More CPA stuff. ::shrugs::

So, more CPA stuff. Sorry. I'm warning you in advance in case you want to skip this haha.

I think the worst part about studying is the fact that EVERYTHING is critical to memorize. Like, I basically have an entire textbook worth of accounting knowledge to memorize. And that's for ONE section of this test. So it pretty much re-teaches you accounting... and like, ususally when you read a textbook, you can pick out what's most important. Nope, not anymore. Every single word they say needs to be memorized. They've like, basically condensed all of accounting into an outline and so it's ALL the most important points. It's so overwhelming. Because I find myself flying through a page like 'yep, I know that, yep, I know that.' And then I remember "I mean, yeah, when I read it, I know it's true, but I doubt I've memorized those 6 types of events that can result in changes of accounting estimates I just skimmed over.

I don't know if that made sense or not. It makes sense in my head.

Anyway, maybe I should just re-title this blog "Britney's CPA Exam Journey." I'm sorry that this is going to become even more boring to read for the next 6 months, but literally, this will be my entire life. 25-30 hours a week of studying (on TOP of my schoolwork) will do that to you.

Maybe some really badass events will happen in the next 6 months that will keep you all reading. Ha :)

In other news, I'm still only on season 4 of The West Wing. I seriously watch SO many episodes (like, I probably average 2 a day) and I'm only halfway through the series! It blows my mind.

A guy in one of my groups for school didn't come to our meeting today because he was 'sick.' I was just on Facebook (clearly studying...) and another guy (we'll call him 'Miami Boy') in our program posted pictures from this weekend... apparently Miami Boy invited a few MAcc guys to Miami for the weekend... the guy from my group was in some pictures from Miami. Sooo clearly 'sick' means 'horribly hungover.' Ummm THREE of the 5 people that showed up to the meeting were hungover (including me) and we all managed to drag ourselves there and get a lot of work done. So... the moral of the story is SUCK IT UP, LAME-O.

Big Bang (the piano bar) was AMAZING last night, even though we had to wait for 30 minutes out in the cold to get in. And even though I lost $20 in cash, after spending $28 on my credit card on mine and Katie's drinks. Add in parking and the cover, and I had about a $55 night on the town. Sad face.

I'm basically procrastinating, in case you couldn't tell. Sigh. Time to get back to "Accounting Changes and Prior Period Adjustments." Omg.

Beginning the CPA exam...

So as many of you know, I am in the process of figuring out when I'll be taking the CPA exam. As of last week, I officially submitted my application! They're still waiting on transcripts and GMAT score reports before they process it. Once they process it (which takes 6-8 weeks somehow), they'll send me what's called a "Notice to Schedule," or NTS. The NTS allows me to actually schedule when I'll take the exam. There are 4 parts to the exam, and I can take them however/whenever I want. The only stipulations are:
1) I have to take all of the parts that I applied for (I applied for all 4 at once) within 6 months of them sending me my NTS. So, for example, if they mail out my NTS on March 15, I have until September 15th to take all 4 parts.
2) There are certain months that are banned for testing. I'm unable to take any part of the test in March, June, September, and December.

My current goal is to take one part in late April (yes, while I'm still in school... eek), one part in late May (again, still in school), one part in early July, and one part in early August. I am very nervous. This gives me about 1 month to study for each section. Especially while I'm in school, this is going to be difficult. But I really wanted to avoid trying to take it while working, considering I start with E&Y in October. I've heard it's much harder to find time and motivation to study while you're also working full-time.

So as with any big-deal exam, there are review materials available. The leading CPA exam review provider is called Becker. Their review course basically provides you with everything you could possibly need to study to pass the exam. You have three options as far as taking the review course: you can do self-study, which is what I'm opting to do, you can do like an online classroom, where you have to submit homework to your 'professors' online and they'll give you feedback, or you can physically go into a classroom and take classes from a CPA in the area. All three options cost the same.

I was Becker's campus rep at Miami, so I was actually offered the entire review course for free as compensation (I believe the review course is near $3,000). However, E&Y already offered to pay for it. So I told the Becker lady this, and she said that she'd give me their flashcards (like a $200 value) and their "Final Review" course (a $550 value) which is like a crash course you're supposed to use the last week before you take the exam instead. So essentially I am getting every product that Becker has to offer for free. Not a bad deal.

I placed my order for the materials, and the flashcards and Final Review books came today. This is the box of flashcards. There are over 1,000 flashcards. I literally laughed out loud, because my life is about to get so ridiculous.


And of course, I opened the blue cards (clearly the biggest section) and promptly dropped them all over the floor. They were numbered and in order, too. So of course my OCD kicked in and I had to re-order them all haha. Oh dear.

Anyway, so that's an update on what's pretty much the most important thing going on in my life right now. Hooray!

My life lately

I feel like my life is pretty freaking boring.

I mean, seriously. I'm not in an exciting city - I'm in the same city I've lived in my whole life, minus less than 4 years when I sort of lived in Oxford (also a not exciting city). I'm not doing anything exciting - I'm in grad school for accounting. I don't have any relationship updates and haven't had any for like... 3 years (although I'd consider this a very, very good thing, it's not exactly exciting). My days are incredibly boring. For example, take today:

8 AM - wake up, shower, get ready, watch a few minutes of The West Wing
9:30 AM - leave for class
9:45 AM - park in the commuter lot, wait for the bus
10:00 AM - get to campus, bum around until 10:30. Realize I can't make it through the day without a Diet Coke, purchase one.
10:30 AM - Foundations of Accounting (like I've mentioned before, this is NOT as easy as it sounds. In fact, it pretty much sucks)
12:30 PM - lunch... usually I forget mine, so I run to Subway and get the same sub I've gotten since I was 4. If I remember my lunch, it's always a turkey and provolone sandwich, with a side of mixed nuts or an apple. Always.
1:30 PM -Information Quality and Assurance Services (not nearly as easy as I was hoping it'd be)
3:20 PM - Change my clothes in a tiny bathroom stall - from regular clothes to work clothes
3:30 PM - Work... usually I'm fairly busy, but on days like today... I was definitely not busy at all. And I wrote most of this entry there.
5:00 PM - Catch the bus to my car, drive to rec, change clothes AGAIN - obviously into gym clothes this time
5:45 PM - get tired way too early, leave
6 PM - Usually I'd do about an hour of homework, spend 30 minutes wondering why I don't have more homework this quarter (it's a freak thing, I don't know), then spend the rest of the night watching TV.

MY LIFE IS SO BORING.

Health care fraud

My favorite class of the quarter (so far) is my fraud examination class. As an auditor, I'll certainly be looking for cases of fraud, but it's not really going to be the main concern of my job. And if I DO find an instance of fraud, it's usually turned over to E&Y's fraud department, so I wouldn't even get to work on the investigation probably. So basically this class talks about everything that I WANT to do in my job, but won't ever get to haha.

Anyway, today we had a speaker from the Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation. He's in their anti-fraud department, meaning he investigates claims of fraud. Examples: a doctor that bills for expensive procedures they didn't perform (because the BWC pays the bills), or an employee who files a worker's comp claim saying they were hurt on the job, but they're just abusing the system and are actually completely fine. So essentially they handle various cases of people screwing the state out of money.

He gave some examples of cases he's worked on, and they are just so unbelievably interesting. It makes me sad that my job is going to be so NOT interesting compared to this.

Here's a case of his that was highlighted on the TV show "American Greed" on CNBC, if any of you have seen it. This is a completely egregious case, so not all of the cases are like this, but it's an example of the kind of work they do. They'll work with other departments in Ohio like the state attorney, the Department of Taxation, etc. They'll also work alert Medicare and Medicaid if they think they're getting screwed, too (and oftentimes they are).

Anyway, here's the link to the American Greed website on the case: http://www.cnbc.com/id/19488935

The doctor's from Cleveland and long story short: He was basically acting as a legal drug dealer. He also gave people unnecessary shots and billed them as shots that were much more expensive than the ones he was giving (therefore pocketing tons of money).

I feel like this just has me like, riled up now about the issue of health care fraud. Soooo many people are scamming the system, causing us as taxpayers and as beneficiaries of insurance to pay SO MUCH MONEY. Like, the state pays out this money. I don't know for sure, but I would assume that this is taxpayer money. Doctors are screwing the state by "upcoding" (saying they performed more services than they actually did, thus getting more money as a reimbursement), employees are screwing the state by making worker's comp claims that they're permanently and totally disabled... if you make that claim, you're legally NOT ALLOWED to work. But they track down people every day who are doing just that. So they're receiving disability checks AND they're working, so they're essentially getting two paychecks out of this, which is completely illegal. UGHHHH it drives me crazy.

And it doesn't help that this makes me feel like my job is totally inadequate. I'll just be reviewing financial statements for the rest of my life. The people that work in this department are helping the state get money back that's rightfully theirs. It just seems so much more... noble haha. And they get to do sweet stuff like go undercover to doctor's offices, they get to testify in court... basically my dream of living out Law and Order: SVU. One day. One day.

Taxes.

Attention: Just because I am an accounting student (and I will soon be an official accountant) does NOT mean that I know anything about taxes. Seriously. Yes, I had to take ONE tax class in undergrad, but I tried to forget it as quickly as possible.

Accounting actually has several different paths. The main two are tax and audit, especially if you work for a public accounting firm. The two paths are VERY different. Ask anyone, and they'll tell you that tax people are generally more reserved, they rarely have to leave the office to go to client sites, and never travel. They work slightly better hours. Auditors are generally more outgoing, are at clients' offices 85% of the time, and travel anywhere from 10-90% of the year, depending on their clients. They also work shit hours. I'm in auditing. Good and bad, I guess.

But it's GOOD because I don't have to deal with taxes. At my company, 'tax' really means doing taxes for HUGE corporations. We rarely do personal income taxes... we only do them for very wealthy people who have a very complicated tax situation. ANYWAY.

So this quarter, the MAcc Association is offering the opportunity to do VITA. This is an IRS-sponsored program that has volunteers prepare tax returns for low-income people. They are generally very easy returns that can be completed in about an hour or so, and that don't require a lot of tax knowledge (no crazy investments, etc.). As a volunteer, I have to complete VITA training, and then I will be scheduled to work a few weekends throughout the next quarter at various sites around Columbus. It's going to be a really great experience. HOWEVER... the training is balls.

Please look at this picture:

Each of these links is a lesson within the "Basic" training. Each lesson says it takes about 45 minutes. You do the math. THEN do the math to find out how much time I'll spend doing the "Intermediate" and "Advanced" courses as well. EFF. ME.

I just keep telling myself it's going to be worth it to see how happy these people are when I tell them how much they're going to be getting in tax refunds...

Oddities of the day

Strange day today. And it's not even over yet.

Random occurrences:

• I had two horrifying dreams. Since the beginning of the day, I've already forgotten one. The second one, however, had to do with my car plunging into a lake and me not being able to get out. Yikes. I rarely have nightmares, so it was odd that I had two in one night.
  
• On the bus home today, this girl was on her phone and said, "Wait, so you ARE pregnant?!" [short pause] "GIRL I CANT BELIEVE YOU ARE! YOU ARE SO CRAZY!!!" [ridiculous laughing] Like... I don't really know many girls my age that think it's hilarious that their good friend got pregnant. I may totally be misjudging the situation, but based off the rest of their discussion, said pregnant girl didn't exactly seem to be like... married and financially secure or anything. Very odd.
• Also on the bus back to the parking lot where I park... someone got on the central radio and said something along the lines of, "I'm at Carmack 1... a woman came onto my bus and told me that she hit a man with her car and that he needs an ambulance." For those of you non-OSU-and-west-campus-parkers, there are like at least 4 carmacks in this GIANT parking lot I park in. The buses go to all carmacks during their route. And IMAGINE... I park at Carmack 1. So I'm secretly kind of excited to see the drama going on. Two ambulances FLYYYY by our bus about 2 minutes later. We got to Carmack 1 and had to be let out a little before where we usually are because of the ambulances and policemen blocking the drive. Which was fine, because then I got to walk by slowly and observe. I think the man was fine, because the ambulances weren't rushing off with their sirens blaring or anything. They just sat in the lot. I didn't see him at all. but I DID see the police talking to the woman who supposedly hit this guy. Oooo dangerous snowy parking lots. So yeah, everyone BE CAREFUL driving in parking lots. I don't know the end of the story, because I figured I probably shouldn't loiter during a police investigation.

I know there were other odd occurrences but whatevs. I forget them.

Other news:
I had my other two classes today, Fraud Examination and Managerial Negotiations. I think both classes will be decent and certainly relevant to me. Fraud Examination is taught by the same professor that taught my research class last quarter. Here's to hoping the class is INFINITELY more exciting than that one. I think it will be. How can fraud NOT be interesting? Plus we get to watch movies... always amazing. Granted, they'll be about accounting, but still.

And Managerial Negotiations is a class from the MLHR (Master of Labor and Human Resources) program that we're allowed to take. It's basically exactly what it sounds like.... learning how to negotiate and get what you want in various situations, whether it be salary disputes or how to do a union contract negotiation. I'm absolutely horrible at negotiations and confrontations in general, so I'm hoping to gain something from this class. It was so odd though... there are only MBA and MAcc students in the class, plus one lone MLHR girl. The MBAs sat on one side of the room, and the MAcc students sat on the other. Very representative of our feelings towards each other haha, although I don't think it was really intentional. I think we all just sat by people we knew, who all happen to be in our program.

Other other news:
I spoke with the property manager at my apartment complex about sex boy. They seem to be handling it completely well. They are very honest and very helpful. So let's hope he shuts up.

Day 1 of Quarter 2

Well, I finished my first day of my 2nd (of 3) quarters today. Same old. Nothing incredibly fascinating. I have a "Foundations of Accounting" class which sounds supremely basic but I have feeling that will be the hardest class I have. I truly have no idea what it's about, even after sitting through an hour and 48 minute class of it. It seems to be very, very conceptual. We'll see. We'll see.

My second class of the day was Assurance Services... aka auditing... aka what I'm doing for the rest of my life. I have a feeling this will be a hilarious class. Reasons:
1) My professor's hair looks a lot like this:
2) My professor's son's name is Chip.
3) He (the professor, not Chip) plays the synthesizer for his church.
4) He let us play a stock market game for about 45 minutes. We find out which team won on Wednesday. If our team wins, we EACH win $20. Like, real money. Um... clearly I am excited about this.

In other news, I unsuccessfully negotiated with Time Warner. That is, I'm actually paying $18 MORE a month than I was before just to get digital cable and DVR. DUMB. But... I AM waiting to hear back from WOW Cable to see what they can offer me. If it's anything below what I have now.... sucks to be Time Warner.

Other relevant news: I bought incredibly too many groceries today. Donny leaves Wednesday morning and I'm sad. I feel like this break brought us even closer together... something I never think is possible, but always is. I'm obsessed with watching the West Wing ever since I got the ENTIRE series for Christmas. I have to call back my apartment complex to have a discussion about Sex Boy. I am slightly nervous about this conversation slash happy that they are willing to hear from me.

That is all.

Email to my apartment complex RE: Sex boy

Copied and pasted directly from the email I sent 30 seconds ago:

Hello,

I previously wrote your office an email regarding the tenant living in the apartment directly below mine (I live at xxxxxxxxx, Apt D... I am speaking of the tenant(s) living in Apt B). The email stated that I was unhappy with the very loud music frequently coming from their apartment. Specifically, the bass was usually turned up so loudly that my family room floor vibrated. Unfortunately, the problem still remains.

I have now gone downstairs to complain about the noise six or seven times. Keep in mind that I have not gone down to complain every time their music is loud - sometimes I have to leave my apartment to escape, and sometimes I just give up. I have written them notes and put them on the door, as well, since often they do not hear my knocking (to me, that's a clear sign that the music is too loud). Since writing you the email, I have been woken up at 2 AM on a Monday morning because they turned their bass UP at that time. I had a final exam at 7:30 that morning and was especially annoyed to receive very little sleep. When I asked them to turn it down, they apologized and assured me that they would. It took them 10 minutes to do so. This is absolutely unacceptable to me. Currently I am writing this email from my bed, because I cannot stand to be in my family room due to the constant music blaring up from their apartment for the past FIVE hours. The fact that I cannot study or function in my apartment as freely as I should be able to is incredibly frustrating and ridiculous. I can't watch TV when their music is on, I can't work or study when their music is on, I can't sleep when their music is on, and I can't even entertain my own family and friends when their music is on. I am not sure what action was taking last time I emailed you, but it has failed to adequately resolve the situation. Part of the problem is that our walls our absurdly thin - this is not the tenant's fault. However, I am not willing to accept that I should continue to have my life interrupted due to the unfortunate thinness of our walls. I am sick of dealing with the tenant myself, and do not think I should have to do so anymore.

If you are going to take action, please forward me any communication you have with the tenant so that I may have it on file. I am certainly willing to call the police about this situation with my downstairs neighbor but I would rather avoid doing so.

I trust that something will be done soon.

Thank you,
Britney Peters


So now I'll just wait. Let's hope they maybe do something a little more impressive than stick a note on his door like they did last time.