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Three Ways Soon-to-be Accounting Grads Can Get Ready for the CPA Exam
With May graduation season nearly upon us, handfuls of future CPAs around the country are preparing to tackle one of the most important events of their careers: the CPA exam. Unlucky for them, few colleges adequately prepare accounting grads to enter the real world and though you may have the knowledge necessary to practice the art of accounting, chances are you’re completely lost on how to get started on the CPA exam.
Don’t worry, that’s why we’re here. Just a reminder that if you have a CPA exam question for us, do feel free to get in touch and we’ll do our best to help you along.
Anyway, soon-to-be grads, here’s what you need to be thinking about:
Confirm when your degree is posted – As with most things CPA exam, the rules and procedures vary depending on the state you will be sitting in. Few states allow you to sit with less than 150 semester units and even fewer allow you to sit without your degree posted to your transcripts so the first thing to do now is find out how long your school takes to post your degree. Some schools will let you pay an extra fee to expedite this process so if you are in a rush, inquire at your school if you can move this along.
Apply to sit for the exam with your state’s board of accountancy – Once you have your degree, you’ll need your school to send your transcripts to the board of accountancy to which you are applying (NASBA if you’re in a NASBA state, or CPAES – authorized provider of CPA exam qualification services for some states). You cannot send them in yourself (even sealed, official ones) and should submit any application fees and forms in at the same time as requesting your transcripts be sent.
The Board will match your application (and likely cash your check before doing anything else) with your transcripts and like magic, you’re authorized to sit for the exam. If you meet your state’s requirements, that is. It’s usually a good idea to look these up before leaving school just in case you need to sneak in Federal Taxation or Advanced Accounting to please your State Board.
Start studying for the exam when you apply to sit – Though it’s probably wise to focus on finals for now if you are graduating this spring, you can get a jump on studying by starting your CPA exam review around the same time you submit your application. Always check with your state to see how long this might take (generally 4 – 6 weeks) as you don’t want to start studying for BEC 4 months before you will actually be able to sit. Keep in mind that just because you are authorized to sit for the exam you will not necessarily begin testing immediately and will still have to factor in wait times for your payment coupons (NASBA wants their money) and Notice to Schedule (NTS). Generally these take 10 business days each to arrive.
So start the application process as soon as you qualify. A summer off can turn into 2 or 3 years of procrastination and next thing you know you are trying to remember which side debits go on and still no closer to your goal of CPA licensure.
Hope that helps and good luck to all of the soon-to-be new grads!
Here’s Your Study Plan for the Audit Section of the CPA Exam
Friendly reminder: >75 is here to answer your CPA Exam questions so send them over.
A reader sends us the following dilemma:
“I took the audit section only and failed, most of it was due to not committing enough time to it. If you have any tips to develop plans I would like any suggestions to creating a plan.”
First of all, no offense but I think you have already identified where you went wrong, are you sure you need our help? Oh well.
Let’s talk about Audit, shall we? The average CPA exam candidate will spend 60 – 90 hours studying for the Audit section – that assumes watching your CPA Review lectures 1 time and spending 2 – 3 hours on MCQ/sim practice problems for each hour of lecture. If you are taking the self-study route, you will obviously need to spend more time on MCQ/sims (about about 2 or 3 hours on top of the 2 – 3 you would be doing if you had videos to review) and create a structured study plan based on the most current CSOs (Content Specification Outlines), which you can always find on cpa-exam.org.
Those of you taking exams in early 2011 will want to be on top of exam changes planned to kick in in the first quarter, though the AICPA has been helpful and already released the CSOs for that period.
If you’ve taken the exam and failed, you already have an incredibly useful tool at your disposal – your score report. The report provided after you fail will compare you to other candidates: IGNORE THOSE NUMBERS. Who cares how you did relative to other candidates? All you need to glean from that information is an idea of where your stronger areas are in comparison to your weaker sections. The score report is broken down by different components of the CSOs for that section so obviously you will want to focus harder on areas that you performed poorly in.
About a week or two before your new exam date, give the entire section a once over just to be sure you are also sharp in areas you did well in the first time.
Schedule your new Audit exam AS SOON AS POSSIBLE as the information is still fresh in your mind. If you have a new exam scheduled in the meantime, reschedule it if you can. Unless you REALLY bombed Audit (68 or below), you will want to jump right back in while it is still floating around in your brain.
As for exam preparation and planning, we’ve covered that plenty of times on Going Concern so check out this, this, and this.
Are Too Many People Passing the CPA Exam?
The AICPA recently announced that it would be re-evaluating the CPA exam scoring process and we’ve been wildly speculating awhile as to what that might actually mean. Staying true to the doom and gloom, yours truly immediately thought the AICPA Board of Examiners was convinced you kids would bomb FAR horribly in Q1 and 2 of 2011 with the addition of IFRS and they were just preparing for that.
Upon further reflection, maybe the exam is too easy. Maybe requirements to sit are not strict enough (even though we’re down to 4 states that allow you to sit with 120 units last I checked). Maybe the job market is worse than anyone wants to admit — now wait a minute, what does that have to do with it?
There isn’t raw data that tells us how many would-be CPAs we have on our hands who have passed all four parts of the CPA exam but still can’t get a job, at least none I’ve seen. I’ve spoken to these people and it doesn’t seem to be getting better in the aggregate.
I believe the BLS numbers somewhat concur with this conclusion, if you can believe them. (CPA Trendlines has them)
I hear you guys bitching about it all the time. If you’re still employed and trying to take the CPA exam, you get the extra special designation of ultra-masochist but it’s not you guys the AICPA BoE is worried about, it’s the bottleneck of people who’ve passed the CPA exam trying to squeeze in 2 years in public to get a license.
Case in point, a friend of mine here in the great (broke) state of California decided to take on the CPA exam a tad later in life than some of you. We won’t hate on her for that. She worked her ass off and eventually got through it. She’s a leader of a prestigious accounting society in her community and has the credentials a lot of the kids coming out of school don’t. She can’t find a job. She’s tried every firm in town large and small as well as the surrounding area. I’ve scouted the Bay Area and can’t find anything for her either.
She’d stay more than 2 years and be more than a body filling the chair but they don’t even have a chair for her.
She’s not the only one. So maybe the AICPA BoE caught on and is going to try to change that. They can’t create the jobs so what do you think they’ll do?
Oh, and if anyone has a lead on a public accounting gig in the top half of California for my qualified little friend here, do get in touch.
Three Ways the CPA Exam Could Change in the Near Future
If you’ve been trying to pass BEC since the CPA exam went computerized in 2004 (you can laugh all you want, I know a few people…), rejoice! The AICPA, NASBA, and Prometric have committed to another 10 year contract to administer and oversee the computerized CPA exam in 55 US jurisdictions.
“This 10-year extension of the exam contract from 2014 to 2024 continues the close and highly successful collaboration of the three organizations in the delivery of the computer-based examination for the past six years,” said Barry Melancon, AICPA president and CEO. “The CPA exam is the gateway to the accounting profession and under this arrangement we have seen the exam improve and grow. About 93,000 candidates took the examination in 2009 – a record.”
Now we imagine it must have been editorial privilege to leave out the actual passrates of those 93,000 2009 CPA exam candidates and we’ll not wildly speculate that the record is a direct result of threats that the exam will be jam-packed with IFRS come 2011.
