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Prometric’s Awful Scheduling System Could Possibly Be the Worst Prometric Horror Story of Them All

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

OK, first thing's first: deep breath. And a little perspective while you're at it. I won't remind you that there are starving children in Africa or anything like that but let's just think about how lucky we all have it before we freak out.

Now, commence to freaking out, by way of my inbox:

Hi,

Trying to create a login so I could schedule an exam continues to be a nightmare.  I have filled out every form given to me and none of them save after submitting.  The site tells me that my browser is not right  as they only accept browsers above IE 5.5  which was what; 20 years ago?  So i tried with a mac, no way.  I tried with a windows 7 OS and I tried with an XP OS not that the OS should make a lick of difference.  Clicked on the website for contact, typed in PA as a state and was give a # for Austin, TX.  I am a little beyond crazy because I need to schedule this test but the only way to do so is  through online.  I hope no one else is experiencing these problems.  Thanks for listening.

IE 5.5? I'm pretty sure the first computer we ever owned when I was 14 had a more advanced browser than that (keep in mind I am old as dirt).

Prometric's website has come a long way over the years. They offer a Seat Availability Tool and everything and you don't even need an exam section ID to try it so of course I wanted to see what it does. Let's see, I am in the United States and let's just look up Virginia for kicks and click NEXT. Hmm. It brings me to a big fat page of scheduling options. Er… "Search for Availability"? Is that the one I want? I guess so. I give up. Yeah, I could see why you guys would be really annoyed by this.

Anyhoo. It just so happens that CPA exam candidates aren't the only ones (shock, I know), scheduling with Prometric has been a pain since before the dawn of time. Just do a quick Internet search and you will find all kinds of annoying tales. There are also some pretty good complaints on Prometric's BBB page, although some are admittedly completely the fault of the candidate (like the "I was 1 hour late to my exam and they wouldn't let me take it or give me my money back" chick). Be sure you read Prometric's responses, which I will sum up thusly if you don't have the time: "Thank you for contacting Prometric. You're an idiot and can go fuck yourself."

In the grand scheme of things, this isn't all that bad. It happens. Get over it. At least you aren't puking on the floor or getting accused of cheating because you didn't disclaim your ostomy bag to test center staff. But it does beg the question, why does Prometric seem to have more issues than are reasonable if they're such a world-class company? Perhaps instead of protecting the integrity of the exam so much, they could put a tiny bit of effort into making things easier on the poor suckers who have no choice but to utilize their "services." Just a thought.

As always, if you have a Prometric horror story to share (no matter how pathetic or undramatic), get in touch.

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CPA Review Instructor Wants to Know Where BEC Got Its Start

Ah, CPA review instructors, got to love them. They teach you everything you need to know, invade your home, isolate you from your spouse and get those annoying mnemonics stuck in your brain.

This one reached out to us to get a bit of background on the CPA exam to share with her students, who I’m sure will appreciate a primer on what becomes many candidates’ favorite exam section.

Hello Going Concern – I have a question about the BEC (Business Environment & Concepts) portion of the CPA exam. I know this is a fairly new section – at least in its current structure. Didn’t it come into being with the advent of the computerized exam, on the 18-month pass window, in the mid-2000’s?

The reason I ask – I am an instructor for one of the CPA review course companies, and I will be teaching the BEC portion of the exam soon. I would just like to give students a little history & overview. I cannot really find anything on the AICPA’s website.

Any help or comments would be appreciated.

Thanks,
“Teach”

You are sort of correct that no one knew what a BEC was until 2004 when the computerized exam arrived on the scene. Prior to that, the four sections of the exam were Business Law, Audit, ARE and FARE. We all know that FARE has since evolved into FAR, likely dropping the extra E to better match with the other three CPA exam sections (fun fact: when I started in CPA review in 2007, the E was still in use by a large number of students). At that time, ARE covered accounting and reporting, tax, and government/non-profit accounting.

Some components from the Business Law (shortened as LAW pre-2004) became the BEC we know today but it is fairer to say LAW became REG, which is why up until this year, some areas of BEC and REG overlapped and covered the same material.

I like to call BEC the junk drawer of the CPA exam, as they’ve tend to stick whatever they can’t stick anywhere else in that section. It seems to have gotten better with CBT-e but it’s too early in the new exam’s form to say that for sure.

