Monday, June 14, 2010

Which Will I have to Buy – a CPA Review Book or a Picture Frame for my CPA License?

This is where I am now - waiting for my BEC grade.

This grade is a pivotal factor - if I pass BEC, I will have finally passed the CPA exam after taking it 10 years on and off (yes, it took that long!). If I fail BEC, I lose my FAR credit (noooo!) and will have to re-take both BEC and FAR. It took me multiple tries to pass FAR so it would be devastating to lose it. I can't imagine having to go through that again, especially at this point in my career.

My words of advice – try to pass the CPA Exam as soon as you get out of school. Become one of those "slackers" who sit in the office unassigned studying instead of asking to help on clients. I used to think they were goofing off - you're being paid to work, not to study. But that couldn’t be any further from the truth. Those of my colleagues who studied passed in a year or two (with some exceptions, of course), while I increased my billable hours. They may or may not be doing as well as me now, but at least they are done with the CPA Exam.

I haven't posted anything in a while because my energy has been zapped between work, studying, work, life, work and work. I like my job and am happy to have it, but the hours have been long the past few months. Instead of writing for my blog, I end up going to sleep early or napping during my commute (I am actually typing this draft into my phone while fighting sleep during my morning commute). Must get ideas out before eyes close.

A few really cool things have happened that I would like to tell you about:

- My blog was mentioned in CGA Magazine in a piece called Blogging by Numbers by Mindy Abramowitz! I am under the category “Accountants-to-be Who Blog” (although I am more of a CPA-to-be since I am an accountant) I am so honored! CGA Magazine is published by the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada. I want to say hi to all my Canadian readers!

- My blog is one year old :) Yay! It all started when I was looking for an outlet while unemployed and trying to pass the CPA Exam. Here are my first few posts.

- My garden is thriving. There were a few casualties though (peppers and eggplant plants) due to too much water collecting in one of the containers. I planted my vegetable plants in pots since the soil in my yard was too hard to dig. The lesson here: Make sure all your pots have drainage holes! I will write more about my garden in other posts.

- I passed REG! I was surprised because I had a really bad experience at the test center even before the test started. I had written a draft about it and will post it soon.

How are you doing? Let me know in the comments! Let me know if you are waiting for your grade in Wave 2 of this April-May testing window as well. Hopefully, we will all receive some good news this week!

7 comments:

  1. I am waiting on reg. I'm not very hopeful though as it was a complete disaster. I was rather disappointed too, as I felt the most prepared out of all my exams going into reg and definitely the worst coming out of. Makes me feel like an idiot since I work in tax. It's almost like, "if you can't pass the test that is passed around your profession, then just give it up!"

    My journey has been about 1 year now, 4 attempts & fails at audit and 2 with FAR. My most recent audit grade last wave was a 72, that hurt. Wave before that was the FAR grade of a 70, ugh. I feel like I'm getting there, I just need to commit more study time. I have BEC 4 weeks from today and will start studying today. Fingers crossed that this is the end of the journey for you!!

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  2. Shannon, you never know, you may have passed. I thought I bombed REG when I took it in February, but I passed. It's funny how we always can't pass the part we have the most exposure to at work!

    Thanks, I hope we pass, too!

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  3. Very helpful post. Well that makes sense. Thank you for sharing! Radu

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  4. bec results are out. Did you pass?

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  5. Hey Anonymous,
    Unfortunately, I did not pass. I am pretty bummed out about it, but am trying to move forward.

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