#cpaexam

Little starbies studying action going on. That pumpkin spice latte gmfu I’m lactose intolerant 😭

Need Second-Career CPAs or CPA exam candidates for a quick anonymous research survey for a Business Statistics undergraduate accounting course!

Hi everyone, I am interested in learning more about how individuals who are pursuing CPA certification/achieved CPA certification as part of their transition to a second career prepare for and perform on the CPA and if their prior non-accounting education/career has any influence. This is for my business statistics class as an accounting student. I would greatly appreciate your participation. Feel free to share the link if you know anyone who could be a participant. Thanks! 

I originally decided to start my CPA (certified public accountant) journey in my senior year of high school in 2001. Unknown at the time, my inattentive ADHD derailed me in college. I still managed to graduate in 2009 with my B.S. in accounting and started work at a public accounting firm. Still needing about 20 credit hours, I enrolled in a B.S. in finance program in 2011 and in 2013 I was then eligible to sit for the 4 CPA exam sections.

My whole post high school life I was always reminded on how hard it was to pass the exam sections and since each section cost around $230, I didn't want to register for the exams until I was ready. With ADHD, I realized I would never be ready. When you qualify to sit for the exam you have to register and take at least 1 section of the exam within 18 months of being registered... so at the 17th month I took my first section, Audit in 2017. I failed. This was the section I was supposed to be an "Expert" in since I handled audit matters at my firm. This devastated me and drove me into depression.

In January of 2018 I purchased Rogers CPA review program that included video lectures, text book and practice exams. I took AUD again in October of 2018. I studied about 30+ hours watching mostly Rogers lectures and I passed! I didn't find out right away, after around 40+ days of waiting, I found out right after dropping my kids off with their Nana. I wish I'd found out just an hour earlier so I could have celebrated with them but nonetheless, I was so excited.

This left me with three more sections to pass (BEC, FAR and REG). I was motivated. When you pass a section, you have to pass the remaining three within 18 months or you lose credit for the one that you passed 18 months ago. Obviously, this meant I would quickly schedule the remaining exams ASAP.

Wrong... I waited about 8 months before taking another section, BEC and I failed. I studied less than 2 hours for that section. Then in October of 2019 I passed FAR (I studied 30+ hours). However, I scheduled my REG just two weeks after FAR and I was so burned out that I didn't study at all for REG and I failed it. So at this point I passed 2 exams out of 5 total attempts with my BEC retake coming up in December. I failed my BEC retake (studied 2 hours). Now I passed 2 exams out of 6 total attempts.

I was distraught, my window to passing the remaining two (BEC and REG) was quickly closing before I'd lose credit for passing AUD (meaning I'd have to retake AUD). I'd have to pass the remaining two by March of 2020 and if I failed just one of them, I wouldn't have enough time to retake them before losing credit on my AUD exam. I was depressed and demotivated, believing I was a crappy accountant and dumb as a bag of rocks. Compounding my negative emotional state was the fact that now my Rogers exam prep course subscription was now passed the 18 month window that I purchased a couple years ago. Additionally, the fact that I didn't really use Rogers that much in studying for REG or BEC prior to this point just fed into my depression. I called them and they graciously allowed me to have a 6 month extension. I finally took advantage of those video lectures this time!

I then changed my mindset, I went full throttle and scheduled my BEC exam for the middle of January of 2020 and my REG exam at the middle of February. I decided I was going to study 30+ hours for each, came up with a detailed study strategy and watched hours of the Rogers video and audio lectures while taking notes.

It takes about 20-30 days to get your score back after taking a section of the exam, this period of time was excruciating. My ADHD couldn't properly handle this period of time. My BEC score release was a day after the Super Bowl. I am a HUGE Chiefs fan, this is the Super Bowl they WON!! The very next day I found out I passed BEC with a total of 10 hours of study time. I was on cloud 9, I was motivated. I was happy, really happy!

This momentum propelled me through my study time with REG which I took on February 13th wearing my Chiefs dress shirt. If I failed, I'd have to retake not only REG but also AUD.

On February 24, 2020 I learned that I passed REG (with 20+ hours of study time). It took me 8 attempts to pass the 4 sections and yes, I know if I'd spend at least 30 hours studying for each of them then I'd most likely would have passed all on the first attempt. However, I'm not built like that, and working 50+ hours a week in public accounting at the time didn't help either.

To be fully honest, I didn't accomplish any work between February 13th and February 24th as I refreshed the score release website at least a million times. I've finally done it. This realization didn't sink in right away, I was so overwhelmed with emotion, joy and relief.

The process wasn't fully over yet, as I had to wait for the paperwork from the state's accountancy board and to finish the experience verification process and complete the ethics 8 hour CPE course. Besides the lack of publicly available information on this process as a whole that left me with huge amounts of anxiety, I found it very difficult to focus at work. Ethics exam was the worst part, having to get a 90% or higher just seemed tedious to me. Finally forced myself to take it in April and was officially awarded my CPA license on May 15th of 2020.

My only wish would be to have my Mother alive and with me to share in the celebration and because I know this would have made her so happy. However, some of my good friends here threw me a surprise party and I am so blessed to be surrounded by awesome people like them!

Normally this would result in me attending the initiation of new CPA members at the state Captiol but due to Covid, this was instead turned into a youtube digital video of just my picture and my name.

Looking back on it now, I am very proud of my journey. Finally accomplishing a goal that I've had for almost 20 years and at the same time seeing my beloved Chiefs win the Super Bowl is a memory that will never leave me.