AICPA Announces Sweeping CPA Exam Changes

The mood was upbeat at this year's AICPA Course Provider Meeting in New York. Despite the tumultuous financial climate, CPAs and CPA candidates can look forward to some exciting developments in the months to come. Highlights of the meeting included:

• Release of the newest AICPA questions. Expect to see these in our books and lecture materials in the very near future.
• More CPA candidates are attempting the exam than ever before. Over 247,000 sections were registered for, by more than 87,000 individuals.
• Pass rates have shown modest improvement, overall, but still remain in the 45% - 50% range.

Along with general news about the performance of the latest crop of CPA candidates, the meeting offered yet another sneak preview of the new CPA Exam. The process of overhauling the CPA Exam is an exhaustive one. The various organizations that work with the AICPA to create and administer the exam have their hands full with writing, editing, testing and implementation of the new content.
Despite the monumental workload, amazing progress continues to be made on a daily basis. The new exam, dubbed "Computer Based Testing Evolved," or CBT-e, is estimated to be 42% complete. Some of the confirmed changes include:

• A greatly accelerated scoring process.
• Written Communication tasks will be moved to the BEC section of the exam, and will focus on BEC topics.
• New simulations will be more realistic, shorter and "task-based."

These changes represent the largest improvement to the CPA Exam since its computerization in 2004. Rather than implement a number of small, unconnected changes, the AICPA will roll out the CBT-e in a single update, to allow for the most seamless transition possible. Current CPA Review students shouldn't worry, though. The AICPA expects the new, improved CPA Exam to appear during the 4th quarter of 2010 at the earliest.

We'll keep you posted on the development of the new CPA Exam, and ensure you're fully prepared for all of the advancements.

In the meantime, consider the following tips from Kimberly Faracem, Client Services Manager at Prometric.

• Schedule your exam early… More candidates are moving to the first month of the window, which means that the middle of window is less busy.
• Don't wait until the end of the year to sit for your exams. The third and fourth quarters are the busiest of the year. You may have a more difficult time securing your desired dates during those times.
• About ½ of candidates don’t look at the tutorials available on cpa-exam.org. Give yourself an advantage, and use this valuable resource!!

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