CERTIFIED: Moving the goal post

Certified follows a group of aspiring CPAs on their journey to prepare for and take the CPA exam. This is the final part of Kimberly Price’s story, which began in August 2016. Read the first parts here.

By Jessica Salerno, OSCPA senior content manager

The CPA exam is a marathon that will test your stamina and commitment. Kimberly Price knows this well.

“Patience is crucial when it comes to this whole process,” she said. “You might think things are going to go one way, but life will show you otherwise.”

Price hasn’t passed a section yet, taking FAR earlier this year and scoring a 71, four points shy of the necessary 75 to pass. Although it’s bittersweet to come so close, Price said this means her recent switch to the Wiley CPA program for study materials is working. This is the best score she’s gotten yet.

In a welcome break from frustrating exam news, Price is pregnant and due at the end of the summer.

Initially she said after finding out about the pregnancy she thought she’d try to study and pass as many sections as she could before the baby arrives. But as she mentioned, sometimes life has other plans: she was so nauseous in her first trimester she didn’t have much energy left to devote to studying.

“At the 13-week mark I started to feel like a normal human being again,” she said. “And I thought, ‘Now I need to start getting ready and planning finances and everything we need for a baby. So I decided to take a step back from the exam and focus on that. I know my new study method works because I wouldn’t have gotten that close to passing if it didn’t; I just need a little bit of a mental break.”

She’s revised her goal to begin studying after the baby is born and finish the exam as quickly as she can.

“I think what I’ll probably start with is FAR again,” she said. “Because that was my best test yet and that’s the one that has the most material to study for. Getting that one out of that way first would give me a good confidence boost.”

Despite the ups and downs she’s had with studying and taking various sections, Price is still committed to earning those three letters after her name. Her outlook during this process has almost always been one of positivity and perseverance, and now she said she has even more reason to pass.

“You have your peaks and valleys with the exam, especially when you get the news that you fail,” she said. “But you can see that end goal and know it’s going to pay off. It opens so many opportunities and doors for you; it’s hard at times to not get defeated when you don’t pass. But I would say I still feel just as dedicated – if not more so – especially because after the baby is born I want to be able to say, ‘Look what your mom did.’”

Sponsored by MDS CPA Review and Yaeger CPA Review.