What will the CPA exam of 2024 look like? Obviously no one knows but looking at the evolution of exam content since 2004, we can take a stab at guessing.
• BEC will be a big priority – As we move from two simulations in FAR, AUD, and REG to 6 “simlets” (smaller, unrelated simulation problems) with communications being moved to BEC, I imagine it will be a big priority for the AICPA. It’s been notoriously “random” and filled with the bits and pieces that the AICPA couldn’t seem to make relevant in other CPA exam sections; the junk drawer of the exam, as it were.
• IFRS – A lot is riding on implementation of IFRS questions (anyone volunteered to write those yet? I think the AICPA is still patiently waiting for help).
• Scoring discussions planned after the first two quarters of 2011 – In other words: if you guys do well, the AICPA might leave it alone. Bomb and they might have to consider grading on a curve, invalidating that whole psychometric testing thing they’ve got going now.
Good luck with that. Really.
CPA Examination Contract Renewed in the U.S. Through 2024 [Press Release]
Four Ways to Force Yourself to Study for the CPA Exam
I’ll save you the hoo-rah, I’m pretty sure you don’t need it. It’s March already; if you aren’t studying, you’re working, and if you’re doing both right now I worry about your decision-making capabilities. Oh well.
Masochistic or not, it isn’t always easy to get yourself motivated to study.
You have entire CPA exam strategies laid out on the CPAnet forums here, here, and look, you even have a hoo-rah. Not everyone is an Elijah Watt-Sells so get that out of your head and worry about what works for you.
That strategy – finding a perfect fit for your own needs as a CPA exam candidate – also goes for motivation.
So how do you force yourself to study? Here are a few ideas:
Bribe yourself – Sock away $xxx for a new toy and reward a passing score with whatever your bribe is. If you’re cheap/laid off/sinking $1000s into failed exam fees and broke, it could be a decent dinner or a movie. Define splurge for yourself and make that the carrot you dangle in front of your face to get you to study.
Commiserate – You can find plenty of miserable accountants taking (and not always succeeding at) the CPA exam. You can also find support and encouragement if you’re actually trying to pass, so use resources like CPAnet and Twitter to find other candidates to speak to. If you’re taking a live review, sign up with someone else from your firm and go to class together. It helps to have someone else keeping you in check.
Visualize your goal – This might be the most, um, cheesy of methods but it absolutely works. Write CPA after your name on business cards and put them up where you will see them frequently (but don’t hand them out, that’d be illegal); though this tactic isn’t meant as a substitute for actually preparing (sorry to break it to you), a little positive thinking takes the anxious edge off.
Plan – Sometimes knowing there is a clearly defined schedule takes some of the panic out of the CPA exam, and if you’re disciplined enough, you won’t need motivation. Sure, it’s robotic, but that’s what studying for the CPA exam is. The exam doesn’t ask you to think critically outside of the parameters of financial reporting and accounting, nor do you get bonus points for creativity. So maybe you just need to have a plan, stick to it, suck it up, and move on until you’re done. It’s the most miserable of the options but sometimes all that works.
So? What worked for you?
Wake Forest Students’ CPA Exam Domination Is Explained
Last week we briefly mentioned Wake Forest’s announcement that their graduates had achieved the highest average scores on the CPA exam for the fifth year in a row. Wondering how such dominance could be made possible we decided to get ��������������������ate Professor Dr. Yvonne Hinson to find out.
The two main points that is primarily responsible for WFU students’ success on the CPA exam that Dr. Hinson impressed upon us were the ambition of the students and the curriculum that they go through. “We bring in very good students through our screening process and the students create an extremely competitive atmosphere,” Dr. Hinson told us. To compliment these go-getters, the faculty is always thinking ahead as to how to make the curriculum as challenging and relevant as possible.
Here are a few questions we asked Dr. Hinson about the success at Wake Forest:
What helps Wake Forest accounting students be so successful on the CPA Exam especially since these scores are for students without advanced degrees?
I believe that this relates to multiple things including:
1) Innovative curriculum that constantly changes. We teach the basics but try to always stay abreast of the emerging trends in the industry an incorporate those throughout our program where we decide they are relevant and ongoing. An example is out IFRS integration last year which was a full curriculum integration. We received a grant from PwC to complete this.
2) Faculty that are incredibly tied to the profession
3) Small class sizes and a lot of interaction between faculty and students. You can NOT hide in our classes!
4) Strong, motivated students.
5) We use Becker CPA review but the sections are handled my subject matter experts rather than all sections of Becker supervised by one or two people. Our faculty actually teach the Becker review.
Does the faculty make a point of communicating the importance of the exam?
Not really – there is the usual marketing around the results but the students tend to be very competitive and really drive a lot of that themselves. We do stress the importance of trying to get it out of the way before you begin work rather than trying to work busy season hours while also studying for the exam.
What is the biggest key that you (and your fellow faculty members) tell your students with re: to the exam?
Get it out of the way!! You do not want to be taking it while working if possible. We offer the review in May and June in an intensive session so that this is all they are concentrating on at that time.
Do most students take review courses in preparation for the exam?
Yes – Becker
What steps is the University taking to prepare students for IFRS and its eventual inclusion on the exam?
We have already integrated it throughout our undergraduate and graduate curriculum. We feel that the issue has nothing to do with where the U.S. is in respect to IFRS but rather that our students go our and operate in a global environment and are exposed to IFRS issues soon after graduation. Therefore, we have fiduciary duty to the students and to the profession to expose them to IFRS in their program.
Speaking of current topics, we also asked about Wake Forest implementing forensics into it’s curriculum, Dr. Hinson was quick to note, “Forensic accounting is also implemented in curriculum here, as this is another important area we recognized that our students would need exposure to.” Dr. Hinson mentioned Dr. George Aldhizer who she told us is “not on the leading edge but the bleeding edge of forensic accounting.” Indeed, Dr. Aldhizer’s most recent publication was “Medicare and Medicaid Fraud and Errors: A Ticking Time Bomb that Must Be Defused” for the Journal of Government and Financial Management. We’d say you can’t get more current than that.
One additional interesting thing we learned is that Wake Forest also offers a “Transaction Services Track” as part of its Master of Science in Accountancy that prepares many students for a career in in the advisory practices of the large firms.
So not only is the University taking a progressive approach to the CPA exam, they are preparing students for their careers in public accounting by offering a wide curriculum that will serve them in various areas of the firms. We applaud them in their effort and hope more schools take their lead.
Congratulations to Wake Forest on their five-peat (?) and the continued success of their students and faculty.
Most Aren’t Ready for IFRS on the CPA Exam
Last year, the AICPA Board of Examiners made it clear that though a roadmap for IFRS adoption in US financial reporting might be a ways off, it intended to start testing IFRS in Financial Accounting and Reporting (mostly, we’ll get to that in a second) in the first window of 2011. Just a friendly reminder, that’s only three testing windows away.
But what gives? According to the 2009 KPMG-AAA Faculty Survey, only 8% of respondents felt as though at least half of their accounting faculty were qualified to teach IFRS. Meanwhile, 70% of professors said their most significant challenge to teaching IFRS was finding room for it in the curriculum.
As far as I am aware, State Boards of Accountancy have not shown a desire to require IFRS coursework to be eligible to sit for the CPA exam at this time.
