CPA Exam Updated

I received an email from NASBA this morning regarding the update to the CPA exam.  In 2011, CPA candidates will be tested using the new Content and Skill Specification Outlines (CSOs/SSO).   Which most candidates, including myself, already knew, but what is new is that the AICPA just released the sample exam on their website for this specific update.   You can try out a sample of the new CSO/SSO’s and see how you like it. Just go to:

http://www.aicpa.org/BecomeACPA/CPAExam/ForCandidates/TutorialandSampleTest/Pages/exam_tutorial_parallel.aspx

They have both the old and new sample tests up at the moment.  I tried the AUD and REG.  I didn’t see anything new on the AUD that was worth pointing out, but the REG portion had a sample tax return you needed to fill out.  I think its a VAST improvement over filling in random questions.  But despite the update I should remind people it looks like you may have to put up with the outdated software from the previous exams.  You would think they would do a major overhaul of this exam when putting out an update like this.

If I do not receive a passing score on REG I might be subject to this, but at this point I am feeling pretty good about passing and I haven’t felt the need to continue to study.  I also have another quarter to take the old exam before they release this update, so if I don’t pass I can try once more before the release.

Ben

Waiting Game

On Friday I woke up to my alarm on my cell phone at 6 am.   I grabbed it and promptly shut off the alarm.  After, a few yawns I clicked on the browser on my cell and hit refresh.   The night before I had entered my NTS and birthday into the NASBA website so I could see if my score was up yet.  It wasn’t but the website stopped working after 10:30 so I had a feeling it would be this morning.  After a few seconds it returned with my score… I passed.  I yelled at my fiance “I passed”, she just shrugged.  It was too early for her to care.

With that news it meant I just had to study for this one last exam.  I just needed a passing score on REG and I would finally be a CPA.  That was Friday.

It’s now mid-afternoon on Monday.  I took REG this morning.  It was just like the rest, it went smoothly enough but I am still second guessing myself.  I could fail  or I could pass.   So at this point its just a waiting game, but at least its August 30th.  That means I shouldn’t have to wait long to find out.

Ben

Scores

This is completely ridiculous. I have an exam (REG) on Monday, which I am feeling good about and I am still studying for it.  If I can just keep myself on track, I can review my study material once more before then.   Which is great.   But the problem is NASBA/AICPA released the scores for the first wave of exams and I should be part of that release.  I did take the exam in the first week of the quarter.   I  checked… and rechecked… and checked again to verify it wasn’t up…  I wasted about an hour last night entering my NTS number and birthday to get my score.  It’s nerve racking as hell.

I just want my score and now that I know they released and my score isn’t up, it makes it feel like I failed.  I wish they released them all at once at a specified time or as that section was completed.  I am studying for another exam and worrying I failed now.

Ben

P.S. I checked twice while writing this.

Outdated and Shameful

I was planning on making a post right after I took the exam, FAR, on July 6th but its been a busy couple of weeks.  This was a TOUGH exam.   Like the last time, I just don’t know how well I actually did.  In fact, I am just not feeling it right now.  I am planning worst case scenario; study for my last exam, REG, and after I take that exam, to restudy FAR in preparation for retaking this exam.  But then again, who knows.  I said the same thing for BEC and AUD and I ended up passing with a pretty good margin for error.

I just want to say I have taken three of the four exam thus far.  And my overall feeling for the CPA exam is pure outrage and shame.  I am going to be a CPA and this exam is past its prime, its outdated, its pure garbage. The program was probably designed over a decade ago so prepare for the unfriendliest of programs.  Let me be clear, it does test the material, but the exam itself is outdated.

You will be using the ORIGINAL windows calculator to do math.  Often I am retyping the calculation 3 or 4 times because it doesn’t register my typing.  You click on the calculator icon and it opens.  Then use the mouse to click on the calculator, type my math problem by keyboard, and hope it actually registered.  If it doesn’t I have to hit clear two-three times and retry typing.  All the while my time is clicking away. And then it disappears after each question. When you are using it 50% of the time, it shouldn’t disappear after each question.

Their version of excel is awful.   You click on entry line, type the answer and then click on the cell you want it entered.  Backwards from every excel program out there right now.  The entry line is at the top of the grid and does not slide with the cells, so if you scroll to the bottom of the screen for the last few questions you need to slide back up to enter them and slide back down to click on the cell.

