CPA Exam Is History

Hey Friends,

I’m done with the CPA Exam ! I passed the final section (87 on AUD), which means I’ve been able to move on with my life and focus on work, family, fun, and frugality. Good times, eh?

It also means that I’m going to be posting regularly again. I’m committing to one post per week, sometimes more, sometimes less. But that will be the minimum average.

It’s good to be back!

frugalCPA

CPA Score Report – 3/4 Passed!

I passed REG and BEC (sections 2 and 3 of the CPA exam)! It was a huge relief to find that out since I had serious questions as to whether I passed REG.

Now I just have a month to wait for my AUD score. I’m fairly confident I passed, which would mean that I’m just a few months away from being a Certified Public Accountant.

Updated Score Report (Predictions are based on how I felt coming out of the test, not subject matter)

FAR – Prediction: 85, Actual: 95

REG – Prediction: 75, Actual: 83

BEC – Prediction: 95, Actual: 88 (I think the absence of simulations actually brought my score down from what it might have otherwise been since they seem to be my strongest area)

AUD – Prediction: 82, Actual: Still waiting (’til mid-September)

Finishing, Waiting, and Changes

Lots of things are changing.

CPA Exam: I took the fourth and final section of the CPA exam! Now I’m just waiting to find out the results of the last three. Here are my scores and score predictions based on how I felt coming out of the exams:

FAR – Prediction: 85, Actual: 95

REG – Prediction: 75 (this could easily go either way, as I mentioned in a previous post), Actual: ?

BEC – Prediction: 95 (maybe this is an overly generous estimate, but I felt better about this than FAR), Actual: ?

AUD – Prediction: 82 (I’ll be surprised if I don’t pass, but it’s certainly possible), Actual: ?

According to Jeff over at Another71.com, score reports are predicted to be released fairly soon for Wave 1, which, for me, means I’ll probably see my BEC score within the next few days and REG at the beginning of next week.

Unfortunately, AUD will be Wave 2, so I won’t know how I did until mid-September.

That means I have no more CPA exam studying! It has been a serious chore for the sheer quantity of information covered. If I don’t pass any of the sections (REG?), it should be much easier to study the second time around just considering my familiarity with the topics. I certainly hope I passed all of the sections, but I’m not overly worried either way.

Moving: Saying goodbye to friends is proving to be more difficult and saddening than ever before. We LOVE our friends and don’t want to admit that we’ll probably never spend much time with many of them again. I’m confident we’ll make new friends where we’re moving, but that does little in terms of comfort.

Graduating: I’m within days of finishing my master’s degree! It’s just two final exams away, after which you may call me Master frugalCPA.

Money and Getting Out of Debt: I’ll soon be making money. It’s almost unreal, Friends! TheFieryOne might be even more excited than I am! We have over $30,000 in school loans. We’ll both be working full-time, so we should be able to get rid of our debt fairly quickly (possibly even during 2010). I’ll definitely document the journey.

A New Career - As you know, I’m super excited about starting a new career as an auditor at a “Big Four” firm! I’m curious to meet the people I’ll be working with, and I’m looking forward to being part of a team.

More Time for Future Posts Such As: Score results, ways I can start my career on the right footing, our choice of apartment, things I learn at work, business book reviews, and more.

BEC – More like B-EZ

I took BEC the other day. After feeling crushed by REG, I had studied night and day for this one so I wouldn’t risk feeling similary beaten.

And I emerged victorious (at least that’s how it felt)! I was shocked at how simple and straightforward most of the questions were for BEC. I’m not saying I would have passed without studying, because I probably wouldn’t have. But, having studied quite a bit, the answers seemed to jump right out at me.

Of course, I don’t really know if I passed yet since my score won’t be available until at least next month, and possibly not until September. But I CAN say that I FELT like it was much easier than FAR or REG. Which was a very welcome feeling.

