[sohappy]

First of all, thank you to all of the CPA candidates that came before me and shared their experiences. Your posts were extremely encouraging and really helped me through this process. To pass this forward I am listing my Becker scores and then actual scores below.

However, if there is anyone reading this that is wondering if you should attempt this because you have been out of school for a long time, I am here to tell you that it is POSSIBLE!! I graduated with my B.B.A. (major in Accounting) in 2002 and an MBA in 2009. It had always been a goal of mine to be a CPA, but life seemed to get in the way. We are a military family so moving a lot is always a challenge and I also have 5 children. I finally decided that I needed to accomplish this and set my 2015 New Year’s Resolution to become a CPA. I am happy to announce that I took and passed my final exam on 11/14/15. WHOOO HOOOO!!!!

Now, if I can share some things with you that I think would have helped me. First of all, I purchased the Becker Program mainly because I wanted to get this done as quickly as possible and didn’t want to waste any time. I had always heard that this is a great program so I decided to go for it. What you may not know is that they have a 0% interest loan so you can pay the fees off over a period of 18 months. That was good news to me and I took advantage of the offer.

Also, if you do decide to purchase Becker….I found that watching the videos on my own first and doing the homework prior to the live class was helpful. I was better able to figure out what I didn’t understand and then I had the opportunity to ask the instructor specific questions to help me better understand the material. Remember, I had been out of school for quite some time and had to relearn some of the material.

Next, if I could have done it over….I would have taken the exams in this order…1) FAR, 2) AUD, 3) REG and 4) BEC. Unfortunately I took REG, then BEC, then AUD (twice) and then FAR. I say this because the items covered in FAR will help some with AUD and REG.

Another thing I would have done differently is to give myself more time for each exam. Since I was working full time and had a family to take care of I did REG in 8 weeks and BEC in 8 weeks. This seems to be sufficient, but an extra week or two would have been helpful in managing my stress. I tried to do AUD in 6 weeks, but cramming in 10 days at Disney World and a week visiting my family and then moving 3 children to college during that time didn’t help. I thought AUD was going to be easier, but I was proved wrong with a score of 74!! I then took about 10 days off and when I got that lovely score back, I started to study again. An additional 3 weeks of AUD and I passed. I did FAR in 6 weeks and passed but I was pretty stressed and it would have been better to stretch things out a bit.

I also read a lot of posts that people were scoring much higher than the Becker Final Exams. I found that I was right in the same range, although I do have a lot of anxiety prior to an exam so I am sure that played a part in my score.

Here is how I did on the actual exams compared to Becker:

REG

4/20/15 – 83

Becker #1 85

Becker #2 75

BEC

7/3/15 – 81

Becker #1 75

Becker #2 57

AUD

8/31/15 – 74 SO CLOSE!!!

10/3/15 – 81

Becker #1 80

Becker #2 68

FAR

11/14/15 – 77 It’s a miracle…..I am done!!

Oh, by the way….I also ran out of time on the SIMS and didn’t get to finish!! This was the only exam that I didn’t manage my time as well and the exam shut off on me. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path” Proverbs 3:5,6

Becker #1 81

Becker #2 83

Good luck to all of you! Keep at it and you can do this!!

REG 4/20/15 83
BEC 7/3/15 81
AUD 8/31/15 74 :((((, 10/3/15 81 :))
FAR 11/14/15 77 Miracle...YEAH!!!!!

[monikernc]

Eesti – are you Estonian?

FAR 7/25/15 76!
AUD 10/30/15 93
BEC 2/27/16 82
REG 5/23/16 88!
Ninja Book and MCQ and the forum - all the way!!!
and a little thing i like to call, time and effort!
if you want things to change, you have to do something different

[Anonymous]

yea, altho i just gave up my estonian citizenship for an american one- so not anymore i guess im american now!

im actually quite surprised you were able to figure it out 🙂 impressive, its a relatively obscure country

[ohiostategirlcpa]

My sister-in-law is Finnish. I took the ferry to Tallinn, Estonia (from Helsinki) on a visit and bought a souvenir T-shirt that said “Eesti”, meaning Estonia in Estonian.

While wearing it in Helsinki, people thought I was Estonian and were trying to speak to me in Estonian (or Finnish?), not sure.

It is like calling yourself “America” and wondering how people guessed you're American!

F91 A95 R90 B94
CMA since 2015
(Gleim books/PDFs, MCQs, SIMS)

[monikernc]

eesti – it was the exchange in russian between you and cinderella. estonia is one of the former soviet block countries. i have paid close attention to it since the breakup of the soviet union. call it a hobby. i have great respect for its national pride and drive to enjoy their independence again. skype of course which we all know but few realize is an estonian venture. i hope to visit there but it will take more time than i will have for awhile. i want to take a ferry across the baltic sea to finland and back to bird watch. my family is polish and german and i grew up in a home where german, russian and polish were all mixed together in loud and cheerful voices.
i hope you enjoy being an american Рcongratulations on that. i love it, too! Tere minu uus ameerika s̵ber
(i did cheat and google that and really hope it says what i think it does.)

FAR 7/25/15 76!
AUD 10/30/15 93
BEC 2/27/16 82
REG 5/23/16 88!
Ninja Book and MCQ and the forum - all the way!!!
and a little thing i like to call, time and effort!
if you want things to change, you have to do something different

[Author]

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