Some CPA questions....

[broiler]

Most of your questions are highly dependent upon where you end up working and the regulations in that state. I will answer everything based on my experience as a mostly tax CPA in a dead/dying city of NY.

1) Passsing the exam really depends on how well you remember details. The questions are fairly repetitive from old exams, so you can do yourself a big favor in finding a book of old exam questions. Many people are able to pass the sections in one or two tries.

2) Each state has different requirements for work experience in order to get licensed. In NY, a 5 year student (that took the proper classes) only needs 1 year of experience for a license. The normal time in NY is 2 years since we do not have a 5 year requirement in order to sit for the exam. There was a thread about a month ago where someone stated that TX has no experience requirement.

3) The amount of money that one can make as a CPA is completely location dependent. $100k where I live is senior manager money at the big 4 and large local firms. The partner opportunities in my city are very limited at the big 4, which makes $100k extremely high end for a CPA in public practice. If you want to make $100k here, you need to go to a fairly high position in private industry.

4) Crossing state lines depends on the rules in your new state. Most states allow for your license to be good in their state as long as you meet all of their rules to keep your license. However, moving into a new state with only the exam passed can cause a problem. NY wants to get your old exams to confirm that you would have passed those sections with the curve that NY would have applied to your raw score. I know of one case where a former coworker was forced to retake a section because her 75 in IN did not equal a 75 in NY for that section.