CPA Exam

It has been my goal for approaching 10 years now to pass the CPA exam. I haven't done it yet.

I took the old pencil & paper exam once to see what it was all about, without studying at all. I didn't do so well.

I've taken auditing on the new computer version once and I did alright, although I didn't get credit.

However, both times I took the exam I didn't put any effort into studying. Well anyone that knows anything about this exam knows it's something that requires hours and hours of studying. There are four sections and each section takes a minimum of 100 hours of really good studying. A bare minimum.

So this is what I'm going to be focusing on for the next year or so. I mean really focusing on it. I'm setting up one of the bedrooms in the house as just a CPA study room in hopes that I can shut myself in there away from the world to really concentrate.

The first section I'll be taking is FAR (Financial Accounting and Reporting). This section has the most material to learn for the exam, so my friends told me to get this one out of the way first.

For those of you that aren't accountants and think that this is something that should have been done right out of school, you're somewhat right. However, an accounting degree (which I have) doesn't prepare you for this exam. This exam is more comprehensive and detailed than any college class ever was. There are review classes I could take, but I'm not at that point yet because they are very expensive. I need to see if I can do it on my own first.

The other reason it has been 10 years for me is because they implemented a 150 hour rule. Essentially you graduate with your degree with 120 credit hours or so. That used to be what you needed to sit for the exam. Not anymore. They changed it so you needed 150 credit hours so I had to go back to school to earn the hours.

So if it has been a few weeks and you haven't seen a CPA post, ask me how I'm doing! I might need the kick in the butt to get back on track.