[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.

[mla1169]

I agree with you Elias but take issue with the notion that if someone hasn't passed an exam in 22 months they should walk away. The only time you walk away from something is when it's something you no longer want. Other than that, you keep on trying until you succeed.

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

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[Anonymous]

@amanda I got diagnosed with ADD and was prescribed medicine to help me focus. I don't take the medicine because of the way it makes me feel. So here i am with ADD studying as hard as i can. Would some view that as a limitation, sure, do i? no i do not. My sister got diagnosed with cancer during college, she still graduated from a prestigious university and went on to teach kids english in France. Till the day she passed away she did not give up on what she wanted. She still studied to get into graduate school. Even when she could barely walk she still made a point to come to my football games to watch me play. As much of an excuse as she had to, she didn't let it affect her goals and dreams. Never once did i hear her say “i cant do something because i have cancer”. Every day she fought for what she wanted with no excuses for anything.

[Anonymous]

Okay, I'll agree with you to an extent. It depends heavily on the person and what they're going through as well as their mental state. I do think there are extenuating circumstances that could prevent a person from completing the CPA Exam even if they really, truly wanted to do it. But, in a lot of cases people might weight their physical or mental health over the CPA Exam, which is their prerogative. I'm not making excuses for them but I can see why they would choose that. I personally wouldn't but I can see how someone else might.

[impska]

I don't know why people talk up this exam to such a huge degree. Sure, if you get cancer while completing the CPA exam, there's a good chance you'll have to put it on hold – along with just about everything in your life. But 50% of candidates aren't walking into the exam with cancer, needing surgery, having an asthma attack, after having been hit by a car in the parking lot.

They are failing because they are under-prepared, or possibly because they've psyched themselves out to such a huge degree because they've read too many horror stories on this forum, and are incapable of thought due to extreme anxiety. It really is just a test. I took harder tax tests during my MAcc than REG.

I work full time, I'm a non-trad and I have a husband and other family obligations,

I passed my first exam in January during busy reason. I'll be done with this in August. So far, I've passed each test with a score in the 90s. I have no Prometric horror stories, because most people don't. Most of the people I went to school with didn't graduate until May and did Fast Pass immediately afterwards. They are taking, and passing, two tests per window without a full time job and they will have passed when they go to work in September.

No one has checked into the mental hospital. No one has given up to go on a walkabout in Australia. One or two people have cried afterward – but then found out they passed.

I work with someone who has been working on this for multiple years. She finally put her feet to the fire because she can't get promoted without being a CPA. Since I started taking exams in January, she has taken 8 exams. Her strategy is to schedule the exams and just study for two weeks – because, she says, she's busy. This is why there is a 50% fail rate – because of people like her. Not because of cancer.

It's just a test. The only hard part is the sheer quantity of the material – and even then, none of these review text books are any longer or harder than the average college class.

So if this exam is destroying someone's life and making their stomach bleed, then I am suggesting that it's time they rethink the kind of career they want. Because this probably isn't the hardest or longest thing you'll do in public accounting.

REG - 94
BEC - 92
FAR - 92
AUD - 99

[mla1169]

And I don't think anybody here at least is saying they CANT pass the Exams because of a condition just that they may have to work at it a little longer than someone without similar challenges. I'm sure even a disabled athlete might agree they had to fail more often than their able bodied counterparts to achieve victory. I have a physical disability similar in many respects to Parkinson's-I've had it since I was 10. I can do anything that anybody else does (well maybe except brain surgery, no good could come of that) but it often takes me longer to do it.

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

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[Study Monk]

What happened to that beautiful post of hard reality?

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"

[mla1169]

I think I hit spam accidentally trying to see if I can undo that. A mistake I was able to undo.

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

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[h0wdyus]

Test anxiety is natural. The question is how to stay calm during the test. Before I type in the launch code, I say a 10 second prayer.

After answering 10 MCQ, I say another 10 second prayer, then I just leave it to God and just proceed through the questions. Praying is the only thing that calms me down. Of course you have to come in reasonably prepared. It has helped me through FAR; AUD and REG. Praying helps.

FAR - 81 29th Aug 2013
AUD - 84
REG - 82
BEC - 89 29th Aug 2014
Using Yager

FROM NJ

[nicole2035]

@eliasm6 as someone also with ADD, honestly it's on the small scale to other things. Also ADD/ADHD is a messy example because part of it is brain hyperactivity (and standard characteristics that go along with the ‘disorder') but a lot of it is very much learned behavior. ADD could be seen as a disadvantage when in reality it's more of a personality type. Not all minds are the same and i'm sure you, like i gravitated towards accounting because we find it exciting in some form or fashion. So it'd be possible to go about your life without meds as long as you found a way to make it work for your personality type and knowing what motivates someone with ADD/ADHD. Sadly some people never learn of it this way and see it as the crippling disability. Also there are natural ways to reduce brain hyper activity and help focus: coffee, loud background music (weird, but try it for 3 minutes), talking outloud, walking while studying, etc. etc

But anyway, it's nice to see some people believe in bootstraps still. I just don't get the judgement some people in here have because you truly don't know what the OP is going through until you are in their shoes. We can't always know the full story, someone could start weight gain due to depression and low self esteem. Accounting is a stressful job, hell, working in a cubicle 9-5+ hrs a day is a hard job..some of you never see the sun because of how busy you are. Some get accustomed to never enjoying things, while someone like me needs more work/life balance and when i don't have that i have to find a way to reduce stress. Mindset does help though, meditation is key for this exam because you can feel on top one second and defeated the next. The test is at random, and i doubt one person gets the exact same test during a testing window.

