It’s been a strange year indeed. As such, NASBA has spent most of 2020 deftly navigating a totally unexpected pandemic while at the same time knowing that even if this year had been smooth sailing, a constriction in the pipeline of future CPAs has made their work more important than ever. It may feel like the benevolent overlords of CPA exam administration are out to get you but I assure you, they want you to take and pass the exam. Perhaps with a touch of sadism, but let’s not get into that today.
Alright so earlier in the year and due to the above-mentioned strangeness of early 2020, NASBA announced that qualified candidates would be able to sit for the CPA exam in India. In case you missed that, here’s the list of the eight Prometric locations Indian candidates have to choose from again:
- Ahmedabad
- Bangalore
- Calcutta
- Chennai
- Hyderabad
- Mumbai
- New Delhi
- Trivandrum
Prior to this announcement, Indian candidates had to travel, something that obviously wasn’t possible earlier in the year and still isn’t for some people. So that was nice.
Now they’ve taken an extra step to ensure smooth sailing for candidates by extending continuous testing to India. From the NASBA blog:
During these unique and challenging times, we understand CPA Exam candidates in India are concerned about their testing options. The Coronavirus pandemic continues to affect all of us in ways we could not have imagined.
Amid this disruption and in response to numerous Indian candidate requests, NASBA, AICPA and Prometric are pleased to announce that Continuous Testing for CPA Exam candidates at test centers in India will begin January 1, 2021. Candidates may begin to use the scheduler on November 2, 2020. Under the Continuous Testing model, candidates will have the ability to take Exam sections, without restriction, other than waiting to receive scores from prior attempts of the same section or when there is a major change to the Exam. Continuous Testing will replace the existing limited CPA Exam Testing Window model, which only permits candidates to test in India during designated time frames.
As we know, continuous testing launched in the U.S. on July 1. Even with the scourge of global cooties lurking around and mucking up everything from grocery store supply lines to holidays, it appears to have gone off without a hitch and scores have reliably appeared on time — or early in some cases — since the launch. Given that, candidates shouldn’t expect issues when it is extended to candidates in India. Here’s hoping.