Megan shares with us the trials and triumphs of CPA Exam preparation, all from the perspective of a non-accounting major. She currently resides in Pennsylvania, and is loving Roger CPA Review’s acclaimed review course to prepare for the BEC Exam.
I glance down at my iPhone while sitting at my desk at work. The email app is showing me that I have received a few emails since lunch. I wonder if any of them are my REG score. NASBA announced on Twitter that thousands of scores were released yesterday. Its been only two weeks since I took the three hour exam at my local testing center and drove home hoping I had earned a passing score. The suspense and intense alertness have been with me since the moment I walked out the door.
I can still feel the mixed emotions I felt while driving home. I could not believe I did not run out of time. I thought everyone ran out of time in REG. I guess the extra time I spent checking my answers was a good thing. Unless I should have gone with my gut and left my first choice. What if I changed a right answer to a wrong answer? I hope I finished early because I managed my time well and knew the material. What if I should have thought longer about the multiple choice questions? Did I interpret that simulation the way I was supposed to?
This was my third exam, so I’ve trained myself to answer all the questions that swarm through my mind with a simple reminder, Its over. This get over it attitude was not easy to learn, but essential to stay sane. After taking my first exam, FAR, I drove home feeling like a failure. I pulled out my book and started frantically looking up answers in hopes of regaining confidence that I had earned a passing score.
It didn’t work. I felt worse and worse as I replayed the questions in my head. I grabbed a blank sheet of paper to write a list of areas where my understanding had been shaky. The list was supposed to be a study tool IF I found out that I would need to re-take FAR. The list of difficult topics kept growing and growing until I had convinced myself there was no way I had earned 75 points. This attitude made the wait to receive my score absolutely painful! Every day I felt like a failure, wondering how I could have spent so many hours studying and still not known so many answers!
Try not to let yourself spiral like I did! I learned to remind myself that Id done my best, and that’s all I could do. Once you take the exam, put it behind you and look ahead. Roger CPA Review teaches you to expect the mixed emotions, but remind yourself that if you’ve followed the suggested study plan and put in quality study time, YOU WILL PASS!
Now you know all the thoughts and emotions that came flowing back to me when I opened my email account to find unread mail from Score Notification Service. I immediately felt alert. My temperature rose and my heart started racing. Should I open it now? There’s no way I can wait! Here we go I take a deep breath and click on the attachment. I scan the page until I find REG Credit. I PASSED!!