User blog comment:CamperThirteen/She rises like the phoenix... or like a zombie/@comment-1874924-20100408044701

I had a similar, albeit less traumatic, exam prep experience ~20 years ago, when I was studying for the CPA exam. What makes that exam so difficult is that the candidates are responsible for so much material; the individual questions and problems aren’t all that hard.

Anyway, having heard the horror stories, I studied so diligently that I had no life for some 3 months before the exam. Then, when I sat down to the first part, it was almost anticlimactic. I wound up as part of the elite 15-20% of candidates who pass all 4 parts on the first try, and with excellent scores into the bargain. The requirement is 75 for each part. Most passing scores are below 80. Mine ranged from 81-91.

What happened then? I could never get the qualifying experience I needed to be licensed. Some things are just not meant to be.