Shameless self promotion: JDA also did a Year in Review and I tried really hard to keep the accounting crap out of it.
Anyway, on to the CPA exam. We’re heading into the last day of the year and I have got to say, you bastards have me overdosing on Red Bull just to keep up. I’m not sure what happened this year but it feels like a lot of you got fed up with dragging your asses along on this exam. Or maybe you got laid off and all the sudden had a whole bunch of time to study. I’m guessing a lot of you finally realized for the first time in your careers that you can’t coast forever.
I talked to a lot of you this year. A LOT. So many that I’m about ready to crawl into bed for the next 72 hours (after we make the last day of the year, of course) and hibernate. Where did all of you come from? Why now?
Whatever inspired this surge in interest in those three letters, I have to say I saw a lot of inspirational shit go down in CPA exam land. Like the guy with a learning disability who finished in a year using both a full review and a supplement each time. Guess what? CPA. Or the student who put this off for so long she couldn’t believe she was that old sitting in that chair taking that test she’d dreaded for 15 years since college. She failed miserably the first time around, walking in there convinced she would.
The Self Fulfilling Prophesy candidate probably makes up 15% of our student base (I’m making that number up) and takes a little extra encouragement to pass. The second time around, she went in there and got through the exams. Now she just needs to find a job.
And that’s our other student. My Firm is Paying for This guy doesn’t realize that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, nor that there’s a bonus in it for him if he can just pass. Hell, they bought his ticket in. But they also worked him into the ground and he never studied on account of always being “too busy”. He’s got lots of time to study now that he’s laid off but his materials are outdated and useless. Too bad.
Wherever they come from, whomever pays for them to get there, this was sort of the year for the CPA exam. Or maybe the AICPA just scared everyone shitless with that IFRS threat and that’s why everyone is scrambling to take this exam and get it over with. Whatever works, I’m okay with it. I keep a case of Red Bull under the sink in the office.