That’s right. TAKE ONE. As in I had to take
this more than once.
Let’s start at the beginning. ..or the middle, or
wherever we are at.
I found out I passed BEC November 1st, which also
was the day I was starting my Regulation study. (I took the month of October
off to try to get settled into our house). Being that I was half way done, and
was now ‘getting’ to study Regulation, which was somewhat exciting,
it was good. REG is divided into 2 sections. Section 1: Business Law-
including things like contract law, torts, guarantors, UCC laws, bankruptcy,
and 5 million other law things; and Section 2: Taxes- corporate, partnership,
individual, estates, trusts, property taxation etc.
The Yeager course consists of 40 hours of lectures, and I
did about 1500 questions.
I like taxes, I thought this would be fun. Let’s be
clear, studying everyday is never fun. I had a screw loose.
My exam was scheduled for January 19th (remember
you can’t test in December).
Middle of November, I was studying at Starbucks (gold card
holder…remember?), waiting for a friend to show up. I was watching a
lecture and had about 5 minutes left when she showed up. She ended up being
early so I was frantically trying to put everything away and clear off the
table so she could sit down. I closed my computer and pulled out my usb
without ejecting it. Big mistake.
Next day I try to watch another lecture and had a dead USB…bad
news. So I had to take another week off while I mailed my dead USB back to
Yeager and they mailed me a replacement one. They were really great and sent
me a new one (with a friendly reminder to not do that again!). I think part of
the reason they were so accommodating is because this was the end of 2011 and I
was using 2011 materials, so it’s not like I screwed up brand new 2012
materials or anything…or they were just nice and helped out a frantic “I’m
in the middle of studying” CPA student. Probably that.
Then between the holidays, and peak season at work (I work
for a retailer remember…), December was a stress pot, but managed to
finish my lectures over Christmas at my parents house, and maintain focus for
studying. I had about 3 weeks for final review, and I was reviewing as much as
I could. Between month end, and quarter end, work was crazy busy, and then on
top of that I got sick. I was holding it off as best I could but I could feel
it coming on hard core. Obviously, I was working 45 hours a week, studying 25,
trying to be around for a husband and 2 very small kids. Gosh, it was
horrific. I just wanted this test over with.
I went in and took REG on January 19th as
planned. It was a Tuesday, this was the only exam that I took with a noon time
slot. I arrived around 10 and got in right away. I really didn’t know
what to think about the test…the MCQ’s were not getting more
difficult and the SIMS were impossible. I left feeling defeated. Deep down, I
knew I didn’t give a performance that warranted a pass. Sure enough, 2
weeks later, at home on a Friday night with a sinus infection, double ear
infections, and pink eye (told you I was getting sick), I found out I failed.
I big fat FAIL flashed across the screen, with 72 right below. Just 3 points off.
I was numb…it was 10 at night. I texted mike from our bedroom, he was
downstairs, told him I failed and went to bed. A down night for sure. I was
way too sick to show any emotion. Frankly, I was just tired.
I woke up at 6 am Saturday to go study. That’s when I
lost it. I cried the whole way to Starbucks. I just poured 10 weeks into
studying and didn’t pass. It royally sucks. Digging deep enough to find
the motivation to bring out the books for FAR (I had already moved on to my
next section) was almost the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’m
sitting at Starbucks, in the middle of winter, sick as a dog, depressed, and
focusing on studying. I vowed I wasn’t going to be in that position
again…so what could help? I decided I was giving up facebook and
pinterest. Because to me passing these exams was more important than someone’s
status updates, and frankly I was never going to be able to decorate my house
until I was done with these.
That was it. I decided right then and there I would POUR
myself into FAR. I would get through this. I was beginning to realize that
this test was a marathon. It was not about who could finish first, or the
fastest. It was about who could keep going and about who could give it their
all , and then give it their all again. I refocused, more determined than
ever, and plowed ahead.
Time for FAR.
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