The Dumbest Thing You’ve Read Since ‘Women’s Brains Absorb Information Like Pancakes Soak Up Syrup’
It’s been three and a half years since we first found out about the sexist seminar in which women in leadership positions at EY were told that women’s brains are like pancakes and soak up information like syrup. The exact quote from that training to refresh your memory: Women’s brains absorb information like pancakes soak […]
Some High Level Folks Have Abruptly Left BDO and No One Seems to Know Why (UPDATE)
People who know know there’s something happening at BDO USA. We are working on getting to the bottom of a few things that we can’t quite share with you until we have more information but in the meantime, we need to talk about how leadership is apparently getting axed — or leaving? — and no […]
A Guide to Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse for Public Accounting Zombies
Surely most of you have heard about two horrifying and completely bizarre incidents recently; the "Miami zombie" who ate 80% of a dude's face off and the Maryland engineering student who chopped up and ate his roommate. I grew up in Milwaukee not that far from Jeffrey Dahmer's house so I can't say cannibalism in […]
Tormentors of IRS Fresno Location Have Lost Their Sense of Scatological Humor
We managed to get through tax season without any bomb/white powder/crazy man in a plane incidents at IRS locations (that we know of). That's the good news. The bad news is that anti-IRS forces never rest. Why? Because crazy never rests. Yesterday, the Service's Fresno location fell prey to a "white powder scare," which has […]
WFT Has Another WTF Moment with Its Tax Accounting
Remember Weatherford International? That's the company whose internal controls (or lack thereof) led to $500 million in tax errors and restatements going back to 2007. Also as a result, the Chief Accounting Officer left the company to "pursue another career opportunity." Not the company's finest hour. After such a harrowing financial reporting experience, one might […]
Awkward Sexual Advances And Your Drinking Problems – A Holiday Guide from Rothstein Kass
Hopefully this week is light for you and your cohorts, giving you some time to clean up your inboxes, hide frat party photos from your new Facebook Timeline, or finish up last minute holiday shopping. Here at GC we are already feeling the holiday hangover so luckily the email and “official” attachment below provided us with a good ol’ fashioned “WTF.”
Someone Obviously Needs More Billable Hours
Where do you draw the line between a hobby and hoarding? Probably right here, with the young UK accountant so obsessed with ice cream he bought the ice cream truck he used to patronize as a kid:
Chris Copner loves everything to do with ice creams, so much so that he has a house full of memorabilia, including bins, signs, and Matchbox vans.
Chris – who no doubt counts 99 among his favourite numbers – spent £1,400 on the 1976 Ford MKI Transit van after he saw that it was up for sale and recognised its number plate from photos of him as a child.
He has since restored it to its former beauty, complete with all the old-school favourites such as Rocket lollies and Mr Whippy ice cream, at his home in Abergavenny.
The 23-year-old said: “It all started off when I was about five and my friends and I used to wait for the ice cream van to come each day. I just remember being fascinated by it so I started buying little Matchbox cars and vans and my collection just grew and grew from there.
Copner admits to having quite the hoard, including a cabinet full of stuff at his home and boxes upon boxes in his house, as well as a bunch stashed away in the homes of his parents and grandparents. Man, why am I paying $50 a month for my storage unit?
Strangely, the young number-cruncher has no idea why he loves ice cream vans so much. “I don’t really know why I became so fascinated by ice cream vans,” he said. “I think it was the anticipation of waiting for it to come when I was a kid.” Actually reading that makes his love of waiting for something to happen all that much clearer.
Starting Today, Prometric Will Pull Out the Metal Detector
Prometric is only one step away from TSA at this rate, next thing you’ll likely have to submit to backscatter body scanners. 95 year-old CPA exam candidates will have to remove their Depends, while younger candidates will have to accept getting groped by Prometric staff. Awesome, isn’t it? Aren’t you guys thrilled you chose the most trustworthy occupation on the planet besides Hollywood madam?
Thanks to the many (and I mean many) tipsters who sent us the following email which was sent out to all CPA exam candidates on Wednesday:
Prometric is committed to a strong, secure, testing environment for the CPA Examination and for all candidates visiting one of its test centers. Over the past few years, Prometric has made several significant investments to further strengthen security in its test centers, including a global roll-out of digital video recorders and enhancements to biometrics at the centers. This communication is to advise you that there is a new security enhancement being introduced into Prometric centers this week.
Starting July 1, Prometric Test Center Administrators (TCAs) will be using hand-held metal detector wands to scan all candidates in the Test Centers in the United States and Territories. All candidates will be scanned prior to each entry into the test room, including returns from breaks. Candidates will still be required to turn their pockets out, and the scan will be done immediately afterward. The purpose of the wand scan is to take an additional step in identifying any prohibited items that a candidate is attempting to take into the testing room.
Prometric’s Security Department conducted a pilot of this program in 2010 using the wands for a period of five months. Approximately 60,000 candidates were scanned during that time. Ultimately, the wand was found to be a strong deterrent and operationally effective. Based on the results of the pilot, Prometric has decided to move forward with this program and has deployed hand-held metal detectors to all U.S. Test Centers.
