Watch your CPA Review videos before working anyassigned homework quest ions.

The CPA Review indust ry says to watch a sect ion of CPAReview video and then work the accompanying MCQs. Thisperspect ive stems from the old-school approach to the paperand pencil exam where you had to sit in a live classroom andlearn from an inst ructor on weekends.

Today, there is a smarter way to study. You dont have to goto a weekend live course. You can fire up the laptop on aTuesday morning and knock out two hours of mater ialbefore you even brush your teeth. I f you work MCQs in weekone over your week one topic, guess what? You will workthem again in week 5 or 6 when you review because you willforget what you learned.

I f you watch a video in week one and score an 85 on thecorresponding MCQs, will you be able to score an 85 fourweeks later? Not likely. You will need to work them againanyway and it s not a smart use of study t ime.

I nstead, let the guide you.

Repeat after me: PUT THE HI GHLI GHTER DOWN.

Which method do you think will help you learn the mater ialbet ter paint ing pr inted words in a book with pret tyflorescent colors or writ ing them down on a legal pad andthinking about the informat ion?

Grab a stack of legal pads, put the highlighter down, andstart writ ing.

Many people have said that instead of taking their own notes,they just re-write the mater ial inside of this study guide,which is fine too.

Now is the t ime to start working and do themwith a focused frenzy. Do so many MCQs that youreabsolutely sick of them. As you encounter lit t le fact nuggetsthat you didnt know or are prone to forget , wr ite it downand add it to your volum inous stack of notes.

This is where it gets tedious. This is also where the payoffhappens. You may be fam iliar with the fact that if you had achoice between $3 Million and 1 doubled daily for 31 days,the penny doubled for 31 days ends up t r ipling the $3 Million.The payoff, however, doesnt happen unt il the day. Theroad is long, but ends up being worth it in the end.

The same goes for re-writ ing your study notes. The thoughtof grabbing that stack of legal pads and going to town re-writ ing what youve already writ ten may sound like ar idiculous suggest ion at first , but I am a firm believer in itsimpact .

Merely writ ing down your notes and then reviewing thembefore your exam doesnt have near the impact as takingyour fur ious scr ibbles and convert ing them into re-packaged,easily-digest ible fact nuggets.

Not only will your notes mean more when youve whit t ledaway the non-essent ials, but you are actually learning the