Let’s Figure Out How This Person Bombed the CPA Exam More Spectacularly Than Any CPA Exam Bomb in History

Posted on September 25, 2018September 25, 2018 by Adrienne Gonzalez

Ed. note: an earlier version of this article contained the name of a review course the poster claimed to have used. As this information has not been verified and is not relevant to the issue at hand, it has been removed.

Spotted this on Reddit this morning, and like /r/accounting I’m wondering how this is even possible. I thought you got a few dozen points just for entering your name correctly.

Fresh from the Another71 forums:

hi,

I have a peculiar issue which is becoming quite tricky to solve. I use [review course redacted pending verification], and have taken FAR and REG exams till date. but there is night and day difference in my mock exam results and my actual exam results.

please see my scores below for clarity on my problem.
For my CPA -FAR exam i was a bit nervous, but for REG i was extermely confident and this drubbing is killing me and not able to figure out what is going on. Am i submitting the exam test-lets wrongly? Or am i doing something fundamentally wrong which is causing this debacle.
Any help is appreciated.

MOCK-1 FAR : 83
MOCK-2 FAR : 88

MOCK-1 REG : 90
MOCK-2 REG : 95
MOCK-3 REG : 96

CPA Exam REG: 16
CPA Exam FAR: 17

Sweetheart, that’s not a “peculiar issue.” A peculiar issue would be sitting down to take the CPA exam at Prometric and getting served the Certified Nail Technician exam, or signing up for FAR and getting AUD instead. A peculiar issue is when your name is Candace and your Starbucks barista writes Catholic on your frap. When I couldn’t find a single pair of clean socks in the laundry basket because my cat stole and hid them all, that was a peculiar issue. This is straight up Black Mirror shit here.

As it turns out, this isn’t the lowest claimed score ever seen. I believe that title belongs to this sad bastard, who claims they received an 8 on AUD. An. Eight.

I mean, as far as totally unsubstantiated things posted on the Internet by anonymous strangers goes, that looks pretty legit.

We reached out to NASBA to ask what exactly is the lowest possible score on the CPA exam, if there is such a thing, and they have yet to return our call. Probably still busy blocking people on Twitter from the fake score release debacle last week. We’ll let you know if we hear anything. In the meantime, I’m going with extreme operator error or Prometric glitch on this one.

CPA Exam

NASBA To Launch “All New” CPA Exam Tool

Adrienne Gonzalez
September 20, 2011

Remember the guy who told NASBA its website looked like it had been hacked by the 1990s, given its design a rating of “Corey Feldman with a crayon” on a scale of Caveman to Picasso? Ouch.

Obviously NASBA listened to this and other criticism, as they’ve since updated their website from the drab, Geocities-esque throwback to a slightly slicker, more modern design. Hats off to them for that bold decision.

And now, they’ve promised to make CPA exam candidates’ experience with the NASBA website more streamlined, easy to follow and organized. CPA exam candidates already got this email from NASBA last week but if you are not a current candidate or in the habit of ignoring NASBA emails because you aren’t interested in exclusive CPE deals, read on:

NASBA is excited to announce the upcoming launch of the new Uniform CPA Examination Online Application System. Through this new system, at cpacentral.nasba.org, candidates will not only be able to apply online to take the CPA Examination, but also access application information including status and payment history, import prior application data and even view examination scores.

Upon first visit to the site, users will create an online account with a unique username and password. This includes anyone who has previously applied for the exam via the old online application process or through the mail. Creating an online account will give users more freedom to access exam information, thereby improving the experience throughout the process of becoming a Certified Public Accountant.

Don’t try to click on the link, it isn’t ready yet, but will be available Wednesday according to NASBA. The new system is only available to candidates in any of the 32 jurisdictions served by NASBA, so California candidates can go back to lounging at the dispensary and relaxing by the beach.

So… uhh… how exactly is this any different from clicking on the “EXAMS” tab and following the prompts to access the information or applications you need? We aren’t really sure. Presumably, the difference will be that you will have one central account to log into, versus menus to navigate on the current page. But most of you (even those of you that aren’t considered the brightest crayons in the box) can figure out how to get what you need from NASBA’s website as is, especially after a few exam sections.

We’ll go check it out when it goes live later this week but probably won’t have anything new to report unless it’s a really slow news day.