I knew coming out of the exam that I had passed, but I didn’t expect this. I’m paranoid so I’m whiting out my info until I have my certificate in hand.

Thank you GOD.

Thank you Dr. Yaeger and everyone at Yaeger CPA Review!

Update: I got my paper confirmation on September 22 – a timely six days after my score appeared online.

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Today’s testing experience was a great success, I think. I was better prepared than I’ve been for any section I’ve taken (and passed) and I felt like I knew most of the answers – even the exception to the exception questions where the obvious answer was wrong. There were a couple of multiple choice that I felt like were beyond the scope of what a normal person would study for the exam – left field topics, but I’m guessing that they were the “test” questions that don’t count.

I feared that I would get some psycho simulation, but they were both topics that your review material should cover. One of them was very involved and challenging, however. Overall, it was a surprisingly painless testing experience. I was even starting to hope for a phlegm-hacking neighbor to spice things up, but it never happened.

I don’t know if other people do this, but I can answer a question – and be POSITIVE that it is right, but sit there and waste a minute staring at it for fear that somehow it is wrong. I also do this thing where I will answer a question, click to the next one and then go back to it 3x for fear that my answer changed in the transition.

I’m sure that I’m the only one who does this. Maybe I’m an obsessive-compulsive exam taker…sort of like Nicholas Cage in “Matchstick Men” where he has to tap his feet three times or whatever inside a room before walking outside. I just know my score will go from 86 to 66 if I don’t click back 3x.

Also – at end of my second sim, the timer ran out before I could click “Done”. I asked the staff person at Prometric if this affected anything and he said that the exam saves itself as you enter answers. I figured as much, but needed the affirmation that I didn’t just lose 15% of my exam.

I’m in study mode…I put in over 35 hours of study time this week. Tomorrow, the office is empty and unless I have a project or something tangible (value-added) to do, I’m starting Yaeger’s FAR, Disc One.

Now, only one thing stands in the way of me passing – and that’s a section I’ve already passed.

Thanks for reading.

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I have put in about 30 hours of studying since Sunday night. I had the good fortune of work being extremely “slow” this week for me, so guess who sat at his desk and studied all day Mon-Wed? While going through Yaeger’s DVD course, I filled a legal pad with notes. Starting Monday, I re-wrote those notes and spent about 2 full days doing it. I knew I would forget all of those little tax nuances and I was right. It was like I was re-learning the material.

I took Wiley’s practice exam tonight with their software and scored a 75 on the MCQs and a 63 on the sims (Shareholder Contribution to Corp and Indiv Tax). I went back through the incorrect answers and I had made some stupid mistakes and on some questions I was leaning one way when I should have been leaning the other. My exam is at 1pm tomorrow so I will take another practice exam in the morning in all likelihood. I have several sims that I want to go over as well.

Practice exam scores need to be taken with a grain of salt. While I scored 75% (45/60), I think the actual exam would have been scored higher. For one, the better you do, the more points each question is worth (and they also get more difficult). Secondly, the exam I took tonight was evenly weighted between Bus. Law and Tax, wheras the real exam will be around a 70/30 split favoring tax I think (if you include ethics and accountant’s liabilities as Bus Law).

I am much stronger in tax than I am in Business Law. I can isolate a section like Secured Transactions or Agency and score in the 70s, but I can score in the 80s if I isolate Corps or Gift Tax or something which works to my advantage. I know that I am ready for the exam – I’ve put in the time and I know the material. I’m just having last night anxieties.

REG is a predictable crapshoot – a sweet little paradox. You KNOW what is going to be more heavily tested content-wise, but then you get into the exam and find that they are majoring on the minors for a whole testlet. It’s maddening. You can study your tail off and walk out of there humbled just the same. Then again – people pass it everyday like it’s nothing. At least this time I know what a 1231 asset is going into the exam.

In closing - I was walking around my office floor tonight and saw that one of our tax guys was hunched over his laptop – working late like he always is. I popped in his cube all confident like a 2 year old sporting his new “Super Hero” underwear after graduating from diapers and said “1245 gain – Ordinary or Capital!?!?!”

Old tax guy: Ordinary.

Me: 1231 loss – capital or ordinary!?!?!

Old tax guy: Capital.

Me: AHHHH – it’s Ordinary!

Old tax guy: Well, sort of…you have this thing called a ‘lookback’ provision…(commence 20 seconds of tax speak that caused my mind to wonder all the while I nodded in complete agreement)…ahh nevermind – that’s beyond the scope of the exam…

Me: Uhhh…I better go study some more.

Back to diapers…

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Although I’ve scored two consecutive 74s on Regulation and own Yaeger’s cram DVD (I didn’t use it on my last attempt aside from Corps because I was swamped with BEC and up against the deadline or I lost FAR), I made a deal with myself that I would slow down and go back through REG from start to finish and watch every second on Yaeger’s 9 DVD REG course, and that’s what I’m doing.

So far, I’ve been through Individual Tax, Transactions, Gift/Estate/Trust Tax, and Partnerships. Along the way I’ve filled up 50 pages of a legal pad with notes, which I review periodically.