I have one more section of the CPA exam to go, friends, assuming that I receive a passing score on REG and BEC (which very well may not be the case for REG). Up to this point, I’ve finished 2 of 5 Becker lessons for AUD, and so far it seems fairly straight forward. I’m really glad I saved it for last because it’s soon going to be the most applicable to my day-to-day life. It’s really starting to sink in that I’m going to be an auditor next month at a “Big Four” firm, and I’m truly excited about it!

Apartment Hunting

TheFieryOne and I have been discussing what we want in an apartment when we move next month. The questions we ask ourselves include

1 – How much extra is it worth paying per month for laundry facilities inside our apartment?

2 – Are we willing to sacrifice how nice the apartment is for a couple hundred dollars of savings per month?

3 – How far should we really be from public transportation, knowing that we’ll use it more than our car?

4 – Is it worth it to purchase renter’s insurance?

5 – Are we willing to get rid of some of our furniture to be able to fit into something small?

Our answers have made it clear that we’re willing to make some sacrifices to save money on an apartment. Certainly, we don’t want to live in a hole, but we’re willing to live without a dishwasher or a washer and dryer. It’s likely that the apartment we choose will be either a house or a small complex. The bigger apt. complexes seem to be charging a premium that the smaller, one-off units don’t charge. Fortunately, craigslist makes finding the latter possible.

In the end, we want to live a comfortable, happy life, but we also want to save money where we can. If that means doing a little extra work up-front to find the right place, and sacrificing a few conveniences, that’s okay. We can think of a lot of good uses for the $2400-$3600 we’ll save. Namely, paying off student debt. Or perhaps European vacations. We’ll see.

REG Is A BEAST!

Many people say that FAR is the most difficult section of the CPA exam. For me – whose academic focus has been financial reporting and assurance – that was not the case. I walked out of FAR feeling like I had passed it. And, thankfully, I had.

But when I walked out of REG today, I had no such feeling. Not even close. I mean, I may have passed, but if I did, it won’t have been with flying colors. Not even close.

That’s okay, though! All I need is a 75! Come on 75! Big money, big money, big money . . . (apparently, in my mind, it’s a lot like gambling, which, btw, is includable in gross income while gambling losses are only deductible as a miscellaneous itemized deduction up to the amount of the winnings, but I digress).

The one thing I feel comforted by, having just begun studying for BEC today, is that there seems to be some overlap of the things I studied for REG on BEC. And like I always say, any overlap is good overlap.

I’d complain about the long wait time for my REG score, but considering all the other things I have going on (selling my house, finding a new apartment, finishing classes, studying for BEC and then AUD, etc.), I probably won’t worry about it too much. If I have to retake the beast, I’ll retake it.

[My actual inner dialogue? "Please, oh please, be a 75! Don't make me take the beast known as REG again!"]

I Passed FAR!!!

Couldn’t be happier about it!

REG has me worried, though, and I’m taking it in 6 days! No time for worries – back to the books and practice problems I go.

Wish me luck!

FAR Down, AUD, REG, and BEC to Go!

At least I hope so. I don’t actually get the FAR (Financial Accounting and Reporting) results for something like a month, which seems like quite a long time to me. But that’s not as long as CFA takers have to wait (more like three months, so I’m told) for their results, so I won’t complain.

I’m not supposed to say anything about the test content, but I can say it didn’t seem incredibly difficult. I studied quite a bit, went through all of the Becker Review materials, memorized the flash cards, and did a healthy portion of the practice problems – many of them multiple times. So I felt prepared, went in there swinging, and came out feeling like I passed. We’ll see relatively soon if that truly was the case.

In the meantime, I’m taking my last few classes before graduating, and I’m also studying for REG, which is a bit shorter than FAR, and not quite as all-encompassing. Then again, it has a bunch of regulatory material that I’m less familiar with since I’ve only taken one business law class back in the day. Fortunately, Becker has come to my aid again by organizing and presenting the material in an easy-to-digest format. I promise I’m not a Becker marketing guy, I’m just really grateful to have review materials to guide my studies and make my review more effective and focused. Plus, you can’t beat FREE stuff. Many thanks to my future Big Four employer for footing the bill.