In addition to this message, information about wanding has been added to Prometric’s standard Test Center Regulations Form. This form is posted on Prometric’s website and is given to all candidates to read prior to check-in.
The scan will be done in full view of the TCA DVR camera so it will be recorded, and any candidate complaints or escalations can be properly investigated. All candidates will be required to submit to the scans. Any candidates refusing to be scanned will not be permitted to test. Please rest assured that the metal detectors do not affect pregnancies, pacemakers, or other medical equipment that’s connected to the body.
This small change will help to make our test even more secure, and further protect the integrity of our exams.
I wonder how much this has to do with the candidate in Illinois caught “cheating” (we still don’t know what exactly he or she was busted doing, be that using a crib sheet or actually trying to smuggle out exam content).
We checked the Test Center Regulations and still don’t see any mention of metal detectors (or bodyscanners).
Note: Puke Is Not Among Prohibited Items at Prometric
As many of you know, we try to stay up on the haps in the land of MCQ and TBSs by playing Twitter detective, stalking the CPAnet forums and, of course, reading CPA exam candidate blogs. One of our favorites has always been Sleep on CPA due to her positive attitude and willingness to share her experience in its rawest form, disasters and all.
So we couldn’t pass up the chance to share her BEC experience with you all when we read it. Remember the candidate who got into it with Prometric over gum-chewing? That was nothing compared to this:
As it was not month end, I was the only one who was sitting for CPA Exam. I watched another exam guy who was debating rules with the staff over his exam code not working and there was no one who could help him with that. After answering all his questions a staff member came to me and collected my ID and NTS. I removed my items and locked them and went in. Then I was told to remove scarf. She checked my ID and asked me to sign in and then she asked me to go back and lock my NTS after I entered my launch code on the paper booklet. Then I told her about my nausea and asked her how should I proceed in case I want to throw up. She looked at me as if I was asking some thing illegal. She said, as you are not a candidate with special needs I cannot allow you to sit in a special needs room. I asked,” Can I leave the room If I have some emergency? She said “you can throw up beside you, we will clean later.”
I really had no reaction on my face when she said that. I asked, Do we have any waste basket inside? She said, No we don’t keep waste baskets inside. There is nothing we can do about it. She discussed with another lady and said, We cannot provide you the room with special needs, you should sit in the same room and there is nothing we can do. You can only take breaks in between your test-lets. After appearing in this exam more times than I passed.. Excuse me I know Prometric rules..
I prayed God and with all the prayers of my friends and family members, I felt better and the whole exam went well. I was little tired but that’s OK.
It goes without saying that we’re glad Rose didn’t actually hoark all over the floor and actually, we’re kind of surprised this is the first we’re hearing a story like this. Maybe most of you do the responsible thing and puke in the parking lot or in your locker, lest you compromise the security of the CPA exam by eating your homework books ahead of time and barfing out time value of money charts during your exam.
We are all for reasonable security measures but really?! Shouldn’t there at least be a designated puke bucket that Prometric staff can sign in and out?
Do you have a bizarre CPA exam story to share? Need advice on which part to take? Feeling like you need to vent? Get in touch, I’m here to hold back your hair.
Attention, Attention! This Dude Passed the CPA Exam on the First Try
Forgive us for the fluff but it’s Friday. With busy season in full swing, it’s dead and you guys aren’t reaching out for sage or even somewhat useful advice so we’re sad to say this is the best we got.
Since when does passing the CPA exam warrant a whole article? We’re not against the idea, just wondering when that became the thing to do.
Don’t you wish your firm did something like this for you? Or that maybe your wife would have thought to take out a half page ad in the local paper when you finally got an 81 on BEC after four tries?
No, people, you’re setting the bar way too low. You need to be this guy.
Via the Central Michigan Morning Sun (by all accounts this is a totally legitimate newspaper):
M.C. Kostrzewa & Co. P.C. CPAs of Mt. Pleasant has announced that Gregory Erickson has passed all four parts of the CPA exam in his first sitting for the exams.
Nationwide only 4 percent of applicants pass the exams in their first attempt.
Erickson, a graduate of Grand Valley State University, resides in Mt. Pleasant with his wife, Bethany.
Since most of you probably didn’t get your own article when you passed (sorry, intentionally underachieving generally doesn’t warrant its own fanfare), you might think this is a freakish concept but actually we found another, this one for Oconomowoc CPA Jennifer Konieczka. Is this a midwestern thing? Is it akin to your parents publishing an engagement announcement if you actually land yourself a winner?
We’re baffled.
In a related note, however, because we would never want underachievers to be left out of feeling special, we have taken it upon ourselves to offer up space here on our site for special CPA exam announcements or congratulations along these same lines. Write us if you have an appropriate nomination and bonus points for endorsements such as “most Irish Car Bombs the weekend before REG without getting a 67” or “this person guessed 50% of their multiple choice problems and still got a 75.” Please leave your bragging about passing all four parts in 2 months to more reputable publications like the Morning Sun.