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The Edmonton exam writer said the second day of the exam was supposed to be over at 2 p.m. but didn’t start until then due to problems connecting to WiFi. He described seeing people crying and hearing someone throw up in one of the bathroom stalls.

At one point, after hours of waiting, students were briefly let out of the room to get food, but that caused further complications.

“They had a couple of basically snack bars open, and when you have hundreds of people, the lineups were huge. Even after half an hour or 45 minutes, we were still in line,” he said.

“The proctors came back and said CPA Canada had instructed them that nobody was allowed to leave the exam room. I guess at this point they realized people could be talking about the exam.”

The Edmonton exam writer said he’s contemplating what he’ll do if he receives a failing grade.

“I would be extremely pissed off, and to be honest, I don’t think I would even pursue this designation anymore. To me, they’ve lost all their values; they’ve lost all their integrity,” he said. “I’d go do my MBA.”

Photo by Getty Images

Many of the online posts on Reddit focused on the CPA handbook, a key resource that gives students guidelines for what questions and issues they should address when analyzing the cases. Some exam writers were unable to access the handbook, and are worried their responses will look dramatically inferior to peers who had access to the document.

In an email blast sent to students who wrote the exam, which was obtained by the Financial Post, CPA Canada president and CEO Joy Thomas said her organization had received hundreds of complaints in the days following the administration of the three-day exam.