I got 74 ... I don't know whom to blame.. But 74 left me with no emotion and I don't even know how to react to this..coz I lost the BEC credit. Feeling empty .. Thinking about re scoring.. Don't know whether it works.. Posts on CPAnet says it is totally useless.. Can make a joke saying 'Epic fail' and laugh but looking at the coming months and see myself in preparation for two more exams is like .. May be telling myself ' When the going gets tough the tough gets going' helps. I don't want any superlatives for 'tough'. Hope this new year brings an end to this exam preparation process and helps me to get a good job and a better life. Ahhh... it pains now..

Thanks a lot to all my friends who supported me in my tough time and helped me to stay motivated..

DIY - Index / Sticky flags - Tutorial

I am a big fan of DIY Stuff... I love arts and crafts and enjoy doing small projects. (Well our busy exam prep. leaves less time for big projects) We can do small stuff that can nourish our creative side and to keep it motivated. I used to do T shirt reconstructions, Painting, knitting and basic sewing.... Well this small project doesn't involve all that I mentioned. This is a very small project and is very less time consuming and its a part of 'Trash to treasure' projects and a useful tutorial for CPA Students..

This tutorial is about making our own Index tabs and Sticky flags.They cost around $5 a pack and that amount can stay in to your pocket and added to it, they are custom made.. So lets get into it...

These are the things you need:

1. Junk mail / Free magazines / Free news papers / Old magazines or news papers.(what ever is available). 
2. Scissors 
3. Pencil
4. Marker / Sketch pen (optional)
5. Clear tape 
6. A quarter dollar  coin / Stencils (optional)

 Those free magazines, catalogs, News papers are filled with quality colorful paper and that is our raw material for this. I used free magazine covers, They have quality paper with colorful pages and they can withstand usage. So lets start..

Step 1: Use a Quarter (or any stencils If you have) to draw shapes of your choice. You can skip this step and can just cut strips of paper .

Notes: Draw shapes on the back side of the paper you want to cut. You can choose beautiful colorful designs or simply plain colors of the paper (If you want to write on it later)

Step 2: Cut those shapes with scissors, and stick them to a clear tape which is one inch or a little more depending up on the shape and size you prefer.

(Notes: Choose a theme, like if it is for indexing cut them all in same shape or color, If it is for important topics choose color red to quickly access those pages, yellow for chapter names and blue for high scoring topic )

Step 3: Transfer them to the book according to the plan and save those unused paper cuts in a zip-lock cover for future use.

Notes: Stick those paper cuts on the open side so that it comes out when we turn the tape and stick it to the book. Keep your hands clean to avoid staining the tape.

 Step 4 : Use your markers to write your codes/ names..

Step 5: Finish the rest of the process repeating the above steps with all color flags and index tabs...

Hope this small tutorial helps. Send me a big smile if it helps... : )

Errors in Ratios - 'Analysis'

Revising an old topic is really hard, it just feels like reopening the books when you failed. I faced this situation while revising Ratios. It is a topic which peeks into every exam.Well we have some new ratios to cheer up. But still, I was resisting a lot inside, to do it again. Surprisingly I dragged myself to do the past exam problems and the truth gave me a wake up call. I did nearly 40% problems wrong. Its not the kind of questions that were unique but my mind set didn't helped me to give my very best.

First thing, I didn't read the questions right and for some questions I calculated wrong. Silly mathematical errors. In a question they gave balances of 2004 but the next line was not a balance but an Increase over 2003, but I didn't read the question correctly. And the psychometric thing caught me really bad, because they had that wrong answer right there.

Glad that this is not the real exam. I would die for the rest of my life. And in another question they asked Average collection period and I did till DTO and chose the answer that was just DTO and what a it !! they gave that answer too.


Friends mindset is very important while doing problems. Be alert, Love your work, otherwise your dislike reflects in your performance and our psychos are right there to catch us..

My mobile wallpapers (self made) Focus

Note: If you click on the image it will expand to its original size. Right click on the image and save it to your computer.

