Latest Posts
Opinion: On-the-Job Experiential Learning Credit to Meet the 150-hour Requirement Makes Sense
Ed. note: the following is by Joseph P. Petito, Esq. Joe currently serves on the Maryland State Board of Accountancy and the board of directors of the NASBA Center for the Public Trust. Full bio at the bottom. I love accounting. Though an attorney and not a CPA, I’ve spent over 30 years in and […]
Keeping the 150 Hour Rule Is Making the Profession’s Diversity Problem More Pronounced
by Sharon Lassar, PhD, CPA (Florida) John J. Gilbert Professor and Director of the School of Accountancy, University of Denver The AICPA announced the formation of a National Pipeline Advisory Group, published an article about its focus on the accounting talent shortage, and scheduled a webinar titled “Special Pipeline Series: Path to 150.” All of […]
150 Hour Rule: Let’s Keep Arguing About What Color the Drapes Should Be While the House is Burning Down
Amanda Iacone at Bloomberg Tax has written the accounting niche’s 1,735th article about the accountant shortage and this time, as is often the case, the focus is 150 hours. Rather, how dueling factions within the profession are fighting for and against keeping it as the only option to CPA licensure. Let’s note here quickly that many of […]
Effective September 1, You Can Sit For the CPA Exam in Texas With 120 Units
Another state has pushed to allow prospective CPAs to sit for the exam with just a bachelor’s degree worth of units and that’s good ol’ Texas. Effective September 1, future CPAs can sit for the exam with 120 units of education. Before anyone gets too excited, note candidates still need 150 units for licensure. Rules […]
150 Hours is a Barrier – Really!
By Sharon Lassar, PhD, CPA (Florida) John J. Gilbert Professor and Director of the School of Accountancy, University of Denver A friend asked why I believe the 150-hour requirement is more of a barrier of entry to the accounting profession than a 120-hour requirement with added experience. That is a great question. Although, it does […]
CPA Exam Changes and Pipeline Woes Are a Perfect Storm of Problems For the Profession
Ed. note: The following is a guest post by Liz Kolar, EVP at Surgent. It is of particular interest to professors, accounting department chairs, other assorted academics, and any accounting profession meteorologists who are tracking the perfect storm of pipeline problems and a completely revamped CPA exam debuting in just a few months. Comments from […]
Withum’s Solution to the War on Talent Is to Throw Students Onto the Battlefield
Adamant that there is no way the burden of 150 units for CPA licensure will ever be rolled back to 120, the AICPA and NASBA have scored a second school-firm collaboration for their CPA Pathway Apprenticeship initiative: Seton Hall University and Withum. The program trades work in the field for credits toward 150. From Withum’s […]
Research: Why Students — Particularly Diverse Ones — Aren’t Pursuing Accounting
The Center for Audit Quality — the AICPA-affiliated “nonpartisan public policy organization serving as the voice of U.S. public company auditors and matters related to the audits of public companies” — has released a 63-page report entitled Increasing Diversity in the Accounting Profession Pipeline that tackles the historically under-reported and totally mysterious issue of why […]
CPA Exam Candidates: Save These Dates
Inspired by @profjackc who shared some very important CPA Evolution dates and motivated by our undying sympathy for CPA exam candidates, we’re putting his reminder in picture form to make sure you have these dates. CPA Evolution is bringing big changes with it next year, most notably it’s killing off BEC and replacing it with […]
The AICPA Needs Some Help From CPAs to Determine the Passing Score For the 2024 CPA Exam
While we’re on the topic of the CPA exam, this is your eleventy billionth reminder to sit for BEC before the CPA Evolution disciplines replace it in 2024. If you have passing credit for BEC before 2024 hits then you don’t have to worry about choosing one of the new disciplines assuming you pass the […]
Original Hype Man and Coffee Enthusiast Peter “Sugar Bear” Olinto is Leaving Becker
We had to go way back in the archive for this image. In a LinkedIn post on Friday, Becker superinstructor and the man single-handedly propping up the coffee shop industry Peter Olinto announced that he is leaving Becker. “I am NOT RETIRING!!” he said in a follow-up comment. He writes: Hello LinkedIn connections and current/former […]
AICPA Council Approves 12-Point Plan to Do F*ck All to Solve the Accountant Shortage
Last week, the AICPA released a revised pipeline acceleration plan, the goal of which is to get more young people into accounting to save the profession from extinction. To save you a click, I’m putting it here. At its spring meeting in Washington this week, the AICPA’s governing body (“Council”) approved this plan. Yay. Cue […]
Here’s the AICPA’s Revised 12-Point Plan to Herd Students Into Accounting
Good news, everyone! The AICPA released an expanded pipeline plan today. If you assumed the plan would revolve around an aggressive effort to bully firms into paying people what they’re worth, you’d be wrong. “The detailed plan features input from a significant set of stakeholders and calls for those stakeholders to work together to […]
NASBA Decides to Give CPA Exam Candidates an Extra Year to Pass the Exam BUT…
If you happen to pursuing the internet today and see the exciting headline about NASBA increasing the time you have to pass the CPA exam from 18 months to 30 months, there is a bit of critical information you need that you might miss if you don’t read the article: current exam candidates remain under […]
Would Mobility Go Away Without the 150-Hour Rule?
