Summary notes serve two primary purposes in preparing for your exam.

Firstly, notes are a critical study tools that can streamline and focus your learning and revision on the key areas of the course. Secondly, summary notes provide a powerful reference to have to hand in an open book exam.

There is no need to prepare your own summary notes – why waste precious study time! Instead, you can use the Shortcut Summary Notes that covers each subject comprehensively. That way, you’ll be able to extract maximum benefit from the materials, without spending unnecessary time summarising and formatting.

Streamline your learning and revision

Using summary notes as you begin learning a CPA subject is a brilliant way to narrow your reading to the important and high value areas. You can use the summary notes to quickly determine if you have understood a concept – if it makes sense, you can move on quickly. Where you have not quite understood, the study notes will usually provide references to the main textbook to enable you to do extra reading. That way, you only read the detail on topics that are new or challenging, rather than the whole course.

You can also use the Shortcut Summary Notes as a reference when completing module questions and practice exams. The notes can provide a helpful reference as you move through the questions, building your confidence and speed. Certainly, building your exam technique is a critical part of CPA success and is something that is developed over time.

Ace an open book exam

Open book exams present a unique challenge for students. Although you can take all of your books and notes in with you, the exam is often much harder and requires you to answer questions quickly and in more depth than if you were in a closed book exam.

This means it is critical to have good summary materials with you in the exam! You will have built a familiarity with your Shortcut Summary Notes while you were learning the course, which you can use to your advantage when in the exam environment. Where you are unsure of an answer, you can flip to the relevant page of your study notes and remind yourself of the key point. Our summary notes also include worked examples and calculations, which are extremely valuable when applying the course content to a more difficult topic, like in Financial Reporting.

Overall, good quality study notes are an investment that will set you up for exam success. Our notes will enable you to study more effectively and efficiently, and provide an invaluable reference tool in an open book exam. 

Learn more about the Shortcut Summary Notes here.

One of the key challenges of the CPA Program is the volume of information in each subject. Some parts are ‘nice to have’ rather than ‘must have’. Study Shortcut can show you where to focus your time and how to study efficiently and effectively.

Plan your study time

Plan out how you’d like to study for the semester and be realistic with your approach.

Are you planning to make time to study every day, each weekend or over a condensed semester? Are you planning to study one or two subjects?

The Shortcut Strategy is a targeted program running over 6 weeks – designed for you to juggle your work and life commitments or perhaps complete two subjects comfortably over the 12 week semester.

A clear plan, with clear deliverables will set you up for success.

Focus on important areas of course material

Study Shortcut identifies and simplifies the important areas of the course content. Our Study Shortcut Summary Notes identifies the key points from each page of the text book and presents them in a way that makes it easy to absorb. This will enable you to build a foundation of knowledge, complementing your existing experience and understanding.

Apply your learning

Once you’ve worked through the Study Shortcut Summary Notes, you’re ready to apply your learning. As soon as possible, we’ll have you doing practice questions to ensure you know how the content should be applied in an exam. Exam technique is honed through practice. Having confidence in how to answer questions will enable you to move quickly throughout your exam.

Focus on your weak areas

Each of the CPA subjects contains content that covers areas of general knowledge, common sense and prior learning from your undergraduate degree. Each student will have clear strengths in the subject material, so if you’re looking to minimise your time studying, it makes sense to invest your time in the areas you need to develop. The Study Shortcut weekly practice questions help identify areas of weakness and provides targeted recommendations on where to focus your time.