I woke up at 4:00 am to study for the CPA Exam.  I got my coffee and was on the way to my desk when I ran into my son.  He did not want to go back to sleep, so I did not get any time in before I sent him off to school.  I still had plenty of time to get ready and prepare for the test at 1:30.

I was extremely nervous, but felt prepared.  I used  Roger CPA review software in test mode for the entire thing and scored an 85%.  That decreased the nervousness.  I looked at my weak areas and focused on those questions until I was able to get over an 80%. I decided to take a break and get ready to leave and some other task.  I still had time, so I did a couple more study sessions. 

I didn’t realize until I was on my way that I had not ate anything.  I didn’t think it a good idea to eat a big meal so I just snacked on some almonds I picked up on my way.

I got to the test center 40 minutes before my appointment.  That was not enough time to do any last minute studying, and I don’t think that would have benefited me anyway.  I had followed study plan and felt prepared. 

Anyone who has taken the CPA exam knows there is a process that you go through once there.  They checked my ID, had me sign in, write my NTS on the top of the scratch paper, passes a wand over me (not exactly sure what for), asked if my pockets where empty, fingerprinted, and took my picture.  Knowing this process took stress off of me.  I would suggest to a person that has never been to the test site, go before hand to see what the site is like and watch other people go through the process.  Not worrying about that can take pressure off of you.

They walked me to my station, and started the session.  I was able to breeze through the first few screens because I remembered them from the last time but I reviewed the sample CPA test through the AICPA website.  I felt pretty good about the questions.  I marked the ones I was not sure about, there were 7.  I reviewed them and felt pretty confident.  I was not as sure about the second module, I marked 13 questions and I didn’t have a clue on 2 of them.  In the third module I marked 10 questions, but more to review them that anything else.  I then started the task based simulations (TBS).

 I don’t care how much I practice, or how well I prepared, the TBS are brutal.  I am so thankful that I watched all of Roger CPA review homework sessions.  He goes through several of the TBS, and it is very helpful to see how he does it. I also did all of his suggested CPA review questions for the TBS twice. My strategy was to have an answer in mind before I looked at what the answers selections, that way when given a list of 10 – 50 to choose from, I could find MY answer, not get the answer to fit the question.  I just hoped that helped. 

It was tough, and I don’t know if I passed.  When I left the test center, I didn’t have the overall gloom that I knew I failed, but I can’t say for certain that I passed.  I don’t think I could not have done anything differently to prepare.

I only have to wait 2 weeks for the results.  Hopefully it will be good news.