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.