Kelli is a new weekly Club 75 Blogger as she documents her journey through the CPA Exam. She has been a member of Another71.com's Club 75 since April 2011.

Well, since the Rapture didn’t happen on Saturday as announced, I just finished taking Audit….for the 3rd time. I started my CPA exam journey in January 2010, with FAR, bombing miserably, then passed REG on the first try in April of last year, and that was it for me on passing scores for the rest of 2010.

I took FAR two more times and failed, AUD twice and failed, BEC once and failed. The worst was that I took all three of them in the last quarter of 2010 and received: 74-74-74. That hurt, worse than having my thumb slammed in a steel door (not that I have ever done THAT before 😉 ). I keep a spreadsheet with all of my scores, since the list is growing. I like to keep track of my progress, each time my scores have gotten better. I would like to add that I work full time, and have a part time job, have 2 kids (well 3 if I count my husband), 3 dogs, and several fish tanks that more like algae experiments at this point since I have not had time to maintain them.

I think part of the problem last year was that I was doing my regular life, and studying, AND finishing my Master’s degree. I do not recommend this schedule, for very obvious reasons.

This year I have a totally different outlook and attitude, and NINJA NOTES! It is definitely much easier to study without school on top of everything else. I finally passed FAR in January this year, on the 4th try. I never thought I would pass that beast. So now I am 50% there. Seems like now Audit is going to be the one to give me trouble. I find it much more difficult this year than last and now that the simulations count for 40% of the passing score, I am fearful that I will not pass before my first credit expires in October. It is not that long off.

So now I sit and wait with everyone else until the end of June for my scores. I took BEC in the beginning of April, dare I say I enjoyed it? *grin* I actually like the writing stuff so I found that to be extremely easy. I could write my way out of a death sentence I am sure. I don’t have high hope for the Audit exam, I feel like I just didn’t pull off the simulations.

They were not what I was expecting and I am definitely going to have to get supplemental material for the next time around if I didn’t pass. I am hoping that I passed at least one of the two this quarter, I would feel much better about my d-day that is fast approaching in October. I am taking a 2 week break and then I am just going to start studying for Audit again, since I am pretty sure that I didn’t pass. That way I will be ready early July for a re-take. And that leaves me time to study for BEC for end of August sitting in case I didn’t pass that one. This is a vicious cycle that I am not enjoying.

On a happy note, I joined the AICPA today as a CPA candidate for 50% off the regular membership price with the little code they mailed. For once, junk mail was good!

~Kelli~