[John Tucker]

I want to elaborate on some things and I will bow out of this discussion okay lol? I understand that one should “experience” something before posting experience upon it, but we aren't talking about playing football here, we are talking about taking an exam and I have been taking exams for over a decade in completion of my MBA and 3 bachelor's degrees. I might have come off a little “harsh” in this thread, but nothing that I said was invalid.

I want to say that firstly, I highly respect everyone on this board. We are in one of the toughest professions in the world and have taken the initiative to pass (or prepare to pass or try to pass) one of, if NOT THE, hardest professional exam in the world. If any of my posts came off as demeaning or trying to talk down to others, those were not my intentions.

However, my intentions ARE to shed light on the fact that I believe CPAs are the foundation of our country. We are the ones that are there for industry, government and not for profit in all aspects of their cycles and without CPAs/Accountants they don't function. And without industry, there's no country. In every sense of the word, CPAs are the foundation of this country.

As a result, this is why there's a high level of prestige with being a CPA, but at the same time there's a HIGH LEVEL of personal and professional responsibility. NO client wants to hear you talk about the reason you were late filing their tax return was because you gained 40 pounds during tax season and it slowed you down. NO client wants to hear you had “anxiety” attacks and couldn't finish their project on time. NO client wants to hear you talk about your co-worker smelled like “fish sticks” and it led you to screwing up their financial statements.

It's irresponsible, as a prospective CPA, to not do quality preparation for the Uniform CPA Exam and have to take the exam 20 times. Period. I'm not saying everybody should PASS the first round, a score of 71 or 74 here or there is reasonable and not far from the mark. But to have to take the exam 20 times just means you didn't do proper preparation, period. There's no excuses for that. I still stand on my original premise, if you do quality preparation = you pass. If you don't pass on the first try it shouldn't be by a huge margin, you retake it on the second try and you pass. In a nutshell, the exam can be PASSED with quality preparation, period.

I'm about done with my BEC preparation and sending in the docs to schedule it for hopefully on August 5th. I will post my experiences IMMEDIATELY upon leaving Prometric, and as soon as I get my scores I'm posting them.

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

[mla1169]

JT fabulous explanation. The same could be said for someone who starts studying in October to sit in April-May then says he's planning to sit for his first exam in August. Would he do that to a client? Nothing wrong with a change of plans but according to your own history of posts you should have 2 down by now.

It's ironic and silly that the same people who say it's only a test and it's by no means rocket science think there's some significance to passing in less than a year or two years. It is only a test. I'm thrilled that I only endured it for 12 months beginning to end but there's a very real chance it could have taken me longer. If you did start last October, and are sitting for your first section in August, it will take you at least as long as it took me (with 3 fails) and neither of us will be a “better” CPA because of that alone. It may have cost me more in NTS fees but that's between me and my checkbook. It is only a dumb test. So if it takes 3 years for someone else so be it. Doesn't represent the persons professional manner at all. It's a test.

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

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[Anonymous]

Only reason to get this exam done ASAP is because its very time consuming, cant even have fun without thinking “damn i should be studying for this pretty hard exam coming up”. I was very close to getting my CPA exams (which i passed) voided which i was freaking out about because i couldn't imagine going through the pain and anger again.

[mla1169]

Indeed Elias. My life would have been easier if I had waited to finish my masters before I started the exams, but I wanted to take my life back 1/1/12, and I did!

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

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[Anonymous]

Its insane to me that people are working full time, have families, while also passing the cpa exams. that is truly amazing in my book.

[John Tucker]

“JT fabulous explanation. The same could be said for someone who starts studying in October to sit in April-May then says he's planning to sit for his first exam in August. Would he do that to a client? Nothing wrong with a change of plans but according to your own history of posts you should have 2 down by now.”

MLS,

No I didn't start studying in October. In October I started the process of copying off all of the content to begin rewriting it. From there, I would zoom in on the memorization and comprehension. From there once I comprehended the content, I would do the practice testing and replica exams. That's what my thread https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-forum/topic/introductioncpa-exam-journal says MLS.

Until I am done with my preparation I'm not taking the exam. If work gets into the way and my preparation isn't fully complete, it will get pushed back which is what it did. I'll be READY for BEC in August. This lines up to my stance and focus, if you haven't completed a quality preparation procedure (for whatever reason, life gets in the way, etc.) then you shouldn't be sitting for the exam.

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

[Author]

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