Today and tomorrow will be filled with (aside from an inconvenience called “work”) Corporations and then Business Law and Accountant’s Responsibilities/Ethics this weekend.

On Monday, I’ll go through all of my notes and begin working all of Dr. Yaeger’s recommended questions from the Wiley book (keep in mind that upon completion of the DVD course, you’ve already done hundreds of MCQs). I’ll work some sims, do a few final exams, and then I’ll be ready to go.

As always, thanks for reading.

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I’m 18 days out from my exam and I intend on being completely through my REG lecture DVDs in a week. Yaeger’s REG program has 9 DVDs and I’m on Disc 2. Hmmmm.

I’m a prodigious procrastinator and when you couple this with the fact that I’m a news/sports junkie, I tend to goof off instead of study when I’m using my laptop. Lets see…Like Kind Exchanges…AMT Preference Items…no – I know…I’ll see what’s on the Drudge Report or ESPN.com.

To combat this, I’m going on a sort of mini-fast from the internet the next 7 days. As I’ve posted before, you can watch Yaeger’s DVDs on your home DVD player. Most review programs leave you chained to a computer and I am thankful for this because I need to unplug and focus. This is probably a shocker, but it’s painful to study for a test you were one point from passing twice in a row. Cry my a river and shut up and study, right?

I’m limiting my e-mail/blog/news perusing to less than 10 minutes a day until I get through all 9 DVDs. My goal is one DVD (about 4 hours) a day.

If you’re a fellow procrastinator and you find yourself goofing off instead of studying – unplug for a week (if you have to use your computer to study – disable your wireless access or disconnect your cable modem) with me.

I’ll post a status update in a week. By then, I should be FINISHED with the REG DVDs and pounding non-stop questions. If that is the case, then I will be 90% ready for the exam and all I have left to do is work sims and take practice exams.

Until then…

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I scheduled my Quarterly 74 on Regulation for…

Thursday August Twenty-Eight, Two Thousand and Eight

Hors d’oeuvres and cash bar to follow.

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It has been tough to drudge up the motivation to jump back into REG and my goal of taking the REG exam 7/7 might be a bit optimistic now. However, I am into disc 2 of Yaeger’s 9 disc REG set and am soaking up Module 33 – Individual Income Tax and am strengthening what were previously weak areas.

As I follow Phil and take notes in the margins, highlight lines, and flip back and forth between the text and questions, my marked-up, torn-up Wiley book will likely resemble gang violence come mid-July.

I am still targeting 7/7, will not schedule my exam until I know that I will be ready on exam day. My modest study goal is 2.5 hours a day on the weekdays and 4 hours on Sat/Sunday.

Thanks for reading.

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I peeked into the mailbox yesterday and sure enough some spam from some company called “NASBA” was in there.

I opened it up and before I looked (true story) I prayed “God, please make this say that I passed” (or something to that effect). Instead, my eyes zeroed in on some heartless line about “no credit” for the FARE section.

Score: 74 Result: FAIL

I then looked at the diagnostic section and what do you know, the ONE section I decided to watch for the Yaeger Cram as I’ve previously stated is “Entity Taxation” and I doubled my freaking score from a 40 to an 80.

It was the only thing I studied (spent almost all of my time on BEC) for REG because – heh – afterall, I scored a 74 before and had this thing in the bag.

Wouldn’t you know – Ol’ Reliable – Individual Taxation, which I scored a 93 on before dropped 30 points.

At that point I said “Get behind thee Satan” and threw it away.

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…that’s what I keep telling myself to counter the miserable “hey you were one grade point from passing the CPA Exam” voice in my head. I look at my REG book and can’t hardly stomach the thought of opening it again.

Alas – my march toward a July 7th REG re-take starts tomorrow.

If you hear a loud rumbling through your neighborhood, that’s the Yaeger War Machine heading my way. I radioed in for reinforcements and ordered their complete REG and FARE DVD sets. It’s time to get medieval (Pulp Fiction).

I’m 5 weeks out from my next exam and I’m going to see what kind of a score I can get if I truly dedicate myself over the course of a month or so. No more hysteric uber-cramming one week from the exam. I’m going to methodically go through the entire Yaeger DVD package disc by disc and the Wiley book page by page.

I’m setting a realistic study goal of 20 hours per week. It will take some maneuvering to get this done…an hour or so before work…and a few hours at night after the kids go to bed. A four hour block on Saturday and Sunday will also be in order. We’ll see what needs to happen schedule-wise.

I’m over the 74…other than checking it periodically to see if it was a mistake

I’m dedicating 100 hours to passing REG and it starts tomorrow. If anyone wants to keep pace and study with me – let me know.

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I passed BEC this window with an 80.

I failed REG again with a 74.

I lost my FARE score.

I’ve had all day to think about this before I posted anything on it. I’ve run the natural gambit of emotions….shock/disbelief…pity…anger… and finally resolve… determination…motivation.