My version of goofy chart, SFAC2

Habits and expectations

Yesterday I was very upset; it's the old expectation problem. It was on my mind all day and I did some soul-searching and heart talking. So I wanted to bring some changes into my life, I searched on-line and found this interesting article.  Gretchen talks about how difficult it is to change a habit.  Some authors wrote books on, How to change your habits in 21 days.  And I know how difficult it is to change a habit.  It is just not the amount of time but also the dedication and motivation that are very much needed. 
Everybody knows how difficult it is not to expect. But I want to give it a try and continuously remember it every day and every time I need .I don't know how much and how near I can get to that point, but giving an honest attempt is what I can do. You may be wondering, why is it so important to not to expect?  My answer to this question is twofold; the first thing being it depends on the person, if you are talking about a person. because if you know for sure that the person from whom you are expecting is not going to meet your expectations there is no way that the person is capable of doing things that you want him/her to do or simply not willing, what ever.  I know it is a wise thing to just not to expect but it is the most difficult thing because irrespective of what your intellectual mind suggest you to do, if you ignore your heart, she never listens to anyone else, she feels what she wants to feel and that creates a lot of pain.  Never ignore your heart, Listen to all that she talks and reason and discuss with her the consequences of such an expectation.  If you try to understand her , she will try to understand you too.
And the second thing is don’t dream of what others can do for you. Dream of things you can do. It’s a ugly little habit we grow up with to dream about things, others do for us, Which is completely not in our court. . So as a happiness target this is a fatal habit that we can overcome with hard practice. Don’t expect them , be happy when they happen but don’t get upset when they don’t, this is just because we are wasting our time dreaming others dreams. You can have expectations on your self and that is what we should be doing.

My whole point in writing this, is to tell you that, it is very difficult to change habits, but with consistency and hard work we can do it, we don't need to be perfect but we should at least try. Remind yourself, what you want to change .Don't get upset if you fail, get up and try again.This applies to our exam preparation too, Break your bad habits and work for your exam.  It is just like giving up smoking, first it is impossible, then it is very hard, and finally you won't even feel like smoking. You wont even remember your bad habit.
Good luck.

FAR Preparation so far..

Accounting is like spaghetti , Every thing touches everything else - Cindy Simpson, Yaegar CPA Review

I agree with Cindy over that. And my preparation reminds me of that quote every time.  I got these handed down Yaegar FAR self study material from a friend and a Becker text book . As I won CPAExcel's FAR course it added to my preparation material. So again I have plenty to prepare. But this time I don't want to mess up my preparation going over everything. That is impossible and overwhelming. 


So I decided that I will first listen Yaegar lectures because they are like live lectures. They cover all major topics and they do MCQ's along with us and I think that makes a lot of difference. Some call it spoon feeding but I am ok with that. More over they don't do each and every question so, I don't count it as spoon feeding. 


But CPAExcel's course is really keeping me on track. They got this nice little scheduling software. We need to enter the start date of preparation and the exam date and they neatly lay out a preparation schedule with due dates .We can also prepare our own schedule.


And really preparing according to the schedule leaves me no time for anything else. The questions, problems other than past exam problems are different and making me think and practice them again on paper. And missing a day is bringing me nightmares. I don't want to compare the reviews right now. So far I just completed the basic concepts.. and really a long way to go..

If you want to try CPA Excel's Course you can try it here for free Click Here  (Use the CPAExcel online button and then click the Trial button)

Choosing 'C'

I don't know why I refuse to believe the theories behind choosing 'C'. May be because we read every page , do every problem , revise and practice .... And it feels hard to accept that a simple psychology or a trick can make us pass. I am always a believer of ' Don't learn the tricks to trade only learn to trade' theory. Not that we need to ignore a myth that can make us pass, but some where in this mind there are questions.... Don't the AICPA/NASBA  knew that? They are all CPA's right!! And don't they have some program which can randomize the answer sequences for each and every paper? Are they so outdated in programming? I don't know .. but so many thoughts keep coming to my mind when I am waiting for the REG score.

I spoke to one of my friends and she recently passed REG exam and she was telling me her story. She said, I don't know the answers to many questions on the exam and I selected 'C' for most of the questions and I passed with a 90. I really didn't understand how to react, when I heard that. It almost sounded like a fantasy. A chance can be so lucky as 90? A belief in a myth can be so innocently rewarding? I know that she don't lie to me on that. But I still cant believe this.

Is it an observation that says most of the questions that are correct can be 'C' or is it some kind of theory that says.. It is never 'A' because the exam is designed to penalize the Lazy student for not reading all answer choices.

I am using Yaegar CPA Review and  Prof. Cindy Simpson advises not to choose 'A', she says if you have to choose it, Be very sure. I also watched a video on youtube of Roger CPA review. Prof.Roger also advises similarly. I even heard it from Kaplan Profs. I used Kaplan for BEC.

So the point is almost every review advises, if you don't know the answer at all Choose 'C'. This only works for those questions, you have no clue at all. If you have a slightest gut feeling or some idea on that question, And you have to guess , choose the answer you think/feel right. You are not obligated to choose 'C' but don;t leave blanks. If you have to do that choose 'C'. This is the myth going around in our CPA Exam preparation. This theory is still struck in my throat. But it looks like it is working for many.  Reader discretion is advised .

