CPA Exam Schedule: Complete Guide to Scheduling Your Exam

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Frequently Asked Questions

The CPA exam, administered by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA), is a rigorous test with low pass rates. Typically, this includes specific coursework in accounting and business. Some states also require candidates to have a certain amount of work experience under the supervision of a licensed CPA before they can take the exam. You can contact your Board of Accountancy, or its designated agent, for instructions on requesting a score review, required fees, and meeting the score review request deadline. If you apply after the deadline date, your request will not be processed. The option to apply for a score review is available only for a short period of time after your score has been reported to you.

Format Of The CPA Exam By Parts

Plan for a smooth check-in process and familiarize yourself with Prometric’s rules and procedures. After completing an exam section, review your performance and adjust your study strategies for upcoming sections. Rushing to schedule exams without adequate preparation often leads to poor performance. Ensure you allocate sufficient time to cover the exam content thoroughly. Failing to complete all sections within the rolling window results in expired scores and the need to retake sections. Track your progress carefully and prioritize remaining sections as needed.

Can I take the Exam if I’m a resident of an international testing country but do not have a passport?

• These questions are designed to re-create real world scenarios you will experience as a CPA.
• Please note that you will not be able to submit new responses during an appeal.
• The exam spans four hours, with a 15-minute break allowed between the first and second TBS testlets.
• You’ll see the correct answer for every question, plus information about the exam.

Make sure your CPA review course includes access to top-quality MCQs and TBSs that match the content and format of the actual REG Exam. Following the completion of the third testlet, candidates have the option for a 15-minute break, which doesn’t count towards the 4-hour test duration. The REG section of the CPA Exam underwent extensive changes in 2024, focusing on technology-related knowledge and skills. These changes included significant alternations to the REG CPA Exam’s format, structure, and content areas. After receiving your Notice to Schedule (NTS), use the Prometric website what is the cpa exam to select your preferred exam dates and testing center. Early scheduling is recommended to secure your desired time slots, especially during busy periods.

A CPA License is a certificate that shows you are an accounting professional qualified to handle all financial aspects of a business. It also demonstrates you have relevant experience and, in many cases, have obtained a bachelor’s degree in a related field. The board of accounting in your state will grant this professional designation to you after you complete a thorough exam. In most states, you’ll need 150 credits of postsecondary education plus accounting experience to become a fully licensed CPA.

What Happened to the CPA Exam’s Business Environment and Concepts Section?

Once you click “continue,” you will be brought to a third-party website. Please be aware, the privacy policy may differ on the third-party website. Adtalem Global Education is not responsible for the security, contents and accuracy of any information provided on the third-party website. Note that the website may still be a third-party website even the format is similar to the Becker.com website. After verifying you meet your state’s eligibility, you need to apply to sit for the CPA Exam with your state’s board of accountancy.

The CPA Exam uses a spreadsheet application that is similar but not identical to Excel. For more information about the spreadsheet application, click here. There may be minor differences among different administrations, but these differences are accounted for during scoring.

This includes passing three Core sections which all candidates must take as well as passing one of three Discipline sections. While the individual states have CPA Exam requirements you’ll need to meet before applying, each CPA candidate must follow roughly the same steps to take the exam. In addition to tax work and financial management, having a CPA license can open doors to senior-level positions, higher-level financial advising, and specializations like forensic accounting.

Schedule one or two sections initially and adjust your plan based on your progress. Testing centers are busiest toward the end of the year, as many candidates rush to meet deadlines. Schedule your exams during less crowded periods for greater availability and a more relaxed testing environment. Once you pass your first exam section, you have 18 months to pass the remaining three sections.

It’s important to note that experience, location, and role also affect salary. Financial Accounting & Reporting (FAR) , Regulation (REG) and Auditing & Attestation (AUD) are all formatted similarly. You can expect to have 50% of your exam be multiple choice and the other 50% be task-based simulations (TBS). The authoritative exam outline is called the AICPA blueprints and is made up of the areas, topics, sub-topics and representative tasks that each CPA candidate is expected to be able to complete. In order to qualify to become a licensed CPA, you must pass all three CORE sections and pick and pass one DISCIPLINE section all within 30 months.

CPAs must pass four sections of the CPA exam to qualify for state licensure. Each section includes multiple choice questions (MCQ) and task-based simulations (TBS). Framed as case studies, the TBSs provide financial records, correspondence, and other documentation that test-takers use to answer questions. For example, Florida’s CPA Exam requirements include having 120 hours of college credit, consisting of 24 hours in both upper-level accounting and upper-level business. Texas candidates must have a bachelor’s degree with a minimum of 21 hours of upper-level accounting and 24 hours of upper-level business courses. Since 1957, accounting and finance professionals have turned to Becker to help them pass the CPA Exam and achieve their career goals.

Each question will have 4 possible answers that you can select from. Scores for the AUD Exam are given on a scale of 0 to 99 with a score of 75 needed to pass. In the AUD Exam, 66 out of the 78 MCQ questions from the first two testlets are operational. The rest of the 12 questions are pretested, which means they are not graded. Of the 7 TBSs on the AUD Exam, there is also one TBS that is pretested and will not count towards the final score. The pretested TBS and MCQ questions are only given for data-collecting purposes.