My Favorite Four Letter Word

Okay, yes it’s been awhile since I have posted on here. Shame on me.

July has been a very busy month.

July 5^th, 2011 Regulation (REG) 3 hour exam

July 14^th, 2011 Audit and Attestation (AUD) 4 hour exam

July 18^th, 2011 Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) 4 hour exam

 

A great question would be – WTH was I thinking?

To give an honest answer I have to go back to December – when 2011 was coming around I realized that I needed updated study materials that related to 2011. Gleim has a great program where customers can get updated course materials for up to 18 months after purchasing the course. What’s the catch? You just have to show that you have paid for your exams. I decided to spend the money in December and pay for three exams REG, AUD and FAR – why I choose to spend an additional 600 bucks at Christmas time is also beyond me but that is what I did. By paying for the exams in December I started a clock ticking – a 6 month clock in fact.  Once you pay for the exams you have 6 months to take the exams.

My deadline for taking all three exams was July 19^th, 2011. No problem I said to myself – I can study and take one exam each Testing Window.  Now for those of you that have no idea what a Testing Window – let me explain-

There are Four CPA Exam Testing Windows each year as follows:

January -February

April – May

July – August

October – November

 

So in Null Hypothesis was I could take one then study for the next one then take one and study for the next one. I was able to reject my null hypothesis about being able to study for all three during those 6 months.

Can you guess what my favorite four letter word is? Some may guess EXAM or TEST but no my favorite four letter word is LIFE.

Life happens to us all. When it does we have to make choices – for me, I had to realize that there is just a finite amount of time. I made choices of how I thought best to spend that time for better or worse. Do I have some good excuses? Heck yeah.

Once you have paid your money and receive your Notice To Schedule (NTS) you cannot ask for an extension on the date to take the test by – either take the test or don’t take the test.

So when did my studying really kick in – June time frame.

For those of you that don’t know the cumulative pass rates for 2010:

AUD       47.80%
FAR        47.81%
REG        50.66%

 

Now for my first exam in July REG – I did get to study and review quite a bit

But I did not start studying for AUD until after July 5^th and I took the exam on July 14^th.

I did not start studying for FAR until July 14^th and took the exam on July 18^th.

Some of you may still be laughing after reading that but trust me even though I am usually very optimistic I have no real illusions about my pass rates on these three exams. The only good thing about taking the exams is that I was able to remain Cool, Calm and Collected before and during the exams. I was able to get a feel for how the exams questions were worded.

 

Another fun thing about taking the exams in July is that I was able to get the new TSA treatment – what does that mean you may be asking. Well starting July 1, 2011 everyone gets to enjoy wanding before going into the testing room.

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