Update: The right words for this are Item Response Theory (IRT) and  psychometrics. Read this link to read more about these from AICPA website

http://www.aicpa.org/BECOMEACPA/CPAEXAM/PSYCHOMETRICSANDSCORING/Pages/PsychometricsandScoring.aspx

http://www.aicpa.org/BecomeACPA/CPAExam/PsychometricsandScoring/ScoringInformation/DownloadableDocuments/How_the_CPA_Exam_is_Scored.pdf


Insights : Ben Cohen , Mariette Knoblauch , Nano, Roger , Yaegar

Expiring Credit !!!

Just called NASBA to confirm whether I need to Pass or take the exam before my first credit expires. Well good news. We just need to take the exam before it expires. By the way you never need this information if you complete them early. I wish I would have opened my eyes a little earlier! Well better late than never.

If your credit expires on 31.Dec, you need to appear for your exams on or before 31.Dec. But I always suggest you to book your appointment little earlier than dragging it to last minute. At least have pride in some way. Now I can go and book my last exam date. Pray God and promise him a better preparation.

Net operating Loss Summary

You can download My Notes here and this document here

The Self-help trouble

If you know the word 'self inflicted', that is enough to understand this. I suddenly remember the dialogue from the movie, Liar Liar, where Jim Carrey screams to the person who comes to the rest room and asks, what are you doing? and he says ' I kick my own a...'.

We read all self-help books and watch life changing videos and it is never going to be the same when we bite our own fingers. A 'Lil me' is created inside which jumps and squeaks alerts each and every time we try to cheat our selves. Why they show, what is the best? Now that we know, where we stand, does it means, we should  feel inferior or impose the necessity to live up to the standards? Do we have a choice now? As we are already told what is right! Well I think we should at least make an effort and not feel pathetic.


As the exam is fast approaching, I'm getting nervous and paranoid and started behaving strange and I feel like watched all the time. Strange is this consciousness, it makes me feel guilty, ashamed and at the same time grounded. Now I need to fold my pants up as I am already in the pool, mile long and knee deep.

One two three four five six
Count your numbers to ease
Pull your pants up your knees
'Bless you' if you sneeze
Watch your videos on lease
Enjoy your anxieties as a tease
Rest in peace..

My Yeager preparation

I bought Yaeger CPA Review Videos for REG and FAR Exam preparation. Well I already have Becker study material and downloaded Gleim test preparation software. Going with Yeager was a last minute decision. I must say Phil Yeager doesn't disappointed me nor does Cindy.


A good convenience with Yeager DVDs is, you can play them on your DVD player, relax on your couch and scribble all the notes. I used Wiley text books before but they never were my favorite. But surprisingly they sounded better when some one else is pointing out, what's in the material, what to read and which questions to do? Well it's not about reducing the burden but it's about the ease of preparation. By the way I love the jokes and smiles of Cindy and Yeager. They sound some how genuine.


The quality of paper in Wiley's CPA Review books is not impressive and their print ink even dissolves in the highlighter wetness. Make sure you buy good quality high lighters which don't bleed ink, otherwise that ink can soak and bloat on the other side. Keep away from those four color pens for one dollar stuff. Wiley's got great authors and also good cost accountants.  Though I am not impressed with the quality of their print ink and paper, I appreciate the quality of their content a lot and also the cost of their books.

I would like to give some advice on how to get little organized in your Yeager CPA Review preparation. First buy good files and file all those handouts along with the printouts of the contents of DVD and the important problems. Yeager CPA Review gives web links to their students for printing out those handouts.

    * Contents of DVD s showing the number of parts in each module, Hrs..Etc..
    * The minimum number of problems we should do...

It is important to take printouts of these files too. File them in the end and highlight each question when it is completed when you are watching videos. And do the rest of the problems and highlight them too as you complete them.


Take printouts of all the latest forms (those required not all of them) from IRS website and file them in a separate file. And finally file the notes and worked out problems in another file. If you buy a bigger file then you can file them all in one.


If possible Index your Wiley book before you start your study so that each time they want us to turn pages you don't have to search every time. Of course you can use book marks but from my experience, Indexing was helpful.


While you are watching those DVDs,  pause the video where ever you find it confusing, rewind it and go through it again. Pause it to read the text from the text book and do the problems or to note down a point. I took two hours for a one hour lecture to clearly understand what he is teaching. It's my way to follow and understand a lecture. What I am saying is it's just not watching, it is understanding and also properly noting down and working out the questions. Don't rush to feed on Phil Yeager's time before you brain storm.

