The CPA Exam

Tonight I took, what I hope is, my last section of the CPA exam. I started this journey nearly a year ago in August of 2014. It has been an exciting and at times grueling experience. The other day one of my friends made an observation that the test is more about perseverance than brilliance. I think that is true. I worked so hard and I had a lot of success. As I took each section I wrote down some thoughts. Here is my experience:

 

Financial Accounting Reporting (FAR)

 

The first CPA exam I took was Financial Accounting Reporting (FAR). At the University of Utah, they give MAcc students the opportunity to take an online CPA review course and award credit towards graduation. Each course is either 3 or 1.5 credits. It is really a great program. All I had to do was take some online quizzes and a couple of tests to get credit for the class.  I was able to participate in this program while using the study materials I got through EY. (One really great benefit of signing on with a CPA firm is that they pay for your study materials, which costs $3,000+). Not many MAcc programs let students complete CPA review courses for credit. I am really glad the University of Utah does because I got a great jump on the CPA exam, which will make a huge difference in my first year working for EY.

Starting to study for a CPA exam is very difficult. There is so much material; it is overwhelming. This is particularly true about FAR. It covers the most material out of the four exams. I quickly realized I needed to focus on studying the way Becker (the review material) wanted me to study and not really worry about my masters’ class. This was a good decision because as I studied for the CPA exam I was more than prepared for the quizzes and tests I had to take for my class.

I started studying at the end of August and by the middle of October, I was close to getting through the material. I had already signed up and received my notice to sit (NTS). Getting an NTS entails a lengthy process where you have to submit all kinds of paperwork to the National Accounting Standards Board (NASB) to show you meet the requirements to take the CPA exam in the state you are applying through. Utah recently changed its laws so that students who have a certain number of credits can apply to take the exam while they finish their MAcc. This allowed me to apply to sit in Utah.

Once I had my NTS I could schedule my exam whenever I wanted during an exam period. The CPA exam is open every day of the week for two months at a time, and then there is a one-month closed period. This makes it so that you can take an exam 8 months of the year. I decided to take the exam in November (because December is an off month.) I signed up to take it right before we went to New York for Thanksgiving. That way I could take the exam and then wake up the next morning and get on a plane.  

I spent those first few weeks of November reviewing the material. I would review each chapter and do tons of practice problems. I also took two practice tests. I did not do as well on them as I hoped, but I did improve on the second test and I felt like I would have passed both of them. The week before the exam I worked on 90 multiple choice questions a day. By the second day I was getting 92-98% correct. This really boosted my confidence. The day before the exam I did not do any studying. I relaxed and worked on homework for other classes. I listened to music and watched TV. I wanted to feel as stress-free as possible.

On the day of the exam, I did the same thing. I did not review it at all. I focused on being happy and positive. I skipped class that morning and I slept in. I ate good food and drank plenty of water. An hour and a half before the exam Debbie picked me up and gave me a ride to the U. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to get to the testing center and get signed in. It was a good plan. I got to the testing center really early. They checked me in and let me get started early. The check-in process is quite extensive. They require multiple forms of ID, you have to empty everything out of your pockets, they have you leave your stuff in a locker, they fingerprint you, they take a picture of you, you have to sign in and out, and they wand you with a metal detector before you are allowed to enter the testing area.

The exam itself seemed easier to me than the Becker material. There was not anything on the exam I felt like I had not learned. The exam consists of 90 multiple-choice questions and 7 simulations. I moved through each section at a good pace. They give you four hours to complete the exam and I finished about an hour early. I left feeling confident, but I did not want to get my hopes up. It is so hard to tell how you did when you leave the exam. Whenever anyone asked I would say I could have passed or failed, either way, I wouldn’t be that surprised. I had to wait about two weeks until they release the scores. I was nervous, but I tried not to think much about it. On the morning the scores were released I got up at my normal time and I pulled them up on the computer. I got a 96. I could not believe it. The high score on any CPA exam is 99. So I killed it. I was so excited. All of my hard work and hours of study really paid off.

The only downside of taking the exam in November was that my CPA review class through the University of Utah ran through the end of the semester. So I still had to stay up on FAR and keep it fresh until mid-way through December so that I could pass my final exam. It ended up being fine but seemed a little silly since I already knew I passed the “real” exam.

Audit

 

After I got my score on FAR I began studying for the Audit portion of the CPA exam. During the spring semester, I took an Audit review course. This time I was mostly through the Audit material before the semester even started. I took the class mainly to lighten my course load (once again I took the test well before my class at the University of Utah ended.)

