Zac is a NINJA CPA Blogger.

Greetings to all CPA Candidates!

That’s right scholars; the time has come for me to do a few more multiple choice questions… or a few thousand.

I’ve loaded up my computer and got a brand new notebook ready for everyone’s favorite test, Financial Accounting and Reporting.

But this entry isn’t about my new FAR study, despite how much fun it already is…. Sarcasm is kind of hard to convey in blog form. Ahem, FARcasm.

I’m not sure if anyone reading this remembers my last blog, (sorry for the delay, work gets busy and it’s not even busy season yet, oh well) but I recently took Regulation for the third time.

Due to Hurricane Sandy the score release was pushed back a few days but I really didn’t mind because I was lucky enough to survive the storm and have it miss Boston entirely. Obviously, New Jersey, NYC, Long Island, among other areas weren’t so lucky.

The way I see it is, the test is just a test. Lives are more important. Even if my incoming score turned out to be a fail, it would mean that I would have to study for it again. If that’s the worst thing that ever happens to me I think I’ll be just fine.

With that said, I am proud to say that I passed Regulation! Yes. I passed that test with an 84, 15 points higher than the last time I took it. Eighteen combined weeks of studying, more rants and raves than I care to count and a few dents in walls from thrown textbooks got me to pass what I knew would be my hardest test of the four.

I started studying for REG last December, the day after my last final of the fall semester of grad school. I remember leaving my Financial Statement Analysis final and thinking, “I’ve got to take REG first because my mind works in the Audit way, not Tax.” Too right I was.

First REG experience was stressful and devastating, with a 67. Next one was exponentially more devastating because I screwed up the simulations and got a 69.

Third time? I wasn’t screwing around. I got Wiley Test Bank and NINJA Notes, that I copied word for word. I did more multiple choice questions, SIMS practice and practice tests than both of the first two times combined.

I went in to the test pretty sure of what to expect but was completely shocked when I got to the SIMS. I won’t say what they were because I told the AICPA I wouldn’t, but let’s just say I was not expecting it and used every last second to answer the questions.

In one case, I had never seen the topic before and answered wildly. I threw in numbers wildly, finished the test, gathered my things, walked out and called my mom. First thing she said was “How’d it go?!” To which I promptly replied, “Yeah, I failed.”

I was sitting at work last Thursday, and just randomly checking the Another71 forum to see how everyone else was dealing of the stress of waiting for the score to come out, and to everyone’s surprise, the scores came out a day earlier than expected.

A few hours later, REG scores started coming out and I was sitting in the kitchen with my roommate/co-worker, checking the score on my phone every few seconds. Finally, clicked “Get Score” and no longer did I see the annoying red bolded words “No score has been posted for this section.”

So I knew the score was there… but I hadn’t finished my burrito and I didn’t want to get a failing score and throw the burrito, so I covered the score with my hand, finished my burrito and looked.

I slid my phone to my roommate and gave a big fist pump in the kitchen. I didn’t want to yell in the middle of the office so I went down to the street and yelled “Nailed it!” Jared Allen style.

After I caught my breath from sheer disbelief and shock I called my mom with a sorrowful tone, and said “So remember how last time I got a 69, and I needed 6 points this time to pass… well I didn’t get 6 points.” She said, “Oh no!!” to which I replied “Mom… I got 15 more.”

She called me a brat for saying it that way and congratulated me. I’m still laughing about that!

Since then, I’ve started and moved through FAR, starting F4 tomorrow. It’s going well so FAR. I’m much FARther along in terms of understanding the material than I was for REG, any of the times! Stay sane NINJAs and happy Thanksgiving!!!

Zac