Valerie is a 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 December 2010.
Hi, fellow CPA Exam Candidates!!!
I, like all of you have NO life, as I have been studying for this beast of a test with the hopes of one day calling myself a CPA! I have had NO life since December of 2008 when my journey with the CPA began…
I graduated in May of 2008 from Arizona State University with my undergraduate in Accounting. I immediately moved to Dallas and began my first “grown up” job as an Internal Auditor for a major construction company.
Once I got settled I began to study for my first exam BEC and ended up passing… I was off to a good start! Then life happened… I got engaged and started to plan a wedding which I quickly found out was really difficult to do simultaneously while studying for REG!
My REG score definitely showed that and my downward spiral began… After that I decided to take a break and concentrate on the wedding.
After the wedding, I was ready to tackle my next test, Audit, but that didn't go well and I got a 74 (so close!!), then came FAR… 72, then REG again…71. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong, it seemed like this was just the story of my life….FAIL FAIL FAIL.
Then I moved back to my home state of Colorado and started a new job as a staff accountant and bought my first house! Then back to the CPA exam. I retook Audit and PASSED, a small victory! Coming off the high of passing, I took FAR again and… FAIL 74!
Then to top it off I lost my BEC score. So far 2011 has been filled with close calls: a 72 for REG and a 73 for FAR along with a small victory of passing BEC for the 2nd time. Now I have my two biggest obstacles left… FAR and AUD!
Jeff and Another71.com have really helped me out with studying tips, NINJA study guides and flash cards and just the support from other people like me who aren't the type who pass all 4 in one shot (by the way I despise those people!).
I have tried many different types of study material… started with Becker then switched to Yaeger CPA Review and now I am going to try out Roger CPA Review. The one thing I have learned from all these failures and close calls is that I am a very persistent person and that I know if I really want something bad enough I am not going to give up until I have it!
I have also realized that I am a pretty strong person because although it is so disappointing to see below a 75 multiple times in a row, I can pick myself up (yes, I do take a moment to have a cry, or scream, or throw something) and get right back to studying for the next one.
I just keep telling myself one day I will do it, so I look forward to blogging about my struggles and hopefully triumphs as we all get through this together!!!
