I have some classmates taking their first CPA exam in the next few weeks so I thought I’d share this post. Here are some things I wish I had known before taking my first exam.
1. Wear a dark, long-sleeved shirt to your exam. When you check into your exam, the proctor gives you two laminated pieces of scratch “paper” with two dry-erase markers for you to use. But you fill your boards up pretty quickly (at least I did) and depending on the testing center, the proctors aren't very prompt about replacing your used boards as you fill them up. If you wear a dark long-sleeved shirt, you can just erase that board with your sleeve as you fill it up! I’ve tried using my hands (gross) and bringing in Kleenex (not allowed depending on the testing center) but the sleeve has worked out well for me. Save yourself the heartache and frustration (especially for tests like FAR that are computation-heavy) and just wear a dark, long-sleeve shirt that you don’t care about getting dirty.
2. Use the earplugs. Another thing the proctor gives you as you check in is foam earplugs. Strongly consider using them. There are many other students in the same testing room as you and not all of them are taking the CPA. Some are taking the GMAT and going ham on their keyboard as they try to bust out a five-paragraph essay in 30 minutes. I didn’t think I’d need the earplugs, but I learned very quickly that it’s surprisingly difficult to concentrate on financial accounting with someone else clacking on a keyboard right next to you.
3. Test the markers they give you. As I mentioned in tip #1, you get two boards and two dry-erase markers when you check in. Some proctors are good and make sure the markers work before giving them to you, and others unknowingly give you dead markers. So always check, and if you don’t like your marker, ask for another one. It’s better to figure that out before you’ve started your exam than when you’re in the middle of it.
4. Take your break. About halfway through your exam, you get the option to take a short 15-minute break that doesn’t count against your exam time (if you take a break at any other time, it counts against your 4-hour time limit). For your first CPA exam, I recommend taking this break even if you think you might not need it. Get up, walk around, eat a snack (I usually brought a PB&J sandwich), drink some water, use the restroom, stretch, etc. But don't go too crazy because you only have 15 minutes, and you need to allot 3-5 minutes to checking back into the exam with the proctor.
5. Don’t let the exam instructions time out on you. When you sit down to take your exam, there are some instructions to click through at the beginning, and you get 5 minutes to read/confirm them. Many people (including myself) use this time to brain dump everything we’ve memorized (tricky journal entries, ratios, silly acronyms, etc.) onto our scratch "paper." This is ideal because these 5 minutes don’t count against your exam time, but if you don’t click through all the instructions and start the exam before 5 minutes are up, your exam times out and you aren’t allowed to take the test. At all. Don’t let that happen! Be smart with your brain dumping and keep an eye on the clock.
That’s all for now! Let me know if you try any of these or if you have any tips to add to this list.
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