The reason why it took me so long is that I chose NOT to do any bead turn-ins beyond the first one (the first bead turn-in gives you XP along with rep). I'm saving all of my beads on one of my characters for consortium rep.

It just seemed like a good idea to get "useful" rep along with "fun" (kurenai) rep. If you did bead turn ins, with the beads dropping about 1/3 of the time and giving you 500 rep for 10 (50 rep each), you'd have reached exalted alot faster than I did.