This past week, I spoke to the ACC 151 classes about recruiting (i.e. the things I did well, the mistakes I made, etc.). This question came up that I feel needs extra attention. As my usual blog format though, first I’ll talk about some of the tidbits of the week!

Could you really use a wish right now?

Well stop looking for airplanes, silly! The annual Leonid Meteor Shower started on Wednesday. The shooting starts you’ll see are the remnants of a comet (Tempel-Tuttle) that passes through the system. When I was eleven, a couple of friends and I drove out to the middle of desert outside El Paso to see it, and it was awesome! I’m not sure where I’d drive here in Austin, but if you have a chance to see it, do it.

Congratulations to Salvatore A. Giunta

The staff sergeant received the Medal of Honor from President Obama this past week. Giunta “placed himself in the line of fire…to try to save his fellow squad-mates and to protect and comfort a dying American soldier.” Giunta was serving in Afghanistan. We thank you and commend you on your bravery!

New World Record

This is kind of off-topic, but I thought it was cool. A new world record was set this past week for the tallest married couple. Check it out.

Anyway, onto topic!

How do I study during recruiting season?

This is a very good question. As I told the ACE classes, the workload you undertake is a choice that you need to make based on your own personal characteristics. I would recommend that this is not the semester that you want to try to take more classes than usual. Here’s a quick background on the justification for my recommendations:

The Suzuki Method

If you didn’t know before, you’ll hear it now. I’ve studied the violin for more than19 years under this method. This method was started by Shin’ichi Suzuki of Japan; his rationale was that if a skill was nurtured for a period of time, then a student could learn a skill the same way one learns to speak a new language. (No, I’m not going to get into nature versus nurture.) Suzuki recommended repetition, to a degree, until the student gained “intuition” of the skill he was trying to accomplish; this type of learning is a process, and learning the nuances of a skill does not occur overnight. (There are, of course, many other factors involved in the Suzuki Method, but I will focus mainly on those I feel are apropos to helping MPA students.) For further reading on the philosophy, read Suzuki’s book Nurtured by Love or check out this synopsis.

Are you basically going to introduce us to the Suzuki Method…of Accounting?!

Yup. Sounds absurd, but if you really look at what this technique is, you’ll realize that we all do this on a regular basis but with other activities. Ask any basketball player: he’s probably been playing since he was eight or nine years old, he learned the ins-and-outs and the feel of the game when he was fifteen, and to this day, shoots at least fifty free-throws a day. Likewise, when your mom and dad taught you your manners, they didn’t cram it in two days before a formal event; I’m sure they taught them to you and enforced them daily at home, that way when you had to go out in public, you were already well-versed in your etiquette and ready to execute.

Why not apply the same principles to accounting and finance?

Plan out your studying in advance

If you have an exam a month from now, don’t plan on learning the material 28 days from today. It is essential to do your reading thoroughly and methodically; in this way, you are doing less work because you will not have to go back and do it over. After you have done your reading, go through the exercises and diagnose those areas in which you need work. (Usually, your professor will tell you these places in advance, so take advantage of it. We do this in Suzuki all the time too: your first Twinkle Twinkle Little Star variations are actually there to prepare you for the Bach concerto four books later.) Practice those areas, then tie all of the concepts together. This should leave you three days to just practice and review the concepts before the exam.

Why three days? What’s your point?
If you’ve taken OM, you’re probably familiar with the term “slack.” You want to leave some extra time just in case you find a recruiting event the two nights before your exam. How awful would you perform if you came home from an exam at 11 p.m., and then you tried to finish learning a concept then? Or if you tried to review for six hours that same night? Broadening out the time in which you repeatedly practice your concepts helps solidify your understanding and helps create intuition toward solving those tough finance problems.

Cramming won’t cut it–you need repetition

This should hold regardless because you don’t want to forget five years of college when you get out into the real world, either. Without repetition, you aren’t gaining an inherent understanding of the nuances of situations. Suzuki compares this to growing a plant: if you water it a little bit every day, then you’ll have fruit in a couple of months, but if you try to pour gallons of water on it the night before, you’ll drown the plant, if anything. All-nighters during recruiting season will not accomplish what you want them to, so don’t try it—you need your rest for your interviews and events.

Talk about the concepts

This may sound dumb, but talking about the laws and concepts with other students in your classes help you gain a richer understanding. Talking about Sarbanes-Oxley Act, for example (what you like or don’t like, what you would change, why this is part of the Act, etc), can help you learn the little details of the law. When you end your conversation, you will likely continue to ponder your classmates’ input. All in all, this is more repetition, but now someone may have mentioned something that helped you in an area in which you may have been struggling or may have overlooked.

Focus intently when you study

You’ll notice that I’m very meticulous to say that I study the violin. This is because Suzuki once said to say you study the instrument because “playing and studying are opposites.” You are going to be strapped for time, so it is essential that when you study, you are as efficient as possible. Read thoroughly so that you understand as you go. Thus, it may take longer to read, but your time practicing concepts should be reduced with a better understanding of the underlying theories.

Use a planner

Know what’s coming up and what your priorities are. This may stress some people out, but I’ve always felt that knowing what I have coming up keeps me less stressed. Why? Knowing what confronts me and when, I can adequately prepare. Therefore, I highly recommend using a planner so that you can prepare for your exams; this preparation will help you sleep at night.

Final thoughts

You’ve heard how to study over and over again, and I probably haven’t said anything you haven’t heard before. What’s the difference? Don’t panic now that you’re in recruiting. We’re MPAs and all possess the mental toughness necessary to undergo this type of schedule. Relax and enjoy recruiting, but continue to study hard, just as you did before.

Just keep in mind what Coach Wooden put so well: “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”