CPA.
Certified Public Accountant.
Now, technically this goal (to some) might seem like it isn’t arbitrary. My major was in accounting. Currently, I work as an auditor. This isn’t some random goal made on a whim.
However, to me it was.
For those who don’t know the CPA exam is a long and arduous process. Four exams with low pass rates. Hundreds of hours of studying.
A year ago, if you told me that a year from now I’d have just started work and had already passed all four exams I’d spit in your face (not really).
It seemed at the time like a monumental task that would never get done. At the present moment, I am still playing soccer and drowning in Masters course work. It just wasn’t feasible.
Then over the last winter break of my college career, I gave myself a goal, on a whim.
The goal was to pass one of the exams before I started working in the fall. I just needed to get on the board. If I could just get one in I’d feel a weight lift off my chest.
At that moment I decided to go through the necessary registration process to be able to sit for the exam.
Six weeks later I received my notice to schedule. That means I had 6 months to take my first exam. Financial Analysis and Reporting. The big dog.
The Financial Analysis and Reporting part of the CPA exam stinks, bad.
It’s the part with the most content, the lowest pass rating, and arguably the hardest simulations. If I could study for this test and pass I knew that eventually, the CPA would seem at least more attainable. So I hit the books in the final semester of Masters classes while simultaneously doing an Audit and Taxation internship.
Big mistake.
Minimal progression occurred between the months of January and April. There were just too many priorities at that time. It wasn’t working.
Fast forward to the end of April, my classwork is pretty much wrapped up for the semester and the internship has concluded.
This is around the time when a realization dawns on me. It’s now or never. The time for action is now.
A decision is made.
From now until the start of my full-time job, almost every waking moment will be dedicated to passing these exams. At that point, I had enough money saved where I could skip out on a summer job and just focus on studying. A hard deadline is created.
Late June is when I schedule to take FAR (Financial Analysis and Reporting).
Once May hits I’m studying eight to ten hours a day seven days a week. No breaks. No pain, no game.
Late June comes in a flash.
Exam day comes and goes in an instant. Then reality hits. The score release for that exam won’t come out for a month. Meaning I won’t know if I had passed until the end of July. So I decided to move on to the next section while simultaneously reviewing for FAR.
Spoiler alert: studying for two exams at the same time sucks.
However, that decision paid off. In late July, utter devastation hits. Scores are released and I find out that I failed by one point.
Unfortunately, that meant that I needed to take two exams within the next score release window if I even wanted a chance to pass all four parts before starting work.
So, I schedule two exams back to back.
The first is FAR on a Tuesday morning. The next is BEC the day after, Wednesday afternoon. You could assume my stress levels were relatively high at that point.
Time flies again as if I’m in a vortex.
Back-to-back exam days are conquered.
Then a gamble is made. I choose to forego waiting for the score release and move on to the next part without reviewing the other two. REG (the third part) is scheduled for the middle of August. Also, I go out on a limb and schedule AUD (the final part) to be taken in the middle of September, three days before my start date.
The grind continues.
Eight hours a day, seven days a week. I’m slowly starting to burn out. Then I get a huge boost.
Scores are released, and I passed both of my previous exams.
The adrenaline of finding out that news takes me through studying for my third exam. Once again, it’s exam day. I have an absolute field day with REG. After completing that exam I knew I’d go right on to studying for the final part, AUD.
Not a single day off is taken between studying for REG and AUD.
I’m on a mission. Go big or go home. Make future me proud. A week or so later I found out that I passed REG. This news seals my fate.
The vortex opens up and swallows me whole again. Days blend together. Time ceases to make sense.
The fourth and final exam day hit me like a train, out of nowhere.
The damage is done. The exam is over. All that I can do now is go to work and review at night until scores are released.
That day again comes quicker than initially expected.
It just so happens that it’s a day I’ll never forget. PASS shows up on my scorecard. An overwhelming feeling of relief washes over me. Mission accomplished. No more studying, no more burnout, no more worrying about exam scores ever again.
Now, when I tell people who don’t understand that I’ve passed the CPA exam the response is minimal. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just a form of congratulations because they assume it’s an achievement.
Meanwhile (and only people who have gone through the CPA exam process will know), I just went through hell for six months.
Trust that I’m not bitter and hold no ill will toward the people who don’t understand the sacrifice it took to achieve that goal (and to be fair there are quite a few people who definitely do understand). It’s something that you come to terms with after it’s all over. At one point I thought to myself “I went through hell to get this, most people won’t understand, and that’s okay.”
Truly, it is okay. To be proud of yourself for achieving a goal provides much more satisfaction than any other person’s response to hearing about your accomplishment.
Looking back, I’m extremely grateful for making what seemed to me to be a completely arbitrary goal.