[floacct]

So since starting this journey 22 months ago I’ve accumulated an extra 35lbs. I now take perscription strength acid reducer called pantaprozalone. I now need glasses and my therapist says this is all stress related. Oh by the way I scored a 59 on my last exam and have yet to receive any passing score. What’s ur story? Needing motivation.

[John Tucker]

I'm not on an Ivy Tower, over confident, nor arrogant in approaching these exams. I believe the CPA Exam is the hardest professional exam in the world, but I believe that it can be conquered with proper preparation. It's why I am putting in all of the preparation I am into my exam sections.

So far you Kricket and Amanda have NOT provided anything to disprove the theory that if you put in a quality preparation you should pass the exam. Also when you take the replica exam you should only be focusing on the exam, not starting and stopping or being distracted within your household.

I am in total agreement with Monk above, there is way too much whining on this forum. Sit down, put in a quality preparation process and focus on actually comprehending the content. Then do your practice testing and replica exams. You shouldn't have an issue passing the exam or if you fail, it shouldn't be by a wide margin in that a single retake should get you through.

* State of MA CPA Exam Candidate
- BEC: Sunday, August 24th
- FAR: Saturday, November 29th
- AUD: TBA for February 2015
- REG: TBA for May 2015

[KateL1839]

@John Tucker:

“If you actually did a couple Replica Exam tests (in the 3 or 4 hour format of the actual exam section you are studying for) wouldn't that assist with decreasing the exam anxiety?”

As some who has test anxiety, I can tell you that is not how it works at all. I have suffered from test anxiety all my life. I will go into a test or exam and as soon as that booklet is in front of me, my mind goes completely blank. It doesn't matter how much time I spent preparing. So many teachers and professors have asked me how I can know the material so well and then completely fail the test. I have had multiple instances of FORGETTING MY OWN NAME. I mean if there is one thing you should know and be able to put down confidently on a test, it is your own name. I stared at the test paper for 10 minutes willing myself to remember it. How do you exam prep for knowing your name? Much less everything else.

I haven't taken any parts of the CPA exam yet so I don't know how I will fair. I am cautiously optimistic. But I know that this is going to be difficult for me and just because I prepare enough doesn't mean that the anxiety won't kick in and I won't suffer from mind blankness. I wish that simply studying and preparing enough was enough to pass a test. My GPA would have been so much higher had this been the case.

REG - 8/30/14
BEC - TBD
FAR - TBD
AUD - TBD

Using: Becker live courses & Ninja 10 point Combo

[Anonymous]

Ummm, I've already passed them. I'm not whining. I provided quite a bit of solid evidence to disprove your theory. When I had to take practice exams, I did attempt to replicate the actual exam, because I had already taken an actual exam and knew what to expect.

[floacct]

Hi mamabear! Everyone kind of took this in different directions. I appreciate everyone's responses. Yours included!

And John Tucker… appreciate ur advice too. And wish u the best of luck. Don't be surprised though, especially when u get to far, when u prepare for months and they start asking you a bunch of one line questions on topics u have never seen with 3 answers that could all be correct!

Thanks everyone

[Study Monk]

Preparation is everything…..

Higher Intelligence = Less Preparation

Lower Intelligence= More Preparation

Passing every time= Right Amount of Preparation

Conclusion= Anyone who can get a college degree can pass the CPA exam if they prepare properly.

Personal Note: I was a butcher for last 5 years with no recent relevant education or work experience and I have passed 3/3.

I spoke to an ancient wise man who sent me on a mushroom induced journey through an ancient forest to find the key to passing the CPA exam. A talking spider monkey told me to throw the last of my drinking water in the dirt to find what I was looking for. So I followed his instructions and the following message appeared in the soil:

"Do 5000 multiple choice questions for each section"

[Mamabear]

I think putting too much emphasis on the pass/fail rate of the CPA exam as a determination of the difficulty level is a bad idea. Just scrolling through this forum you see posts regularly from people that take exams they aren't ready for and for many reasons–expiring NTS, just to see what the exam is like, just to get an attempt in before the window closes, etc. All of those “attempts” count against the pass rate, but are from people that are admittedly underprepared. I think you would see higher pass rates if you could only take the exam once a year or the NTS expiration date was longer, etc. I don't think the exam is easy and I do think there are other factors that go into passing/failing, but preparation is a big part of it too. I fully admit that my one fail so far was because I wasn't prepared. I didn't understand the process, shouldn't have scheduled two exams that close together, should have backed the second one up when I realized I wasn't going to be ready, etc. But it did boil down to not being prepared. I know that's not true for everyone, but it was true for me.

Good to see you back flo. The thread kind of took a life of it's own. 🙂

CPA Exam - Finally DONE (November 2014)
BEC (08/10/13) 80
AUD (08/24/13) 65 (11/13/13) 85
FAR (04/12/14) 81
REG (07/19/14) 69 (11/29/14) 87!!

[Study Monk]

Not to mention you have a flood of recent grads who are used to preparing for a final the week before the exam. You have to prepare like you are studying for a final for two months on average for these exams.

I spoke to an ancient wise man who sent me on a mushroom induced journey through an ancient forest to find the key to passing the CPA exam. A talking spider monkey told me to throw the last of my drinking water in the dirt to find what I was looking for. So I followed his instructions and the following message appeared in the soil:

"Do 5000 multiple choice questions for each section"

[KBinMN]

If people don't like the “whining” they don't have to keep reading…no one is putting a gun to your head making you read these boards.

[John Tucker]

Okay, well, you guys have already agreed with me that quality preparation is essential to passing the exam but apparently I'm missing four major points.