The Big 87654 committed to pushing IFRS in college classrooms as early as May of 2008 (months before the SEC announced an IFRS adoption roadmap) and they are still tossing millions at the initiative.
In December of 2008, The Summa’s Professor Albrecht insisted that the Big 87654 had certainly chosen the right candidate, lobbying Obama to accomplish their IFRS goals. Why? “Obscene profits,” he says, pointing to campaign contributions and Obama’s subsequent pro-IFRS SEC Chair pick as signs that IFRS doomsday is upon us. A little over a year later, the SEC appears too busy chasing “crime” and playing catch up to issue a clear directive on IFRS in the US.
So? How can the AICPA BoE insist on testing information that A) accounting students still aren’t being taught and B) isn’t widely understood or practiced by most CPAs in the US?
I certainly get what the AICPA is trying to do and if nothing else, they probably want to show off that their awesome psychometric CPA exam technology is OMGamazing! and ready to adapt in a timely and efficient manner. But pushing IFRS on unsuspecting CPA exam candidates isn’t really the way to demonstrate that.
Is it just a coincidence that now the AICPA is prepared to reevaluate their scoring process after the first two testing windows of 2011? Even they know this is an awful idea.
CPA Exam Results Are Rolling Out This Week for the Jan/Feb Window
If you’re a glutton for punishment and you sat for the CPA Exam during this window, NASBA Tweeted the above about an hour ago. We thought busy season sucked enough but studying for and taking the CPA exam during busy season has to be one of the most hideous cases of self-loathing an accountant can engage in and we hear it’s widespread.
Maybe sleeping and eating aren’t that crucial to your survival but we’re not really sure how you’re pulling this off. Are you listening to the Jr. Deputy Accountant on this? Since we’re too old to have taken the computerized exam, we were never tempted to try such a monumental feat.
So if you sat for BEC go find out if you passed and let us know because we care (seriously) and if you need to cry, make sure you don’t do it front of anyone. Nobody likes weeping at the office.
Is the AICPA Lowering the Bar on the CPA Exam?
Friendly reminder: >75 is here to answer your CPA Exam questions so send them over.
Sadly, JDA is technically still employed by a CPA Review course (and, of course, not a CPA) but hey, if any of you are looking to protect the public interest, have at it.
This may just be some wild speculating here but I have to admit my first thought upon seeing this was that the AICPA is scared everyone will freak out when IFRS hits the CPA Exam on January 1, 2011 and bomb horribly. Does this mean it’ll be graded on a curve? If so, I’m starting to have some concerns about that “protecting the public interest” bit.
Lowering the bar, AICPA Board of Examiners style:
THE AICPA EXAMINATIONS TEAM IS SEEKING CPA NOMINEES TO SERVE ON CPA EXAMINATION PANELS
When the new Uniform CPA Examination is launched on January 1, 2011, changes in content, format, and structure will be introduced. These changes will require the current passing score to be re-examined. The process to do so will include convening four panels of CPAs – one for each examination section – to prepare the groundwork for the passing score decision by the AICPA Board of Examiners. A new passing score determination is necessary in conjunction with the new examination to ensure that legally defensible CPA Examination pass/fail decisions continue to be made in protection of the public interest.
Panel Nominees
The AICPA is seeking nominations for passing score panel membership. Nominees should be CPAs who:
• have been licensed for between 3 and 5 years
• have supervised entry-level CPAs during the past year
• have NO affiliation with CPA Examination review courses, and
• are willing to participate in an August 2010 two-day meeting in Chicago, IL at the expense of the AICPA.The selection of panelists from among qualified nominees will be made to ensure broad representation from all segments of the profession and demographic categories. Panelists will be given training at the August meetings on their responsibilities as panel participants.
Submitting Nominations
Nominations may be submitted online at http://vovici.com/wsb.dll/s/4e5ag3f124 or the forms completed and returned by FAX to 609-671-2922. Or, the names and contact information of nominees may be sent by e-mail to passingscorepanel@aicpa.org The information collected about nominees will be used only for the purpose of selecting panel participants.
The deadline for submitting nominations is MARCH 31, 2010.
Like I said, JDA is out; any of you kids in on this?
>75: What to Do Two Weeks Before Your Exam
Happy Friday CPA Exam munchkins! For the self-loathing types that are going through busy season and sitting for an exam, let’s discuss what you should be doing in the two weeks before your exam, not how to quit your job (not my line of expertise).
At this point, you should be through lecture videos and homework at least once. Really? You have two weeks left! If you’ve been disciplined up to this point, you’re feeling comfortable with most of the MCQ.
A final review at this point is essential. You have enough time to go back over weak areas and give everything a last look over. If you have software or your firm blew a bunch of money on overpriced programs to do this for you, use it. If you’re going with just a book, take a look at questions you’ve gotten wrong more than once and review those areas in the text.
Though we all know it’s illegal to discuss what’s actually on the exam, there are plenty of blogs and forums that share “commonly tested” items, many of which are updated often. The CPANet forums are a perfect example of candidates openly sharing their experiences and identifying common testing patterns. The AICPA Board of Examiners used to give paper and pencil candidates a COPY of their exam as they left so don’t let partners tell you it was way more rough back in their day. Still, there are channels available; it’s up to the candidate to use them.
The BoE has also committed to faster scoring and a continued evolution of exam content. They do not expressly state what that means for candidates, that’s why it’s important to ask questions and know about changes. The only real signals they’ve sent so far are that they are excited to start testing IFRS years before it is implemented in the US and the computerized exam is due for more changes in the years ahead. And? Get it over with now, whether or not BEC will be easier with communications but an extra half an hour.
Anyway, the last week. It’s your last chance to review weak spots and work through practice questions once more. I know you’re pissed at me for not writing “now you can screw off and play PS3 after 16 hours of work” but that’s not really how it works.
At this point, you shouldn’t expect to feel entirely confident and that’s okay; focus only on the last few, most heavily-tested areas. You should already know what these are, if they don’t, put off your exam and start asking questions or reading textbooks. Most CPA Review programs (even the cheap ones) give you some idea of what these areas are.
Hope that helps. On the next >75, we’ll talk about what “simulataneous IFRS implementation” really means for FAR unless you have a CPA exam question, in which case I’ll save my anti-IFRS rant for a different Friday.
>75: Adrienne Gonzalez Shares Her Tips on How to Study for BEC in Just a Week
I’m not saying you’ll pass, I’m teaching you how to prepare in a week and maybe eke by. You already spent the money, you might as well give it a shot.
Let me be clear: I don’t advocate this. It’s important to give yourself time to study. BEC should take between 64 and 80 hours to prepare for. There are 168 hours in a week – work = 128 (our friend with a week to study for BEC – who requests to remain anonymous – is in tax so he has about 110) – sleeping 6 hours a night = 86 so if you don’t waste any waking hours commuting or eating, you can do it. You shouldn’t.
If nothing else, you’ll know what to expect on the exam in the next window. If you don’t study at all, try to retain what you can when you sit for this exam that you’re not ready for. Even though the AICPA BoE switches questions up from window to window and your next exam will be a little different, just go and pay attention.
There is a small chance you can pass. Do you know nothing about variance analysis? Clueless on economics? Your chances at passing will be smaller though I won’t pretend to have actual figures on that. The better your foundation, the easier it will be for you to fudge your way through it in a week. If you’re going into it blind, you’re probably not going to do well so focus on what came up on the exam.
