June 10, 2016

Burning Communication tools.

I'm planning on deactivating my facebook, as soon as I do some significant work for our analysis.

I've turned off my phone. Okay, so I ended up turning it back on lol I'm going to sell my other phone to pay off some debt incurred by purchasing the CFE exam and capstone 2 course. Jeez. SO expensive.

Also I won't be tutoring that kid anymore. I'll let his mom know, I've become too busy to do that. And I will start developing the best habits possible. Okay, so I ended up not doing this either. haha.

But If I feel I need to, I know exactly how. To get rid of a phone, you either whip it as far as you can (Yes, I've done this before, and yes it works quite well haha). Or if it's an expensive phone, you sell it on Kijiji/Craigslist. And the kid I'm tutoring is studying Intro to accounting, so it's all review for me. Furthermore, I'm getting paid to do it! So I can use the active business income I get to buy food for studying the rest of the week!!! It's only an hour. Jeez, I'm lazy haha. ANYWAYS:

Let's talk about best habits possible. Here's some random useful knowledge I found on another CFE blog about CFE Gold medalist Erin Compeau:

- be confident in your approach
- Don't get discouraged by your results from practice cases.
- build a good response structure
- do light reviews before you study seriously
- somehow join a study program (e.g. Deloitte has a study program). The study program should include weekly in-class sessions, other resources such as flash cards, case debrief material and practice exam marking. Unofficial consulting groups have study programs where you have to pay. I guess this would be the easier route to go. Or possibly make your own!
- use your study notes from school to prepare for the CFE
- Buy & Read the CFE/UFE Tax Guide by Jason Fleming
- Study in a small group (e.g. 2-3) Why? Because you can use the group to share concerns and receive possibly multiple peer feedback on cases you write.
- Take days off to break. (I believe in taking breaks too, but breaks that are more controllable, for example, watching anime. I'm a big fan of it. But I can stop watching pretty much anytime I want. If you take a break with a person, it's a lot less controllable, and so you can lose track of time and spend hours when you wanted to spend only minutes.)
- Pace yourself. It's a 3 day exam. So you'll want to build a skillset that can work in those conditions. One example could be: studying 3 days at a time in the same format.
- Focus on strengthening your weaknesses as you debrief your own cases.
- Understand the reason for making mistakes on a case during debrief.
- Always think of how you can improve even on parts you do well on.

More on best habits possible, here's some random useful knowledge I found on another CFE blog about CFE Gold medalist Caleb Hagemeister:

- Give yourself at least 1 month of study time in 1 location from 8 AM to 4 PM on weekdays.
- Do a Case starting from 8 AM and try to finish at around 10 AM then take a 15 minute break. Start another Case and try to finish around 2 PM.
- Give yourself a 30 minute time limit for lunch.
- Take 2 days of the weekend to do whatever you want.
- Do some very minimal  3-day review a day or more before the day of the Exam.
- Write cases until you're done! starting from 8 AM. Break for 15 minutes when you're done.
- Write cases in securexam Exam conditions!!!
- Keep detailed notes on how you assess yourself on the indicators in each case (basically what you need to do to improve).
- If you make a mistake, don't be sad, learn from it, and be glad/better!!!
- Have mentors either within your firm or just any accountants who are willing to help you out. <-- I MIGHT have one mentor from PrepFormula, other than that I need to get on this.
- Accomplish learning case after case! 
- Take a CFE Prep course!!! If your firm offers one: GREAT! If not, find one (e.g. Densmore, PrepFormula, PASS, etc.)
- Purchase the books from Densmore
- Remember these Acronyms:

IGAR - Issue, GAAP, Analysis, Recommendation
ITAR - Issue, Tax Act Reference, Analysis, Recommendation;
RAMP - Risk, Approach, Materiality, Procedures
WIR - Weakness, Implication, Recommendation
RASP – Risk, Assertion, Specific Risk Area and Procedure


Why though? LOL - Laugh out loud. The above doesn't tell me sh!t. Let's explain why this CFE gold medalist recommended to remember these acronyms:

IGAR & ITAR - They're how you analyze any accounting and tax issues you find in a case. You'll state the issue, the related framework (ASPE or IFRS) or if it's a tax issue ITA reference, and then you'll analyze the issue by relating each criteria of ASPE/IFRS/ITA to case specific facts, then the Recommendation should be clear at which point you give a recommendation. 


RAMP -  Check out >> this post << in this blog which explains RAMP for you! I didn't write it, but I did get it and it's rare, so gimme a thanks you nincompoops!

WIR -  Is another approach to analyzing IT weaknesses, c, control environment, and/or ethical Issues. W stands for Weakness (Why is it a weakness? Don't restate case facts. What is the problem? I stands for Implications (What is the impact to various users, What could or has happened? Any revenues, income, community, contribution from donors? Quantify any financial impact.)R stands for Recommendation (How to resolve the weakness? Ensure weakness and implications will be resolved. Link recommendations to users and their needs.).

RASP - Is how you decide which procedures to employ as an auditor, You start with the Risk area, assertion it affects, You state specifically which risk area that assertion affects, and then you explain what needs to be tested and what procedure will do the testing.





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It hit me tonight as I was on the phone with the girl I'm dating. This girl is continually pushing to take up some of my time. I can't surround myself with people that want to push and take my time. I CANNOT AFFORD IT! If you're going to do any of these CPA courses. I already learned that I can only pass them if I put not only one step forward but every last inch of my body, soul and mind!

So I'm changing my phone number... Call it drastic if you like, but drastic times call for drastic measures. I feel sorry for anyone who mistakenly underestimates the CFE. Have fun wasting another couple thousand dollars on taking the exam. Even if I did fail after trying my hardest, it might be easier the 2nd time around if I tried my hardest the first time around.

I dunno, does this sound tough to you?

1 case that will test you on your enabling competencies.
1 case that will test you both on assurance and accounting.
multiple cases that will test you on all core and elective areas.

If this sounds easy for you. I'm happy for you. But if you think that sounds remotely hard. Then prepare for the worst. Everything I've watched, learned, and applied has shown me to train hard and then afterwards the work you've been training will be easier! A part of training hard is having a focused training session and that doesn't include calls from your lover, friends, or updates from random people. So yeah... I'm going underground for a while. It may be lonely, but I'll get through it. I will follow a system of best practices, and I will come out like steel!