Here’s a story from Carolyn Arnold, my friend who lives in Wales, and is lovely.

When at first you don’t succeed, do or do not, there is no try!”

I registered with my Accountancy association back in Sept. 1990, thinking it would be a doddle based on my experience doing school exams, revising the night before.

Having assumed that from the start, my first couple of exams were a nightmare. I really didn’t get the hang of what this accountancy lark was all about…if it was about numbers, why did I need to know case law and what useful purpose was it to anyone knowing the date someone decided you could work to live, but not live to work?

I scraped through exams one by one until around 1996 when I passed all the exams needed for the intermediate stage.

Now, with all the early stages of exams, you could sit them one at a time. Final stage is different. Boy is it different. There were 3 compulsory exams, which all had to be sat and passed concurrently. The idea behind this is that the syllabus looks at 3 intertwined subjects which need to be studied at the same time to make more sense. I really struggled to remember all the things necessary for the 2nd, and never “got” the subject matter of the 3rd. As a result, I tended to turn up for the first paper, but walk out during the next and not bother turning up for the 3rd. Even though I passed paper 1, the others were failures so the module as a whole was a fail.

I found any old excuse not to do the exams. I took a couple of years off exams when I got engaged…. I needed a good 18 months wedding planning time which would only have distracted me from the real grind of studying

In summer 2003′s exam sittings, I paid for myself to attend some 2 day revision courses. I *finally* got the gist of the 3rd paper in this one and it took away a little of the panic surrounding it. At this stage I also turned up for all 3 papers for the first time. Passed the first, did badly on the 2nd and only failed the 3rd by 3 or 4% so was quite pleased despite not passing.

By Dec 2003, I’d moved jobs and had a new manager increasing my workload, so opted out of doing exams for another couple of sessions. Couldn’t avoid it any longer than that though, so I tried to do a university based course – 2 terms to give me a longer time to absorb the coursework. Wrong. The lectures lasted only 50 minutes each week, with lecturers who were born not to teach people. I turned up for the exams, and although I passed the first yet again, the others were around 10% LOWER marks this time! My life changing event? I bought and inwardly digested Paul McKenna’s book on how to change your life in 7 days.

Moved departments just before the results came out, and my new boss encouraged me to sit them again in December. I swore this would be my final attempt! My boss persuaded HR to pay for my course fees at a decent college with a reputation for high pass rates, as well as giving me a few weeks off to attend revision courses. I put my husband through hell again, but didn’t have as many tantrums as previously…thanks in part to positive visualisation techniques c/o Mr McKenna and some extra confidence in my own abilities.

At last, the efforts paid off – on the night of Sunday 20th Feb, 2006 in the foyer of the LAX Marriott, I got the email telling me I’d passed all 3 exams! Apparently it’s a close run thing on whether I looked happier that night than on my wedding day, but we’re not sure It’s also the only time I’ve made my dad cry (with joy!) when I phoned early in the morning UK time to let him know.

My mum wondered how I’d fill my time now I had no exams to do. She’s finally a gran, so I guess she found out!