Using the example above (or whatever your work/sleep/live schedule is), focus your attention on doing as many MCQ as possible. Even if you don’t understand them, sometimes working through them will make things click. You can try a cram course but your brain learns in layers so you can’t approach this like a final you didn’t study for. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, that’s just what I know.
The best piece of advice I can give you is to plan better next time. Don’t pay for all 4 parts with one NTS unless you have a huge block of time to take exam after exam. Got it?
Want more JDA? You can see all of her posts for GC here, her blog here and stalk her on Twitter.
>75: That Time of Year Again: Balancing the Exam and Busy Season
Editor’s note: This is the latest edition of >75, our weekly post on questions that you have related to the CPA Exam. Send your questions to tips@goingconcern.com and we’ll do our best to answer as many of them as possible. You can see all of the JDA’s posts for GC here and all our posts related to the CPA Exam here.
Do you have a CPA exam question for >75? Send it in. I’ll be nice I swear. Possibly useful.
So it’s January and some of you are heading into a rough couple of months. With the 18 month clock ticking on the CPA exam, you don’t really have any options but to fight through it. Or argue with people on the Internet. Maybe that’s why you don’t have enough time to study?
Anyway. It’s not easy but remember it is also temporary so as long as you suffer through it a bit (oh please, is it really that bad?), it’s possible. Here are some things I’ve seen work:
• Talking to management and partners – I know. You’re going to laugh me out of here (“wtf version of JDA is this?”) but stick with me. Have you asked? I’m not saying this is always a successful method but it can never hurt to ask or let management know you’re taking the CPA exam. Especially if you work in a smaller firm, just talk to someone above you with some pull. I’ve seen it so I know it isn’t impossible.
• Cutting out the extraneous crap – You know exactly what I mean. Time management for studying is a lot like budgeting for chronic spenders. I used to burn through paychecks until I actually printed out three months worth of debit and ATM charges and saw how I was $2 and $7 and $14ing my way to $0 in no time. In much the same way, you have to figure out where you are spending your time in a week (or a day if that works better for you). Things that take “a few minutes” (Facebook anyone?) add up so count them.
• Not doing too much – One exam is enough if you really are swamped. It’s fine. Just don’t let post April 15th suddenly turn into late August because you were “so wiped out” from busy season. Take a realistic break but don’t get too detached from your goal.
What works for you to get through busy season and the exam? And don’t say trolling accounting websites trying to pick Internet fights.
Good luck? As always, it has nothing to do with circumstance, it’s just discipline.
>75: Procrastination
Editor’s note: This is the latest edition of >75, our weekly post on questions that you have related to the CPA Exam. Send your questions to tips@goingconcern.com and we’ll do our best to answer as many of them as possible. You can see all of the JDA’s posts for GC here and all our posts related to the CPA Exam here.
First of all, I have to give it to all of you little future CPAs of America, you REALLY know how to put things off until the last minute, don’t you?
I’m going to let you in on a tiny little secret: the exam never goes away.
Let me paint an “imaginary” scenario where CPA Review classes are starting in less than 48 hours. Classes have been on hold for over two months and suddenly, within this 48 hour period, there is a rush of panicked CPA exam candidates realizing they’ve got less than a day left to figure out a plan. Anyone else see what’s wrong with this picture?
I’m not talking about a handful of people, I’m talking about a significant chunk of you. You know who you are and you know exactly what I’m talking about.
So what is it? Do you believe that the exam will pass itself? Or if you put it off long enough somehow you’ll wake up one day a CPA? I hate to break it to you but that’s really moronic.
There are students in our classes that are 50-some years old. Think about that. They graduated 30 years ago and are STILL putting this stupid ass exam off. So don’t think you’re some hero of procrastination just because you let 18 months go by and started losing exam scores, you aren’t special.
The bottom line is this: it is all about what you want to do with your life. Do you really want to be a CPA? Then you’ll suck it up and finish. Don’t do it because your parents want it or your girlfriend wants it or it’s your grandma’s dying wish. You are only setting yourself up for a life of half-assed failure, misery, and disappointment.
Which is kind of like what you’re setting yourself up for with a CPA and a career in public accounting except + tchotchkes. Win* (I think).
Point is, stop. In the time it takes for you to come up with 1000 excuses, you could have already booked your exam and gotten through at least 150 MCQ. Yes, it sucks but guess what? You picked it. You can make it worse on yourself and be that 50 year old guy in the back of our Live class or you can just get through it and stop bitching.
/end rant. Do it.
*I’m obligated to say that because of my day job
>75’s Year in (CPA) Review
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.
More CPA Exam Scores Are Released for the October/November Window
NASBA has announced via Twitter that more scores have been released for the final window of the year. Bad news is that it takes 24 – 48 hours for them to post. Our recommendation would be to jump over to NASBA and spend the next 24 hours refreshing the page until it posts. Or chew your fingernails until they bleed, whatever works for you.
If you end up with an early Christmaskuh gift, please share. If you got coal, also share before you go into the corner sobbing.
>75: Seriously. Enough with the “Am I Outdated?”
Editor’s note: Welcome to a special Wednesday edition of >75, our weekly post on questions that you have related to the CPA Exam. Send your questions to tips@goingconcern.com and we’ll do our best to answer as many of them as possible. You can see all of the JDA’s posts for GC here and all our posts related to the CPA Exam here.
Enough with this question, I’m going to start emailing students this article directly.
First of all, if you don’t send me questions, I can’t answer them. No question is too stupid, trust me, I’ve been in CPA Review for almost 3 years. They don’t tell you kids shit about the exam in college, better to ask than listen to some guy you work with (he’s wrong 87% of the time – or so I have calculated from professional experience via our students). So send them in. I’ll try to be nice and at least sort of useful.
That being said, I keep getting the question at work about materials. 2010 materials. Updates to 2009 materials. Being the most up-to-date in the cubicle farm. I got it, your brain is programmed to think December 31st equals a whole new year. How many of you are getting married this 31st, btw? Happy Anniversary to my boss – the CPA – and his wife on that fine day that you CPAs love so much. Deductions, bitch.
As previously disclosed, the AICPA Board of Examiners doesn’t want you to know they’re cheap. Those difficulty-weighted questions cost a whole shit ton of money to pop in that exam (speaking of which, any IFRS experts out there willing to contribute their time to screwing with CPA exam candidates? Prestige! Honor! No money though.) and the BoE likes questions that have a little more, erm, staying power. Those guys’ “creativity” keeps me in a job so I can’t really elaborate, you get the point.
That means you’ve got a 6 month window to work with from the time pronouncements are announced and when they actually start appearing on the exam. They might appear earlier as pre-test (not counted toward your score and about 15% of exam content) but unless specifically noted – as in SFAS 141(r) – pronouncements trickle into the exam slowly and on a delay.
When new exam content does appear (as it does twice a year, inevitably), it tends to be introduced slowly. Think about it – the only test run those questions got was pre-test, and you were not expected to know that information anyway. How can they gather intelligence from candidates’ collective knowledge of things they don’t know? Seems bizarre to me but whatever, can’t question the wisdom of the AICPA.
Except in the case of the Feed the Pig campaign.
