[Anonymous]

She was one of the regular posters I had been keeping up with, but haven’t seen her post in awhile. I think she was close to being done…

[Anonymous]

I was thinking about her couple weeks ago. She was a great support while I was studying/took for Audit. She took it few days after me!

She has BEC left and I believe she was going to take it this window!!

I hope she posts some good news:!) Miss you, Katie!

[Anonymous]

I think the main reason why Mini tends to take harsh tones with people is because, believe it or not, a lot of people are lazy and want to take the easy way out. With the CPA exam, there is no easy way. You have to pour your heart and soul into this exam and study study study. You have to give up your life and lose sleep to get through this process. The whole process has to hurt painfully. If it doesn’t, you’re doing something wrong. Many people don’t realize that. They study like they’re studying for a regular college exam, then they take the test and get shocked at the difficulty and they expect people to say, “don’t worry, you’ll pass.” Truth be told, if you want to pass, you gotta work a lot harder than that! You need to study until you get sick. And I think that’s the message that was embedded in Mini’s controversial posts. But I agree with Jeff. There’s always a nicer way to word things and I don’t think there was anything wrong with Jeff asking Mini to tone down his posts. He can deliver the same messages in a lighter tone that won’t cause so much controversy.

[jenuno01]

“I said this looks like a job for me, so everybody just follow me, cuz we need a little controvery, cuz it feels so empty without me”

Class of 2012

[jenuno01]

@Jeff: “The forum has been more peaceful since that all went down. Maybe it's just me. “

What about Goodluck2everyone? I have no respect for that kid. He's started a lot of ish too.

Class of 2012

[katiekanton]

A little birdie told me I needed to come check the board. You guys are sweeties. Sorry for the long post. I’ll try to break it up and format it so it’s easier for you to skip the parts you don’t want to read.

@cosmo That’s hilarious that you remember my mop. Yes, I still love it. In case anyone’s interested, it’s the Rubbermaid Reveal. I got mine at Sam’s for $24 which is way cheaper than any place online, since it comes with three pads, but I think two is fine and one would be perfectly sufficient, fyi. The reservoir isn’t proprietary so you can fill it with your desired cleaning solution, which for me is water with a little white vinegar.

Update on my exams: Yes, I have BEC left, but I had to go back to work to get some cash coming in, and it’s been really, really difficult to study and work full-time. I’ve said it about a hundred times, and I’ll say it again: my hat’s off to those of you who manage to do this while working AND having kids. I honest to goodness don’t know how you do it, and I admire the heck out of you. Anyway, BEC was such a kitchen sink and I have no education experience on Econ (although it seems to be common sense but that doesn’t help with formulas) and a miniscule amount on IT that I got scared and decided I needed another two weeks studying at the end of April, so I rescheduled my exam. I’m hoping to have it done within the first wave of July so that I can get my score ASAP. There’s something weird going on with me too that’s almost like denial. You’d think with only one section left I’d be anxious to get it over with, but it’s almost like I’m just acting like it doesn’t exist, and I’m procrastinating like a ten-year old who doesn’t want to write his book report. It’s literally like I decided to sit down in sight of the finish-line. I’m sure a psychiatrist would enjoy analyzing it, and maybe previous candidates have a name for it.

My work situation: I’d just like to put in a plug here for large company positions that are not Big 4. I’m at a Fortune 50 company and it’s so much different than my previous experience which was with companies with less than 100 employees and one small firm with only 10 employees. The company is publicly-traded and I believe that distance from the “owners” makes it a lot easier for managers and employees to care less about workaholic-ing. I don’t think anyone works a real, billable 40 hours a week, even during close. We have amazing benefits, copious amounts of vacation days (although they’re so flexible you’d never need to take one unless you were actually going on vacation), a freakin’ dirt-cheap cafeteria with real, healthy options (and unhealthy ones like pizzas to order, cheeseburgers, etc.), dry cleaners on site, etc. I wish I’d known about it a lot sooner—I would’ve stressed less about being a little too old to get on at a Big 4.

In addition, NOBODY leaves this company, you just move around, and it’s global, so my desire to move overseas and do part-time humanitarian work should be a piece of cake once I’ve been there a bit. They also think nothing of buying your review materials, they pay you a bonus once you pass, pay for your CPE, and pay for your yearly license should you live in a state that requires it (I do, $400 per year).

So the bottom line is, if you can’t get on at a Big 4, don’t be depressed about it. Look into large companies in your area, especially ones that have a good rep. I really wish I’d done it sooner, and it would be totally worth it to take a pay cut if you have to to get your foot in the door (although it appears this company pays way more than the jobs are worth). The downside is that since the company is so large, the jobs are focused on tiny segments of the company. For instance, my job is the analysis of a certain segment of asset accounts, and that’s the only piece I touch. It could get boring quickly, but I imagine that’s why people move around every 18 months or so. On the other hand, that moving around has the potential to let you see many different segments of a large company, and expose yourself to the kinds of accounting you’re interested in.

