How To Make A study Plan
Key Points:
When making a study plan, consider;
Study hours available
Personal life
Review course content
“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”
Having a high quality study plan is one of the most useful things you can do when it comes to the CPA Exam. If you have a great study plan you will never find yourself at your desk wondering what to start doing next. It will all be there in your study planner. All you need to do is take a look.
It will also help you avoid feelings of guilt or unease because you’re not sure if you studied enough. Having a planner that will tell you exactly what you have done so far and exactly what to do next is the key to peace of mind during the CPA process.
To craft the perfect study plan you need to take a few things into account.
Your available study time
Your personal life (work, school, family commitments)
Review course content
Study time. You need to figure out how much time you are able and willing to put into this on a day to day basis. I would recommend 2-4 hours per day for most people. But the most important part of this is to be realistic with yourself. There is absolutely no point to creating a study plan that is too ambitious and that you will not stick to. That is what leads to burnout.
Personal Life. We all have different personal lives which impact us in different ways. If you only see your kids on the weekend then maybe don’t plan to study 10 hours a weekend. Or if you know your family always takes a vacation for the 4th of July, maybe don’t schedule your exam for July 7th. Take into consideration things that will come up and impact your study schedule and make alterations to the schedule if needed.
Review Course Content. You will want to look at the structure of your review course and plan out how much you will complete each day or week.
And now that you have all of these it is time to put it together.
Look at each section of your review course and write which day you are going to complete it. Do this all the way up until your exam day. This way you can see exactly what you need to get done each day to be ready for the exam.
And if you like to spend time reviewing old MCQs or Flashcards then make sure to include that in the daily plan as well.
But if daily planning is too much for you then you can do weekly planning as well. Just mark which sections you want to have completed by the end of each week. And schedule which sections (or how many sections if you don’t know exactly which ones) you want to review each week.
The point of this is to take care of all this at once so that you don’t waste time and energy everyday trying to figure out what to do next.
For more assistance creating your own CPA exam study plan, reach out to me by email and we can set up a time to discuss.