There were other weirdly designed program quirks too.  If you are curious and have not taken the exam.  This link is a sample program offered by the AICPA, and it is identical to the type of exam you will get.   So you will see how outdated  the CPA exam really is for yourself.   You need to install a small program as well.  Open the webpage below, click on install to install the program and then you can try one of the simulations listed.

http://www.aicpa.org/cpa-exam/launch.htm

Ben

Clock is Tickin

Time is running out for me.   I feel so edgy and out of character the last few weeks studying for this exam.   As odd as it may sound, I loved taking exams in high school and college.  I was the kid who walked out of exams in 10 minutes as the entire class stared.  I never needed the extra 50 minutes to finish the exam.  I always did well, no matter how tough the exam was.   I loved doing it too.  People used to stare and whisper as I left too. And you knew half of them thought I failed and the other half wondered if I aced it.    Finishing an exam quickly does have it drawbacks though, I made small mistakes when I rushed.  But it never bothered me because overall I did so well one mistake here or there and I still did better than 90% of the other students.   Often professors looked at the detail of the exam closely enough that a mistake didn’t hurt my grade.  If I put A instead of B, but my work clearly showed I had the answer for B they would give me full credit or if they didn’t give me credit I went up to them and showed them, then they gave me credit.

But this isn’t a college exam , this is a 4 plus hour CPA exam and there are no mistakes or professors looking out for you.  It covers more material than a typical exam (by far).  And it covers more than I was ever exposed to in college, which may be why I am so uptight about it.   I took every accounting class that was available at Umass, and this exam covers all those classes plus some.

I just feel edgy.  And I don’t like failing.  I especially don’t like failing.   So maybe I am a little more unprepared than I want to be.

I do have another option and it has some merit.  I can postpone my exam.    I only want a little more time, maybe one more week, but any time I postpone to study for this exam I lose on study time for REG.   If I reschedule in the next week it will cost me $35, anytime after 5 business days its $100 and less than 24 hours, I have to take it.

I should make up my mind by Monday if I want to reschedule.  And if I don’t I have a few more days it will just cost more.  Wish me luck, I feel like I will need it this time around.

Ben

FAR + 3 Day Weekend

Last weekend was a real test for me.   Here I am with just over 1 month to study for FAR and I have a three day weekend and no girlfriend to top it off, she was out at her parents planning our wedding.  Lucky me.   But you know what I did?   I being a dedicated moron studied.  It was extremely hard.  I often found myself turning on the television in between sections or running to the fridge and grabbing a snack or calling my fiancee or taking my dogs for a walk.  All legitimate excuses to stop studying, of course.  I mean, how else was I to know what was on TV and who was emailing me every hour.    Despite my trying, I managed to only make it through 25% of the book.  You might say that’s pretty good considering you still have over a month left, and that’s plenty of time to study 2 or 3 times over.  But I am a realist and the fact is I had three days and no girlfriend for those three entire days.  I could have finished 3/4 of the material easy, but I didn’t.

I failed that test.

Ben

35 and counting till FAR.

Notice to Schedule

I received my Notice to Schedule yesterday by mail.  I am still angered by the fact it took so long.  But after receiving it, I called Gleim and ordered a new set up of books.  This at least calmed me down a bit.  Amazingly(sarcasm) it only took a few minutes of my time to order new books.  The operator was polite and extremely helpful, to which I am very grateful, and I should receive them by Monday.  Now that’s  service.

After squaring that away I scheduled my next two exams.  On to the prometric website to sign up.  They have a nice website, and its really easy process to use once you have the NTS.  It takes a minute, but you just enter the NTS and a few other bits of information and you can schedule an exam.  They show you a 3 month window which allows you to select from the open days.  Since I was scheduling so far in advance (1-3 months), I had my pick of days too.  I picked for right after the July 4th weekend for FAR.  It will be a long weekend which will give me some extra free time on the Monday to study and square away any last minute obstacles.   As for REG I scheduled for the last Monday in August, the 30th.   It should give me a lot of time in between the two exams to study.  It will be at the end of that quarter so I will find out in September if I can apply to become a CPA.   It would be nice to have the title before I get married in October, that’s what I am hoping for anyways.  Maybe I won’t tell anyone until the wedding.

Ben

Down to the wire…

So last I posted I had gotten my FAR results with a 73…  This meant that since my AUD credit expires 2/28/10 (today!!) that I had to re-take both FAR and REG this window and pass in order to not lose credit for AUD.  So I studied and studied again.  I did a FAR CRAM through Yaeger and even though it was long and painful, I think in the end it was worth it!  I ended up taking FAR for the 4th time on January 30 and I must say that I did finish with about 30 minutes remaining so I felt pretty good about it.  The question is whether I did enough to get that 75! 

