[Ryan]

If you are upset about the 18-month exam expiration rule and would like to help get rid of it, sign this petition!

https://www.change.org/p/national-association-of-state-boards-of-accountancy-eliminate-the-18-month-exam-expiration-rule-for-the-cpa-exam?recruiter=774519130&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition

AUD - 87
BEC - 80
FAR - NINJA in Training
REG - 86

Ryan

[ixlr82day]

I get the delay sucked but everyone could still study for the next part. If they only had one part left then just study that one part. I had AUD and FAR left in 2017. After tax season I studied and took AUD at the end of May. Moved on to FAR from May till my August exam. Once I found out I passed AUD I continued to study FAR after my exam until I found out my scores. For those with one part left it does suck but those with more than one…I would just move on to the next part. Whenever I failed a part I would just start over. I would order new books from Becker and remark the book. More highlighting and writing…rewatch all the videos and reread the books. I reordered both FAR and AUD books after I took the exams in anticipation of a failed score so I would be ready to remark and start all over again. If I failed a part I felt the best course was to restudy everything. Maybe I feel that way because my failing scores were always low. Nothing really close for me to think that I should just skim and retake quickly. This whole process sucked…it felt like one really long tax season. The worst part is finding out you failed with that crappy score report attached. It truly tells you nothing because if I failed…yes I believe I performed below average on the exam. Once I passed I feel a little lost…not really sure what to do or where to go.

I agree the extensions should have been for everyone or noone. This whole some states give 6 months and others give nothing is extremely wrong.

AUD - 76
BEC - 75
FAR - 79
REG - 84

 

 

[CPYay]

I agree with CPA2BEE and TommyTheCat. Yes, the exam is hard. Yes, it takes sacrifice. Yes, it's expensive and time-consuming. But, it's doable in 18 months, evidenced by the fact that every licensed CPA has done it in less than 18 months (there were 646K CPAs as of last year). Arguing the 18-month rule is selfish.

Nonetheless, I understand Ana's point. I finished my last exam in March and was terrified of having to roll into the new exam format. Especially since there was going to be a delay in score release until August. The state boards need to do a better job of turning applications and releasing scores and statistics, which is another argument altogether and one that I do support.

AUD - 92
BEC - 84
FAR - 89
REG - 84

Mailed application! Hoping to be licensed by year-end!

[CPA2BEE]

Of course there should be extensions under the circumstance that the boards are making you wait 4 months or whatever it was to get your score while the exam format was changing. Thankfully I was finished before the changes took place, but it is hard for me to imagine that there wasn't a state board out there that wouldn't accommodate for that if it posed an issue of losing credit for any given candidate.

Unless there is a DRASTIC change in the way the exam is formatted or extra parts are added to the exam or something like that, the 18 month rule should stay. People, past and present, have worked too hard for their CPA license to sign some phony petition to make it easier for @Ryan

CA CPA - est. Dec 2016

FAR - 80
AUD - 82
BEC - 80
REG - 85

ETHICS - 90
EXPERIENCE - COMPLETE
Application for California license mailed 8/4/2016

[HoldMyBeerCPA]

@ixlr82day: That's the worst part, why do some states get different reports? What could the regulators possibly have to lose by having all candidates receive their reports regardless of whether we pass or fail? It's not like we can say, “Hey, I got stronger on MCQs, so focus on MCQs during your exam.”

@Tommy: A pass is a pass is a pass, I get it. But it's also not a good luck to have us candidates wait FOUR months to receive our scores when it's graded electronically…but I digress.

"FACT": The odds of consecutively passing all four sections of the CPA exam on the first try: 7%.

Me: Hold my beer...

FAR (April 2017): 75+

BEC (May 2017): 75+

AUD (July 2017): 75+

REG (September 2017): 75+

Roger + Ninja Audio/MCQ/Notes (BEC & REG)

[Tim]

@shawninVA

Your 2nd change sounds like allowing someone to buy their license. Someone with plenty of money can just keep taking it until they pass it.

18 months seems pretty lenient to me while still applying the necessary pressure to weed out weak candidates and/or unmotivated candidates. I say be glad it's not 12 months.

FAR - 97 (10/12/17)
BEC - 95 (01/15/18)
AUD - 88 (04/06/18)
REG - 89 (11/16/18)

[TommyTheCat]

spencer no argument from me there…score releases once a damn quarter are a joke.

AUD - 85
BEC - 89
FAR - 91
REG - 97

[Pete]

I wish they would reduce the experience requirement. I can't get licensed for that reason, despite passing the test.

In all fairness, they should get the exam score reporting back to the 2 week time period, keeping the 18 month window. 18 months with the old time-line is more than enough time.

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
F=80 I don't wanna get banned for an expletive I'm thinking with "yea" proceeding it

[Son]

NASBA published official statistics on how many people have passed all the sections on the first try – 41.2% of candidates who have completed all exams in 2016 have passed them on the first try. 69.4% of takers only fail once or twice or don't fail any sections at all. This doesn't take into account people who gave up after taking one or several parts, but let's not inflate the difficulty of the exams.

18 months rule was created for people who can't study full-time and provide more that sufficient opportunities to properly prepare and pass the exams. For extreme situations (death in the family, illness) there's an appeal process where a candidate can be granted an extension by the state board.

Don't really see how trying to lower the bar would help anyone in the profession.

