The Worst part of the CPA Exam?

What is the worst part of studying for the CPA Exam? If you ask 100 people you might get 100 different answers. But for me, it’s the guilt.

When I was studying to take FAR it was bad. I felt so guilty. All the time. I hated it.

I would spend so much time and energy studying everyday. I would put in a level of work that I should be proud of and feel good about. But I almost never felt good. I always felt guilty. Anytime I wasn’t studying, I had a little voice in my head nagging me about how I haven’t studied enough. Whispering about how I’ll never pass at this rate. The only way I could make it go away was by studying. It sucked.

For me, that was the worst part about the CPA Exam. The feeling that no matter how much I’d done, it still wasn’t enough.

The good thing about school or work is there is an obvious beginning and end. Starts at this time, ends at this time. You have clear tasks you need to complete between the beginning and end. Once you get those tasks done, or the allotted time ends, then you’re done for the day. You can drop everything and go home knowing you’ve done what you needed for the day.

Studying is a lot more confusing because there is no clear, externally imposed schedule and list of tasks. Its all on you. You can study as little as you want or as much as you want. You never really know when you’re done. That was tough for me.

And the best way I found of handling this, was to try my best to create clearly defined tasks and time limits for myself. The best way to counteract that feeling of vagueness was to be as organized as possible and impose those ‘external’ schedules and lists of tasks on myself.

For example, instead of waking up on the weekend and saying “ok, I’m gonna study today.” I would say “Today I need to do 3 lectures, review my notes on Leases and Capitalization, and do at least 10 MCQs for Modules x, y, and z.”

Option #1 leaves so much room for interpretation. You could do 5 MCQs and call it a day or study for 12 hours with no breaks. Way too vague for me. I liked option #2 because it gave me a goal to work towards. I knew if I could get these things done then I can be happy with the work I put it (and try my best to ignore the guilty voices in my head when I’m relaxing).

Overall, it came down to strict organization. I knew if I was organized with myself, I’d be able to eliminate those negative guilty feelings (or at least reduce them). Which is a huge reason why I started creating CPA Exam Planners (here comes the shameless plug). Having a place where I could document the work I’d done was huge for me being able to feel that sense of control and accomplishment over my studies. The planners are perfect for exactly that sort of thing, if this is something you struggle with as well. Ok, I’m done promoting the planner.

As a final note, I will say that to an extent, you just have to accept these feelings as part of taking the exam. In a way you can even be appreciative of them. These types of feelings are what drive you to push yourself and put in the work needed to be successful. But, if the guilty feelings are too much then hopefully imposing more organization on your study plan helps ease (not eliminate) the guilt, like it did for me. Happy studying!