[Tono23]

Hello A71 family – for those of that have followed know my immense struggle with this exam. To those that are unfamiliar, I will provide you an exceprt, for those that are informed, kindly skip to the second paragraph. I started this journey way back in 2010, the year I graduated from undergrad. Fast forward a few months, grandfather past, which I assisted with his healthcare i.e., dr. appointments, Rx refills, hospital visits, etc. Fast forward two years, father unexpectedly passed. Dusted myself off, and continued with the exams. Fail after fail after fail after fail!!!!! From 2010 through 2017.

Fast forward to 2016-2017, I gained employment with a mid-tier firm as an audit associate. I studied and took BEC in DEC 2016. I decided to check my score while waiting for my flight to board, and I see a BIG FAT “F” and a score of a lovely 48. My study habits are as follows: read the book, solve mcqs until I puke, and repeat. Additionally, I take notes as well. I have been using Becker all these years, I tried Roger, but that did not work for me.

Furthermore, I am over taking these exams. I have never passed a single section since the inception of this journey. To me, this has become a stale marriage which has lost its novelty. I am unimaginably tired of failing, unimaginably sick of putting an effort and not being bale to pass, unimaginably done with feeling defeated, incompetent and fearful for my job and future!!

With all that said, is it okay to walk away from this torture?! Given what I have been through and how I kept on getting up and trying to only keep on losing and not succeeding! I feel like I am in an abusive relationship, a relationship in which my spouse has committed adultery, a relationship which I detest!! And I want out, I want out!!!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, I am done with this exam! Kindly try to understand the emotions stated on the above paragraph, and then some, for all these years! I fear for my job and future!!

Why am I fearful for my job and future. Well, all cpa firms want their staff to become certified and not to mention promotion. I have heard stories of firms letting people go for not being cpas. I fear that by not being able to pass this exam, I will not be employed in industry as well. Those are my biggest fears: losing my job at the firm and not being able to find employment in industry!

Moreover, those are the reasons why I am considering a career change; I would like to transition into physical therapy. They will forever have a job, so job security is not an issue. They will forever be in demand due to baby boomers population aging. Plus I am fluent in oral and written Spanish. However, I would be giving up 3 years of salary and incur a paramount of additional debt. Approximately 70k Doctor of Physical Therapy degree in addition to my 50k for this accounting degree.

Thank you for all of those who opined on this matter and I wish you all the best in your endeavors.

[A1lessio]

it's just a test! Don't make the CPA exam bigger than it actually is. You need to obsess over the material and once you get out of that uncomfortable learning phase (where you get every question wrong and think about quitting) and everything clicks you will pass. Also PT school is no joke. Extremely competitive and in my opinion way harder than the cpa exam will ever be.

AUD (08/02/2016)

[Anonymous]

I feel your pain – literally. This is the most challenging and demoralizing process I have ever, ever went through. I do feel that I can pass these exams, but at a certain point I may have admit the stress is just not worth it. Goodluck and you should know there are many other candidates who feel just like you.

[Anonymous]

It is SO easy to let this exam, and the studying associated with it, thrash the crap out of you. I had many days of self-loathing when studying for FAR!!

I don't know if other professional exams are this way – I'm sure the med school board exams and the bar exam are even worse. One of my best friends told me that the exam for RN (registered nurse) nowadays has become one of the hardest ones out there. Why? Because EVERYBODY wants to be a nurse. They have to weed out some people because there aren't enough nursing jobs to go around as it is. After all, what do nurses do? They administer meds. They monitor blood pressure and temperature. They go outside for smoke breaks and gossip their way through their 12 hour shift and eat junk food like you wouldn't believe (I used to work in a hospital, as you can tell). But they make NICE money. Upwards of six figures a year. They do other stuff, that I'm not mentioning, which kinda makes their salary justifiable but they're overpaid, no doubt about it. Physical therapy, not sure about. I hurt my ankle really bad last year and went for 8 seshs of PT. The physical therapist wasn't even there after my first appointment. He subordinated the treatment plans out to his assistants. The only things he did were evaluate new patients and collect the money. An easier life, yes, but I'm sure it took awhile to get there. Anyway – I think some others are right, PT probably has a high barrier to entry – not the least of which is the expense to get the credential.

Part of the reason I chose CPA is because…it's cheaper! For the requisite courses to sit for it, it cost like $8,000. Roger review course was another $1,900 and the exams are like $200 apiece plus $100-200 paid to the state board for the application fees (I'll be paying more for a couple retakes, but not THAT much more). I've spent $10,000 on this thing so far. I didn't go into debt over it. I already have undergrad student loans and nobody will loan me any more money for education. Heck, I'd love to be a PT too, after seeing what my PT's life was like. But, I can not. Another reason I stick with the CPA is because I'm too far into it to quit! This is the last lap of the race. If I quit, the whole thing is meaningless.

If I were you, I'd take a few months and really ponder this whole thing. Don't even make a decision one way or another until you go back to your original goal, which was pursuing the CPA, and think about it seriously. If you've totally lost the calling, then go in a new direction. But if you still have the goal that you started with, devise a new plan and keep going.

I should've been studying instead of writing this post, and on this forum so much for the last 2 days (got my FAILED 62 on FAR yesterday and I guess I got an excess of energy and needed to let off steam or whatever and this was how I did it.) But – I wish the best for you either way. I hope you stay with CPA though because it sounds like you're much like me – too far into it to quit.

[startupcfo]

How many sections have you sat for?

BEC - 87 | 02/28
REG - 70 | 06/10, REMATCH | 08/30
AUD - XX | 09/10
FAR - XX | 12/10

[waffle_house]

Only quit if you actually gave it your all. Just because this exam is inconvenient isn't justifiable. If you got a 48 on BEC (exam with the highest pass rate) tells me you didn't try.

Shit we're all exhausted and have personal problems. The ones who pass are the ones (most of us, there are a few outliers) who sacrificed a lot of time, some more than others.

[Author]

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