Leah is a NINJA CPA Blogger.

Hello and Hi-Ya!

That’s how I started my very first blog that I wrote way back in early December of 2012. I talked about how I hoped blogging would keep my thoughts on track.

It has helped with that, and, hey, maybe I’ve helped others by talking about all of the ups and downs, tips, and candid thoughts along the way.

Is there such a thing as over-sharing an exam experience? According to the powers that be, yes. So, I’ll keep my latest experience vague and brief.

I’ll start with a tip: don’t panic over Prometric closings. It doesn’t do any good to get bent out of shape. It’s inconvenient, but at least they allow rescheduling without too much hassle.

The east coast had a huge snowstorm and Prometric sites were closing left and right. I kept hitting the refresh button for over two days wondering if my exam was still on. Then I realized, hey, this is crazy. If they close, they close.

There’s no use stressing over it.

In the end, my exam was still on for the day. The roads were still bad in areas but I was blessed to have my husband drive me for the almost 2 hour trip.

This was my second attempt at REG with the first try being a quick jab at passing before the window closed that netted a 74. I studied hard and picked up in the areas where I knew I was lacking. That helped me with the set of MCQ I got this time, but it didn’t help me much with SIMS.

I didn’t get any softballs thrown at me, and by the time I finished SIMS I felt pretty defeated. How did I get such a horrible set of SIMS? I walked out of Prometric struggling to fight back the anger I was feeling.

I got back to the vehicle, and my husband was waiting there on me with a Valentine’s Day gift. I struggled to tell him that I thought I bombed the exam, but he reminded me of how hard I had been working. He was right. I worked by backside off preparing for this exam.

I did the best I could.

What do you do when you give it your best shot and fail? Shake it off and get back up. I think those that go through the CPA exam are some of the toughest people out there. We are like a bad carnival game; we just won’t go down.