>75: The ‘Magical’ Order of CPA Exams
Editor’s note: Welcome to latest edition of >75, our weekly post on questions that you have related to the CPA Exam. Send your questions to tips@goingconcern.com and we’ll do our best to answer as many of them as possible. You can see all of the JDA’s posts for GC here and all our posts related to the CPA Exam here.
Just a reminder, if you have a CPA exam question for us, be sure to send them over. No question is too stupid, trust me, I’ve been in CPA Review for 3 years and have heard them all.
For today’s >75, let’s talk picking exam parts, shall we?
I get asked these questions at work constantly: “What part should I start with? Which is the easiest? Which is the hardest?”
My answer is always the same: there is no “easy” or “hard” section, they’re all equally and independently difficult for their own reasons. FAR is “hard” because of the sheer volume of information but believe it or not, BEC tends to be the part candidates struggle with most. AUD and REG have a slightly higher national pass rate but that does not make them any easier than the other two.
For now, I’ve been advising candidates to start with FAR so they can get it out of the way before IFRS hits the exam in 2011. In general, however, I advise our students to start with the part that they feel will be most difficult for them since your 18 month clock starts ticking once you pass the first part. If a candidate is going to struggle to pass one section, it’s best to do this before that 18 month period starts since the very last thing you want to do is to retake a section you already passed because you couldn’t pass that final part in time.
Point being, there’s no such thing as easy when it comes to the CPA exam. Nor is there a such thing as a “magical” order for taking the exams. But here are some tips for figuring out which part to start with:
• Anxious candidates with a confidence problem – Start with Audit or Regulation, whichever section will be easiest for you since, as I said above, these tend to have a higher pass rate. Passing that first section will be a huge motivator to keep you going.
• For candidates looking for “the easy way out” – Start with FAR. Since this section is the largest, getting it out of the way first will make the rest of your CPA exam experience seem downhill.
• For candidates planning to take the exam through 2011 – Get FAR and BEC out of the way now. Communications will be hitting BEC in 2011 so if you get it done now, you can take AUD and REG in 2011 when they no longer have communications. Win!
Good luck!
>75: What Happens When You Get a 74?
Editor’s note: Welcome to latest edition of >75, our weekly post on questions that you have related to the CPA Exam. Send your questions to tips@goingconcern.com and we’ll do our best to answer as many of them as possible. You can see all of the JDA’s posts for GC here and all our posts related to the CPA Exam here.
It might be the worst feeling in the world. Trust me, I know people who have gotten 17s and 24s on the exam – these are not my CPA Review students, of course, these are people who tried to go the CPA exam alone – and a 74 beats their misery any day of the week.
Nearly 99% of the candidates I talk to (I’m making that percentage up off the top of my head, mind you) who get a 74 on any part of the exam did everything they were supposed to do. They did hours of multiple choice and tons of practice simulations and even did the tutorial at cpa-exam.org before test day.
These are people who asked me very early on how they could plan their time, requested updates weeks before they were available and had me emailing 3 years’ worth of previous CPA exam questions for them to practice on. From all appearances, they did everything they were supposed to and yet got a 74, the worst possible score you can get (17 on FAR aside but we won’t talk about that mmmmmkay?).
So what do you do if you’re that person?
• Don’t bother requesting a “rescore” from the AICPA Board of Examiners: For all of 2008, not a single rescore request resulted in a candidate going from FAIL to PASS. It’s a waste of time and money and the AICPA isn’t going to admit their CBT is at all faulty (those of you who have actually taken it probably know better but we won’t talk about that either) so accept your score and move on.
• Don’t move on to a new section While you have to deal with the fact that you’re going to have to pay re-application fees to the Board and another exam fee, the best thing you can do in the case of a 70 – 74 is to go right back to that section and schedule a new exam as soon as possible. A 74 especially shows that you have an excellent command of the information, just a little more studying and you’re over that hump.
• Look at your score report: Your score report is going to give you quite a bit of insight on where you went wrong the first time. When you fail an exam part, they go so far as to tell you where you failed the worst, USE THAT! When you go back over your review materials, there’s no need to watch every single lecture video again fourteen times – just look at the report, figure out where you need more work, and do extra practice questions in those areas.
Finally, don’t beat yourself up. If this exam were easy, everyone would be a CPA.
A Thanksgiving Reminder from >75
Editor’s note: Welcome to latest edition of >75, our weekly post on questions that you have related to the CPA Exam. Send your questions to tips@goingconcern.com and we’ll do our best to answer as many of them as possible. You can see all of the JDA’s posts for GC here and all our posts related to the CPA Exam here.
For CPA exam candidates, the final few weeks of the year can be a time of extreme pressure and/or procrastination. I won’t name names and bust any of our CPA Review students out (you know who you are) but I can tick off at least 25 people taking the exam today and next Monday, trying to squeeze in one last part before the New Year.
So how exactly is one supposed to show up for an exam the Monday after Turkey Day before the tryptophan coma has worn off?
• Plan better next time: This is a terrible time of year to be sitting for the exam but unfortunately it’s also the busiest. More candidates cram into the final testing window of the year than any other window so if you’re testing in the 4th quarter next year, keep that in mind when you’re scheduling your exams. Schedule early and don’t get stuck testing the week after Thanksgiving.
• Prioritize: Do you really need to hit your parents house, your in-laws’ house and your best friend’s grandma’s house for Thanksgiving? If you’re really serious about preparing through the weekend (which you should have already been doing weeks before this), cut dinner short, stick to one holiday meal and spend your Black Friday studying instead of getting trampled in the Wal-mart parking lot. It’s better for your brain and better for your wallet.
• You might have to have a chat with friends and family: If you’re trying to get a section in right when 2010’s first window opens up, you will be doing some studying through the December holidays and your absence might cause just a little bit of resentment. If you’re serious about getting the exam over with, sit down with loved ones and let them know that you need their support, not their shit. They have no idea what you are going through unless you tell them to back off and give you the time you need to study. And if that doesn’t work, coal for everyone in their stockings.
• My final point is this: it goes without saying that the holidays can be a stressful time for everyone and we all know what sort of stress taking the CPA exam causes. Mixing these two can be a dangerous cocktail of end-of-the-year misery if you don’t stay focused and plan your time accordingly. And look at it this way, you might get out of having to wear an ugly sweater or two.
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New Material for the CPA Exam: Am I Outdated?
Editor’s Note: Want more JDA? You can see all of her posts for GC here, her blog here and stalk her on Twitter. See all of GC’s posts on the CPA Exam here.
As most of you know, my day job involves teaching unlicensed accountants how to pass the CPA exam so everything I’m about to tell you comes from experience. One of the most frequent questions I’ve been getting these days revolves around new material to correspond with the new year, so let’s debunk some of those common rumors about new exam material, shall we?
• Stop thinking IFRS is going to hit the exam in 2010. You have at least another year to procrastinate, and that’s the best case scenario. The AICPA said “some time in 2011” which means “when we get around to it”. Even when IFRS hits the exam its impact will be minimal at best so stop freaking out.
• Yes, new CPA exam materials are the best when available but keep in mind AICPA pronouncements take at least two windows to hit the exam, meaning if you take the exam in the first quarter of 2010 you will be tested on information released in June of 2009.