by Sharon Lassar, PhD, CPA (Florida) John J. Gilbert Professor and Director of the School of Accountancy, University of Denver There has been much discussion about the 150-hour rule recently. Going Concern previously reported the AICPA and NASBA are trying to strong-arm Minnesota into maintaining the 150-hour rule. I wrote that NASBA can be a […]
An Alleged Insider Warns About ‘Chaos and Hell’ Behind the Scenes at Prometric
Spotted this on r/CPA today, thought it worth sharing because Prometric closures are awful and can easily derail anyone’s CPA exam plan, especially the Type A among you who have never met a punch with which you feel safe to roll. So what’s going on? If you’re scheduled to test with Prometric, may the odds […]
One of Minnesota’s Largest Accounting Firms Can Totally Get Behind the Alternative Pathway to CPA Licensure
In a LinkedIn post published March 3, CLA CEO Jen Leary — who graduated wayyyy back when only 120 units were required — threw her support behind Minnesota Society of CPAs’ initiative to add a second pathway that would allow CPA licensure at 120 units and two years of experience. It may not seem like […]
Is It Ethical to Endorse an Educational Path That Is Susceptible to Cheating?
By Sharon Lassar, PhD, CPA (Florida) John J. Gilbert Professor and Director of the School of Accountancy, University of Denver The AICPA’s website includes a statement titled Purpose in action that, in its 129 words, uses “trust” (twice), “integrity”, “ethics”, and “public interest”. Yet, its pipeline acceleration plan proposes an Experience, Learn & Earn (ELE) […]
MNCPA to Educators: “We Do Not Need New CPAs Who Have Additional College Credits; We Need More CPAs, Period.”
Minnesota Society of CPAs has sent a message to educators in the state regarding legislation that would introduce an alternative pathway to CPA licensure and the message to these stewards of the next generation of accountants is clear: no one is trying to eliminate MAcc programs. As you should well be aware, MNCPA wants to […]
PSA: Do Not Suggest That We Make the CPA Exam Easier in Order to Solve the Accountant Shortage
Y’all need to calm down, I’m running out of “angry person” stock photos. With the accountant shortage in full swing and the profession’s talking heads, peanut galleries, unwashed masses, and unelected old white guys in charge discussing ways to ease it, it’s inevitable that we’ll start throwing out some WILD ideas. Like this one: Want […]
Why NASBA Can Be a Bully and What CPAs Can Do About It
By Sharon Lassar, PhD, CPA (Florida) John J. Gilbert Professor and Director of the School of Accountancy, University of Denver Going Concern previously reported on bits of an interview with Ken Bishop, President and CEO of NASBA, published in Journal of Accountancy. A cut out in the article includes this quote, “Should any state or […]
Integrating Experience and Education is One Way to Ease the Accountant Shortage at Least a Little
There’s a contentious battle raging over the 150 unit requirement for CPA licensure as we speak and in the meantime we have to figure something out to ease the accountant shortage that has a bit more immediate impact (and doesn’t involve paying people more because clearly the firms are not down with that idea). Wherever […]
The Beef Between the AICPA and Minnesota Over the 150 Hour Rule Heats Up
I’m dating myself here but do you remember the East Coast/West Coast rap beef of the 90s? That’s sort of what’s happening in the profession right now over proposed legislation in Minnesota that offers an alternative to the traditional 150 units of education required for licensure. Except in the case of 90s rapper beefs, Tupac […]
We Asked Twitter What’s the Second Most Important Issue in the Accounting Profession Right Now, Here’s What They Said
Bored of writing and talking about the dire accountant shortage and the consequences it could have on the entire financial system as we know it, the other day I tweeted a question to find out what else folks think is plaguing accounting. Thanks to everyone who chimed in, I know sometimes Twitter feels like shouting […]
What You Should Know About Changing the 150 Hour Rule Before You Debate For or Against It
All-around awesome person Byron Patrick tweeted a bit of a manifesto on the 150 hour rule today and I want to share it as a movement to lower the CPA licensure requirement of 150 units to ease the CPA shortage is currently underway. Minnesota just introduced a bill to add a 120 units/two years of […]
