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First of all, thank you to all of the CPA candidates that came before me and shared their experiences. Your posts were extremely encouraging and really helped me through this process. To pass this forward I am listing my Becker scores and then actual scores below.
However, if there is anyone reading this that is wondering if you should attempt this because you have been out of school for a long time, I am here to tell you that it is POSSIBLE!! I graduated with my B.B.A. (major in Accounting) in 2002 and an MBA in 2009. It had always been a goal of mine to be a CPA, but life seemed to get in the way. We are a military family so moving a lot is always a challenge and I also have 5 children. I finally decided that I needed to accomplish this and set my 2015 New Year’s Resolution to become a CPA. I am happy to announce that I took and passed my final exam on 11/14/15. WHOOO HOOOO!!!!
Now, if I can share some things with you that I think would have helped me. First of all, I purchased the Becker Program mainly because I wanted to get this done as quickly as possible and didn’t want to waste any time. I had always heard that this is a great program so I decided to go for it. What you may not know is that they have a 0% interest loan so you can pay the fees off over a period of 18 months. That was good news to me and I took advantage of the offer.
Also, if you do decide to purchase Becker….I found that watching the videos on my own first and doing the homework prior to the live class was helpful. I was better able to figure out what I didn’t understand and then I had the opportunity to ask the instructor specific questions to help me better understand the material. Remember, I had been out of school for quite some time and had to relearn some of the material.
Next, if I could have done it over….I would have taken the exams in this order…1) FAR, 2) AUD, 3) REG and 4) BEC. Unfortunately I took REG, then BEC, then AUD (twice) and then FAR. I say this because the items covered in FAR will help some with AUD and REG.
Another thing I would have done differently is to give myself more time for each exam. Since I was working full time and had a family to take care of I did REG in 8 weeks and BEC in 8 weeks. This seems to be sufficient, but an extra week or two would have been helpful in managing my stress. I tried to do AUD in 6 weeks, but cramming in 10 days at Disney World and a week visiting my family and then moving 3 children to college during that time didn’t help. I thought AUD was going to be easier, but I was proved wrong with a score of 74!! I then took about 10 days off and when I got that lovely score back, I started to study again. An additional 3 weeks of AUD and I passed. I did FAR in 6 weeks and passed but I was pretty stressed and it would have been better to stretch things out a bit.
I also read a lot of posts that people were scoring much higher than the Becker Final Exams. I found that I was right in the same range, although I do have a lot of anxiety prior to an exam so I am sure that played a part in my score.
Here is how I did on the actual exams compared to Becker:
REG
4/20/15 – 83
Becker #1 85
Becker #2 75
BEC
7/3/15 – 81
Becker #1 75
Becker #2 57
AUD
8/31/15 – 74 SO CLOSE!!!
10/3/15 – 81
Becker #1 80
Becker #2 68
FAR
11/14/15 – 77 It’s a miracle…..I am done!!
Oh, by the way….I also ran out of time on the SIMS and didn’t get to finish!! This was the only exam that I didn’t manage my time as well and the exam shut off on me. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path” Proverbs 3:5,6
Becker #1 81
Becker #2 83
Good luck to all of you! Keep at it and you can do this!!
REG 4/20/15 83
BEC 7/3/15 81
AUD 8/31/15 74 :((((, 10/3/15 81 :))
FAR 11/14/15 77 Miracle...YEAH!!!!!
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