This is a first of a 3-part series on how I achieved my ultimate goal of becoming a Certified Public Accountant in the Philippines.

This has become a 3-part series because I wanted to emphasize that studying for college and board exams are two different things and as per my experience, it both requires a different mindset.

Part 1: Surviving college

Casually, I am sometimes invited to some schools or organizations to talk about how I studied to be able to graduate with Latin Honors and eventually, pass the Licensure Exams. I always try to look back at how I studied because back then, all I wanted was to graduate on time and not have any backlogs because as they say, once you graduate your life will begin and you'll be able to achieve the things you always wanted.

But first, how did I become a Magna Cum Laude?

To be honest when I entered college, I never in my dreams that I thought I will graduate with honors. But if you read my previous article, you will know that I am from PUP and in PUP we need to have a grade of 2.0 and above to be able to continue with the accountancy program. The fear of shifting courses and transferring schools is my motivation to achieve those grades, frankly, it's not a good one but it worked. I just can't shift back then because I really love accountancy and I always wanted to finish what I started and I just can't easily change schools because back then we only had to pay PHP 1,000 or around $20 and if I transfer I need to go to a private school which usually ranges from PHP 40,000 - 60, 000 ($800 - 1,200).

So to be honest, this policy kept my grades high without me wanting it to happen. It was a tough obstacle but it became a blessing in disguise. When I was upcoming 4th year, my professor came to me saying that I'm one of the few that still have the grades to graduate with Latin Honors, he made me compute my previous grades and made me set my target grades for the next academic year. I entered 4th year with a clear goal in mind, that I have to achieve this grade or higher, nothing else.

So how did I study for it?

1. Communicate with yourself

I wish I learned this sooner or somebody else told me this because it's such a mindset shifter. Let me tell you again, YOU SHOULD COMMUNICATE WITH YOURSELF, I hope I got that emphasized already. There are billions of ways to study and train your brain like Pomodoro, waking up at 4 AM, drinking coffee, taking down notes, this list could go on and there are thousands of youtube videos on how to study well but rarely I see people saying and acknowledging that we are different individuals and because of that we require different approaches on how we learn things. You cannot put everybody else in a cutter and force them to study a certain way, you just can't. After realizing this, I rewatched some youtube videos and just picked out what's applicable for me and I encourage you to do the same for every youtube video and even in this article. encourage you to do the same for every youtube video and even in this article.

You should be able to ask yourself and answer for yourself too on how you best learn, some examples are:

• are you more active at night or in the morning?

• do you like to drink coffee, tea or not fond of these drinks?

• do you prefer visual cues or reading?

• do you prefer listening or writing?

• do you need something to condition yourself before studying?

This list could go on but hopefully, you got the gist of it.

As for me, I'm a morning person way back in college, if I had no classes, I wake up at 6 AM and sleep around 10-11 PM and everyone else was staying up until 4 AM and usually wakes up at 1 PM. I always feel that I don't put in the effort they put in just because I don't stay up late. But as time goes by I realized, it works for them but not for me, so just imagine if I forced myself to stay up until 3 AM or so even though I am not wired that way will I have ever achieved my goal? Probably, we don't know that but one thing I know is it made things easier.

Note that this process usually takes time and a lot of effort before you can fully know what your preferences are.

2. Set your goals

We've all heard this a million times, I know, but hear me out. You need to know your goals for you to know the effort you need to put into your school. Again, you can only do this if you communicate with yourself. I read this somewhere and I never forgot it ever since, "Don't pray for a 10 and work for an 8". If you're not religious, it still applies, we shouldn't dream of something and not match up the effort we put into it.

To expound it further, some people just want to graduate and that's fine. Some people want to have Latin Honors, still fine. Some people don't want to go to school, to be honest, it's still fine. What's not fine is wanting something and not putting in the same effort that it requires. 

For me, in my 4th year, I wanted to graduate with Latin honors and I worked 100 x harder for it. But some of the classmates just wanted to graduate so they allocate some of their time to other things like job, significant others, friends, and family but for me, I have to give family time, friends time, I never had a boyfriend or a job, did they put less effort into it? No, they just exerted the effort required for their goals, the same thing I did with mine.

3. Enjoy the process

I think many of us make college more difficult because we try to resist it. For me, I fell in love with my course, along with the complexity and analysis behind it. I know not all of us are the given privilege to pursue what we wanted but that doesn't mean we need to resent the course or program that we have taken. Even if you cannot fall in love with the subject itself, find great friends and professors, enjoy your college life and just take at the moment because it will never happen again.

I always say to myself that it's our responsibility to romanticize our lives and I did that to my college life even though it's one of the most stressful parts of my life.

I joined quiz bees and competitions way back in college even though most of them, I didn't win. I managed to win one though, a quiz bee sponsored by one of the Big 4 firms - SGV

I also met the most amazing circle of friends that I have in my life in college and our bonding? Coffee and Food! We usually dine out whenever we finished final exams and just laugh it all out and believe me, meeting friends is part of the process too.

And above all, I appreciate the growth while taking this course has been massive for me. I think I became more organized and compliant about things. There had been a lot of takeaways in college not just the technical ones.

I know this is not the most direct article on how to study for college because there already thousands of it, I just really want students to know that college is a self-discovery process and you should enjoy it as much as you can. And the best study habit that you can have is the one that you build by learning more about yourself.

For the subsequent part of this article, you can read here,

How I studied for the Licensure Exams: https://read.cash/@deedum/how-i-studied-for-the-licensure-exam-3c9ff40d

I hope you got something from this.
See you around!