(Posted March 2025)
An unsuccessful result on the CPA Common Final Examination (CFE) can be very discouraging to say the least. It is important to first understand your results and what happened to cause those results so that you can move on and prepare for your next attempt with a clear mind.
Interpreting Your Day 1 Results
Day 1 is pass/fail. If you were unsuccessful, you should have received an Automated Feedback Report that will give you more details on why you were unsuccessful. Read this in detail and document the areas where you need to improve your Day 1 response. For example, did you struggle providing useful quantitative analysis?
Interpreting Your Day 2/3 Results
Day 2/3 has a separate combined result. We talk about each of the four levels and what is required to pass each level in our CFE Evaluation Methodology blog. We encourage you to review these levels compared to your results to understand where you struggled on your CFE attempt and what is required to improve.
Coming to Terms With Your Results
You may feel your results are inaccurate or unfair. The CFE marking centre has quality control processes that ensure that your responses were marked multiple times, with arbitration by a team leader or senior marker. Your CFE results were not random, and you need to accept the fact that something did in fact go wrong.
Some of the most common reasons for an unsuccessful result include:
- Poor time management
- Poor debriefing
- Poor tracking of results
- Poor case approach
- Ineffective study plan
- Not enough study time
- Burnout
- No study partner or dysfunctional study group
It is important to identify which reason(s) may apply to your situation so you can work to eliminate those weaknesses for your next attempt.
Avoid the Pitfalls
We often see unsuccessful candidates overcompensate for their weaknesses. For example, if they were unsuccessful on their Day 2 role and failed at Level 3, they spend all of their time focusing on their role, and then they often fail Level 2 in Financial Reporting and Management Accounting because they have neglected these areas in their studies. Remember that you still need to pass all four levels of the Day 2 and 3 evaluation methodology to pass the CFE on your next attempt. You cannot neglect any one area to be successful.
Technical Review
Another common pitfall is assuming that the only reason you failed was because of a lack of technical knowledge. Unsuccessful candidates sometimes take technical review overboard and spend hours and hours trying to memorize everything they could possibly be tested on, assuming that will make them successful on their next CFE attempt. It may make you feel better in the short term, but the CFE is not a technical test, but is broader in scope. As such, you need to prepare differently.
You should take 4-6 hours per week to complete your technical review of the commonly tested technical topics, starting with your weaknesses. If you are writing in May, you should complete your review between January and March. If you are writing in September, you should complete your review between April and June. We talk more about technical review tips and tricks in our blog here.
Case Writing
During this same time period, in addition to technical review, we also suggest easing back into case writing. Once per month, you should write a CFE Day 3 practice case to help refine any weaknesses in your case writing approach and your debriefing process. If you are in our current year CFE Prep course or our prior year CFE Prep extension course, we offer you additional CFE Day 3 practice cases in your Other Resources to write, mark, and debrief. If not, you can find a Day 3 practice case package here. These cases include full online walkthroughs to help you improve your case approach, analysis, and writing skills.
Retaking Capstone 2
Our recommendation would be to not take the Capstone 2 module for a second time. We explain why in our blog about whether you should retake Capstone 2, but it is our belief that, as an experienced writer, you will increase your chances of success by following a more balanced study plan and writing, marking, and debriefing in your own study group.
Next Steps
To prepare for your next attempt, you should perform the following steps now:
- Interpret your results to identify weaknesses to eliminate and come to terms with your results if you have not yet done so.
- Determine your study leave. We strongly recommend trying to get at least the four weeks immediately preceding the CFE off from work. Prioritize your studies and take vacation time to study if possible. If you are unable to get a minimum of four weeks off from work to prepare, you will need to use your weekends and some evenings each week to prepare. If it is not possible to take entire weeks off from work, your employer may be willing to give you a day or two off each week.
- Find a study partner. A study group should be no more than two to three writers. Any more gets complicated trying to sort out who is marking for whom and often turns into a social get together, which is not helpful during the study day. Find a partner who is following the same study schedule and plan as you will be. If you want more details on why a study partner is so important, please review our blog on this topic.
- Start your technical review and case writing preparation as described above.