When comparing the paper-and-pencil exam to its current computerized form, it’s pretty clear that the breadth of topics covered has increased. BEC has allowed examiners to stick in technology, IT (unrelated to audits), economics, corporate governance and ERM, among other things.

Hope that helps!

Provisional CPA Exam Candidate From Illinois Is Just Now Realizing What “Provisional” Means

I can’t believe it but finally, a CPA exam question I’ve never answered before. I have a feeling our confused candidate already knows the answer but is reaching out in hopes that we’ll tell him what he wants to hear instead of the cold, hard truth. Sorry in advance, bro.

Hello GC,

I just took the FAR section of my CPA exam, I did this while completing my final 9 hours of the 150 hours needed. Therefore, I am considered a provision candidate. From what I have read Illinois will not inform me of my score (is this some sort of sick joke), since I am a provisional student, until my final transcripts are turned into them. The earliest that I will have my final transcripts will be January 2nd. This presents a problem because I was planning on retaking the test if I failed, before I start full time at a big 4 firm on January 3rd. Is there a way around this? What should I do? Should I just enjoy my month break and worry about taking it again after busy season if I did fail? Should I study up again while the information is still fresh?

Also I did fell very prepared taking the test and I would say I am fairly confident that I passed the exam. But who knows until I see the official score.

Sincerely,

Confused

I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Confused, but you’re not only confused, you’re screwed on top of it.

According to the Illinois Board of Examiners, provisional candidates have 120 days from the date they take their exam to submit their final transcript to the board. If you miss the 120-day deadline, your exam scores will be voided and you will be ineligible to sit for any sections of the exam until the final transcript is received and you are determined eligible to test. Until your Provisional Status is cleared, you cannot view or receive any exam scores.

What this means to you is that there is nothing you can do until you have those transcripts. I commend you for trying to get a jump on your CPA exam adventure this early in the game but you may have ended up screwing yourself. If you fail, you may have to start studying for that section again from scratch as you’ll likely have forgotten quite a bit by the time you find out you failed. If you pass, your 18 months has started ticking but you’ve lost time waiting around to wrap up school.

And yes, if you failed, wait until you are able to study to attempt again since you don’t have an 18 month window to worry about. No reason running yourself into the ground if you don’t have to.

What’s the lesson to be learned here? Always make reality part of your plan; unless you knew of a trick around this going into it, it was unrealistic to make a plan that you couldn’t actually implement.

Sorry but them’s the breaks.

Happy Last CPA Exam Testing Day of Q3 2010!

So we heard that some but not that many of you received your scores from this window, if so congrats (we hope) and do let us know how you did. For those of you stuck in Wave 2, um, sorry about that and here’s to hoping you get your 74 before the final window of 2010 gets too filled up to schedule before the dreaded CBT-e changes take effect January 1, 2011 in case you need a retake.

Remember, Q4 2010 could be the most difficult to schedule CPA exam testing window of all time so if you are in Wave 2 and want to take another stab at it before 2011 after you get a failing score towards the end of September, you better be sure to get your reapplication in for a new NTS as soon as you get your score. Be prepared to select an alternate Prometric location or date and time that you didn’t really want as it’s going to be rough getting in for some of you.


Of course, there are those of you in remote areas or CPA dead zones that may have no problems at all but for our little future CPAs in places like Texas, Illinois, California and New York (i.e. exceptionally large numbers of CPA exam candidates testing at any given time) be open to changing your dates or location if need be and don’t flip out if you can’t schedule where or when you want.

If you are testing today on this final testing day of Q3 2010 we’d love to hear what you’re taking. Jr Deputy Accountant’s unofficial poll of CPA exam candidates (really I’ve just been asking candidates I’ve talked to lately and not even taking a tally; sue me) reveals that a large number of you are actually going after BEC either today or before the end of the year to avoid written communication in 2011. That’s a bit of a shock, I assumed most of you would try to tackle FAR before IFRS hits but hey, whatever floats your boat. For those of you who pass BEC this year, you also have the advantage of getting a BEC exam with less economics and IT to worry about, not to mention no essays.

And if you don’t pass? Remember, there’s always next window, CBT-e or not and hopefully we have already calmed your fears surrounding the 2011 changes. It’s a little more to memorize with international standards thrown in the mix but you were already going to have to memorize a metric shit ton of information anyway so what are a few more standards going to hurt?

Good luck to all of you and don’t forget to get in your last minute CPA exam questions before it all changes in a few short months!