Last but not the least PLAN AHEAD. Allot time and understand how much time is required for your preparation. They have more than 30 hours of videos and also decide yourself  how much extra time you need for each hour of lecture. Write a plan and stick to your plan. I am saying it again. Put this on paper. I repeat  PLAN ON PAPER. and  EXECUTE YOUR PLAN.


I also downloaded Wiley's audio review. Anita Fellar is a good reader and her voice is also good. But all she does is reading text from Wiley's text book. She continued reading even when her voice cracked at times. And I don't understand why Wiley sells an outdated audio? And why audible.com thinks a CPA Audio Review as 'Pride and Prejudice'. Guys you need to trash them every 6 months. It's not a classic. There is no comparison between other CPA Review's audios and Wiley's. Wiley thinks reading text from its text book is Audio review!! I would call it an abridged audio book and nothing else. If this is what you are expecting, you can buy the audio. I am not saying it doesn't help at all. It is helpful to revise in certain way. And they don't need a CPA to do the reading. Please Wiley wake up!!. I used Kaplan Audio for Auditing and BEC and I have Gleim Audio for REG now. And their approach is they revise the topics and ask questions which I feel is far better than reading from a text book.

Hope this helps ...
My best wishes for your preparation..

Gleim Ethics

Today I am reading Ethics from Gleim. I signed up for the free trail of Gleim CPA Review and in the trail they provided one chapter for free. They also provided audio/video presentation, True/False Study Questions,   Knowledge Transfer Outline, Multiple-Choice Quiz, Simulation & Performance Reports. I downloaded their Test Prep Software and working out MCQ's from them.

You can also signup for Gleim CPA Review for free here

Head in Sand..

I want to write today about a very common thing that happens with me. I am not ashamed to accept it, I freak out / panic / get anxious / get scared... I want to admit my weak points and I want to work on them. Why I choose to picture myself as a Ostrich in Sand is, this weak point of me is the central theme behind my failures. If a thought comes to my mind that some chapter or subject is difficult or If I started to think myself as weak.. It starts. Though right now I could analyze myself and observe me consciously as a second person and try to reason, for many months I suffered. I am not saying , I am the queen now and I conquered it but I am aware of it now.

As  I got conscious of my behavior, I observed that I tend to avoid confronting things, I fear. As and when I start to prepare or start doing MCQ's or any topic which I am afraid of, for any strange reason, I procrastinate , I spend hours browsing, watching videos, worrying about my family members, cry or do anything to avoid facing books. I am not saying each one of  you can behave like me. But those of you who procrastinate may need to look deeper into your behavior on why you behave like that. Whether it is fear or disinterest or any other problem. You must try to understand why you are wasting your time and why you are not concentrating.

Though studying and analyzing yourself may also seem easy to you but the real effort lies in accepting your problem and not to consider your weaknesses as Himalayas and If they really are, then knowing how to tackle your problem and diverting your monkey mind to enjoy your goals is important. If you don't know how to tackle your problems, please consider taking help of your friends, family members, relatives or some professionals. Don't feel bad about it. What's important is helping ourselves to reach our goals. Everything follows.

Results Madness

I don't understand why we have to wait so long to see our scores. My exam was on 13th July and my scores were out on Aug 27 th. I am supposed to appear for Reg on Aug 28th but I was so tense with my result that I couldn't concentrate well on this exam and finally I postponed it. Well I am not  blaming NASBA for my bad preparation but If I received my pass result a month back that would have certainly boosted my preparation.

Multiple choice questions are machine valued and it's just one simulation per paper that is graded. I know there might be a problem that didn't help NASBA to quicken the process but still I am mad that I waited this long and it disturbed my preparation. I request NASBA to please help students to get quicker results.

It felt even miserable to think, what if I waited this long to hear I failed. God I wish all students prepare well and pass. It felt depressing to see the fail words last time. I don't want to see them again. I don't want any body to have that fate.

NASBA I really respect you but I still want to say, I am not happy with waiting for scores .

Don't Read ! Ask !

Earlier in my preparation I used to sit and read and read and read...
When I am trying to answer the questions now , I find some questions confusing . It only means I didn't grasp that particular point. Memorizing is all together different , but if we don't understand what we are reading it will not give any kind of remembrance and it will not help us to answer the questions.

I find it useful to ask questions about each and every topic I am reading. For example if I am reading internal control, Instead of reading traditionally I ask myself what is internal control? Take the title and make it a question and ask your self what is it? And if you cannot answer it properly then read the topic and then ask your self the same question.
When you are reading for the first time this increases your enthusiasm and if it is second time it helps to revise.

