Friday, February 20, 2009

CPA Exam

The CPA exam has been one of the biggest items on my plate as of late. For those of you that don't know what it is, let me explain. Well, all lawyers need to take a difficult test called the BAR exam to be licensed as a lawyer. Well the CPA exam is to accountants as the BAR exam is to lawyers. Make sense?

The exam has four sections: Audit, Business and Economic Concepts (BEC), Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR), and Regulation (REG). So, Each of these exams has about 90 multiple choice questions and 2 long essay questions (with the exception of BEC, which has only 90 multiple choice questions and no essays. Also, the REG exam has only 72 questions).

Each section of the exam is difficult, and you have to know your stuff. Basically, they test you on and ask you to remember EVERYTHING you ever learned in college (some of the material I never learned in college). I went through BYU's accounting program (#1 in the country), and through studying for and taking the CPA exam, I learned just how great of a program it is. The exam was mostly a review. In fact, I believe that most of the tests were easier than anything I was ever tested on at BYU.

So in preparation for each section of the exam, I studied, on average, about 75 hours per exam. I studied more for certain sections depending on the difficulty (Audit (60 hours), BEC (60 hours), REG (90 hours), and FAR (100 hours). I was fortunate to use the Becker CPA Review course, which was incredible. It is a GREAT review for the exam, and I would recommend it to anyone. The prepare you really well for the exam.

I have officially passed each section of the exam. For the Audit, BEC, FAR, and REG sections, I got a 93, 82, 89, and 85, respectively (75 is a passing score). Now that I've passed each section, my firm (Ernst & Young, LLP) has agreed to give me a $5,000 bonus. Not a bad prize if you asked me. Also, I will have a certification that will bless me and my family for the rest of my life.

2 comments:

Jamie and Julie said...

Congratulations! I'm sure Uncle Brent is pleased. I expect your last test score to be a passing score as well.

Registered Nurses have a nasty exam too.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!! How exciting!