A Simple Yet Effective CPA Review Strategy Everyone is Missing - The BBA Approach

OK I know.  You are here at PinoyCPAReview.com to review for the CPA exam. That's fine and I got it but do you already have a strategy on how you can effectively learn what you need to know during the CPA review (especially if you have graduated long before and busy right now with so many things)?  If your answer is Yes, then maybe you can skip this article (or maybe not because you may have not realized this yet).  If your answer is No, then you MUST read on. 

I was tempted to expound on this concept of learning because of the fact that many people reviewing right now for the CPA exam admittedly say that they lack the

basic Accounting foundations they need to tackle the CPA board.  Most of the claims relate to poor undergraduate studies or outdated Accountancy curriculum given by their colleges or universities. More often, the blame goes to the school not the person who actually holds the key their own success.  And I found out that when people say this, they just want to sandbag on their results later, have an alibi so to speak, if they flunk the CPA board exam.  I hope this is not your story.

The simple concept I am revealing here is a no-brainer-no-secret thing. To learn effectively, you need to know the basic structure of how we, humans, learn so many things along in life using that powerful gray matter in between our ears and right inside our skull we all call - the brain.  If you will return to these basics, you will find that you are more receptive, more confident, more enthusiastic and more effective in learning any subject matter at hand including the CPA review.

So what is this strategy really all about?  For the sake of calling things here, let me call this strategy as "the Building Bricks Approach" (hereinafter referred to as "BBA").

The BBA concept is a common strategy that is simple yet effective (and proven safe). It is built around the idea that the understanding of the WHY matters more than the HOW of things.  If you fully understand something from the ground up, you will not be intimidated by any challenge or opposition relating to a subject matter you mastered along the way.  People can throw in a curved ball or a trick or a spoof to you but it doesn't matter if you appled this strategy in your studies.

The key element in the BBA strategy is the proper preparation leading to the CPA Board exam (or any other learning you will take later on). It relates to the heirarchy of things and why one subject is a prerequisite of another.   Essentially, you build one block (one brick at a time) that is a required study on top of the other (another brick) not the other way around.  If you reverse this preparation process, your learning curve will spiral out of whack and the process of learning will collapse (and so are the brick walls) because you will be confused and may quit later on.  Yes, if you are good, you may learn the subject eventually but it will just waste precious time you need for other things.

There are many reasons why many people can't help but jump from one subject matter to the next and not follow a strategy.  Sooner or later, they will find out that they are only scraping the aesthetics of the subject matter at hand.  They will not have a full grasp of things because they neglect or ignore to dive deeper into the subject and master the underlying concepts, dogmas, principles and foundational basics required by their study. 

People are so anxious, often in the interest of time and resource constraits such as money, to skip the basics and tackle the application part half hearted.  Most of the time, this is a career-suicidal move and will back fire to them unless they get lucky of course.  I personally do not rely on luck especially for my career.  I firmly believe, before and until now, that we are the master of our own destiny.  I have to do it, fight for it and learn things on my own when I must.

As you can see, I said that BBA is a common strategy. In fact, it is so common that it has been used by many learning institution for thousands of years!  You have gone through this before while you are in the undergraduate studies.  You may not have noticed it but it should apply in your review as well. 

The BBA strategy is simple - learn the basics well (mastery of the WHY) before you apply it (application of the HOW). Leaning things is not just about memorization.  It is understanding why you need to memorize it in the first place (because you can use it later on when you need to explain or solve things).

For example, you have to know first the concepts of addition and subtraction before you can actually determine if the storekeeper gave you the right coin change.  You have to understand first multiplication before you can master division. Learning the English language requires mastery of alphabets and grammars before you can write a simple and politically correct letter much more so of an essay or a novel.  You have to finish high school before you go to college.
There are many other examples I can cite here.  But I am sure you got the message by now.

So the concept of BBA is one of the recommended approach, if not the best CPA review approach, I can ever advise to you here at PinoyCPAReview.com.  It is a simple and effective learning strategy yet people ignore like crazy.  Sometimes simple things in life are often regarded as inferior or sub par with the rest of the new concepts.  But if you come and think of it, not using the BBA strategy in CPA studies might be the cause of many CPA examinees failure to recognize that they lack the foundational skills to take the CPA exam head on.

I hope you enjoyed this exclusive article here at PinoyCPAReview.com  More of these to come in the future.

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