Apparently, I'm “missing the point” that people have test anxiety and get very nervous during the exam. So a person that had excellent preparation is going to FAIL the exam in total and have to retake it 13 times because they are so stressed and nervous during the exam they can't concentrate? How did you handle your test anxiety for the previous 3 – 6 years of college?

Apparently, I'm “missing the point” that the exam makes people gain 40 pounds. So you were previously eating healthy, but studying for FAR all of a sudden makes you eat Big Macs all day? You were previously working out 30 minutes a day, but studying for REG means you all of a sudden can't find the 30 minutes to do a workout?

Apparently, I'm “missing the point” that the Prometric testing center gets loud sometimes and people type too fast on their keyboard and the sounds of the keyboard makes you score 63 and not 75. You couldn't use your earplugs/headphones?

And apparently, I'm “missing the point” that people with bad hygiene sitting across from you makes all of your quality preparation moot once again causing you to score 63 and not 75.

I mean you guys have got to be kidding me with these comments.

When I asked what else am I missing with my stance of a quality preparation = a pass, I was thinking you guys would tell me something about the structure of the EXAM ITSELF. You know, such that there's material listed on the exam that's not in the review material. Or that the exam questions are worded in such a way that even KNOWING the material won't help. Or that the simulations are so difficult that you run out of time to answer all of them. Or something along those lines, where even if you went through ALL of your CPA Review Course material you STILL wouldn't be provided the content to pass the exam.

Instead, you guys are talking about silly things lol, you had me afraid here for a minute.

* State of MA CPA Exam Candidate
- BEC: Sunday, August 24th
- FAR: Saturday, November 29th
- AUD: TBA for February 2015
- REG: TBA for May 2015

[jrosen92770]

I think anxiety is pretty common, especially if you have prepared. For me, I spent the last year studying 2-3 months per exam which meant less time with family, my wife picking more of the slack, getting up earlier, staying up later, etc. So when test day comes, you have prepared, but given the sacrifice you made for the past few months I think there is a pressure build up. The key here is you have to minimize it or you will not be able to concentrate. I took great lengths to prepare for studying as well as controlling my anxiety.

Regarding weight gain, I ate the same, but I was a lot more sedentary. Time I devoted to exercise was given to the CPA.

I have met some really great people on this site and benefited from the thousands of posts from people taking the time to share their experience, struggles, personal issues, etc. I have finished and owe a lot to this website.

Of course, everyone is different, so live and let live.

BEC - 5/26/2013 75
REG - 8/31/2013 82
AUD - 11/24/2013 74, 2/9/2014 92
FAR - 5/25/2014 85

NY CPA

[NYCaccountant]

@John tucker just take the exam and let us know how you felt. You have not taken one exam yet, correct? People have a hard time with the exam for a lot of reasons, and yes, the SIMS may be very hard, and the exam may have stuff not covered in your review course. I just think its best you actually experience the exam before drawing conclusions on how easy or hard it is. You can prepare very well and still fail – its the nature of the beast.

FAR - 93
REG - 87
BEC - 84!!!!
AUD - 99!!!!!! CPA exam complete.

[Mamabear]

@jrosen–Agree totally with your sedentary explanation! I eat basically the same as I did before (except I intake a lot more caffeine to stay awake and study), but it's impossible to be as active when you're sitting for 6 hours at night when you would have been up moving around, playing with the kids, taking them to the park, going swimming with them, chasing them around the house, etc. I've gained a good amount just from lack of everyday movement, not from cutting out an established work out regimin. I also agree that these boards and the people I have met here (yourself and NYCAccountant included) have been instrumental in my sustained motivation and my ability to understand some of this material. I do have to acknowledge that there is a certain amount of “whining”–people blaming their materials for failing, when it boiled down to the fact that the way they were studying wasn't conducive to their learning style, etc, but it's usually because they are insecure about their ability to pass the exam and they are looking for support and motivation to continue from fellow test takers. And I have been on here long enough to remember several people having strong opinions about the exam and having to recant after actually sitting for one. Everyone that's posted has good points from their own personal experiences and beliefs about what it takes to pass this exam and what they went through to get there. I hope we can all put CPA on our business cards one day and that if any of us decide to give up it's not for lack of trying, but because we choose to take a different path with our careers. This is not an easy undertaking, but it is doable if we keep pushing ourselves and each other towards our goals. There is so much support on this forum and everyone should focus on the comments that push them to do better and take the other comments with a grain of salt. Good luck to everyone that is still on this path and congrats to those that have conquered this beast!

CPA Exam - Finally DONE (November 2014)
BEC (08/10/13) 80
AUD (08/24/13) 65 (11/13/13) 85
FAR (04/12/14) 81
REG (07/19/14) 69 (11/29/14) 87!!

[Anonymous]

Has anyone tried to studying while taking an adderol? I just heard about this a few days ago from a friend but don't know much about it? Anyone have any experience? It's suppose to help you focus for a longer period of time? But I have also heard after a while it loses it's effect? I was going to google it but I don't know how much I trust web md

[mla1169]

John let me break it down for you. I've been on this board for over 3 years so I consider the thousands of posts I've read to be sufficient evidence. Many people score consistently in the 80's on practice exams then bomb the exam while others score in the 60s on practice exams but pass. One MAJOR difference is that practice exams are scored on the % of questions answered correctly but that's not the way the AICPA scores. In fact, two people could get the same number of questions correct on the actual exam and one will pass while the other fails. One person could in theory get all of the pre-test questions right but they don't count while the person who passed got every pre test question wrong and it didn't hurt their score. Some review programs do a better job with certain topics than others (pick a topic and ask how Wiley vs. Becker explains it) and some people are killing on the practice exams because they've started to memorize the question set without realizing it.

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[mla1169]

Bacic adderall is an amphetamine-can be very helpful but I would only take it under a doctors careful supervision. Its nothing to play with.

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[Author]

Replies