There is one thing I’ll mention about studying: It’s often difficult for me to stay focused and to keep pushing through review materials. After a few hours of studying (sometimes after only an hour), I get tired of it and want to stop and do other things. But I take courage in knowing that passing all four of the exam sections this summer will be a huge blessing to my future self’s life, and I’ll kick myself if I don’t take full advantage of the time I have now to prepare thoroughly for each section. I doubt I’ll ever have as much “free time” to study like this, and I know I won’t feel like studying after long days at work in the future.

So now is the time to push through the material and pass these exams (I’ll watch the 5th DVD lecture for REG as soon as I publish this post). Best wishes to any others out there studying! Here’s an excerpt from CPAreviewforFREE that strongly resonated with me (I like to dream, but I also recognize that real work is what accomplishes goals and makes dreams come true):

“There is something exciting about planning to win. There is something stimulating about envisioning the winning score and the glory of being the champion. However, at some point, you have to switch over from dreams to reality. That usually means doing some hard work and doing it on a very consistent basis.

Dreams are fun. Hard work can be tedious.
Dreams feel good. Hard work can be very uncomfortable.
Dreams can get you excited. Hard work is best done at a slow and meticulous pace.

But, dreams alone GET YOU NOTHING.

I love dreams and I always encourage everyone to dream. At some point, though, dreams can be addictive and lead to nothing. You have to break through and push yourself to actually achieve success.”

What? I’m Not Special?

I’m still waiting to get my notice to schedule to be able to schedule my CPA exams. For some reason I thought it would be a quick turnaround time despite the 6-week expectation set by the NASBA website. I guess I’m not special after all.

I have a friend who just finished passing all four sections of the exam. I’m very happy for him. I want to be him. At least to the extent that I’d have already passed the exams. He told me that the CPA exam (as a whole) is not as difficult as the GMAT. I found that interesting because the CPA exam requires you to know much more specific, detailed information. It’s also encouraging.

In looking over the review books (I almost wrote “reviewing the review books” but decided against it), I noticed that studying for the exam is going to be a lot like just reviewing everything I’ve learned as an accounting student. The books are laid out as outlines of all of the most fundamental (and sometimes advanced) accounting information under each topic matter. Interestingly, I actually look forward to reviewing most of what I’ve learned. It’ll be a nice way to kind of top off my educational experience and have everything at the forefront of my mind when I start work as a Big Four associate.

My study program begins next Monday (the Becker software helped me set up a strict study schedule based on my proposed exam dates). For now, I’m purposefully limiting my blog posts to CPA exam-related material to avoid it becoming a distraction. Once I finish my last exam I’ll continue blogging about all kinds of things.

As far as current major career and educational goals go, finishing my grad program and studying for the CPA exam are it.

Waiting for My NTS

Last week I sent off my CPA exam application, and now I’m waiting (the estimate is not longer than 6 weeks) to receive my NTS (Notice to Schedule), which will allow me to schedule the four parts of the exam.

I’m planning to do Financial at the end of May, Audit at the beginning of July (every third month is an off month when nobody can take any of the CPA exam sections), Business and Economic Concepts toward the end of July, and Regulation mid-August.

I’ll be taking a few last classes over the summer, too, so I’ll be one busy studier. But from what everybody tells me, it’s definitely worth getting the CPA exam finished before you start working full time.

I’ve cracked open my Becker review materials and have been impressed by the content, the organization, and the way it’s very much catered to helping people develop and stick to their own self study program. That’ll be the key for me - sticking to a well-developed self-study program, even when I’m starting to feel burned out.

Monday marks the beginning of my self-study program. Wish me luck!