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One Candidate Would Prefer If Prometric Worked On Its Communication

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

It's been awhile since we've heard a horrible Prometric story but with tomorrow being a holiday, we should have seen this coming.

Before I get into the actual story, it's worth pointing out that the Prometric closures themselves aren't necessarily the issue. I have never heard a candidate complain about being informed of a testing center closure a week before their exam, allowing them plenty of time to track down a new testing center ahead of their date.

I have, however, heard a lot of candidates complain about stories similar to the one below, receiving notice not even a full day before their exam, if at all. It's entirely possible that the Lynchburg location has been without power since Friday, which would make the last minute phone call that much more frustrating since Prometric had advance notice. Let this serve as a lesson to all CPA exam candidates: keep your ringer on the night before your exam just in case.

Hey GC,

I am officially a member of the Prometric Haters Club.  I was scheduled to take BEC in Lynchburg, VA this afternoon.  Last night I missed a call from Prometric at 8:17 pm informing me that all appointments for the following day would be cancelled at that testing center, and to call back immediately to reschedule.  I called back once receiving the message, only to be told by a machine that the call center hours are 8 am to 8 pm, and I would have to wait until they open to do anything.  Flash to this morning, wake up early to take one last practice exam, assuming I can move it to a different testing center slightly farther away.  8 am comes (actually when I called at 8 they said they were still closed, had to wait another 5 minutes to try again), and they say that they can't reschedule the same day, even though this was their fault.  Fortunately they were "kind" enough to let me reschedule for a future date (which she said could be tomorrow, until I reminded her that it's a holiday).  Due to my timing of other tests, this had to be in August.  Normally I like to be kissed before I get fucked, and I feel like that is exactly what happened to me here.  I'm sure they had known about any testing center issues earlier in the day, and this whole mess could have been mitigated if they just contacted me sooner.  Overall, big thumbs down for Prometric.

Sincerely,
One of Many

Again, the problem here is not the closure, it's the fact that Prometric informed the candidate of the closure after their phone center was closed. Had this been done earlier in the day, the candidate would likely have had the opportunity to reschedule last night and still make their exam today. Whether or not the candidate should have been able to squeeze it in this week is beside the point, it's a holiday week and we don't all have wide-open schedules.

Anyone else in Virginia disappointed by Prometric today? Let me know.

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Becker Partners With GE China to Deliver CPA Review To Its Employees

With GE slowly but surely shipping most of its important business over to the People’s Republic of China, this could work out to be quite the lucrative deal for the folks at Becker.

Becker Professional Education announced last week that it has entered into an agreement with GE China to provide, through its licensee in the People’s Republic of China, its complete, four part CPA Exam Review course to GE employees in the People’s Republic of China. Becker will also be providing extensive assistance with the CPA Exam application process to GE China employees.

“This partnership represents a tremendous opportunity for Becker to expand our leading international position with a strong partner in GE China,” said Matt Kinnich, Vice President, International and Business Development of Becker Professional Education. “We will be able to help a great number of GE China employees achieve their career goals through our quality course offerings.”

What this means, in simpler terms, is that some guys in China will be authorized to teach out of Becker books, likely using Becker’s own “lesson plan” text which all Becker instructors receive to teach from. I wonder if they’ll edit out some of the written-in jokes to translate for a Chinese audience?

Becker already offers live courses in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.

Is Copy and Paste Cheating on CPA Exam Written Communications?

Today’s reader question comes from a CPA exam candidate who I imagine would prefer to remain totally anonymous so let’s blow right past the pleasantries and get to the question, shall we?

So I just finished my exam yesterday and I am a little concerned about my communications tab. As I still had about 2.5 hours remaining going into my first simulation, I had a lot of time to write my communication. With the amount of time I had, I was able to research my topic extensively.

In my communication, I had used sentences that were straight from the research tab, without referencing it, but a most of my memo was changed and modified into my own words. However, the fact that I used some sentences and phrases word for word concerns me. I can’t actually recall how much I copied, which concerns me even more. Do you know if this is considered cheating? Has anyone copied directly from the research tab and still passed the exam?

Let me tell you, this is a new one even for me so the best way to answer is by defining what the AICPA BoE is looking for in your written communication.

