CPA Exam Success

🎙  The Simple Study System – Part 3: Assess to Improve The 5 Essential Steps to Assess Your CPA Exam Study Sessions and Make Progress Every Time You Study Episode Summary In this episode, Dawn continues her Simple Study System with Part 3: Assessing your CPA Exam study sessions. This step is where effort turns into real progress. Instead of just showing up and hoping things improve, you’ll le...

🎙 From Self-Doubt to “Yes You Can!”: USOA Miss Texas 2026, Katherine Colig’s CPA Exam Success Journey The Mindset and Consistency Shifts That Helped Her Succeed on the CPA Exam and Beyond Episode Summary In this episode, Dawn is joined by Katherine Colig, United States of America’s Miss Texas 2026 and a licensed CPA in Texas. Katherine shares her CPA Exam Success journey, starting with the moment...

🎙 The Simple Study System – Part 2: Track to Stay on Track\ The 5 Essential Steps to Track Your CPA Exam Study Time and Build Real Consistency Episode Summary In this episode, Dawn continues Part 2 of her Simple Study System with a focused look at tracking — and why tracking your actual study time is one of the most powerful tools for building consistency, confidence, and momentum on the CPA Exam....

Episode 19: Plan Your 2026 CPA Exam Success Episode Summary In this episode, Dawn walks you through how to plan your 2026 CPA Exam Success by learning directly from your 2025 experience. Instead of starting over with another “perfect” plan, this episode shows you how to keep what helped, change what didn’t, and build a study plan that actually fits real life. You’ll learn how to break the start–st...

🎙  The Simple Study System – Part 1: Schedule to Make It Real The 5 Essential Steps to Create a Weekly CPA Exam Study Schedule That Actually Works Episode Summary In this episode, Dawn kicks off Part 1 of her Simple Study System with a deep dive into scheduling. Instead of vague advice or overly complicated plans, she walks you step by step through a simple, repeatable process you can complet...

Episode 17 — Finding Time You Didn’t Know You Had So many CPA candidates tell me they “just can’t find the time,” and I hear this more often than any other challenge. The truth is: it’s rarely about discipline. It’s usually about having a plan that matches your real life — and most people don’t. In this episode, we explore a simple, compassionate approach to understanding where your time is actual...

🎙️  5 Simple Ways to Study Without Stress and Enjoy the Holidays The holiday season can leave many CPA Exam candidates feeling stretched thin. End-of-year deadlines, family commitments, travel, and social plans all collide with your study goals—and it’s easy to feel like you have to choose one or the other. But you don’t have to. You can enjoy the holidays and make meaningful progress toward...

🎙️ All In or All Out? The Moment You Stop Debating and Start Deciding There comes a point in every CPA Exam candidate’s journey when you realize you can’t stay halfway in anymore. You want to pass—but part of you still doubts it’s possible. That quiet tug-of-war drains your focus, your energy, and your motivation. Half commitment creates full exhaustion. It’s not that you can’t pass the CPA Exam—i...

🎙  CPA Exam Success for All Candidates: Finding the Right Level of Support Episode Summary In this episode, Dawn walks through the different ways CPA candidates can get support — and how to decide what makes sense for  you  right now. Many candidates know they need support, but feel unsure about what kind, where to find it, or whether they’re “ready” to ask for help. Dawn explains t...

Episode 13: How to Pass the CPA Exam with Confidence and Ease — Without Stress, Struggle, or Sacrifice Do you ever feel like you’re “behind” in your CPA Exam prep? That thought alone can keep you stuck in frustration instead of moving forward with clarity. In this episode, I’ll show you how to let go of the urgency, simplify your approach, and study in a way that’s both effective and sustainable....

🎙️ Episode 12: Your CPA Exam Passing System — A Real Plan for Real Life Do you ever feel like your study effort isn’t matching your results? You’ve committed. You’ve planned. You’ve even taken action. But somehow, the progress just doesn’t add up. You’re not doing anything wrong. You’re simply ready for something more refined: 👉 Not just a schedule. 👉 Not just another plan. 👉 But a  system...