• Trust me when I say this: the AICPA Board of Examiners is cheap (no offense AICPA BoE but you know you are). Although review courses would love to tell you to get the latest latest info, chances are the AICPA BoE will prefer testing standard questions over introducing excessive amounts of new content. Sure, they test new things all the time but don’t expect them to overhaul the exam every quarter just for shits and giggles. New questions cost a lot of money and the AICPA BoE would rather recycle old questions than pay to create new ones. Use this to your advantage.
So, that being said, what’s the big deal about IFRS hitting the CPA exam? Stop panicking, it’s not as bad as you think.
IFRS is actually much more principles-based than rule based, which means you have a pamphlet to study instead of two dictionaries worth of GAAP. The AICPA is offering courses on IFRS for professionals or any simple textbook can suffice if you need a primer. However you look at it, the AICPA BoE does not expect you to know IFRS like an accountant in China. All they want to know is if you know the differences between IFRS and GAAP. Easy, right?
Lastly, if you have a review course, you should be able to request updates to the material as long as you’re a student. So don’t worry for the first two testing windows of 2010 but come June of 2010, ask for an update and you should be good. New AICPA pronouncements are released twice a year so ask again in December if you haven’t finished this thing by now.
>75: Study. Sit. Pass. Get on with Your Life
Editor’s note: Welcome to >75, our weekly post on questions that you have related to the CPA Exam. Send your questions to tips@goingconcern.com and we’ll do our best to answer as many of them as possible. You can see all of the JDA’s posts for GC here and all our posts related to the CPA Exam here.
Alright. So this guy comments and his question is too long and complicated to keep my attention. Kindly SUMMARIZE your question, send it to us and >75 will get to it when she stops pounding her head on her desk.
Now then, please pay attention.
I need help from some vets. I did my undergrad in finance, but spent the last 7 yrs in the family business, hotels. Always hated it. Being an owner, I know what it’s like to be the ‘man’ and having to manage a manager, i also know what it’s like to be an overworked slave to a business as a property manager myself. I’m effective as a manager, win awards, employee turn over below industry standards, profitable, etc…on the macro level as an asset manager, i have a pretty good business savvy from HR/training, finance, basic accounting, leadership, capital raising, basic auditing. In the hotel business, your inventory has a 24 hour shelf life. I can think quick on my feet under stressful situations, and think stragetically as well. So at 30, i have the business IQ of someone close to 40. I’m a worrier and 24 hour business dealing with public has burned me out as i like people, but i’m not that much of a ‘people’ person..though i can turn it on when needed. i have recently been diagnosed with ADD which explains, while capable, i had trouble in school.
Stop. Just stop. First and foremost: the CPA exam isn’t an IQ test so please remove that from the equation, brainiac. We are talking about discipline and how well you can plan out your time.
I congratulate you on your illustrious career but no one cares about that at the Board of Accountancy. You have to meet the educational and experience requirements in the state you apply to and sorry, life experience doesn’t count in any of those states.
If you have the units and prepare correctly, you can do it. But get all this “wordiness” out of your plan, just learn the information, sit for the exam, get 75s on everything and move on with your life + CPA.
That’s my humble suggestion.
As for not being a “people” person, congratulations, you’re already on your way to being a CPA.
If anyone has a CPA exam question for >75, let us know. I’ll try to be nice but at least informative.
Here’s the obligatory CPA Review disclaimer (I work for Roger, how do you think I figured all of this out? TT BPO 75 or 90, bitches).
CPA Exam Question of the Week: Review Courses for the Working Stiff
Editor’s note: We’re going to start a weekly post on questions that you have related to the CPA Exam. Send your questions to tips@goingconcern.com and we’ll do our best to answer as many of them as possible. You can see all of the JDA’s posts for GC here and all our posts related to the CPA Exam here.
A lawyer with an accounting undergrad wants to know the following:
What is the most efficient CPA prep course/books etc., for an individual that works during the week for about 45-50 hours. I understand that we can take the exam in separate parts, so that will be very helpful.
Caleb reminds me that this answer should be objective so let’s get the “I’m a CPA Exam Expert because of my day job” plug in here.
First of all, lawyer guy, congratulations on diversifying and pursuing your CPA. My experience is that more finance, mortgage, law, and other professionals are gravitating towards the CPA these days (especially since 2007) and that’s a great sign that the industry still carries a level of prestige. Win for us, though some of us think the industry as a whole has some work to do (see also: Dennis Howlett on the Big 4 being TBTF)
So my answer is I don’t have your answer. What you need as a CPA exam candidate is important, and I don’t know you well enough to figure out what you need. Professionally I’ve learned that those from other industries or educational backgrounds tend to have “special needs” like something more intensive than a simple review or additional support in formulating a study plan. CPAnet has an entire forum dedicated to CPA review courses, that’s a good place to start for research into the matter.
Taking the exam in separate parts doesn’t really help because once you pass the first part, the clock is ticking. 18 months doesn’t seem like a long time but it will be over before you know it. I don’t even experience it and sometimes I am amazed when I realized I talked to someone at work when they graduated and now they have a month left to pass FAR or they’ll lose their first credit. Don’t be them. You will have to plan out your time.
That’s my second point for you. 45 – 50 hours? I know people who passed the entire exam in 4 months with two kids at home and a fulltime job at the Big 4. That’s overachieving but if she did it, you can certainly do it working less than I do a week. Plan out every hour of your week and fit in studying where you can. If you say “I will just do it after work…” but don’t have a schedule, trust me, you’ll never do it after work.
Figure to spend about 132 hours on FAR, 96 hours on REG, 80 hours on AUD and 64 hours on BEC. That’s watching review lectures 1 time and doing the AICPA recommended 2 – 3 hours of homework. You might need more, you might need less, that’s for you to figure out. Pencil that in between every other hour of your life – and I mean every hour, from sleeping to work – and get your exams scheduled early. Do some kind of final review 2 – 3 weeks before your exam dates and make sure you studied.
The last thing I can remind you is something my boss has hammered into my head 10,000 times. The CPA exam is not an IQ test, it’s a test of discipline. Keep that in mind and you’ll have nothing to worry about.
Five Really Simple Facts About the CPA Exam
Editor’s Note: Want more JDA? You can see all of her posts for GC here, her blog here and stalk her on Twitter.
The CPA exam is full of myth and legend due in large part to the fact that you’re not supposed to discuss what’s actually on it. Of course everyone does and rumors fly around firms (“I heard IFRS is being tested in simulations…” “Tim in tax was thrown out of Prometric for wearing a hoodie to the exam…”) until they’ve been transformed into CPA exam nightmare tales based entirely in fiction. Knock it off, kids, let’s stick with the facts.
Of the two communications, only one is graded. Lucky you, you don’t know which one. Candidates get all bent out of shape over the communications but all you have to do is write a standard business letter. You don’t even have to answer the question correctly, you just have to stay on topic! Easy ten points, don’t blow it and do the communications first.
The research portion is only worth 1 point so if you don’t have time, blow it off. Yes, I said blow it off. If you’re crunched to complete a simulation, this is the last thing you want to spend your time on. Skip it unless you have lots of time.
The CPA exam is NOT graded on a curve, your score is not a percentage and is on a “plus point” basis. This means if you don’t know an answer, guess. Never leave a question blank, everyone starts with 0 points and earns up from there. More difficult MCQ earn you more points when answered correctly and no, the AICPA doesn’t reveal the secret psychometric formula that it uses to determine this.
