Leah is a NINJA CPA Blogger.
I’d like to share with all of the readers what it feels like to fail a section for the first time. It is painful, heart wrenching, and it stings like 1,000 fireball darts hitting you all at once. I don’t recommend it.
In my pitiful despair, I must have checked my score three or four times hoping it would magically change to a 75.
I was down in the dumps for about three days, but the more I thought about what went wrong the angrier I got. How I felt coming out of the exam matched my score report. I did well on MCQ’s, but the SIMS killed it.
I made sure to practice using the authoritative literature (AL) on the AICPA website and in my study materials, but the AL offered very little help on exam day. Total bummer.
Instead, I spent the two hours I had left to work on SIMS just trying to figure out what I was being asked. I kept thinking, what? Where’s the rest of the information?
So, what to do? I figured the best thing to do is to refocus my anger at failing and use it to study for my first attempt at BEC at the end of August. Everyone seems to say the best thing to do is to immediately re-sit for a failed section.
So, I didn’t waste any time printing out an intent-to-sit form and scheduling a date with AUD for October. That will give me about four weeks to re-study.
In the meantime, my Mom just retired and I realized she is going to need a hobby after she volunteered to help me study for CPA exams. What a dear soul. While I definitely appreciate the support from my family, I would never dream of putting anyone else in a position of such torture.
My husband and I also recently began volunteer work to be a part of a CERT (community emergency response team) team for our tiny community. It’s a great thing because our town is remote and we do not have Red Cross operating in the county. It’s going to be a challenge to make time to complete the training, but it will be a worthwhile cause.
Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Right? And in the words of Scotty, “I’m giving her all she’s got, Captain!” Yes, I like Sci-Fi, but not as much as I like passing sections of the exam. Hey, I’ll draw my inspiration from anywhere I can as long as it motivates me to study harder.
Until next time!