AUD - passed
REG - passed
BEC - passed
FAR - passed

[Anonymous]

I know there are many arguments about the experience requirement – I'm not bothered by it, but I would think that it should be longer. It would give more value to the CPA credential.
Assuming one has the intellect and/or ability to pass all 4 quickly and go work for a year and then have a CPA license for life….doesn't seem too difficult, does it? But maybe 2-3 years of work would give the credential that much more value. You don't become a doctor without doing internship and residency and actually, even more than residency. By the time somebody is a “seasoned” medical professional, they're already in their late 30s. Okay, so the CPA isn't that way. But, there are tons of young kids out there bragging about their CPA licenses. I even had a couple instructors during my accounting studies days who were that way! They even made me think that getting the license was no big deal, and an easy process. And then….reality slapped me in the face. Hard.

[West55]

“In the “old” days you had to take all 4 parts over two days and to keep any of the parts or to get “legs” as we called it you needed to get 75 or over on two parts and at least 50 or higher on the other two. Missing either of those things meant you didn't get to keep any parts. Also I think it was done once or twice a year…that was a brutal exam.”

All the old-timers I've talked to seem to think the exam was much less comprehensive under the old format, when it was taken all at once. Regardless, the criteria shouldn't be whether it was more or less difficult in the past. The criteria should be that the exam sufficiently protects the public and the profession. Does the 18 month rule protect the public and the profession? Yes, but is that the bare minimum of protection, i.e., would any weakening of that rule mean that the public and the profession are not adequately protected? If so, what does the 18 month rule protect them from that a 24 month rule wouldn't? From people who've passed all 4 sections but not quite quickly enough? That's a tough case to make.

Son's graph is misleading because it doesn't include all candidates. The chances of passing all four sections in one attempt are 6.8%. Anyone can learn that in Stat 101. If you selectively survey only those who have already passed all four sections, then the pass rate artificially increases because many people either are still trying to pass the exams or have given up entirely.

“Don't really see how trying to lower the bar would help anyone in the profession.”

Likewise, I don't see how adding six months so that people can keep credit for exams that they've already passed would hurt anyone in the profession. It looks like no one else here can think of how that would happen, either, other than those who have made unsubstantiated statements like “it would cheapen the value of the license”.

[Anonymous]

The graph is definitely misleading. If the average pass rates for each section hover in the high 40s-low 50s, it means that 4.5'ish people out of 10 are passing a CPA exam section at any given time. Of those 4 or 5 people, just how many have passed a second section already? Maybe only 1 or 2 at any given time.

I'd make an educated guess that the average person probably sits about 6 times. 4 passes, but 2 failures somewhere along the way. Which is why I was always a bit baffled at some of the review vendors stating that 88 percent of their customers pass all 4 on the first try. “What rubbish!”, as the English say. LOL

[Anonymous]

Roger says “with over an 88% pass rate.” I’d love to see how he selectively calculated that statistic. I know some candidates who are hanging in tough and trying to bang out their last exam(s). And, other candidates who quit after 2-3 fails.

All in all, this exam is pure hell for most candidates. Damn near everyone I know is taking an antidepressant/anti anxiety med, sleeping med, and has put on weight. This shit sucks, but me bitching wont do anything about it. I just pick myself up everyday and say f*ck it I’m one exam away from being done with this crap.

Goodluck everyone.

[Anonymous]

@Blue – yes, not many CPAs will say that it was an easy process for them. And yet, some say that they didn't have any trouble with it at all and they couldn't figure out why so many people bitched about the difficulty of the questions when to them, the questions were all at a rather basic level.

Yeah, I think Gleim uses the 88% figure too. There's no way. But, there is also a sucker born every moment who will believe all that is written in bold print.

I took antidepressants in earlier days, from about 2003-2009. Before I started studying accounting. They messed up my body. I gained weight, constantly pigged out on junk food, and actually the drugs made my body smell weird (or so I was told.) I would never go back onto them again. But yeah, these exams do mess with your mind and can even without the aid of meds, they can give you all kinds of mood swings. I did a lot of fist-banging while studying for FAR. Never threw the book across the room or punched the computer screen while working MCQ's after seeing the dreaded orange “X YOUR ANSWER IS INCORRECT” when I thought I had it correct for sure. Fun times. The thing is, I don't know what I am going to do even after I pass them all. There are no CPAs at my workplace whom I could work under. The few that there are, are up in northern California. I'll have to try to find some way to get the experience hours. I don't do audit or tax or assurance. Something I will have to figure out later I guess.

[Missy]

I know this doesn't apply to everyone who loses a credit but after participating on this forum for many years I see far too often people who say things like “I couldn't find time to study how can I cram in 14 days?” or “I got a 67 on FAR, do you think 2 weeks is enough time for a retake?” 24 months to pass is just six more months of excuses for some. I failed three exams myself and can honestly say I worked harder on each of the exams I passed. Too many people underestimate the commitment required to pass four in a year and a half. The posts about social life, football season, date nights and parties are a bigger part of the pass/fail rates than conspiracy theories.

Old timer,  A71'er since 2010.

Finance manager/HR manager

 

 

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[HoldMyBeerCPA]

@Missy: I completely agree, even though I was one of those people…on two occasions. Most of the people here at my office have PLENTY of commitments, but there have been times when we were slow at work, and they chose to do everything else but study (golf, movies, etc.).

While not everyone here may procrastinate, there should be no reason for anyone to complain if they have plenty of time to study, even after considering their personal lives and commitments, and still end up trying to cram 75% of their FAR Review course in 20 Days.

This exam isn’t for everyone. There should be no reason why anyone would subject themselves to this if there’s just too much going on in their personal and work lives that would take away from quality studying.

"FACT": The odds of consecutively passing all four sections of the CPA exam on the first try: 7%.

Me: Hold my beer...

FAR (April 2017): 75+

BEC (May 2017): 75+

AUD (July 2017): 75+

REG (September 2017): 75+

Roger + Ninja Audio/MCQ/Notes (BEC & REG)

[Author]

Replies