There are no “easy” multiple choice. You only get moderate or difficult. Every exam starts moderate and MCQ testlets will get more difficult if you are doing well or stay the same if you’re bombing. So yours could be moderate, difficult, moderate or moderate, difficult, difficult or if you really didn’t study: moderate, moderate, FAIL. Sorry, made that last one up. You get the point.
14 – 16% of the exam isn’t even graded. Outrageous as it may seem, the AICPA loves pre-testing things that you have never learned just to scare the shit out of you. Actually, they’re testing new questions and gauging candidate reaction so good for you if you know XBRL but sorry, you’re not getting any credit for it. If you get bizarre MCQ, now you know why.
Thanks to my day job, I guess I’m some sort of CPA exam expert so I encourage Going Concern readers who are interested in CPA exam content to get in touch with us and let us know if there’s something you’d like to see us cover on this subject. Good times, kids, good times!
The CPA Exam: It’s Too Late Now
It’s October which means CPA exam candidates have about 7 weeks left to sneak in one more exam part before the end of the year. If you’re like most candidates, you blew off this entire year with excuses or got disappointed by failing scores early in the year and haven’t given the exam much thought since. Well you better start because you’ve got about 1,248 hours until the final window of the year is closed.
Sometimes procrastination pays off but in this instance, the exam will never get easier and you’ll never get through it if you keep putting it off.
Continued, after the jump
Typical prep time for the sections is as follows*:
BEC – 64 hours
AUD – 80 hours
REG – 96 hours
FAR – 132 hours
With 1,248 hours remaining until the December blackout, you should easily be able to fit in FAR, right? Wrong. If you’re working fulltime, lets just take out 50 hours a week, leaving you with 898 hours. But you’ve got to sleep, right? So if you get 6 hours a night, that leaves 580 hours. Well hell, you could prepare for two sections in that time, couldn’t you?
Not so much. Do you think you’re the only one who waited until the last minute?
The lesson for next year? Schedule early. Chances are if you’re trying to fit in one more section before the end of the year, you will not be able to sit at the Prometric test center of your choice, or may not be able to get the time/date that you desire. Well, that sucks for you, so hopefully you remember that for next time.
If you don’t start studying now, you’ve probably blown it for the year and should just wait for the first window of 2010. Remember the CPA exam isn’t like college, you can’t just stay over-caffeinated for a weekend and cram everything in that you need. Think of the information like a fine wine, it’s got to ferment in your brain to be useful come test day. Your brain learns best in layers anyway and without the foundation, you’re going to get tricked by the easiest MCQ simply because you don’t have the background on each concept.
Otherwise it will be November before you know it and you won’t have cracked a single CPA Review book between now and then. Trust me on this one, kids, start early and start slow. I’m trying to help you.
*Time based on video lectures and AICPA recommendation of 2 – 3 hours of self-study MCQ/sims for every hour of lecture but we’re sure you’re all Einsteins when it comes to this stuff so it’s probably less.
CPA Exam Changes Shouldn’t Affect You
The CPA Exam is apparently changing, whether you like it or not.
More, after the jump
The American Institute of CPAs has scheduled Jan. 1, 2011 as the official launch date of CBT-e, a more technologically modern version of the Uniform CPA Examination…CBT-e, short for Computer-Based Testing evolution, will also update the content of the Uniform CPA Exam. The exam will include new content and skill specification outlines, including questions about International Financial Reporting Standards…Also starting on Jan. 1, 2011, new authoritative literature will be released based on the FASB Codification of accounting standards and a new research task format will be introduced on the CPA Examination.
Considering this is over a year off, these changes should not be of concern for most of you but considering some of the scores we’ve seen for this year and pretty much everyone seems to be ignoring the new Codification, maybe some of you should be worried.
NASBA Still Moseying Around Getting Your CPA Exam Scores Released
A little follow up from last week’s post on NASBA toying with you. Shockingly, scores are either just coming out or haven’t been released.
Most people we’ve checked with are still waiting and it’s been 2+ months. By now for most of you waiting this long for your scores have probably had to start taking Xanax but we’re sure they’ll be out any day know, so try to relax.
If you’ve gotten your score(s) and passed, feel free to gloat in the comments, or if you’re still waiting, discuss how you’re coping.
PwC Is Sick of You Not Passing the CPA Exam
Studying for CPA exam got you down? Tired of choosing between sleeping and listening to Peter Olinto’s melodic voice talking about partnership basis calculations?
Luckily P. Dubs feels your pain. We’ve heard from a couple of sources that PwC is pushing sabbaticals for those of you that are scoring just slighty better than Tiger Woods.
We’ve heard that San Jose is offering tax associates 20% of their salary through the end of the year to get their act together. We also hear the same offer has been made to audit associates in New York. We would assume it’s on the same time frame since both offices will need every warm body available come 2010.
We kindly requested some details from PwC but they haven’t gotten back to us.
If you’ve got more details on this offer from Dubs or are considering participating so you can strike the Pedro and T. Gearty from your gray mass, discuss in the comments.
Is NASBA Torturing You?
We got a request to start a thread on the CPA exam results being totally MIA. The last thread seemed to indicate that results were slow to come out but here we are a month later and some of you took your exam(s) back in July.
So what the hell, NASBA? People can’t sleep at night. Get with the program!
Discuss your anxiety in the comments or if you’ve got your scores, just tell us you got between 75 and 79. Anything higher and you might has well be one of those Elijah Watts rocket-scientists.
The CPA Exam for Commitmentphobes
Editor’s note: Adrienne Gonzalez is founder and managing editor of Jr Deputy Accountant as well as regular contributor to leading financial/investment sites like Seeking Alpha and GoldmanSachs666. You see all of her posts for GC by going here. By day, she teaches unlicensed accountants to pass the CPA exam, though what she does in her copious amounts of freetime in the evening is really none of your business. Follow her adventures in Fedbashing and CPA-wrangling on Twitter @adrigonzo but please don’t show up unannounced at her San Francisco office as she’s got a mean streak. Her favorite FASB is 166.
The first time I addressed the CPA exam here on Going Concern, I may have given the firms a little too much credit. Keep in mind that I write from the perspective of a CPA Review Project Coordinator; in other words, I’ve heard every excuse in the book.
I need more time on my course. Work got really busy and…
Continued, after the jump
Listen, I understand that the CPA exam is a serious commitment. I also understand that first and second year new hires get worked like slave labor. What I do not understand is why this should be my problem 2 years after the student’s course expired with not a peep in between. Can you use this excuse in college? “Yeah, sorry I didn’t make it to my Final… um, I know it was 3 years ago but can I just take it again? I got really busy.” I dare you to try.
What I’ve learned from my time in the CPA Review trenches – something that I will take with me for the rest of my life – is quite simple. In the time it takes to come up with reasons why you don’t have the energy, time, knowledge, or ability to pass the CPA exam, you could have already passed it.
Yes, you. You could have passed this thing years ago. All of a sudden you’re staring down a promotion and realize that there’s no way you’ll be able to make the leap with that obnoxious colleague who passed the exam in 4 months. How can you possibly compare?