Minnesota Throws TPTB the Finger and Introduces Legislation to Offer an Alternate Pathway to CPA Licensure
It was only a couple days ago that the Journal of Accountancy published an interview with NASBA CEO and President Ken Bishop in which Bishop sternly warns states against even thinking about lowering the CPA licensure requirement to 120 units, something something mobility blah blah. To save you a click, here’s a relevant snip of […]
The Accountant Shortage Isn’t Bad Enough For NASBA to Entertain Dropping the 150 Hour Requirement
When we talk about why no one wants to be an accountant anymore, a handful of things come up in every thread. Let’s quickly get them down in case an alien who just landed on Earth this morning Googles “accountant shortage,” arrives on this article, and wishes to learn more about the causes. Salaries — […]
Here’s How People Did on the CPA Exam in 2022
The AICPA has released Q4 CPA exam pass rates which means we have a cumulative score for all of 2022 YIPPEE. As we did not discuss pass rates at all last year, let’s take a look at the whole chart and see how CPA exam candidates performed in 2022: Section Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative […]
If This Person Can Pass the CPA Exam, So Can You
I was cleaning out pics on my phone and was reminded of something I saw on Reddit a few weeks back: a screenshot of someone’s many, many, MANY CPA exam attempts over twelve years. Most people would have given up around the tenth attempt but this person persisted. And persisted. And persisted. So if you […]
The 259th Largest Accounting Firm Is Paying For Unlicensed Staff to Pursue a Master’s at the 87th Best Online Business School
Tiny little Southfield, MI firm Clayton & McKervey won’t be making Vault prestige lists any time soon but it is doing something to support its people through the process of getting the necessary 150 units for licensure: offering scholarships. Ranked #259 on the INSIDE Public Accounting Top 500 with revenue of $16,392,083, Clayton & McKervey […]
It’s Official: 120 Units is All You Need to Sit For the CPA Exam in Illinois
Ed. note: I couldn’t find a good image to go with this post so I’m using this dog. Dogs are always good. According to the AICPA, a traditional four-year undergraduate program is not adequate for obtaining the requisite knowledge and skills to become a CPA. The reasons offered for this center around the increasing complexity […]
Unsubstantiated Rumor of the Day: Only Two Dozen People Sat For the CPA Exam in Delaware?
We have all heard that CPA exam candidate numbers are down, and in fact these numbers have been down for quite a few years. Nothing new there. NASBA announced late last year that they would be suspending publication of detailed exam stats to focus on the CPA Evolution project so we won’t have a “Candidate […]
ICYMI: Indiana Joins Other States Softening Their Requirements to Sit For the CPA Exam
Effective November 2, Indiana CPA exam candidates need just 120 education units to sit for the exam making Indiana one of 47 jurisdictions that allows prospective CPAs to sit before meeting the 150 unit requirement for licensure (150 are still required for the big three letters after your name). At its July 29 meeting, the […]
CPA Exam Candidates Who Tested on October 1 Have Finally Gotten Their Scores
This, friends, is the end of an era. If you don’t know, there was a bit of a mix-up last month and by “mix-up” I mean the AICPA screwed October 1 test takers by changing the dates on the day before which meant instead of getting their scores on the 11th like they thought, they […]
This NASBA Tweet Is Going to Disappoint A LOT of People Today
On Thursdays the official NASBA Twitter account publishes #ThursdayThoughts, usually some kind of tip or trick like last week’s advice on what to do if you are having trouble matching to your NASBA Dashboard’s CPA Portal account (here’s the link for that if you need it). But today’s thought is less a tip and more […]
Newly-Minted CPA Outraged That Their State is Too Cheap to Send a Paper License Certificate
And you wonder why no one wants to be a CPA anymore. A PDF?? Really, Maryland? AND IT ISN’T EVEN AN 8×10! Larry Hogan will want to hear about this.
