Arthur is a new NINJA CPA Blogger.

Hey A71!

Happy New Year to everyone! My name is Arthur and I am currently a CPA candidate in the state of New Jersey. I graduated with my BS in Accounting from Penn State in May 2012.

I was not very academically motivated during undergrad and actually considered dropping out of college at one point. Most of my time and energy was focused on online poker instead of attending classes and learning about accounting principles. I dropped several courses throughout my college career while I pursued a potential career as a professional poker player.

Had my parents not begged me to stay involved at Penn State as a part-time student while playing poker, there is a very good chance I would not have completed my college education. I eventually completed my degree in six years and still believe it is a miracle that I managed to pass my Accounting Information Systems and Advanced Taxation courses during my last semester.

My stint in poker included playing tournaments at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas in the summer of 2011 and 2012. It was an incredibly unique experience and I had the privilege of getting to know and befriend some of the top players in the industry.

However, I did not feel like this was my calling in life and decided to call it quits in September 2012 after getting knocked out of a World Poker Tour event at the Borgata in Atlantic City. I have not played a single hand of Texas Hold'em since.

I did not really know where to turn once I “retired” from poker. I decided to make use out of my Accounting degree and chase a CPA designation. I applied for my waiver to sit in on the CPA exam with only 120 college credits and enrolled at my local community college full-time for the 2013 spring semester to fulfill the majority of my 150 credit hour requirement.

After completing the semester in May 2013, I began studying for the FAR section of the exam with a self-study program. I was spending 50-60 hours a week studying at my local community college's library. I lost touch with pretty much all of my friends and family members and was extremely stressed.

I took FAR in mid July and ended up not passing with a 71. I was very upset and disappointed but had already scheduled my NTS for the other 3 parts of the exam and did not have time to mope and feel sorry for myself.

I did not discover Another71 until after taking FAR. I would read other NINJA blog posts for inspiration during my study breaks and participate in the CPA Exam Forum to get advice. The next part I took was Audit in late August. My birthday was in early September and I can assure you that I did not enjoy it since I was waiting on pins and needles for my Audit score.

When I found out that I had passed the Audit portion, it was such a sense of relief and I decided to take the rest of the night off from studying for BEC. I also began to put my faith in God once again as a Christian.

I truly believe that God has provided for me over the past year and allowed me to also pass BEC and REG by the end of 2013. It also helped listening to Jeff's CPA exam podcast while I would lay in bed and try to fall asleep. I made the goal of passing the CPA exam my new addiction and way of life.

I am currently studying for my retake in FAR at the end of February. Afterwards, I will be on the job hunt and try to figure out what I want to do with the next 40 years of my life. Thanks for reading and best of luck to everyone on the CPA exam journey in 2014!