[Scottso990]

Many of you may be familiar with the famous Elijah Watt Sells Award. It is probably the most sought after and most respected award given in the accounting profession. Last year 39 out of 92,000 candidates or .04% won the Sells Award. The award is so respected that some firms, including mine, give a $20k bonus to any employee winning the award.

The award is bestowed upon candidates who have obtained a cumulative average score ABOVE 95.50 across all four sections of the Uniform CPA Examination, completed testing during the 2013 calendar year and passed all four sections of the Examination on their first attempt. What annoys me is many websites including Becker’s website states that the award is given to candidates averaging 95.5% or higher. But obviously this has not merit

Yesterday I received my grade for AUD, my last exam section. I received a 99. A score that I really did not expect and although I was happy about this it’s bittersweet. This brought my cumulative average to EXACTLY 95.5%. In the 99th percentile and borderline EWS award, but close does not mean anything. It’s very discouraging and this is pretty much me venting.

I plan to talk to as many people as I can about this issue. Im curious how common it really is. I am also going to try and see If I can appeal my lowest score BEC. Hoping that a review of my writing section could increase my score. (Please God)

Anyways, I am happy to be done with this journey, took me about 7 months while going to Grad School to complete the exam. Although very time consuming, this beast is doable. Good luck to everyone! Hopefully there will be a miracle and I will somehow win the EWS award. I have always dreamt about winning this award, and not even for the check. Ill keep this thread updated as I took to various people at the AICPA, State Board, and NASBA

REG - 95
FAR - 96
BEC - 92
AUD - 99

DONE

[higher_flyer]

CONGRATS txcpa13!!!!!! Was keeping my fingers crossed for you. Awesome news.

REG 95 Aug '12
FAR 95 Dec '12
AUD 99 Apr '13
BEC 94 Jul '13
CA PETH 94 Oct '13

[supercpa11]

scotso congrats!!! sick scores would love to hear your studying plan besides 10am-4am

[txbrcpa]

Congrats txcpa13! I am in Texas too so had to wait until this morning for scores. After I found out from this forum that I needed a 99 instead of a 98 on FAR a few weeks back, I knew my chances were slim, and I actually wound up with a 95. A good score, but I missed the Sells by just 4 points. Dang you BEC!!!

Scottso I don't blame you at all for requesting the rescore. I was going to as well if I missed it by a point, but now I won't as I'm pretty sure there have never been any 4 point rescores in the history of the exam lol. Congrats though to all who got it and to those of us who were close too. Feels great to be done that's for sure.

BEC - 90 (4/2013)
REG - 96 (5/2013)
AUD - 98 (5/2013)
FAR - 95 (8/2013)

[txcpa13]

@txbrcpa those scores are still incredible! You should feel very proud of yourself for having gone above and beyond the call of duty – and now you can rest assured accounting is probably the right industry for you 😉

I'm going to a Big 4 firm and I don't think there's an additional bonus for the award…but I'm forcing my husband to reward me with a nice dinner 🙂

Plus…there's this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that the AICPA may up the threshold this year to something like 96 haha.

AUD - 99 (5/2013)
BEC - 93 (5/2013)
FAR - 97 (7/2013)
REG - 94 (8/2013)

[higher_flyer]

txcpa13, you took the words out of my mouth. Even though Scottso said the AICPA confirmed the cut-off would be the same this year, I'm definitely not holding my breath. With the high AUD scores I see a lot, I am guessing the minimum will get bumped up. Oh well, I was NEVER expecting to score this high anyway. I'm just so glad that it's over and done.

REG 95 Aug '12
FAR 95 Dec '12
AUD 99 Apr '13
BEC 94 Jul '13
CA PETH 94 Oct '13

[ImALuckyMan]

Bump this- has anybody who expects to qualify heard anything? Is there anything we need to do to get the award?

AUD- 99 (04/2013)
BEC- 94 (02/2013)
FAR- 98 (07/2013)
REG - 98 (01/2013)

[barelystayingsane]

I have not heard anything from the AICPA yet. I think they typically publicly announce mid to late March. Someone in my office won it last year, so I pumped him for information. I guess there is nothing that we have to do. They notified him a couple weeks to a month before they released the information to the public. I would imagine we will hear something around early March.

If anyone hears anything from the AICPA about the EWS, can you please let us know?

[Kenada]

I am curious – Did the appeal work out for Scottso990? Would be nice to know what the outcome was.

FAR 05/27/14; 786/110 - Done !

[Kenada]

I am curious – Did the appeal work out for Scottso990? Would be nice to know what the outcome was.

FAR 05/27/14; 786/110 - Done !

[dpad124]

@Insi

He stated in a post a little ways up he did not get his score changed.

“No luck on the score review — No change…damn”

BEC Oct2014 - 85
AUD Jan2015 - ??
REG Feb2015 - ??
FAR May2015 - ??

[higher_flyer]

Update from CA… I received a letter from the CBA on 1/24 saying they had been notified by the AICPA that I was eligible for the award. The CBA needed my signed permission to release my personal info to the AICPA. Have to say, it was very exciting, even for a form letter.

If it does actually happen, I just want to shout out some thanks to everyone on here for a lot of good advice.

In other fun news, on my lunch break today I took my brand spanking new CA license to be framed 🙂

REG 95 Aug '12
FAR 95 Dec '12
AUD 99 Apr '13
BEC 94 Jul '13
CA PETH 94 Oct '13

[tough_kitty]

That's awesome! 🙂

BTW, how long did it take from CBA cashing your check to you receiving your license number?

FAR: 81 (May 2013)
BEC: 81 (July 2013)
REG: 83 (August 2013)
AUD: 82 (November 2013)
California CPA since 1/30/14

[barelystayingsane]

Congrats, higher_flyer!!!! I got a 96, 98, 99, and 94, so if you got a letter, I should be getting one as well. However, I have not received anything from my state board yet. 🙁 I'm in the Midwest, so maybe the cold weather has slowed things down the last couple days. How long do you guys think I should wait to reach out to someone if I don't hear anything? Should I contact the AICPA or my state board first?

[txcpa13]

Did the letter mention whether the cumulative average threshold remained the same for this year? I barely made it over 95.5 – it would be such a letdown if the requirement this year changed to 96 !!!!

AUD - 99 (5/2013)
BEC - 93 (5/2013)
FAR - 97 (7/2013)
REG - 94 (8/2013)

[barelystayingsane]

@txcpa13 if you take the average of higher_flyer's scores, it's 95.75, so it looks like the “higher than 95.5” rule applies again this year.

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