Hi. How are you today?  hopefully good. 

I have good news for you.  You will pass the CPA exam.

Sure, it looks a little dismal right now, that 73 sucked, didn't it?  There are few worse feelings than preparing for something with such intensity only to fall just short of your goal.  But don't worry about it, because after all, you will pass the CPA exam.  That test or two you failed along the way will be good fodder for break time at a busy season client or completing a tax return.  

A few months from now, your client will ask you "Hey, you're a CPA right?  How was that test? I was gonna do it, but I just couldn't bring myself to study for it" and you'll confidently reply "yeah man, it was tough.  heck I even failed a couple of times, but I kept at it and eventually passed it."  Your client will seem a little bummed that he never made it to the summit, but you? You made it. and the view from up there is spectacular.

A couple of years from now, you'll be at a convention, or a conference, and you'll be making small talk over drinks and little puff pastry finger foods and someone will ask you for your business card.  You'll pull out your 50lb card stock, ultra-white, dual-embossed business card that would make even Patrick Bateman blush and slide it across the cocktail table.  And there, right there, next to your name in bold 14 pt Helvetica font will be those sweet little letters. C.P.A.

A decade or so from now after years of cutting your teeth in the audit room, you'll be ready to branch out.  Maybe you'll have a couple of kids and the hours just get to you too much and it's time to move on.  You'll find the perfect small, local firm where the hours are reasonable and the pay is sufficient and, hey, what do you know, they'll be looking for a new controller.  Not to worry though, you'll be more than qualified, after all, you'll be a C.P.A.

When you retire, your co-workers and family will throw you a party.  They'll roast you and laugh and drink and eat.  A young kid, just out of college, will ask you if he should persue a career in accounting.  He has the hours to sit for the exam, but he just doesn't know if he wants to take on the task of taking a run at the exam.  You'll put your arm around him, and tell him that passing that test was the best thing you ever did.  It opened doors you never knew existed and made you a part of one of the most elite groups in business.  If you could do it all over again, you'd do it the same way every time, because becoming a C.P.A. is one of your great accomplishments.

You will pass the CPA exam.  Now get back to studying, you have a test to pass.

Update: April 2010: This last week I received my Certificate in the mail.  I am a CPA. :)