Changes to the CPA Exam

CPA Exam Preparation Blog

The CPA Exam is Changing

You’ve all been asking, so here it is from Roger CPA Review. The rumors are true; the CPA Exam will undergo some major changes starting January 1st, 2011. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is working hard to ensure that the exam is consistent with the knowledge and skills required of entry level CPAs in the industry.

Content:
One of the biggest questions we receive is whether or not the exam will include IFRS. The answer is yes. The AICPA recently conducted a survey of CPAs with 2-15 years of experience. Based on the results, it was determined that all entry level CPAs should be somewhat bilingual in IFRS and US GAAP, although US GAAP is expected to prevail in the US for some time. Therefore, there will be a mixture of both types of questions on several sections of the exam. You can expect to see IFRS questions on the AUD, FAR and BEC sections. For now, REG is free of IFRS, but this will probably change in the future. Don’t worry, we’ll keep you posted!
Aside from IFRS, there will be a revamp of the topics covered on each section.

Format:

In order to accommodate these changes and to keep the overall CPA Exam at 14 hours, the following time changes will be made:

• AUD, which is currently a 4.5 hour exam, will decrease to an even 4 hours.    

• BEC, which is currently a 2.5 hour exam, will increase to an even 3 hours.    

• The FAR section will maintain its status at 4 hours.    

• REG will remain at 3 hours.    

Weight/Scoring:
In order to pass the CPA Exam, you will still need to have at least a 75 out of a possible 99 points on each section of the exam. With the new format, each area will have different weight towards your final score. Below shows how each sections’ weight will change: