Meet Adam Moscovich – Becker alum and Elijah Watt Sells Award winner! Adam found out in September that he had passed his final section of the exam (BEC) with a score of 97.
Earning the highly-coveted award is no walk in the park. CPA exam candidates must achieve a cumulative average score of at least 95.5 across all four sections of the Uniform CPA Examination and pass all four sections on their first attempt.
For Adam, his approach to the exam was study hard…with the help of Becker.
“I had no idea what it took to get a 75, which is the minimum passing score for each part,” Adam says:
“I really just did exactly what Becker told me to do, every video, every mock exam and the study planner, which was my best friend.”
When studying for the exam, Adam had already graduated with his bachelor’s from Florida Atlantic University and was “full-time CPA studying” while earning his master’s. At the time, he was an intern at RSM, where he now works full-time now as a management consultant in the financial close and reporting group. RSM had a partnership with Becker and was able to get him on the road to studying.
PREPARING FOR THE EXAM
Adam decided to tackle FAR first, since he had heard it called the most difficult part of the exam. He said he agrees with that opinion.
“The subject matter wasn’t too difficult, but the timing was,” Adam said. “I wanted to knock out the hardest while I still had energy.”
To prepare, he made heavy use of Becker’s study planner. In fact, he says he planned his life by it.
“I told Becker (study planner) that I was available to study 40 hours a week and followed the recommended plan of action,” Adam says.
TAKING THE EXAM
You can say that Adam’s path to becoming a Watt Sells winner happened by accident. He didn’t even consider going for the award -- until his FAR score came back as a 94.
“And that put me in the running,” Adam says. “I didn’t even consider going for the award, but shared with a professor and she encouraged me to do it. I said, alright, let’s throw all I can at this.”
That was in April of 2019.
That fall, he received his final score (BEC). He needed a 95.5 to win the award and had scored a 98.
“It’s still jaw-dropping because the margin for error is so thin, and with every part I passed, the stress level increased, and this became more and more important to me,” Adam says.
WHY BECKER
If you ask Adam to tell you why he recommends Becker, he’ll first tell you the diverse learning opportunities. “Becker provides you with every single method of learning, no matter what type of learner you are,” Adam says. “If it’s textbooks, they have those with annotated notes. If you need to hear or watch, like myself, the lectures were great. If you need to do a million MCQ (multiple-choice questions) until you figure it out, you have more than you need.”
And not to be forgotten – the Becker instructors, one of whom would be difficult to forget in the first place.
“I’m a Peter Olinto guy,” Adam says of Becker’s charismatic, one-of-a-kind instructor. “I’ve gotten to meet him, he’s a good time. And his teaching style really worked for me.”
He also enjoyed Mike Brown’s lectures, saying they really helped him in one particular area.
“Mike Brown is amazing for audit,” Adam says. “Audit was one of the more challenging sections for me. He also has a good personality, which helps a lot because you spend a lot of time watching the videos. It’s entertaining to me!”
RIDING OFF INTO THE CPA SUNSET
Earning your CPA at the beginning of your career is almost always a career booster, but being a Watt Sells Award winner brings it to a whole other level for Adam.
“It definitely earned me a lot of recognition at work,” Adam says. “Which was perfect timing, because I was still brand-new to the firm. The Watt Sells Award helped me make a name for myself and start to know people. I even had leadership reaching out to congratulate me.”
HIS ADVICE
- There’s no better place to invest your time than in yourself, and in a designation that has been proven for decades.
- While the Exam is challenging, studying is manageable. It may look super-overwhelming, but if you work with Becker, it all becomes very digestible and will conform to your schedule.
- Learn all the accounting acronyms – they are great tools.
- Becker’s SkillMaster videos are a great learning tool when you’re in a crunch and don’t understand something. These videos are about as detailed of a tutorial as you can get – and you watch someone solving the problem for you.
Intrigued? Learn more about Becker CPA Review study packages, or if you're ready, dive right in with our free 14-day demo and see for yourself why more than 1 million CPA candidates have prepared with Becker.
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