Here are some tips that helped me stay motivated while studying for the CPA exams.
Tip #1: Schedule your exam.
Let’s be honest, studying for and taking these beasts is no fun. Getting myself to study was so much easier once I had an exam date scheduled, because then I couldn’t justify procrastinating as easily. I knew that if I didn’t prepare and didn’t pass, I’d be paying $250 to take the test again. And I really didn’t want to do that.
Tip #2: Don’t wait for motivation to strike; it never does.
A great quote by Robert J Mckain reads, "The common conception is that motivation leads to action, but the reverse is true--action precedes motivation. You have to ‘prime the pump’ and get the juice flowing, which motivates you to work on your goals. Getting momentum going is the most difficult part of the job, and often taking the first step is enough to prompt you to make the best of your day."
There were so many days when I’d sit around waiting for motivation to strike before studying. Don’t fall into that trap. Motivation is not something that spontaneously materializes out of thin air. At least in my experience, it has never been that way. Especially when I didn't feel like studying, I got up and committed to it. I started with just one hour or even 30 minutes of studying. Once I got going, it was a lot easier to stay motivated and continue for 3-4 hours. Conversely, on days when I waited until I simply “feel like studying,” I never got around to it.
Tip #3: Schedule out a study plan.
I worked through 3-4 of Becker's modules (subchapters?) every day, and I scheduled it all out (all of the chapters and subchapters for a test) in my planner in advance. This made my daily study easier because instead of just studying until I didn’t feel like it or couldn’t handle any more, I had a clear finish line that I was working towards every day.
The tricky thing here is to find the right balance between spending too much time on each chapter vs. too little. The best thing I did was schedule a two-hour buffer on Saturdays as a “catch all.” If I was slightly behind because a lesson took longer than expected, I used this buffer to make that up. Doing this was a nice balance because I didn't feel overly frustrated when lessons took me longer than expected, but it kept me progressing at a fast pace. It also kept me accountable to myself.
Unofficial Tip #4: “Pre-spend” your CPA bonus.
Some of the public accounting firms will give you a bonus if you pass your CPA exams within your first year (EY’s was $5,000). I’m not entirely sure that I recommend this, but I pre-spent my CPA bonus about halfway through the exam process. I knew that I wanted to spend my bonus on a trip to Korea, and one day in October 2018 I happened to see a great deal for flights in May 2019 ($450/person round trip!). So I jumped on that deal and bought two tickets, even though I was far from passing all of my exams. It was risky, but it was a great motivator because I knew I had to get that bonus to pay for my trip!
Hopefully some of these tips are helpful. Studying can be so hard and draining, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It is hard but so worth it!
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