Elizabeth 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 November 2010.
Hi there! Im writing my first post from Chicago, IL, where Ive been living for more than four years. This is where I started my professional accounting career and went to school to get the required 150 hours to be a CPA candidate.
My CPA Exam journey started in October 2010 after I had found out about the IFRS changes in 2011 and wanted to squeeze in FAR and AUD before the end of the year. Obviously, I knew I was pushing the limits of reasonableness by allowing myself only one month of studying before the two exams, but Im a recent graduate so thought my retention of the subject matter put me at an advantage over the time suggestions in the Wiley study guides I purchased.
I scheduled FAR on November 17th and AUD on November 18th. No, your eyes are not tricking you; I scheduled the exams one day apart from one another (in case youre wondering, I no longer think this is a good idea!). When I was studying for the exams, I put most of my emphasis on FAR and was under-prepared for AUD. I left both exams mentally DESTROYED but felt more confident about AUD than FAR. I was able to finish AUD with time to spare, but left FAR with both simulations incomplete. This left me thinking that if I passed either exam it was more likely to be AUD, right?
Since the IL Board of Examiners sends its candidates scores by snail-mail only (ugh!) I just received my scores yesterday (Jan 15th):
FAR: 79
AUD: 68
Despite failing one of the exams, Im very happy that I passed FAR in one try. Im also happy that my gut readiness indicator for the exams isnt skewed. I really didnt think I was ready to take the AUD exam, and my score reflected that.
Right now Im studying for REG and BEC, and have scheduled the exams for February 11th and 28th, respectively.
The exams are more than two weeks apart from one another, which is (hopefully) enough time for me to properly prepare for both.
CPA here I come!
-Elizabeth
Elizabeth - Not sure if you're aware of this, but in Illinois you are able to check your score online rather than wait for the mailed copy. Go to the Illinois Board of Examiner's Website, in the upper left corner click on 'Online System'. You should have created a username and password when initially applying for the exam. After logging in the history of your exams and scores will appear. I took an exam on 11/30 and got my score in mid-December, much quicker than waiting for the mail until January.
I was going to say same thing. I took FAR on 11/19 and got my score back 12/17 (day before my birthday, also with a 79!). I don't know how you waited so long.
Oh wow! that's awesome! That wait was awful! I kept checking the online system but it wasn't giving me any information.. until I realized today that I had two logins. The one that I had been checking over and over was a new one that wasn't connected to my application. Don't you find it weird though that on both the NASBA and IL Examiner's website, they both say that they only mail the scores? That was what was keeping me so patient for so long. Thanks for catching my fail!