Re: Mini

I was already mostly-gone when the whole Mini/Baseball dust up happened. I had grown tired of the negative tone of the board, and was mostly just occasionally checking into the BEC forum to see if anyone had tips. I really think Mini had a lot of good advice to offer, and it’s sad that he chose to leave rather than use a little tact and basic politeness. That’s the thing that really gets me about his supporters. Their defense is always that “the truth hurts, but you still need to hear it.” That defense is irrelevant to the argument. NO ONE, let me repeat that, NO ONE ever had a problem with him telling people, “that’s not enough studying, Jane, you’re gonna have to get serious if you want to pass.” My thing with him was that he appeared to stand at the borders of A71 and be a smartass to newcomers that ventured in, and run them off before they could get used to him and the community. There was just no reason for it, and it was detrimental to this board and those individuals.

I still believe that he probably has an actual disorder where he doesn’t pick up on social cues, so it isn’t really his fault. Watching “Doc Martin” (available on Netflix, fyi, good show) always reminds me of Mini. Martin is a genius, but honestly and truly doesn’t understand why people have a problem with the way he talks to them, and doesn’t seem to be able to learn how to fake it. However, I’d be willing to bet that Mini is still here, under a different name, probably even talking about how he just passed FAR and is about to take REG to throw us off his trail.

RE: Curving

After Mini’s and my last discussion thread about curving of scores, I did quite a bit of research. He never came back and replied so I didn’t want to bump the thread since I figured it’d come up again with him later. However, it obviously won’t now since he’s gone, so for the sake of the community, I’ll post what I found out.

His point was that with 50,000 candidates a year taking the exam, the makers of the test don’t have to curve it because they have enough historical data to be able to “design” the test so that 45% of candidates pass. That got me thinking, and is what led me to doing the research I did. It’s a valid point. With that much data, you absolutely could design a test that 45% of the next 50,000 would pass, almost without fail. I don’t think in the long run it matters whether it’s curved after every wave or just designed so that 45% pass because either way the question when you leave Prometric is still, “Did I know more than 55% of other candidates?”

The following is information published by the AICPA, and before anyone asks, it's been several months and I didn't take screen shots of the information I found from the AICPA. I don't really care if anyone believes me or not, I did this for my own enlightenment. You can go find it on the website on your own, although if I was in charge, I'd be taking it down.

They use a system called “benchmarking” which is common in higher level testing. Just for the sake of argument, let’s say that there’s a possible 400 points on the CPA exam. Benchmarking means that you assign sections of possible points to a score. For instance:

Possible points right = assigned score:

395-400 = 99

390-394 = 98

380-389 = 97

…

180 – 230 = 75

Etc.

With this system, it isn’t necessary that the steps or benchmarks be equidistant. In fact, I’d imagine the section for 75 is probably the largest and may range over 40-50 points of the total.

Here’s the really interesting part:

When the AICPA was preparing to go to the new format, they sent out a memo to all the states (which they actually posted on their website) calling for input from each state on the DESIRED passing rate. Yes, you read that right, and yes, they actually left it up on their website, and yes, that was their exact terminology.

After the first quarter was scored, which was 2011 Q1, they MOVED the benchmarks. They specifically stated that they moved them then. The logical conclusion is that they moved them to achieve the passing rate that was decided after the input from the states. When you see the passing rates, you’ll notice that 2011 Q1 is substantially lower than the later quarters’ rates, so any discussion of “why is Q1 always lower than the others?” should take into account that you only have one real Q1 result to compare (2012’s).

Now the question is, did they just move those benchmarks that one time, do they move them annually, every six months, after every window, or after every wave? That’s the thing they DON’T tell us. Moving the benchmarks is the same as curving the exam. You see where the population lays and map your desired percentages accordingly. I personally believe that they move them every time, otherwise there’s no reason we couldn’t have our scores when we walk out. But Mini’s point is still valid, with that much historical data and that many test takers, it wouldn’t really matter. You’re still probably going to fall in the same benchmark. The percentage of people that a benchmark move would affect would be miniscule.

Conclusion:

SO, hope that helps. I’ll try to check in more often. I miss everybody, and I really need the motivation you guys provide when you post your passing scores! Congratulations everybody who passed this window!

AUD - 88
FAR - 90
REG - 85
BEC - 88

[Anonymous]

I didn't really see anything wrong with Mini's posts. Maybe I just missed some of the posts where he supposedly went too far. To me, his posts never really came off as insulting. I think some people just didn't like him for some reason and just had it in for him. In one of Goodlucktoeveryone's posts, goodluck was mentioning how terrible his experience was with his REG exam. Mini simply replied, “It sounds like you may have gone into the exam a bit unprepared.” Nothing wrong with that. Then goodluck flips out and insults him and so on. And that's when that “lol@REG sims” thread turned to heat.

[nolifecpa]

100% agree with katie. Don't be a stranger, visit often. We miss you!!!

REG-65,71,74,73,70,74,79
BEC-60's,60's,69,71,76*,78
FAR-67,66,65,79
AUD-54,60's,65,83*,69,80
*expired

DONE

[Author]

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