Melissa is a NINJA CPA blogger.

Hello NINJAs. My name is Melissa and I'm from the land of beer and cheese, that's right…Wisconsin.

I graduated college in 2013 and don't really have any responsibilities yet like a husband and kids. I started my CPA journey one year ago.

I had finally gotten out of a job that I didn't like and landed one that was only 30 hours a week and closer to home.

I was feeling confident about life and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to give the CPA exam a shot.

I want the letters “CPA” behind my name to be more marketable and have more options in the job market so I can potentially move out of a small town into a bigger city and out of my parents' home.

So I started with FAR last summer and studied for about 2 and a half months. I really had no idea how to study and failed with a 55. I decided to move on from FAR and study for AUD. I failed with a 61.

Since then I have taken AUD two more times and have failed both with a 72 and 66. Mix in another FAR retake fail and a BEC fail and my confidence was failing.

After a few weeks off from studying and thinking about life, I've decided to take AUD again in November. I know I am capable of passing but I am going to have to change my study methods. I've been using NINJA MCQ along with some other programs that have an expiration date of January.

My problem is that I jump into the MCQ without nailing the concepts. This time around I will be reading my book more and purchasing NINJA notes and hopefully actually following the NINJA method.

I also need to get rid of distractions such as my phone and the Internet, and the mindless amount of hours I spend wasting time doing nothing on those things.

I'm hoping that becoming a NINJA blogger will keep me more accountable and give me more motivation to pass this beast of an exam.

If you're reading this, don't be so hard on yourself and know that you're not alone in this journey!