Taking the CPA Exam: Coach’s Advice
By by Steve Martin, JD, MBA, CPA (inactive)
It happens too often. I get a call from one of my past students and they lament to me that their software has expired. I ask them “did you earn Free Repeat Privileges by completing your homework before you took the exam? If so, I will give you new software and you can come back to class for free!”
To which they respond – “Uh – I didn’t even sit for the exam yet.” When I ask why, they usually respond “I didn’t feel ready.”
Look – the CPA exam is the hardest thing I have ever done. And I went through military boot camp and I took the bar exam!
I devoted five months to preparing for the exam. I took a CPA review course and did everything my coach told me to do. But even then I did not feel completely “ready.”
It‘s like preparing for a big game. You get “coached up.” Your coach tells you what to expect, and then you prepare and practice for the game.
But the game never turns out exactly as you expected. You can’t possibly predict all the plays you’ll be faced with. In other words, you are never perfectly “ready.” But you do what your coach tells you to do and you play the game. You can’t put it off.
The CPA exam is the same way. We coach you for one part. You prepare and practice. Then you take the exam for that part and move on to the next. Do what your coaches tell you to do and pass the CPA exam. You can’t expect to win if you don’t get in the game.
Steve Martin, JD, MBA, CPA (inactive), has coached over 7,000 CPA candidates through the CPA Exam since 1985. He is the founder and President of MDS CPA Review. Steve is also a founding member of the Blaugrund, Herbert and Martin law firm in Worthington, Ohio and has served as The Ohio Society of CPA’s legal counsel for over 18 years.