So meanwhile, while waiting for my FAR score, I still had REG to study for since I was taking it 2/27/10 – 1 day before my AUD credit expires…talk about down to the wire!  I have been so busy at work that I didn’t have a ton of time to study for REG, but I have worked in tax for the last 7 years so that part I wasn’t too worried about.  I spent most of my focus on the business law portion.  This week I crammed studying in until midnight just about every night.  I usually follow another-71.com since he hears it directly from NASBA when the scores have been released.  But since I was so busy all week I didn’t have time to check his website to see if any scores had been released.  Wednesday night I decided to take a small break from studying around 9pm and checked another-71.com.  It turns out that FAR scores had been released by the AICPA the night before and were scheduled to be posted to NASBA’s website that night!  The big question was whether to wait until after my test on Saturday or not…  If I looked and I didn’t pass, then I would’ve lost motivation to study for REG.  But if I looked and I did pass, then that would make me want to pass REG that much more!  What do you think I did??

Yes…I have no willpower and I looked.  And I PASSED FAR with an 81!!!  3 down and 1 to go!  This gave me the motivation to push on to keep studying for REG.  I didn’t care how tired I would be by the end of this week I continued to study till midnight every night!  Then…the storm hit…and I lost power Thursday night around 10:30.  I studied by the light of a camp lantern for the next 2 nights.  Yet another challenge in my journey on the way to being a CPA!  Additionally, I was concerned that my testing center in Portsmouth, NH wouldn’t be open due to the massive power outages.  On Friday, I called the testing center and there was no option but to leave a message for someone to call you back.  So I sat there in panic because what would I do if I couldn’t take my test on the 27th and my credit for AUD expires on the 28th???  So I called NASBA…and spoke to a person who was not helpful at all…  Luckily, in the mean time, the testing center called me back and indicated that they would be open on the 27th and I would be able to take my test.  Whew!

So, I sat for REG yesterday, feeling about 75% confident going into the test.  And I managed to finish an hour early so I hope that counts for something!  Again, I feel ok, but it’s whether I did enough for the final 75!  Keeping my fingers crossed because this is it!!  Results are estimated to be released around mid-March according to another-71…stay tuned!

~Erin

The clock is ticking…

So it has been a while since my last post, however, things have not been uneventful. I decided to cram and take FAR on November 30. I didn’t leave myself much study time as work had been crazy, Thanksgiving was coming up, and I was exhausted! I worked part of the day on Monday during the week of Thanksgiving, and decided to take the rest of the week off to study for my exam on the following Monday.

I studied everyday, all day, all night (with a few breaks here and there for my own sanity…) except Thanksgiving (I had to enjoy one day off!).  I haven’t studied like that ever…not even in college!  I don’t think I could’ve fit anymore information in my head after that week.  Who knew studying could be so exhausting!

So I went into the test feeling ok about it (because you never feel 100% great about going into FAR…I would know…I’ve taken it 3 times now…). I sat down and the first question I got, no idea… Second question I got, no idea… Never a good way to start off a test!  I made it through the first testlet, which was really hard and at least half of the questions were calculations (I know this because on my first pass at testlets, I go through the questions and answer all the ones that don’t have calculations, and the ones that do have calculations I “mark for review”, then I go back and do the calculations after).

The second testlet was just as hard, which is a good thing because I must have done good on the first testlet after all!  The second testlet had just as many calculations as the first.  However, when I got to the third testlet, I felt like it was easier than the first two because it barely had any calculations (which isn’t good because that means I didn’t do well on the second testlet if the third was easier).  Ugh!

Feeling defeated, I moved on to the simulations.  Ha – with only about an hour and a half remaining for time!  Which, by the way, is not enough time… The simulations were very hard, and unfortunately, I did have to guess on many things.  I had such a headache by the time I got to the simulations that my head felt like it would explode!  I finished the simulations with about 30 seconds to spare and I walked out of there feeling horrible…

I received my score on December 22 (just in time to ruin my Christmas!) and got a 73…yes…a 73…so close yet so far!  So now my clock is really ticking.  I have scheduled FAR for January 23 and REG for February 27, of which I have to pass not one, but BOTH, or I lose AUD on February 28.  No pressure!  I hope I can get those few additional points I need to pass FAR and breeze through REG (because that’s my strong point!).  Tick…Tock…Tick…Tock…

Crunch Time!

Sorry for being gone for so long! I have had a crazy two weeks. I flew to Orlando for two days for work (3 hour plane ride…took 8 hours) and to my dismay when I got there, it was raining lol. The weather followed me down south. But since I spent a lot of time at the airport and on planes I got a good amount of studying done for FAR. That’s good because my test is on Friday :O. I am a little nervous since this is the first section of the exam I am attempting. I just want to get it over with so I know what it’s like. I am focusing my efforts this week on taking practice exams to prepare me for the big day! haha Wish me luck! The weather better stay nice until I after I take this exam!

~ Rachael