🎧 Episode 11 – Self-Trust: The Hidden Ingredient to Reaching the CPA Exam Finish Line ⛓️‍💥 Broken Promises = 💔Broken Progress on the CPA Exam Episode Summary: If you’ve ever said “I’ll study tonight” and then didn’t—this episode is for you. Most CPA Exam candidates assume the struggle is about time, material, or motivation. But what quietly stalls progress is the erosion of self-trust —the subt...

🎧 Episode 10 – Five Signs You’re Truly Ready to Study for the CPA Exam CPA Exam Success Podcast with Dawn Edelstein CPA Episode Summary: If studying for the CPA Exam feels like pushing a boulder uphill—you're not alone. And you're not broken. More often than not, the frustration and lack of progress aren’t about intelligence, effort, or even your study plan. In this episode, Dawn unpacks five cle...

🎙️ Episode 9: Trying to Finish Everything Is Exactly Why You’re Not Finishing the CPA Exam—Here’s What to Do Instead Are you stuck chasing a never-ending to-do list—and still not making real progress on the CPA Exam? In this episode, we unpack the hidden trap of  completion goals  and why they’re keeping you from the finish line. If you’re constantly telling yourself,  “I just need...

From ‘I Can’t’ to ‘I Can’: The Identity Shift Every CPA Exam Candidate Needs You’re not just stuck in your study plan. You might be stuck in an identity that’s quietly keeping you from making real progress. In this episode, we go deeper than strategies and schedules to uncover the mindset patterns that shape how you study, how you recover from setbacks—and whether you keep going at all. This is ab...

Episode 7 – You Don’t Have to Sacrifice Your Life to Pass the CPA Exam: Margaryta’s CPA Exam Success Journey In this inspiring episode, I sit down with Margaryta, who shares how she went from self-doubt and burnout to passing all four CPA exam sections—without putting her life on hold. She failed FAR multiple times and believed she wasn’t smart enough to pass. But instead of giving up, she learned...

🎙️ Episode 6: The 5 Mistakes That Make the CPA Exam Harder Than It Has to Be If you’ve ever wondered why the CPA Exam feels so overwhelming—even when you’re “doing all the right things”—this episode is for you. I’m sharing the five mistakes I see CPA Exam candidates make again and again (because I made them too). These aren’t just study missteps—they’re mindset and strategy errors that can quietly...

Break Through Self-Doubt and Build Belief in Your CPA Exam Success Episode Summary: Welcome to Episode 5 of the CPA Exam Success Podcast! Today, we’re talking about something every Future CPA experiences at some point: Self-Doubt. If you’ve ever found yourself wondering if you’re really cut out for this, or felt the weight of past failures creeping into your thoughts, this episode is for you. You’...

Welcome to Episode #4 of the CPA Exam Success Podcast! Today, we’re diving into one of the biggest challenges CPA candidates face: staying productive  without  burning out. If you’ve ever felt like you’re juggling work, family, life, and CPA Exam prep—and you’re constantly running on empty—this episode is for you. I’m sharing the exact strategies that helped me and my coaching clients st...

Welcome to Episode #3 of the CPA Exam Success Podcast! Today, we’re diving into the third pillar of the CPA Exam Success Formula:  Action —the piece that transforms your plan into real, measurable progress. If you’ve ever felt stuck in planning mode, overwhelmed by where to start, or frustrated that you’re not making the progress you want, this episode is for you. I’m breaking down why taking...

Episode 2: How Smart Planning Leads to CPA Exam Success Welcome back to the  CPA Exam Success Podcast!  In today's episode, we’re diving into  why planning—not motivation, not luck, and not endless hours of study—is the real key to CPA Exam success. Many CPA candidates believe they need to work harder, push through exhaustion, and sacrifice everything to pass the exam. But success d...

Welcome to Episode #1 of the CPA Exam Success Podcast! Today, I’m sharing my personal CPA Exam journey—the struggles, the mindset shifts, and the formula that changed everything. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, doubted your ability to pass, or struggled to commit, this episode is for you. I’ll walk you through how I went from an overwhelmed high school French teacher with no accounting background...