CPA - it can be done!

How can we become a CPA Exam topper?

This was the first question I asked Mary.K., when she sent me her CPA Exam pass notice. I met Mary on twitter, when I requested CPA Exam veterans to send me their pass notice (as my every day feel good factor), She responded and emailed me her pass notice and said," It is really hard, and most of us do take more than one time to get through it. I got way better scores the last times than the first ;) " and the subject of her email was;  CPA - it can be done! Let me share her pass notice with you so that you will understand why I choked when I saw it.

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Mary is a very humble and down to earth person. (seriously if that score letter is mine, I would have advertised on going concern with title - This chic is the CPA Exam topper). Mary answers my questions every time I email her and she never fails to inspire me. She sends me hugs and encouraging words when I need them. I am proud to present you my inspiration behind the CPA Exam struggle Ms. Mary.K. (I asked her few questions and arranged it in a interview fashion. Her name and pass notice are modified on her request.)

Mary Please tell us a little about yourself :

I majored in history the first time in college, and worked various jobs afterwards, including answering phones at an IRS call center! I ended up having kids instead of a career. I have three boys now in their teens. After the youngest started pre-school, I took a class in HTML & JavaScript and went to join the dotcom gold rush at the end of the nineties. I did get on with a web company and had a lot of fun, but ended up laid off with underwater stock options. The unemployment folks felt that there were more than enough unemployed web people, and recommended I retrain to get an accounting degree. They paid for one quarter, and then I got on with Accountemps and started working part-time while going to school. I got a full time job doing AP/AR and payroll, and kept taking one class a quarter, evenings and online. This took a really long time. After I was graduated, I got on with a firm, did a CPA review course, and started taking the exam. That took a long time too ;) I got laid off from the firm and haven't found anything else yet, so I'm doing taxes now, and hope to find someplace to finish my required hours in the summer.

What experience do you have in this field?  


I did a stint at an IRS call center way back after the 1986 tax reform, when they were hiring. This was before the Internet, so it was mostly telling people the zip code for Ogden (84201 - I will never forget ;) I did various random jobs and temp stuff, some retail, some bookkeeping, some payroll, while mainly being a mom. After I had formal training, I got on at Accountemps, which is very educational because you go to many different kinds of companies. I got a full time position doing bookkeeping and worked with some great people. The CFO there was very encouraging. He would ask what I was studying, and let me work with one of the accountants who was doing that type of work. They were flexible about letting me have time to go take a midterm as long as my work got done. I went on to work for a CPA firm to get my required hours. They never took me seriously as a candidate. They saw a middle-aged mom bookkeeper, and could not see me any other way. So it was quarterlies and bank recs and nanny payroll, and no opportunities for financials or audit work. The head of audit actually told me he didn't think I could pass the audit part of the exam. The unspoken expectation was that real accountants go for their CPA when they are at 23. But I could see that someone with the letters after their name makes a lot more money.

Few words on your CPA Exam preparation..

At first I tried the flashcards, but they didn't work for me. I did all the MCQs I could, and marked in red the ones I missed so I could review them more. I even got an iPhone app with MCQs on it to practice when I wasn't at home. I did the simulations, and I had to keep going back over them because sometimes I didn't get the whole concept. I wrote out tons of notes. DVD lessons worked much better for me than live classroom ones. I would watch the DVDs on a little netbook, and stop and repeat anything I wasn't getting. I would go back and play the same section over and over again until I got it. I wrote out a schedule of what I wanted to cover each night so that I would have it all done and be able to review before the exam date.

How much time it took to complete the whole process?

Years.

How did you manage your study schedule and balance family life and tell us about your family member's cooperation..

My family was awesome! The kids would remind me, "Mom, do your homework!" My husband was always extremely supportive, and cheered me up when I got discouraged. He had confidence in me and encouraged me to keep trying. I could not have done this if they hadn't all been on board 100%. They were all very proud of me when I finally passed, and are waiting impatiently for me to finish the process and get those darn letters!

What was your difficult exam?

FAR, with AUD a close second. The trouble with FAR is the sheer amount of material. The book is twice as thick as all the others. AUD was just lack of real-world experience. The individual income tax part of REG was a piece of cake, though. I hardly had to study ;)

How did you overcome failure / Tell us how you motivated your self .

This is going to sound totally silly, but I would put on the Legally Blonde soundtrack, from the musical. I kind of felt like that, someone who was not typical and had to try a lot harder. My family was great and believed in me always.

(Mary we don't think it as silly at all, We all have such inspiration songs and I even know a person who asked his friend to write him a personal poem, he would read it every day, sing it , it contained words of praise too and he was the topper of a professional exam in that year. When I attended that award ceremony, he revealed it in public and every body was surprised)

Can you share with us your strategy on how you prepared for simulations and how you answered them on exam?

On the exam, I can't remember using a strategy other than sheer terror and panicking about the little clock numbers ;) Actually, I think I did the writing part first because it was ten points, and it's the easiest for me. I've been in the working world for decades - I know how to write a grammatical, correctly-spelled memo. (I took it when everything but BEC had a writing part.)

Tell us about the CPA Review you used.

The one that finally worked for me was Yaeger CPA Review. I know the production values are low-budget, but somehow the instructors got the concepts across to me in a way that I could get. And I will admit to calling up the hotline in a tearful freaked-out panic after a particularly difficult exam.

Share with us the moment when you passed , your reaction , what was your family member's, friend's and acquaintance's reaction?

I really haven't announced or celebrated, because I''m not a CPA yet. I need to find somebody to work under for a few more hours. It's kind of anti-climactic until I actually get the letters.

Tell us a little about your work and present job search and life after passing CPA Exam


The firm where I was working was hostile towards me taking the exam. They wanted their staff-level employees to stay bookkeepers. They even denied me time off for the exam, that had been approved when they didn't know what the time off was for. The senior partner said I needed his permission to sit and he didn't think I was ready (he hadn't noticed that I had already been sitting before). They hadn't paid for anything at all, not the review or the exam, and I did not study on company time. So I took leave without pay rather than give up my exam date, that I had already paid for. I passed that one, by the way. But I got laid off soon after. At this point, I think I would like to build my own tax practice. I have had a very encouraging number of tax clients so far this season, as a registered preparer rather than a CPA.

I do have tons more time for my family now and can do things like occasionally watch TV. It is a really nice feeling to be finally done with studying and have my evenings free.

Your message for future CPA's
Just keep swimming! You will get there. It just takes time and several tries.

Your message for those who just passed CPA Exam..

Congratulations! You have achieved a very difficult task. Most people who have never taken the exam do not appreciate just how challenging it is, and what an amazing accomplishment it is to pass all four parts. The body of knowledge you have to be familiar with is more than most people will ever learn the rest of their life.

P.S. Mary is my every day inspiration, I am sharing her thoughts to inspire you. But this is not part of interview series on my blog. This post is unique and special.

Many thanks to my dear friend Mary.
You can contact Mary here