[krokofilen]

My flight time is 8 hours to closest location in the US (direct flight). My plan is to stay awake during the flight, and take a flight so that I land around 6 pm US time. I will go to bed around 22 US time that night and get up around 7 the day after, thereby immediately trying to eliminate the jetlag. I will not take the exam the day after though, but at 1:30 pm the day after that. I.e one full day and 2 nights in the US before the exam.

However, I am currently thinking to do one exam a few weeks earlier, rather than trying to do two exams at one occasion. If I do so, I will have to be quick in and quick out from the US, as. I can nt afford lossing time. So I was thinking to leave at 8 am local time, and land 8 hours later i.e 4 pm local time, which would be 11 am US time. Then go straight to the test centre and do the exam at 1:30 pm (local time 7:30 pm). Anyone tried this?? Does it sound doable or like a horrible setup?

Big 4 Audit Manager from Europe here to pass the CPA in the U.S. of A in 2014! Niiice!

AUD - 95 / Jul 15 / 130h over 4 weeks
FAR - 86 / Aug 14 / 240h over 4 weeks
(11 week break)

REG - 81 / Nov 14 / 200h over 4 weeks
BEC - 87 / Nov 17 / 30 h over 2.5 days

[Anonymous]

WOW! What country do you live in? That's some serious dedication! 🙂 I am taking my next test on the 25th of July and will be coming back from Milan, Italy on the 22nd which is about 20 hours of travel (I live on the west coast) so I'll have about hte same time as you to adjust to the jet lag.

[Quinacridone]

It takes me a week to recover from my overseas flights. I don't know how all of the international test takers do it. Its super-human.

REG - Nov 4, 2013: 88
FAR - Feb 27, 2014: 86
AUD - April 5, 2014: 91
BEC - May 6, 2014: 83

Florida CPA 24 July 2014
(Done in seven months - thank you Jesus!!)

[krokofilen]

Amanda: Amsterdam (The Netherlands). My employer is paying for the whole thing incl travel, so I am not so concernet about spending a 1,000 dollars on a 2-day travel.

Quina: That's a week of recovery to adjust to the different time zone though, and not the actual travel, right? I eliminate that if I take an early flight from Europe and to the exam the same day in the pm (no night involved which is usually what messes up your sleeping pattern). The actual travel does not bother me too much as I live just 20 min away from a major airport, have access to lounges once there, and will book a direct flight to a city on the east coast with an airport close to a test center. So hoping the actual travel will not make me too tired. But again, I have never done this before so who knows.

Big 4 Audit Manager from Europe here to pass the CPA in the U.S. of A in 2014! Niiice!

AUD - 95 / Jul 15 / 130h over 4 weeks
FAR - 86 / Aug 14 / 240h over 4 weeks
(11 week break)

REG - 81 / Nov 14 / 200h over 4 weeks
BEC - 87 / Nov 17 / 30 h over 2.5 days

[Anonymous]

I travelled for more than 20 hours one way to reach US for exams. I made sure that I had not scheduled my exams immediately after I reach and had atleast a week to get over the Jet lag and do my final review.

[OtherGuy]

Wow! That's considerably longer than what I had to travel. My travel time was about 90 seconds (two streets over). I guess I got lucky in that regard.

Good to see your employer is paying for everything, including travel. I haven't seen a dime from my employer… that includes any raise or bonus for passing the exam.

Passed all sections.

[Anonymous]

You’re employer is seriously investing a lot in you which is great. Good luck with the travel & exam. My commute will just be an hour depending on traffic.

[samdiegoCPA]

I never have jet lag if I don't think about what time it is at home and only concentrate on the time where I am… I think you shouldn't take both exams at the same time because that just sounds like a recipe for disaster. I like your first option better if you can do that twice… however, I am a person who requires 8-9 hours of sleep a night and my sleep tracker shows me absolutely dead to the world (no movement, so I am actually sleeping!), so I guess it depends on that as well… aka you passing out during the exam 😛

AUD: 84
REG: 84
BEC: 79
FAR: 83

[krokofilen]

Blahh – yeah, I am really happy about that, I guess I should not take it for granted.

Big 4 Audit Manager from Europe here to pass the CPA in the U.S. of A in 2014! Niiice!

AUD - 95 / Jul 15 / 130h over 4 weeks
FAR - 86 / Aug 14 / 240h over 4 weeks
(11 week break)

REG - 81 / Nov 14 / 200h over 4 weeks
BEC - 87 / Nov 17 / 30 h over 2.5 days

[Anonymous]

Man, reading this really puts things into perspective of hardships piled on for some people as if the test material is not enough to drive you nuts. My test center is 5 minutes away and I complain about “just” studying, geez!

[Anonymous]

I think your second plan sounds the solidest, especially if you can do some final review on the plane, as long as you won't feel too stressed/worried/etc. I took my last exam at 6pm, and still did OK with it…7:30 pm (according to your mental clock 🙂 ) should be OK as long as you can still think clearly in the evenings.

How used to traveling are you? Would the fact that you'd just had an 8-hour flight and were in another country mess with you mentally, or would it just be another day in the life of krokofilen? A 7:30 test wouldn't be over till a bout 10:30 or 11:30 and I'm assuming you'd have to be up before 6am in order to be on an 8am flight, so with whatever time you have to get up, would you still be functioning mentally at 11:30 when your exam finishes? What about taking a nap on the plane? Those would be the things that I would want to consider, but if the answers to those questions are good, then I'd say go for it! 🙂 The good thing with the time change in this scenario is that after you get to your hotel around midnight your local time, it'll still just be early evening US time, so you'll be able to sleep a long night (say, 10+ hours?) if you want and still be up in plenty of time to eat breakfast and fly back (it sounds like you'd be going for a one-night stay in the US).

I'd think that your plan for the other exam sounds much more difficult to pull off well, since you'd be trying to adjust in 2 days instead of taking the exam before you had to adjust…but if you do the test-on-flight-day for your first exam, you can see how it goes and whether you want to replicate it before taking the second exam. 🙂

…but take all my advice with a grain of salt since the furthest I've traveled is 3 timezones, so I haven't had to deal with “real” jetlag. 🙂

[krokofilen]

Hehe thanks for your effort in helping me out here!

Well I did in the end decide to go for a 5 day trip for one of the exams, and then another trip 3-4 weeks later to take the next exam. So not doing the 2 exam at once thing anymore, people in my office adviced me not to. So feel a lot more relaxed about that part now, since I will be flying in and have 2 days before I will do the exam, and then actually stay a few days extra to work from the office over there before I fly back.

Will do a similar thing for the next exam, in August.

Big 4 Audit Manager from Europe here to pass the CPA in the U.S. of A in 2014! Niiice!

AUD - 95 / Jul 15 / 130h over 4 weeks
FAR - 86 / Aug 14 / 240h over 4 weeks
(11 week break)

REG - 81 / Nov 14 / 200h over 4 weeks
BEC - 87 / Nov 17 / 30 h over 2.5 days

[Anonymous]

Immediately adjusting to the time in the country your traveling to has always worked for me. I only sleep when the sun is down it seems to eliminate the jet lag for me.

I got back from a two day trip to Hong Kong last Friday (16 hour flight/ 13 hour time change) and I haven't had much jet lag. Staying up on the flight is tough and you'll be cranky but I think it works out. Just leave yourself a solid ten hours to sleep that night.

[Author]

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