[Anonymous]

I dedicate this post to all Another71.com community, especially to the candidates with multiple failures, who lost their hope and confidence in themselves. I hope it may help someone as much as this forum has helped me to survive through all the years trying to achieve this massive feat.

Probably, I am the only person on this forum who lost BEC, REG, and AUD credits ones and a FAR credit twice. However, I managed to gain all my credits back. I am going to give back all the help and support that I received from this forum by sharing my tough experiences of my rough journey to become a Licensed Certified Public Accountant.

I passed my first section, BEC, back in November of 2009. Then I started a new job that was very stressful and took all my time and strength. However, I managed to pass the remaining three sections in November of 2011. As a result, the BEC credit expired, and I had to re-take the new updated version of BEC which included three written communications and new material on COSO, corporate governance …etc.

I failed it.

Took it again and again, and, despite of all the near-passing 73s and 74s, I failed it multiple times. English being my second language, I was always weaker on the written communication part. Guess what happened next? I lost all my credits, one by one, starting with FAR. It’s impossible to fully express all my devastation, grief, and anger when it happened. But quitting was not an option. I could not forgive all the time I sacrificed and the consequent stresses on my social life, family, and mental health. Obsessively, I continued to study and took the final round more seriously than ever, only allowing myself to keep sight on the light at the end of a very,very long tunnel. The following are my tips and advices that may help:

1. This forum is the key. It’s a great community with a great deal of helpful and useful posts about all possible subjects related to the exams as well as the process of taking various sections. I’ve got a lot of help and encouragement reading this forum. Jeff, thank you so much for all of your great materials, particularly for Ninja MCQs and for creating this forum for CPA candidates to support and share their experience.

2. For most of my exams, I used Wiley Test Bank. Whoever is looking for an alternative to WTB (quality and price-wise), Ninja MCQ will be your best choice. I’ve got “82” in my final AUD exam after drilling Ninja MCQ for two months.

3. I used Lambers’ audio course for REG and AUD sections. In my opinion, this is the best-as well as the most underestimated- audio course on the CPA review market now. Arthur Reed is the instructor for tax section for REG, Michael Farrell for Business Law, and Garland Granger for AUD. These guys are awesome! If you want to “fall in love” with Auditing, listen or view the Garland Granger’s lectures. Each audio course takes approximately 29 hours, and it dwells not only on the comprehensive theory, but also explains various multiple choice examples after each chapter, providing excellent practical applications. And, keep in mind, the PDF version of all the material is included, so you can follow up or just read it yourself.

4. I used a “CPA for free” as my supplement for the exams. This is a great product. For me it worked especially well for the FAR section. Thank you, Joe Hoyle, for your great work and inspiration!

5. It’s much harder to re-take this exam after losing credit. Do your best to avoid it. I am posting my message not to give you an example of surviving through that horrifying and terrible exam, but to say that there is always hope, you can do this!

Sending all my warmest regards and love to you guys!

“It is with passion, courage of conviction, and strong sense of self that we take our next steps into the world, remembering that first impressions are not always correct. You must always have faith in people. And, most importantly, you must always have faith in yourself.”

-Elle Woods, Legally Blonde