[mad max]

I might have finished this morning (or maybe not) but I cannot even feel the least bit of happiness or relief right now. This is just me venting mostly… but I’d love someone to talk to. I know there are already threads on this, but I just “finished” today, so I wanted to make my own.

I’ve always been an anxious and worrisome person by nature. And now that I have BEC and AUD scoring in progress, I am worried I will not be able to enjoy my summer vacation. A summer vacation, that mind you, is only a thing because I am waiting for my scores. If I found out I passed in June, I’d be out and searching ASAP (this is because I want to have assurance that I am done before I start a new job, so I don’t repeat what happened to me five years ago where I basically gave up; also, I want to be able to include the fact that all exams are passed/just waiting on licensing paperwork to be finalized, so I can put this on my resume.

When I found out my company was relocating to Chicago on 6/30 in November, I immediately started the search for a new job (and was willing to skip out on the retention bonus). I got an offer really quickly, but once I factored everything in, I decided it wasn’t really a step up (and perhaps even a step back, since my current company has great benefits, which you should consider when evaluating jobs). So the plan was to get my certification and use it to “boost” my resume, making it a little easier to get a slightly higher salary/better position.

I had originally taken the CPA exams in 2011-2012, and passed AUD & BEC. I also thought I had passed REG, but my memory had failed me, I got a 73 and then a 74. With FAR, I got a 74 three times in a row, and then my scores started expiring. By that time I had already found my first salaried job out of college, so I just basically put it to the side and forgot about it.

Well, my current job offered me the opportunity to stay with them until June to collect my bonus; additionally, they would pay for my examination fees, and more importantly, allow me to study after my basic responsibilities were done. On a normal day that takes from 1-3 hours, so I was getting paid to study for four hours a day. Sounded like a great deal, I would give CPA exam another chance; of course at the time, I didn’t know about Q2 “delays.”

My plan was to start as soon as I decided at the beginning of December, and go 6 weeks per exam, which would have me finishing at the end of May. FAR went off great, got a 90 from a mid-January exam. REG also went well– got an 86 in the end of February. Of course, due to my nature, both of these exams I went into nervous, and left feeling like I failed.

I feel no differently for AUD & BEC (mind you these were the two exams I had passed five years ago, although that doesn’t really affect 2017 exam performance, it does show that I have done these in the past). So now instead of feeling “relieved” or “finished,” I am anxious, impatient, and bitter. For example, in all four exams, I have “timed out,” meaning I used every second and still would have used more minutes if available to check work. This morning in AUD, I felt pretty good about the MCQs, but the sims destroyed me. In BEC, I felt good about the SIMS, and okay about the MCQ, but I hated my WC topics. Sure there is a decent chance I passed both and I’m making a fuss over nothing, but there is also the chance I failed, and I cannot get over it.

If I don’t pass both of these exams, there is a high possibility that I will not be able to reschedule and re-prepare before September 10th, meaning I could have to wait until Q4 to retake. This impacts every part of my life. This will be my first summer break in like five years, but only because I am waiting on scores. I have already forgotten basically everything from FAR and REG, so I am sure by AUG I will not remember AUD and BEC at all. To make matters worse, I feel guilty that I am taking this summer break just because of this whole scoring delay, and that I shouldn’t be relaxing during this time (at least money is not an issue, yet).

How can I cope better or What should I do?

Is there any actual reason why AICPA won’t let us resit in Q3 for an exam we took in Q2 before score release besides “rules are rules?” I always knew this was a rule, but it never really affected anyone to my knowledge since scores were always released in a timely manner, and you could only take any section once per window. Because of this, there would never be any pressing need to register before a score notice. However, in this case, if I receive a score Aug 21st, and can get registered by the 23rd, and assuming that by some luck I can get a slot in the range of Sept 8-10, that leaves only two weeks to prepare. So in my view, this “pointless” rule is now hurting people who would like to have a retake in a timely fashion. It’s not like I think I failed, but I don’t think I passed either.

I would be interested in doing a “continuous review,” but I feel that since I won’t be getting scores for at least another 90 days when I did the exams in half that time, I would just be doing a disservice to myself and not enjoying a summer break that I have no reason to not enjoy. I am not stupid, I know stressing won’t change anything. At the same time, I know I am going to dwell on this fact every day for the next 90 days until I get my scores, and then some.

As a side note, I know licenses are granted by the state board, but I think it is very unfair that they would not make a blanket rule for people with passing scores from the “old” exam. I may not be personally affected by this, but many people are.

AUD - 82
BEC - 90
FAR - 90
REG - 86

Four for four. Licensed in NJ as of 10/18/17