Well, all of you out there in internetland, I could not be happier to report that this will be the final post I make to this blog. I received my reg grade this morning - the best 87 I will ever lay eyes upon.
First thing I'll go into - there is an easier way to check your grades. You can get NJ scores on the NASBA site. I had never poked around this too much before, but if you go to Exams -> CPA Exam -> NJ -> Scores, punch in your section ID and birthday, you can receive your number grade. This will only save you a few days, as grades are only posted once NASBA receives them (and they're mailed about two days later), but its still cool and I'm bummed I never knew about it sooner.
Also, speaking of the NASBA site, email them about the egregious security problem they have. If you choose the "questionnaire" option from the NJ menu, all you need is a CPA candidate's name and birthday to get their Social Security Number (its not just an NJ problem - any state that has the questionnaire option will give it). Its ridiculous...I've already emailed them about it and I hope a lot of other people are as well. Somebody in my office forwarded me an note about it.
Anyway - enough about the NASBA site... I passed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (exclamation point, exclamation point, etc.). I found out just before Thanksgiving - so I got to tell the family all personally - which was really cool. And although I've still found that nothing really matches the feeling of finding out that you passed your first section (at least for me), the wave of relief that finding out you passed is indescribable. Knowing that the hundreds of hours you put into it, the friends and family you've ignored, and the 20 pounds you've gained during the process were worth something (jk about all of the aforementioned except for the hours thing) is a really satisfying feeling. Knowing that you will never have to crack another study guide (unless Becker offers you an exorbitant sum of money to teach the course - hint hint) is even better. And best of all, putting off ordering new business cards until I could actually add another three little letters to my name was not in vain.
An overall impression of the test? It covers everything we learned in school, plus a lot of what I'm assuming a Masters in Accounting touches on. Never gets in too deep, but covers a just incredible amount of material. I had never studied like I did for this before, and hope the occasions I'll have to during the rest of my life are few and far between. But if you're going to do it - try your best to do it once. If a couple sections have to be repeated, don't sweat it. And lastly, get it done as soon as you can after graduation, because we really have seen a lot of this material at least semi-recently. I think that's all I've got as far as general feelings are concerned. If I think of anything else, I'll make sure it gets into Priscilla's (my much more attractive replacement) continuation of the exam cram blog.
As far as whats next for me? Saving the world in some way shape or form. Or going for the advanced degree...you know - one of those two. As I'm in tax, law or a master's in tax seem most appropriate - but we'll see. That will be a decision made with some help from the boys and girls upstairs at Deloitte - they've been great to me through the test and in general, and I want their input on what they think will help me out the most in my career. Still - that's a thought for 6 months from now, not today. Today is a day to celebrate.
I wish you all the best of luck, and thank you for taking a few minutes out of your days to look at my rambling thoughts. Hopefully you took something away from this though. I'm sure cil will do a great job keeping up the blog and you guys will have to suffer through another person who'll only be taking each section once. Thanks to the NJSCPA for giving me the opportunity to unleash my nonsense against all of you - and providing tons to encouragement throughout this experience. And again, good luck.
Oh - and to steal a phrase from my favorite Becker video professor Peter Olinto (and PS for all you NJ candidates - Ray Rigoli was my favorite live class teacher) -
"You're on your way to a CPA baby!"
Corny, yes. True, yes.