Perform

I am adding a new word to my philosophy which was the only one I missed. We need to perform well to pass. I know if we do all the other things Read Understand Revise Retain Practice we will perform well. But training ourselves in exam conditions is also very important. I wrote many small exams but didn't wrote a practice exam. I know sometimes it may be just coincidence that our badly performed simulation picked out but still I decided to train myself for the worst. 
Again saying : I won't sleep till I become a CPA.

Too many cooks

In my last attempt for Auditing exam , I used ebay bought Kaplan study manual, Kaplan audio and flash cards,  Borders bought Wiley study manual, Audible bought Wiley audio, Online ordered Bisk's Self-Directed - CPA Review Software, and handed down Becker books. I balanced one leg on Kaplan and one leg on Bisk and kept my fingers on Becker and Wiley. And finally my result came with a whopping 67 . And I understood the meaning of the idiom ' Too many cooks spoil the broth' .Lets re-frame it as

Too many CPA Reviews will make you fail

So the morale behind my own story is - Don't ever do this. Ask for opinions, read those free materials they provide, test their free software and then decide one material and stick to that.Too many Study materials

• Waste your time 
• Create confusion on how they cover the topics
• They will make a hole in your purse 
• And finally you won't finish a single material

I already tried all these brilliant approaches and made myself a sacrificial lamb , So save yourself from this kind of stupidity.

Flash cards FAQ's

If you are in the stage of asking, what are flash cards ?
Please click here

Where and when  is the right place and right time to revise points or use flash cards? 
And my answer is any where, any time, when your hands are free to turns those leaves..
You can keep those cards on your dining table or on your coffee table.. If you are constipated you can carry them to your restroom . (But don't stay constipated, drink a lot of water, its good for exam preparation)

Do I need to prepare flashcards myself?
As we have many CPA reviews which are good enough to buy, they will save you a lot of time , but they don't cover each and every topic and point. If you find any important point that is missing, you can prepare a flash card for that point and attach them to your pre-printed flashcards.

Preparing your own flashcards is also a good practice, when you have enough time, cards prepared in your own handwriting, in your own mother tongue ( while writing in your own words or language make sure you don't change the key words) and in own words are worth the effort.

Which CPA Review's flashcards are good?
I am using  flashcards of Kaplan CPA Review and they are good. But I don't think Becker's, Wiley's or any other review's flashcards are bad. It is better to have flashcards of the same CPA review material you are using. Since the topics, language and the coverage is same. Its not important which review is, but how you use them is vital.

Can I use online flashcard programs or digital flashcards?
Yes, there are many online websites which offer free flashcard software and databases. You can also use your power point presentations or any downloaded flash program software.


We should figure out which time and place suits us most for revision. For some people, it is dinner time , for others while they walk ( got this tip from CPA student's friend Donna Harding ), while they cook and before they sleep.

I tried a new method last night, got inspired from Donna's tip to revise them while taking a walk, As I can't go outside since the allergy season is high, I attached my flashcards to my refrigerator and by the time I finished preparing dinner I completed my Sampling flashcards. Make a note in your calender  to revise them again before you take your test. Time to revise works inversely with the number of times you open them to revise.

If you have any other question or idea to share, don't hesitate to type it in the comments section. It may help a student.

Useful  Links :

•  http://studyskills.suite101.com/article.cfm/ten_top_revision_tips
• http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-revise-for-exams/
• http://www.flashcardmachine.com/
• http://www.flashcardexchange.com/

smart preparation

My cousin's wife saw me a month ago and she said "  you look disturbed.. If you prepare in a mind state like this nothing will make sense when you read. Try to relax and settle all your inner worries and then read. You don't have to read 24 hrs a day to understand or pass. If you decide to read a particular day, allot some hours and focus on studying and understand what you read.

I cried a lot that day looking at myself and what I have become. Blame on everything family problems, health problems, relationship problems name it ! But the truth is nothing will help you to pass your exam. The only thing that helps is a person or a word or a quote and your study material and practice problems and the time you invest in them.

Just keep away from all the shit that don't even inspire you to reach your goal. The goal being a licensed CPA and getting a good job that pays well and satisfies your life being a professional. Rest is pure malodorous pile of shit. Ignore my anger . I normally don't use much bad words but sometimes the point that I want to communicate doesn't reach well if I say ' There will be one time when you have to stand alone , make sacrifices , be challenged... '  OK I think you got what I mean.

Realization

After I passed my BEC exam and its almost an year now ( sounds more like B.C.). I sat before books like a lost soul, making unfruitful attempts to get something inside. I failed AUD and REG and after my last attempt a month and half before I started preparing for AUD. After ten days I realized that I haven't read anything fruitful again and decided to end this crazy preparation and not to rest till I become a CPA.