The three components of a successful written communication are organization, development, and expression. This means they are looking for a structured document with clear ideas, supporting information to supplement your statements and use of standard English when conveying your ideas. Now the AICPA BoE spends quite a bit of time and effort developing questions for the CPA exam but that does not mean they are also developing components for you to use in your communication. This means that if you do have lots of time left to work on your written communication, the very last thing you want to do is copy and paste. It was my understanding that the copy-paste function was limited to research problems within simulations only as “transfer to answer” but maybe I’m wrong (stranger things have happened).

That being said, your best hope is that they don’t notice you did that. I don’t think it counts as cheating, exactly, as cheating is defined as having someone pretend to be you to take the exam or somehow smuggling in exam answers as if you’d be able to predict what questions you would get. That last one is probably rare if not impossible as not even the review courses get the EXACT questions that will appear on the exam except for retired questions released each year by the AICPA.

If you took exact phrasing from the authoritative literature, you did not complete the objective of developing nor organizing your statements; you simply took what had already been organized for you and stuck it in there. Suffice to say this is a HUGE NO NO and probably means you will not get points for this area. As I said, maybe they won’t notice and you’ll pass, it’s hard to say.

If you find yourself with lots of time left over for written communication, use it to review your other simulation answers, not to develop the Howl of CPA exam WCs. All you need is a beginning, middle and end. Your answer could be totally wrong but you will still get the points as long as you are clear and concise. You do not get bonus points for flair so don’t bother, you’d be better off going over your simulation to make sure you did everything correctly.

So the short answer is: I don’t think it’s cheating but I don’t think you are going to get the points if they pick up on what you did. Since most WCs are machine graded, the machine may be thrown off by just how perfect your answer is, raising a red flag that gets yours pulled for human review. Again, I could be wrong on this as frankly I’ve never heard of anyone doing this.

Be sure to let us know how it went once you get your score and good luck!

P.S. – don’t do that again. Seriously.

Delaware CPA Exam Candidate Isn’t Sure About Audit Hours

Are you a CPA exam candidate desperate for answers with no clue how to find them? Let me do the Googling for you, shoot me a note and I promise I won’t get snippy (my doctor adjusted my dose).

Hello Adrienne,

I do have 99.99% of the education requirements needed to sit for the CPA exam. All but one, I don’t have any auditing credit hours. Am I going to be able to sit for the CPA or should I go back to school and complete this requirement?

Here’s the good news: in some states, you can sit for the exam before you meet all licensure requirements, and in most, that means experience can wait until you have sat for and passed all exam sections. The lengtave to complete these experience requirements varies by state and due to the ever-changing nature of exam requirements, you will want to verify any information I’m about to give you with the state board directly just to be safe. No one’s perfect, especially me. Delaware candidates may contact NASBA’s Delaware coordinator Misun Shin at mshin@nasba.org or (615) 880-4263.

So, once you sit for and pass all four parts of the CPA exam, you’ll need to take the AICPA ethics exam, which you can order directly from them. Don’t trip too hard, it’s self-study meaning open book. AICPA members get it cheaper than non-members so be sure to join first before you buy it.

Assuming you’ve aced those two steps, you can then worry about your experience.

Delaware work experience is based on the degree you hold. If you have a Master’s, you will need 1 year of experience as an employee of a CPA firm or equivalent experience as an accountant in other fields (e.g., government, commerce, industry). Bachelor’s holders must have 2 years of experience and Associates (yes, Delaware allows you to sit for the exam with a 2 year degree) must have 4 years of experience to be licensed to practice as a CPA in that state. You can no longer receive a certificate (non-practicing CPA title) from Delaware as of 2006.

Your other option is to complete your work experience requirement as an owner, principal or employee of a public accounting firm (full-time). Double the numbers above; 2 years for Master’s holders, 4 for Bachelor’s and 8 for an Associate.

Nowhere on the Delaware Board of Accountancy’s site do I see a mention of audit hours.

The Delaware State Society of CPA’s BeaCPA website states:

2 years experience obtained in engagement, resulting in the preparation and issuance of financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles or other comprehensive bases of accounting as defined in the standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

as a requirement for Associate and Bachelor’s holders. Master’s candidates must obtain 1 year experience including any type of service or advice involving the use of accounting, attest, compilation, internal audit, management advisory, financial advisory, tax or consulting skills.

What this says to me is that you don’t actually need audit hours at all unless you plan on doing audits. Delaware would like auditing to be a part of your 21 required accounting units that make up your education requirement but does not require it.

Again, check with the state board just to be 100% sure but it looks like you’re all clear to sit for the exam at this point, no reason to wait until you have the experience.

Good luck and please check in with us to let us know how your exams turn out!