Ironically, less than 24 hours before receiving my score, I received an e-mail from someone who failed FARE back to back with 74s and I responded with this:

“First let me say that you are SO CLOSE! Don’t give up! When you have the letters CPA by your name those two 74s won’t even matter.”

Little did I know that I would be needing that very same advice.

I don’t blame anyone for my failure on the exam but myself. Truth be told, I spent 85% of my time studying for BEC because I was scared of failing it a fourth time. I didn’t even make it through Yaeger’s cram DVD. I watched the section on Partnerships and Corps and then skipped the rest to work BEC extra hard. I figured that I scored a 74 last time overall…scored a 93 in individual tax…my weakness was entity taxation, which I went over, so I thought I had done enough to pass with a 75.

I was wrong, apparently. Would I do anything different if I could have a mulligan? Not really…I had a month to prepare for an exam that I have never put much time into (BEC) and an exam that covered a lot of material (REG). My FARE score was going to expire in a month because when I passed FARE, I celebrated by taking a year off – which was a big mistake, obviously.

I’m going to start on REG again tonight instead of moping around like I’m tempted to. I’m going to work every question in the Wiley book and watch the Yaeger cram DVD the whole way through and spend the entire month of June doing it.

Then, after taking REG, I will devote July and August to FARE. I have ordered the complete Yaeger FARE package and will have two months to study for FARE again and I will take it at the end of August. I needed to brush up on FARE anyway. The prospect of being a “CPA” but knowing that I had forgotten a lot of the FARE material just didn’t seem right to me.

I’m going to do it right and learn the material – not just memorize stuff to regurgitate during a 4 hour exam.

This setback will be a blessing in disguise and victory will be that much sweeter when I achieve it.

Thank you for reading.

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The good news: REG scores are out.

The bad news: I don’t have mine.

The weird news: A friend of mine who took the exact same section in the exact same room on the exact same day had his score yesterday.

My score must have been so fantastic that they didn’t think posting it electronically would do it justice.

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It appears that the REG scores will be the last section released in the first wave of scores. The wait is killing me. I heard a rumor that scores could be released last night, so I checked 4 times in the middle of the night.

Clicking on the “submit” button to get your score and the 1/2 second delay before it reads “Error. Score not found.” should be outlawed by the Geneva convention. Pure torture.

Apparently, the database doesn’t realize that if I pass, I’m almost a CPA (ethics exam), and if I fail – I lose FARE and I have to take REG again.

My guess is that they’ll be out by Friday.

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After sleeping on it (and thinking about it all evening), I’m thinking/hoping that I was getting tripped up on test questions (i.e. fake questions that don’t count – the AICPA just uses them to gauge whether or not they’ll use them in the future as “real” questions).

I felt like I knew the material pretty well. I studied a lot harder for this exam than the one that I scored a 74 on, but it felt like I was getting question after question on my weak areas. Plus, the dude next to me was doing that phlegm-clearing throat hack that you hear people do in public and you think to yourself “wow – he just really doesn’t care, does he.” It was loud and I despite the fact that I had those ear-blockers on, every time he did it, it sounded like we were being carpet-bombed and I had to re-read the question I was on. Also, he was getting frustrated with himself apparently and would mutter words and throw his hands up in the air like you do when a ref blows a call at a football game, which was slightly amusing to me. Maybe he had the same question bank?

After having a few hours to think about it, I knew more questions than I was giving myself credit for and I think I might have done ok after all. When you’re plugging along in the exam and you hit a few roadblocks, you start thinking “here we go again” and it’s easy to get down. I tend to think to myself that if I miss one question, I’ll fail, so a problem here or there that I have never seen or don’t know tends to overshadow my successful answers.

I won’t be surprised if I got a 70…and I will be equally unsurprised if I score an 80. Like I’ve stated already, it was a very difficult exam and I chose to take it late in the day, which may have compounded my frustration because I was tired. I had been studying for 3 days straight and then took BEC…studied for 3 hours more and took REG and I was having trouble focusing.

Pass or fail, I used the right study program and if I have to take it again, I’m going to focus on REG and nothing but REG for a good month and a half.

Then, I’ll start on FARE.

Until then, I’ll just assume that I passed…nothing else you can do.

Thanks for reading.

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I took REG this afternoon and it was an absolute MONSTER. It goes down as the most mind-blowingly frustrating exam experience I’ve had. Every tax question was hard. Complex question after question. It sucked so bad that I looked forward to the next business law question.

I didn’t finish one tab of my last sim. I made sure to score easy points on the essay and research tab, though.

Either I’m an idiot or I was doing well and the difficulty of the problems were kicked up a notch (for the uninitiated, the better you do, the harder the questions get – but are worth more points). Probably a little bit of both.

I came out of the Exam humbled and feeling like a moron. On the other hand, whenever I have left and exam thinking “hey, that wasn’t so bad after all…” – I failed.

Who knows.

I’m just glad that it’s over – for now.

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I scored a 74 on the CPA Exam. It felt like a 44.

Does a more gut-wrenching number exist?

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