REG Score Release Week & Results

The score release timeline was put into place this quarter. No more waiting until the third week of the third moth of the quarter to find out if you passed an exam that you took the first week of the first month of the quarter. I sat for REG November 12, 2011 which meant I was in the second wave of score release per the timeline. The second wave was set to be released November 21, 2011. That meant in as little as 9 days I would get my scores back!

On one hand it felt as though I didn't have enough time to unwind after I sat before I was wound back up waiting for score release. I was actually sick to my stomach thinking about score release before I even sat for the exam. It really messed with me mentally. But it definitely gave me the motivation to study when I would rather be doing just about anything else.

On the other hand, I really liked the fact that results were released sooner. If you passed you could move on to the next section to study without having to worry about all the "what ifs." But if you didn't pass, you knew much sooner so you could get back to your studies and take it earlier the next window without having to feel like you didn't get enough time to restudy the material again.

The Saturday before score release I hurt my arm AGAIN! I was actually hoping to get a doctor appointment Monday, score release day, but I was unable to get one until Tuesday. I didn't go to work that Monday since I could barely move my arm. That meant I was able to stalk NASBA on Twitter all day long.  No updates about score release all day! Very frustrating. My stomach was all over the place. I just wanted my REG score. If I passed I was a CPA. If not then I lost AUD and dropped back to a 50% CPA. Where the hell were these scores!?

My husband came home from work and we went to have dinner together.  I turned the computer off to enjoy family time. My phone buzzed with a twitter message from one of my #twudygroup family saying "Scores are out! Good Luck!" Seriously? During dinner? It was 5:30 pm. NASBA is located in TN which meant it was 4:30 pm there. Why do they wait until the end of their business day? Well there went my appetite! I know PA's scores are not normally updated until the following day. Apparently my stomach didn't know that! I told my husband scores were released but I probably wouldn't be able to get mine until the next day. He didn't seem to care, he made us check together before we went to bed Monday night. Nope not up yet.

When we woke up the following morning I had an early doctor appointment. Thank goodness because my arm was in such pain. My husband asked if I wanted to check before my appointment. I had two reasons not to check first thing in the morning. First, it was still before the business day. Second, I didn't want to be crying going to the doctor. Either way I knew I would be crying. My doctor appointment went well. I didn't rebreak anything, which is what I was most worried about. I tore some tissue and need time for it to heal.

You can bet when we came home my husband asked me if I wanted to check for my score. It was around 8:40am. He could tell I was shaking inside. I told him "No, we can do it when you come home from work." That didn't work. He told me to get to the computer and he would check it. He typed in the numbers and hit submit....

It was up! I had PASSED!!!!! He looked up at me. I was hysterical crying. He said, "That's passing, right?" I couldn't even speak I was crying and shaking so hard. He jumped up screamed "You Did It!" He held me for what felt like an eternity while I cried hysterical on his shoulder. I did it. I passed. After all these years of hard work and dedication I finally passed! I finally could say I am a CPA! I'm a CPA! It's so surreal to me. I have been through so many ups and downs in this process. I still can't believe it.

Hey.. did you notice the title of the entire blog changed?

Crisp Autumn Day Cuddled up with REG

It's a beautiful autumn day in October. My favorite season. This is what I look forward to all year. A crisp wind is blowing. Leaves are changing. Children outside playing. The perfect day to enjoy outside taking in all the beauty of nature.

Not for this CPA candidate. I am sitting inside. In front of my computer. Window open. Children screaming laughing. All disturbing my quiet study time. I get up to close the window. But before I do that I take one last deep breath of crisp fresh air. What perfect weather to be anywhere but in front of the computer!

This is NOT where I want to be today. I want to be outside. I turn and look at the calendar. Just under one month until my final exam (hopefully). My ultimate goal is to be a CPA. This is the final obstacle standing in my way. Since I already passed it once I know I can do it again. I will be a CPA by the end of this testing window.

Tomorrow I return to work after 6 weeks home on disability with my broken arm. I will need to make my weekends and my nights count twice as much. I will not be able to spend time with my husband as I was able to this past month. I will need to be spending quality time with CPAexcel and Regulation.

What a wonderful and exciting life I lead. Well, it will be wonderful and exciting once I can say I tackled the hardest thing in my life, passing the CPA exam.

Some people dream of success... while others wake up and work hard at it. ~Author Unknown

Slaying REG one handed and getting results faster!

I mentioned in my previous post that this month has not been good and my FAR score was the highlight of my month. While passing any section of the CPA exam would be the highlight of my month, September was not a happy month for me (besides celebrating my 3rd anniversary with my husband. Speaking of my husband, I would not have been able to make it through September - or any part of the CPA exam - without him.)

At the beginning of the month I fell and broke my arm.  I mean really broke it. I had surgery to fix my bones.  I have been out of work since then.  I have not been able to work out. I can't drive. The pain killers messed with my head and made me completely depressed.  I lost about 2 weeks of studying due to my fall.  I don't remember very much while taking it.  I argued with my mom that she didn't come to see me after my surgery for about 10 minutes until she told me word for word our conversation. Oh right, I do remember now. I have emails and text messages that I don't remember sending out. But apparently I did. All I did was sleep and cry. I do remember hooking up my computer and trying to study. Do I remember what I studied? Nope!