When I started studying I was once again overwhelmed by the amount of material. Each time I started a new test I wondered how I would ever know the material well enough to answer countless questions about it. My confidence from doing so well on FAR was quickly erased.

The FAR and audit portions could not be more different. The focus of FAR is on the technical application of accounting principles (both U.S. and international) and the items on financial statements. There is a good mix of conceptual and calculation problems. The focus of the Audit test is on the requirements placed on an auditor and on the laws and standards that govern an audit (and other types of professional services.) The questions are basically all conceptual. You either know the answer or you don’t. It is really hard for Audit to work through a problem to find the answer. The audit test has the reputation of being the easiest of the CPA exams. It also has the lowest pass rate, which is somewhere in the high 40% range (each of the tests is right around the 50% pass rate). I think the low rate is due to people underestimating the exam.

I followed the same study plan for the Audit test that I used on FAR. I started studying for Audit in December and I signed up to take the test in February. I didn’t put in as much total study time, but it was okay because Audit has less material to cover. As the exam date approached I was getting pretty nervous. I felt like I could pass, but I really wanted to do exceptionally well. The Elijah Watts Sells award was on my mind. It is an award for anyone who passes all four sections of the CPA exam on their first try with a 95.5 average across all the sections. Since my score on FAR was 96 I really wanted to try to get the award (in 2013 more than 94,154 candidates sat for the CPA exam and only 55 met the requirements for the Elijah Watts Sells award. It is very prestigious.)

I began to wonder if my success on FAR was a fluke or if I could repeat it on Audit. I had a lot of doubts about my ability to match or exceed my performance on FAR. I tried to temper my expectations and the expectations of my friends and family. I told everyone I would be happy if I passed and that the score did not matter. Part of me wanted to get in the 80-range just to take the pressure off. If I did get in the 80-range I would be out of the running and I could rush through the next two tests. During the week leading up to the test, I did my 90+ multiple-choice questions a day. I was once again scoring in the 95-98% range. This time it did not really boost my confidence. I also took some practice tests. On Audit, you have 4 hours to complete the exam, just like FAR. I found I would complete a practice test in 2-2.5 hours. This made me nervous because I wondered how similar it would be to the actual exam. At least I knew there was a very small probability I would run of time.

This time I scheduled the exam for a Saturday. Alison and I got up and went to the gym. We came home and relaxed. We listened to a CPA playlist I made. It was full of songs to pump me. We made some lunch and got out the door late. I was pretty stressed. You are supposed to be there 30 minutes prior to the scheduled exam time. We arrived at the testing center just in time for me to be there 30 minutes early. They checked me right in (the process is slightly less tedious the second time around because they already have your fingerprints on file) and I got started.

I actually felt like this exam was more difficult than FAR. There were more questions where I did not feel like I had ever studied that material. I worked through each question giving it my best effort. I took plenty of time because I knew the time would not be a limiting factor. I was pretty nervous throughout the test because it seemed more difficult than the Becker materials. This exam also had 90 multiple-choice questions and 7 simulations. I moved pretty quickly through the multiple-choice sections, but I spent a lot of time on the simulations. I ended the exam a little more than three hours after I started. This time I really had no idea how I did. I thought I probably passed, but no score between 70-95 would have surprised me.

Once again I had to wait two weeks to get my score back. This time I was a lot more nervous. I thought about it more during those 14 days than I thought about my score on FAR. On the morning of the score release date, I got up a few minutes early and checked my score (I thought about staying up until they released the scores, but decided it wasn’t worth it.) I was so surprised and excited. I got a 99! I woke up Alison to tell her the good news. I just couldn’t stop smiling. I was excited to tell my friends as well. They all gave me a hard time. I had one friend who did not pass the audit test who told me he was excited for me, but a part of him really hated me for doing so well. That was fair. I felt proud. I did really well on a difficult exam. My first score was not a fluke. I really felt like I had a shot at winning the Elijah Watts Sells Award.

 

BEC

 

I waited until I got my score back for Audit before I even started preparing for this exam. My preparation was a lot different on this one. I had more confidence, but I also had less time. I started studying and got through section 1 of the Becker material and then I went out of town for 11 days over spring break. While I was gone I did nothing. I knew I wouldn’t but being gone so long put me back further than I was expecting. Even once I got back things were crazy. During the month of April, I had so many projects and tests in school that I was overwhelmed. I had to decide what was the most important to me. I decided it was the CPA exam and I started to prioritize it over my school classes. I still did well in school, but when I had to let something slide it was schoolwork.

