This paper reports the results of a survey of winners of the Elijah Watt Sells award. We ask them about the determinants of their success, which might be useful to other students preparing for the CPA exam. The winners graduated from different universities, not necessarily the ones ranked top, and almost all of them participated in a review course. Winners mentioned motivation and many hours of study as factors that determined their success. We also find different characteristics among male and female respondents in terms of age and work experience at the time of the exam.