I eventually decided that I could handle a little pain to be back into the right state of mind. The doctor said that I could take Tylenol if needed. I decided to stick to the Tylenol.  It took a few days for the prescription medication to get out of my system and for me to feel "normal" again.  When this finally happened I started to study all day long. I didn't even think about it. I knew it was what I had to do if I ever want to be a CPA. I continued on my study plan. Doing questions over and over and over again. Writing index cards. (I broke my left arm. I am right handed.) Writing out all the simulations on my notepad so I could understand the reasoning behind the answers. My arm still hurts but is getting better daily. But the pain of my arm is nothing compared to the pain of not achieving my goals.

At this point in time I still didn't know when I was going to take the exam. I still didn't get my FAR results back yet. So I had to push and learn as much as I could about REG in the time I had. What would happen if I needed to retake FAR?  I would take REG at the beginning of October and FAR again at the end of November. When I got that FAR score it relieved a little bit of stress. I didn't have to retake FAR. I had passed.  So considering I lost two weeks of studying to my broken arm I was able to push REG back without having to stress over the time needed to study. I scheduled REG for November.  But that has not hampered my studies. I still wake up every morning, turn the computer on and start studying for the day.  I am not wasting this time while I have to be home on disability. I am still "working" on my accounting skills. I hope I can go back to work soon. I am not getting paid but the bills keep coming!

I knew the results process of the CPA exam were going to change this quarter.  In prior quarters you had to wait until the third week of the third month of the quarter before receiving your score.  Today the AICPA released a memo concerning the score release for this quarter. This means I should have my REG score by the beginning of December! How nice will it be to enjoy the holiday baking, decorating, shopping and wrapping!

So with one good arm I will use my time wisely to study REG. I will get my score back before the end of December! I'll be slaying REG one handed and getting results FASTER!

California Vacation: Wine, Cheese & REG ??

I recently went on an awesome vacation to San Francisco / Sonoma Valley. It was the most relaxing, most gorgeous vacation of my life thus far. (I plan on having many more!) We flew into San Fran on Saturday. We spent Saturday and Sunday being our own tour guides by giving ourselves a walking tour! What a great city! But sooooo many hills! We definitely got our workouts in. (Not to mention we did take advantage of the hotel gym a few times!)   Monday morning we woke up and headed up to Sonoma Valley.  It is about an hour and half drive. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. What a treat for this East Coast Girl! As soon as we crossed the bridge we could immediately tell we were out of the city.  Words can't even explain how gorgeous the scenery is out there! I had my head out the window snapping pictures every time we had to drive somewhere.  I just couldn't get enough! (My pictures are now my screen saver on my home computer!)

We could tell as soon as we reached Sonoma Valley. Grapes! As far as the eye could see! For the next three days we enjoyed the scenery and attended wine tastings.  Our tasting included Hanna Winery, Alder Brook Winery and Korbel Champagne Cellars. Hanna was just a wine tasting. It was relaxing to sit on the deck and look out over the vineyards while tasting some fabulous wine. We toured the grounds of Alder Brook and then were treated to a magnificent lunch! While we ate we enjoyed the beautiful views of the vineyards. I had an amazing time at both; however, I personally had the best time at Korbel! Again, we were treated to lunch. (Seriously, the lunches consisted of some of the best food I have ever tasted!) We were able to eat our lunch while enjoying the scenery. Then we were taken on a private VIP tour. The first part was the history of the Korbel Champagne Brand. Who knew the Korbel Brothers didn't set out to make Champagne. But we are sure glad they did! This part is available to the public. If you are ever in Sonoma County I highly suggest this tour and tasting! The second part, which is not open to the public, we were able to take a look at how the champagne is made from start to the finish product in boxes ready to be shipped to the retailer. I really enjoyed seeing how my champagne goes from grapes into that delicious bubbly! These three vineyards were beyond amazing and hospitable! We had a few other wineries that we were scheduled to visit but time did not allow anymore visits or tastings. I suggest any of the wine / champagne they produce!

We headed back to San Francisco. We hopped a train and went down to AT&T Park. Too bad the Giants were away that week. We walked around the outside of the ballpark. If we ever head back to San Francisco we will make sure we either get a tour of the ballpark or go when the Giants are home! After we were done seeing the sites the outside of the ballpark had to offer we went for a walk along the bay. We enjoyed exploring the different piers had to offer. On our last day we walked the Golden Gate Park. Neither of us wanted to come home. We had a wonderful vacation exploring as much as we could fit into our time on the West Coast!

The only thing that could have made our West Coast vacation more enjoyable would be if I didn't have that black cloud of studying for the CPA Exam hanging over my head.  I did bring my REG textbook with me. I had all intentions of studying on the flight. It is 6 hours from East to West! I decided to sleep as much as possible on the way there as I was gaining 3 hours to my day and if you know me at you know I LOVE my sleep.  At night when we were sitting around the hotel rooms watching TV I pulled out my book and started reviewing multiple choice questions. I think I studied about one hour probably every other night out there. I did study on our flight home, as I knew I needed to stay awake so I could get back to east coast time more easily.  Although, studying for REG could have easily put me to sleep! I completed unites 1-4 of my REG studies while on vacation. It might not be much, but I am proud of myself for studying when I much rather be spending time with my husband on vacation. He is so understanding. He left me alone while I was studying for those few hours at night at the hotel. I know he would have rather had been spending time with me then watching TV. But that's the life of a CPA Candidate and their family!

My vacation studying may not have been hardcore but I can promise you and myself that my studies have kicked up since arriving home. I will not let REG or any part of the CPA exam get the best of me. I will give it my all and never give up!