Well you can’t, first of all. Second of all, I’m willing to bet my entire inventory of Wiley CPA Review books that he’s full of shit. So is the guy who said he had an hour and a half left when he walked out of FAR, as is the chick who says she got a 95 on BEC (she’s our student, you know, and she got three 60s before that, not to mention cussed out by me for an hour before she finally passed). They are not you. And you, little CPA exam candidate, are the only person who matters in all of this.
Not your parents, not your boss, not your firm and not even your significant other. You. Is this what you want to do with your life or not?
If it was, you’d be at the Prometric center in full war paint ready for battle 45 minutes before they open, not calling me trying to explain how complicated your life got in the two years since I’ve heard from you. Apparently you forgot that you friended me on Facebook and I can see you filling out 79 quizzes in just three short hours.
What exactly are you waiting for? Time? Trust me, you’ll never have it.
Let’s Discuss CPA Exam Results
Explain yourselves.
Let’s Talk the CPA Exam
Disclaimer: Author is Project Coordinator/new media scientist for a leading CPA Review course. She’ll try her best not to bash any competitors (*coughthismeansyouTimGeartycough*)
Let me start this by saying we have a problem in the accounting industry. I’m not sure if it starts with the accounting professors or the firms, nor am I sure whether or not it is even fair to blame the powers that be over the accountants themselves but there seems to be an overwhelming thread of apathy and fear dominating professional licensure.
More, after the jump
Some facts are unavoidable; firms don’t always support the journey to CPA licensure (let’s face it, it isn’t exactly an easy trip), accounting professors don’t always prep future grads for the careers they are about to embark on and of course the AICPA Board of Examiners complicates things by throwing curveballs like new pronouncements and a laundry list of changes to exam content that pile up every six months. Who can keep up?
Well that’s the candidate’s job, isn’t it? Is this what you wanted to do with your life? Is this the path you took?
Of course it is, if it weren’t such a long, drawn-out process we’d have way more CPAs running around signing off on half-assed audits and trying to claim a client’s parrot as a deduction. Firms hate to think that they aren’t getting all of your blood, sweat, and tears; knowing that the exam will likely take all the good brain cells an accountant has left, they hate to see their new hires buried in Financial Accounting and Reporting. Why?! Don’t they want qualified professionals on their payroll? Well yes. To hear the firms tell it, new hires are the ones dropping the ball.
I can’t say why the Big 4 and beyond make it appear as if they do not support licensure. I do know that in the last two years I have personally witnessed a critical shift in the industry; whereas once upon a time the they just wanted a warm body in the chair to push buttons, they are now looking beyond “mediocre” and towards ambition, which inevitably leads to certification. The days of stumbling up the corporate ladder to manager without a CPA license are over and frankly I couldn’t be happier to see that shift.
Countdown for Current CPA Testing Window
Since exam scores were being released last week, we probably don’t need to remind some of you that next Monday marks the end of the current testing window for the CPA exam. For some of you that means that you’re working 10-12 hours a day and then going home to study on your own or to listen to the sweet voice of Peter Olinto. For a few of you, it may mean that you’re coming up on your 18 month deadline to finish the exam. SHUDDER.
Of course if you were/are up for manager and you’re still studying, you probably haven’t been sleeping for months. We’re guessing that tax associate didn’t even bother registering to sit this summer but we could be wrong.
Whatever your situation, we’re sure that you feel like you could be studying more. Does your firm allow you to study at work? If so, is that even feasible for your current workloads? The firms put a big priority on passing the exam but your work better get done, right? Are they still paying bonuses for passing or did they cut that too? Let us know about your firm and whether or not passing the exam is a reality considering you’re all doing more with less.
CPA Exam Results May Be Available for the Current Testing Window
Received notice from a reader that CPA Exam results are available for the most recent window. So if you took the CPA Exam at the beginning or middle of July, check your state’s board of examiners’ website and share the good news or your tale of woe in the comments.
Also feel free to discuss your affinity (or lack thereof) for Peter Olinto and Tim Gearty in helping you on your quest.
Try to Compose Yourselves After Reading This Post
Being accountants, we don’t have too may rock stars among us. Oh sure, maybe Tim Flynn is the cock of the walk at the Radio Station or Barry Salzberg can’t walk around Big D’s office without associates crawling all over each other to touch his clothes but these men pale in comparison to the immortal we are about to present to you.
If you saw this man on the street, his swagger would make your knees week, his impeccable attire would cause you to stare uncontrollably and the sound of his voice might overcome you with so much nervous excitement that you might projectile vomit all over him.
Find out who this man-god is, after the jump
We present you with this:
Now we realize that the mere thought of Tim Gearty and Bob Herz on a cruise at the same time is probably more than most of you can handle but we had to share with you that the oracle of Becker Review was on Twitter bestowing encouragement and wisdom. All of you out there working to dominate the CPA exam can now rest easy that Tim will always be available in the Twitterverse.
You’re welcome.
Dear Becker,
A reader was kind enough to share with us a letter they sent to Becker after the software expired and was rendered utterly useless.
Here’s an excerpt:
“The Becker lectures sang to me like a siren’s song. Much like poor Odysseus, I screamed for more. Yet, unlike Odysseus, there was no one there to keep me safe. Tim Gearty became the man that I yearned to be. He is smart, funny, humorous, debonair, more dashing than James Bond and full of more knowledge than Ken Jennings. His style rivals that of GQ’s Man of the Month.”
Check out more love for Tim Gearty and Peter Olinto in the whole letter, after the jump
We’re Here to Listen to Your CPA Exam Stories Because We’re Solid Like That
Okay, so the purpose of the Elijah Watt Sells post was not to make any of you feel like you’re lesser accountants. We just figured that a good portion of you were hung over today and the story of 10 individuals that got vomit-worthy scores on the CPA exam would get you past the nausea and running to the bathroom to lose that 3 am breakfast.
Now that you’re feeling better, we want to appeal to the rest of you. We want your CPA exam horror stories. Not because we want you to send you running back into the bathroom to sob in the stall. Not because some people we know passed all four sections in one sitting and don’t have any good stories. No, no. We want your stories because we here to listen to you. Besides, they’re probably funny now anyway. Aren’t they? Even if you’re still mortified or pissed off, this your opportunity to vent about it.
Sooooo, did you run out of gas on the way to the exam site? Did your computer crash with 10 minutes to go and you had to re-take the entire exam? We’re you caught cheating?!? Or watching porn? Impress us…
Elijah Watt Sells Award Recipients Make the Rest of Us Want to Puke
The AICPA announced the winners of the Elijah Watt Sells awards yesterday. For you mere mortals, this is an award for the 10 highest cumulative scorers on the CPA exam.
Glancing over the recipients we notice that two Big 4 firms (KPMG and Deloitte) enslave employ five of the recipients. A couple of recipients work in industry and a few more work for smaller, local firms.
This leads to the obvious question of why the hell P. Dubya and E&Y were totally shut out? Grant Thornton and BDO were also blanked. Are the honchos at the Radio Station and Big D giving the worker bees more time to study? Are P. Dubs, E&Y, et al. cutting out the bonuses for passing and thus destroying anyone’s motivation for passing? Are those of you looking to pass already choosing between eating and sleeping (and maybe sex) so studying just isn’t happening? Sells was a Big D founder so maybe the whole thing is rigged? Thoughts anyone?
Oh and congratulate the recipients while you’re at it (without vomiting on them).
AICPA-HONORS-TOP-CPA-EXAMINATION-PERFORMERS.pdf