Ha! I was literally in the exact situation that you described above. I was in charge of accounting for a small company and though interesting at first, my heart just wasn’t there and I wanted out. With 2 exams to go, I quit to focus solely on the exams and to move onto bigger things. With my experience:
-I felt guilty about quitting, yes, but you also have to look out for yourself in this type of situation and your employer should respect that. I gave my company about a month’s notice, wrote up all the accounting procedures, and even did some post training with my replacement after I quit. Try not to burn any bridges – I used these ex-bosses as references during my job search and later found that my former boss was one of the determining reasons that I got my current job!
-As for the studying, just because you have more time, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have better chances of passing. I tried to take REG and BEC in about a 2 month timeframe unemployed, and failed both.
-Job searching was another story. I had to move on from studying and it took me about an additional 2-3 months to finally land a job. The first question interviewers always asked was, “why did you quit?” So just keep in mind that it may take a while to get back in the job market.
I am now working for a great company and have since completed REG and have BEC retake at the end of this month. Things eventually turned around for me but you may say 5 months went down the drain and not to mention all my $$$.
I’m not saying don’t do it – things may go differently for you, but just keep in mind my experiences above. The one thing I would like to point out is your experience. During my job search, most companies liked to see at least a years’ experience if not more – but passing the CPA may compensate for this. Weigh out the pros and cons and consider some of the things I mentioned above. Good luck!!