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Has Anyone Seen This CPA Exam Candidate’s Missing FAR Scores?

File this under: emails CPA exam candidates NEVER want to get.

The Prometric nightmares continue and this time, the trauma comes long after the candidate left the test center. Ready for this one, folks? Details have been changed to protect the innocent and I have paraphrased the email due to NASBA's disclaimer (this email came from them, not Prometric nor the AICPA).

Dear Sucker,

According to Prometric and the AICPA they have been unable to recover the results of your FAR exam that you took on 4/20.  You will have to take the entire exam over again.  Prometric has kept this testing window open until June 7th and they will contact you to reschedule. If you prefer to retake it in the next testing window, they will allow you to do that.

I get that you're completely pissed off at all of us and assure you we'll do what we can to keep you from flipping out. Thanks in advance for not doing so.

Of course, if you get an email like that on a Sunday, your first instinct is to forward it to Going Concern and ask if we see that type of thing often (we don't). Most people would flip out (myself included), plunge themselves into a deep depression or go on a weird lifelong jihad against the CPA exam. This candidate, however, is taking it really well all things considered. I haven't spoken to them in a few days so hopefully that has not changed, I'm keeping an eye on the headlines in this person's area and hoping I don't read about any aspiring CPAs going postal in the mall or anything.

In the original email, there is no apology. At first, it reads like a practical joke (who could possibly be that cruel?) but the candidate confirmed with the person who wrote it that it is, in fact, legit and the scores are gone. Vaporized. Like they never existed. This person's only option was to retake the exam.

I have confirmed with other candidates that some are able to schedule the first week in June and it seems to be mostly East Coast candidates. Is this due to the numerous Prometric closures blamed on technical difficulties we heard about toward the end of the window?

So, technical difficulties or what? How do they just lose an entire exam? Did this happen to anyone else out there or is it just an isolated incident? I have to say I don't see this very often and I've been dealing with CPA exam candidates for five years.

Prometric did not respond to my request for comment.