Mississippi youth passes CPA Exam – at age 15

Growing up a mile from the Gulf of Mexico in Mississippi, it’s no surprise that Jimmy Chilimigras took to fishing.

“I’m just not the best at it though,” he said. “It’s more fishing than catching for me.”

Chilimigras’ pleasure is fishing, but his passion is learning. He graduated from high school at age 12, got a bachelor’s degree (in roughly one year) at 14, got a master’s degree (in six months), then crushed the Law School Admission Test.

And, before attending law school at Loyola University New Orleans this fall, Chilimigras decided to wade into the deep end.

In six short months, the now-15-year-old became what is believed to be the youngest person to ever pass the CPA Exam.

“My reaction? I was full of relief. It felt very good to have completed it,” Chilimigras said. “The CPA Exam is really challenging.”

On June 17, during a Zoom call with mentor Bryan Kesler, CPA, of Kesler CPA Review, Chilimigras discovered that he passed the fourth and final section of the CPA Exam. Between that, his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting online from Western Governors University, and work experience, Chilimigras is eligible for CPA licensure before he’s old enough to obtain a driver’s license.

“It was very exciting to hop on video calls and watch him pass the Exam,” said Kesler, who has helped more than 2,000 CPA candidates over the past decade – but none quite like Chilimigras. “At first, I was a bit skeptical, but then when I realized Jimmy was a real person, I went headfirst into helping any way that I could.

“What I like about Jimmy, he’s so motivated and he’s so focused. A lot of high schoolers that I know, they’re neither of those things, so it’s really refreshing to not only see a great American success story, but just see a young man who’s really focused and is humble. I think Jimmy is going to go on and do great things for sure.”

What Chilimigras wants to do is tax law, building on his accounting education with a tax specialization at Loyola.

“One of the things that I like about accounting is how you can really help people with it,” he said. “Financial problems can really be some of the biggest problems in people’s lives. If you can take care of that, that can really relieve a lot of their stress. I worked with the AARP to do some volunteer tax preparation for the elderly and the disadvantaged in my community. I just really loved that, helping people there.

“With my talent and putting in enough work, I can be one of the best, and that’s great because then maybe I can help people in ways that nobody else can. And that’s really important to me. I want to be that kind of person.”

‘I’ve kind of fallen in love with it’

When Chilimigras was in kindergarten, he simply was too young to realize he was different.

“When you’re the person who’s doing those things, that’s normal for you. You don’t see it as any different because that’s all you’ve ever known,” said Chilimigras, who came to recognize his gift in time. “I think it’s just my talent. Like how Michael Phelps is the best at swimming, you know? This is my area.”

Chilimigras said he loves reading and always has had a gift for retaining information, but he stopped short of calling his memory “photographic.”

Chilimigras’ parents, both with professional backgrounds in real estate, encouraged him to work at his preferred speed, an approach that led to him eventually being home-schooled.

“The pace I was going at pretty much required it,” said Chilimigras, who also attended college virtually but who intends to commute to Loyola for in-person learning in August. “With law school, I’m going to go probably at a normal pace because I want to really absorb everything I can so I can try and be the best lawyer that I can.

“I’m going to specialize in tax law, which marries my two interests of accounting and law.”

How did Chilimigras initally become interested in accounting?

“I knew I wanted to go to law school and I needed a bachelor’s for that. My dad suggested, he said, ‘Either take something easy because you’ll get really good grades and then that’ll help with scholarship money. Or you can try and take something really difficult and try and keep your brain sharp for law school,’ ” Chilimigras said. “I took the hard route. I researched on the school I wanted to go to and what took people the longest to graduate. What was giving them most difficulty? That was accounting, so that’s when I settled on it. And I’ve kind of fallen in love with it.”

‘It’s a really well put-together exam’

Around last Christmas, when Chilimigras decided he wanted to tackle the CPA Exam, he discovered Kesler CPA Review.

“Bryan really is like a mentor, which isn’t something that any of the other programs really have,” Chilimigras said. “He helped in just guiding me through the process, but also that he’s familiar with all of the programs, and part of it is just having someone who’s been through the CPA Exam before so they know what they struggled with, what they had trouble with, what they could have improved on. Having someone who’s done that already to talk to is helpful.”

Joked Kesler: “My mantra is, ‘I made all the mistakes failing the CPA Exam so you don’t have to.'”

While Chilimigras has a history of not merely passing but instead dominating standardized tests, the CPA Exam was a different matter. He actually had to take the Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) section twice after coming up two points shy of passing with a 73, though he believes an error he made multiple times related to leaving spaces blank affected his score. His second time around, he scored 80.

“It’s a really well-put-together exam, but not just because it’s so challenging,” Chilimigras said. “I feel like when I took it, I really had to learn a lot and expand my knowledge. And it really prepared me to be a CPA.”

Chilimigras and Kesler met at least twice a month online to plan and strategize. Chilimigras used a study guide developed by Vishal Gandhi, CPA, of Vishal CPA Prep (who recently partnered with Kesler CPA Review); he took advantage of a test bank featuring enhanced question explanations that Kesler and Elisha Schwab, CPA, developed; and he attended live group classes taught by Vishal and Schwab.

While that was all online, Chilimigras did learn his score on the Auditing and Attestation (AUD) section on a road trip to visit his mother’s family in Virginia that took him right past Kesler’s home studio in Huntersville, N.C.

“I was saving it to see it with him for the first time, but it was eating away at me,” Chilimigras said. “That score reveal with Bryan was the only one where I got a 75, which is the exact score I needed to pass. That was a fun moment.”

Chilimigras first found out he had passed the Business Environment and Concepts (BEC) section on Feb. 20 with an 86. The 75 in AUD came on March 20, followed by an 85 on Regulation (REG) on April 18. Finally, following the 73 on FAR on May 27, he made history with an 80 on FAR on June 17.

Chilimigras, who said he studied about five hours a day throughout the process, readily admitted that being a 15-year-old out of school had its advantages.

Still, he offered some advice to others taking the Exam, tying it back to fishing.

“Some people when they have a test, they focus too much on the exam and kind of drop everything else. It can get like how writers get with writers’ block,” Chilimigras said. “I think it’s important really just to keep living life while you take the exams. Like, I’ll bring my books while going out fishing, or when I’m hanging out with friends. So I still get my studying time, but I’m still able to live my life.

“I think that helped me to really absorb the material without getting intimidated or exhausted or overrun by the task.”

— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Bryan Strickland at Bryan.Strickland@aicpa-cima.com.