Never Give Up: JoMarie Beats the CPA Exam

JoMarie is a weekly NINJA CPA Blogger.

After 10 years and about 40 exams, I can finally say I’ve passed all 4 exams within the 18 month requirement.

For those who are just started following Another71.com and started this journey I will tell you about my journey. Those of you who know about my journey, I’m sorry that I’m repeating myself.

I started this crazy roller coaster of a journey back in 2002. I sat for my first exam back in the paper and pencil days. I studied and sat, studied and sat, but I kept failing. Then in late 2003 I stopped since I was getting married in January of 2004 and was due with our first daughter in June of 2004.

I started to sit for the exams again in 2005 but was getting discouraged since I kept failing, again.

After tax season in 2008, I said to myself, “That’s it, I’m going for it once and for all.” I scheduled all 4 of the exams. BEC, FAR, Audit, & REG, in that order. I failed BEC, FAR, and Audit in 2008.

Again, I was ready to give up. Then in January of 2009, I sat for REG and passed it on my first try with the section! Passing REG gave me the motivation and determination to pass the rest.

I rescheduled the remaining sections and passed FAR in August of 2009 followed by BEC in February of 2010. Then since I was pregnant with my second daughter, I took the April/May 2010 window off. I didn’t want to sit the exam with a chance of going into labor.

While I was on maternity leave I studied for Audit. If I didn’t pass Audit by the end of September 2010, I was going to lose my REG credit. Well, thanks to dear old Audit, I lost REG, FAR, and BEC!!!

When I was on the verge of losing BEC, I sat for Audit, REG, and FAR all in one testing quarter, the summer of 2011. Nothing like losing a whole summer to the CPA exam.

That summer, I passed REG again and got my credit back. Then I finally passed Audit in October of 2011. FAR then followed this past May, and lastly BEC in July.

I sat for REG last summer on August 9, 2011, and I saw my final passing score on NASBA’s website on August 9, 2012. It is very possible to pass all the exams within 18 months. I did it in less than a year!!

I do have to say I couldn’t have done it without Another71.com or without the help of Jeff with his NINJAs. With the help of the NINJA Audio my scores increased tremendously. My FAR score went from a 73 to an 80 and my BEC score went from a 70 to a 76!!!

Lastly, I need to give all my friends I’ve made on this site a very special thank you. Especially, the ones of you on Facebook, when we made our “study dates”. I probably wouldn’t have passed these last two sections without you.

Last and certainly not least, I need to thank all my friends and family that stayed with me throughout this whole process. Especially my husband. I know this has been a very long journey for the both of us. I couldn’t have done this without you by my side every step of the way.

This CPA Exam candidate is signing out looking forward to a very bright future.

Thank you everyone, love you all!!