My last semester in school ended up being so busy. I had a pile of projects and finals due the last week of April. I still studied, but not as well as I hoped. I originally thought I would take BEC right after graduation, but I ended up pushing it back until May 28. I graduated the first week of May (that was an incredible experience) and then Alison and I took a trip with some friends to Carlsbad. That was a few more days of no studying. Before we left on our trip I finished my first time through the Becker BEC materials. Once I got home I started my review. My initial goal was to review two chapters of material a day. It was way too ambitious. I really ended up getting through about one and a half chapters of material a day. To review I would reread each chapter and complete all of the questions I originally missed from that chapter. I finished my review with a few days to go. Then I went through all of Becker’s flashcards and I would work on between 90-120 additional questions a day. The weekend before my scheduled test day was Memorial Day and once again Alison and I were out of town. During the trip, I tried to do flashcards every day to keep the concepts fresh.

Test day was a lot like my other ones. I tried so hard to have confidence in the work I put in, but I was nervous. I even had a nightmare about failing this exam. I got up and I went running in the morning to clear my head. I did not do any more studying because my philosophy is that if you do not know it by then it is too late. I went to the testing center really early this time. They got me all checked in and I took the test. This was the first CPA test I have taken where I took the full-time allotment. This exam gives three hours and I used all three hours. It was really difficult. I felt like there were more random questions that I had no idea about on this exam than either of the other two. I had no idea how I did. This exam also has a writing section. I really hoped I passed because I did not want to have to do one of those writing sections again. I was more nervous after BEC than I was after the first two. I waited two weeks before I got my score.

I wrote this the day I got my score: I got my score last night. I was so nervous. This was the first time I stayed up at night to check my score as soon as it was available. Scores become available at 1am eastern. Alison fell asleep around 9:30pm and I stayed up watching TV while I waited. At 11pm I immediately tried to get on to check my score. Apparently, there were a lot of people who were trying to check their scores because I could not get the website to load. I kept refreshing over and over. Finally, I got through to my score…I got a 95. I was so excited. Not only did I pass (which is what I really wanted), but I was also still on track for the Elijah Watts Sells award. Three down, one to go. I woke up Alison. She was also excited. It was one of the few times she wasn’t mad to be woken up in the middle of the night. After I told her about my score I wanted to log in again to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. A lot of people must have still been trying to get their scores because it took another 10 minutes to get back to my score. It was still a 95. I was so relieved.

Regulation

I took the rest of the day off after the BEC exam. The next day I started studying Regulation. I wanted to have the exam done by mid-July. If I wanted to make that deadline I had no time to waste. My schedule called for me to finish my first run through the material (8 chapters for Regulation) by the end of June. This gave me about two weeks of time to review before I take the exam.

 

Studying for Regulation was a lot different than the other tests. The biggest difference was that I had nothing else on my plate. Alison would go to work and I would stay home and study all day. I would take a few breaks, but for the most part, I just studied hard. There also weren’t too many interruptions to my study schedule. We went out of town for the 4^th of July, but other than that we were around. I moved through the material on schedule and started my review. This was the best review I have had. I added a lot of extra questions (at least 30 extra a day). I also added a lot of flashcards. I really focused on keeping the material fresh. This was the first time through a review that I actually stayed on my planned schedule. I got through one chapter a day. By six days before my test, I had reviewed every single chapter and done every single multiple-choice question Becker provided.

Despite my preparation, I was still very nervous. The week before my test I had a terrible dream I got a 71. It made me very restless. I feel a lot of pressure on this test because of my success on the previous tests. On previous tests, if I got an 80 it would have been okay. I told myself it would just take the pressure off my subsequent tests. Now I have performed at a high level and if I stumble on this last test I will be very disappointed. The regulation material is tricky. It is very technical with a number of details that must be memorized. It does not help that tax and business law are not my strongest areas.

 

On July 15 I wrapped up my studying. I did 100 questions and a ton of flashcards. At this point, I was as ready as I could be. That night I went to watch the All-star game at Blake and Debbie’s house. The next morning I slept in and spent the day relaxing. I stuck with my strategy of staying as happy and stress-free as possible. When it was time to take the exam Debbie drove me up to the U. Right before I went in to take my test I got to talk to Alison (she is working in NYC this week). I really appreciated her encouragement. The exam was so hard. I left feeling drained and nervous. I have no idea how I did. This was without a doubt the hardest exam for me. I almost ran out of time. 

 

At this point, I am not worried about the Elijah Watts Sells award. I will be happy if I pass. Now I wait until August 4^th to get my score. For now, I try not to think about it. Tomorrow I am getting on a plane and going to New York. I did that after my first section of the CPA exam and since Alison is there for work we figured it is a good way to wrap up this crazy almost year-long test-taking experience.