Rumor of the Day: PwC No Longer Pays Out a $20K Elijah Watt Sells Award Bonus

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

I mean, it’s on Reddit so it must be true. Let’s take a look.

Seen talk of this within the last half year and thought I should make a thread to let people know.

You can still get a CPA pass bonus of 6k (or 5k, apparently it depends on line of service), but they definitively told us they don’t offer a bonus for the EWS award anymore. No mention of it being lowered either, just that it’s no longer on the table.

Interestingly they mentioned they still draw most of the winners of this award despite no longer paying you an extra 20k. Not sure how true this is.

The last serious discussion about Elijah Watt Sells Award bonuses happened around these parts in 2012, at which time we did confirm with a PwC spokesperson that the firm offered a $20,000 bonus for its winners. We’ve also talked about the non-financial benefits to winning the tryhardiest award in all of accounting, but that’s not really relevant because the question here is about cold, hard cash.

Interestingly, I was digging through our archive to see if we ever did get confirmation of bonuses at other firms and came across this old article on why there are so many Watt Sells winners these days. I’ll save you a click and excerpt the explanation given to us by the AICPA.

If you want to go really far back, (all the way to 1924) the Sells Award was presented to the one top exam performer, then to the top 2 as a ‘Gold and Silver’ twice annually and then expanded to ‘Gold, Silver and Bronze’ also twice annually– with more winners when there were ties.

In the mid-2000’s, with the computerized exam, it was expanded to be the top 10, and often was higher because of ties for the 10th highest score.

In 2011, the Board of Examiners decided that rather than awarding the top 10 scores, it made sense to standardize the score at an extremely high level (95.50) and award all candidates who surpassed that very high bar.

As fascinating as that is, check out this prescient comment left by Going Concern’s resident troll and curmudgeon-in-chief Big4Veteran.

Hit me up to get your cookie for Miss Cleo-like psychic ability, B4V.

Now, about the claim that PwC boasts “the most” Watt Sells winners. They know we can, like, check that, right? So let’s look at 2018 winners. We’re only including Big 4 firms because that’s all anyone cares about:

  • KPMG 20
  • EY 18
  • PwC 14
  • Deloitte 10

I dunno, I’m no mathlete but that doesn’t look like “the most” to me. What do I know.

If anyone cares to confirm they’ve killed the bonus, please use the contact information below and give us a shout.

Related Posts

Five Really Simple Facts About the CPA Exam

Five.jpgEditor’s Note: Want more JDA? You can see all of her posts for GC here, her blog here and stalk her on Twitter.
The CPA exam is full of myth and legend due in large part to the fact that you’re not supposed to discuss what’s actually on it. Of course everyone does and rumors fly around firms (“I heard IFRS is being tested in simulations…” “Tim in tax was thrown out of Prometric for wearing a hoodie to the exam…”) until they’ve been transformed into CPA exam nightmare tales based entirely in fiction. Knock it off, kids, let’s stick with the facts.


Of the two communications, only one is graded. Lucky you, you don’t know which one. Candidates get all bent out of shape over the communications but all you have to do is write a standard business letter. You don’t even have to answer the question correctly, you just have to stay on topic! Easy ten points, don’t blow it and do the communications first.
The research portion is only worth 1 point so if you don’t have time, blow it off. Yes, I said blow it off. If you’re crunched to complete a simulation, this is the last thing you want to spend your time on. Skip it unless you have lots of time.
The CPA exam is NOT graded on a curve, your score is not a percentage and is on a “plus point” basis. This means if you don’t know an answer, guess. Never leave a question blank, everyone starts with 0 points and earns up from there. More difficult MCQ earn you more points when answered correctly and no, the AICPA doesn’t reveal the secret psychometric formula that it uses to determine this.
There are no “easy” multiple choice. You only get moderate or difficult. Every exam starts moderate and MCQ testlets will get more difficult if you are doing well or stay the same if you’re bombing. So yours could be moderate, difficult, moderate or moderate, difficult, difficult or if you really didn’t study: moderate, moderate, FAIL. Sorry, made that last one up. You get the point.
14 – 16% of the exam isn’t even graded. Outrageous as it may seem, the AICPA loves pre-testing things that you have never learned just to scare the shit out of you. Actually, they’re testing new questions and gauging candidate reaction so good for you if you know XBRL but sorry, you’re not getting any credit for it. If you get bizarre MCQ, now you know why.
Thanks to my day job, I guess I’m some sort of CPA exam expert so I encourage Going Concern readers who are interested in CPA exam content to get in touch with us and let us know if there’s something you’d like to see us cover on this subject. Good times, kids, good times!

Four Ways to Force Yourself to Study for the CPA Exam

I’ll save you the hoo-rah, I’m pretty sure you don’t need it. It’s March already; if you aren’t studying, you’re working, and if you’re doing both right now I worry about your decision-making capabilities. Oh well.

Masochistic or not, it isn’t always easy to get yourself motivated to study.

You have entire CPA exam strategies laid out on the CPAnet forums here, here, and look, you even have a hoo-rah. Not everyone is an Elijah Watt-Sells so get that out of your head and worry about what works for you.


That strategy – finding a perfect fit for your own needs as a CPA exam candidate – also goes for motivation.

So how do you force yourself to study? Here are a few ideas:

Bribe yourself – Sock away $xxx for a new toy and reward a passing score with whatever your bribe is. If you’re cheap/laid off/sinking $1000s into failed exam fees and broke, it could be a decent dinner or a movie. Define splurge for yourself and make that the carrot you dangle in front of your face to get you to study.

Commiserate – You can find plenty of miserable accountants taking (and not always succeeding at) the CPA exam. You can also find support and encouragement if you’re actually trying to pass, so use resources like CPAnet and Twitter to find other candidates to speak to. If you’re taking a live review, sign up with someone else from your firm and go to class together. It helps to have someone else keeping you in check.

Visualize your goal – This might be the most, um, cheesy of methods but it absolutely works. Write CPA after your name on business cards and put them up where you will see them frequently (but don’t hand them out, that’d be illegal); though this tactic isn’t meant as a substitute for actually preparing (sorry to break it to you), a little positive thinking takes the anxious edge off.

Plan – Sometimes knowing there is a clearly defined schedule takes some of the panic out of the CPA exam, and if you’re disciplined enough, you won’t need motivation. Sure, it’s robotic, but that’s what studying for the CPA exam is. The exam doesn’t ask you to think critically outside of the parameters of financial reporting and accounting, nor do you get bonus points for creativity. So maybe you just need to have a plan, stick to it, suck it up, and move on until you’re done. It’s the most miserable of the options but sometimes all that works.

So? What worked for you?

Bearded guy in suit taking a hammer to his laptop

BREAKING NEWS: CPA Exam Candidates Broke NASBA’s Sh*t. Again.

This is why we have a “Just Give Me My Score You Bastards!” tag Thanks […]