10/1 CPA Exam Test Takers Are Still Salty About Missing Out on Today’s Score Release (As They Should Be)
Last week, CPA exam candidates got worked up over an “error correction” that meant people who tested on October 1 would not be included in the 10/11 score release as previously stated on the AICPA’s score release timeline. You see, up until September 30th the AICPA’s timeline said that if you sat by 10/1, you […]
Angry CPA Exam Candidates Blew Up Barry Melancon’s Email All Weekend, Here’s Why
Scrolling Reddit this weekend I noticed several posts from r/CPA littered throughout my feed among the food porn, cats, and reality TV gossip, something about some score release debacle with strong hints of outrage. What the hell happened? Whatever it was, they were pissed. Oh my. Apparently up until this weekend the official AICPA score […]
Hear Me Out, Extend the CPA Exam Window to 24 Months
It has now been more than a decade since the AICPA observed — and worried about — a growing gap in the number of accounting graduates and the number of those graduates who pursue the CPA exam. In the time since, that gap has only widened and much effort has been expended to figure out […]
Reddit is Bickering Over the CPA Exam Getting Harder (or Not) Over the Years
There’s a fun little conversation happening on r/accounting right now (it was yesterday actually but I have the rona and time is a meaningless measure when one is contending with brain fog of this level) and we’d be remiss if we didn’t recap it for you. First, the original post: I didn’t realize Barry Melancon […]
Illinois Will Soon Let You Sit for the CPA Exam With 120 Units, Should All States?
“What are they gonna do, stop requiring 150 units? THAT’S CRAZY.” That’s what a stakeholder told me recently when we spoke about the accountant shortage and the growing gap between students getting accounting degrees and recent graduates sitting for the CPA exam. Fewer people are pursuing accounting degrees and the ones that are have been […]
What Would You Like to See Tested on the CPA Exam?
With the completely redesigned CPA exam only 514 days away, there’s been a lot of discussion around the proposed Blueprints and questions about whether or not this content aligns with CPA Evolution’s stated goal of maintaining the relevance of the CPA credential. That is as yet an open-ended discussion but in the meantime, saw this […]
Benevolent Overlords of the CPA Exam Seeking Comment on Proposed 2024 CPA Exam Blueprints
The CPA Evolution project continues to chug along as we inch closer and closer to 2024 and now NASBA and the AICPA are asking informed parties to comment on proposed Blueprints. Finalizing these Blueprints is one of the last steps in the process to launch a redesigned CPA exam that started back in 2020. Comments […]
Tim Gearty Makes a List, Talks About 2024 CPA Exam Changes
Tim Gearty has taken the #3 spot on the NJBIZ 2022 Accounting Power 50. From NJBIZ: Not many CPAs get stopped by fans for selfies, but Timothy Gearty is one of them. As editor-in-chief and national lead instructor for Becker, a global CPA exam-prep leader, Gearty — who’s also the managing partner of Florham Park’s […]
[UPDATED] KPMG Will Pay Audit New Hires to Study for the CPA Exam
Ed. note: update at the bottom, our hopes have been dashed. Second update includes a statement from KPMG As I’m sure you’ve heard by now the profession is having trouble recruiting future CPAs. Accounting student numbers aren’t critically low yet but fewer and fewer graduates are taking the CPA exam, an issue that keeps AICPA […]
Which Big 4 Firm Had the Most Elijah Watt Sells Award Winners in 2021?
For years I would copy paste the entire list of Elijah Watt Sells Award winners on this here website even though I’m sure winners Googling themselves were the only ones reading said list. This year I’m continuing the tradition from last year and skipping past that to get right to the one thing all you […]
If You Are Young, Male, and Taking the CPA Exam We Have Some Good News For You
As any boomer who came of age in a time when slapping your female colleague’s backside was not only allowed but encouraged will tell you, guys are down hard these days. “Red pill” forums engage in endless debate about the plight of the modern man and some of these gents believe equality is a finite […]
PSA: Telling Prometric Proctors To Go F*ck Themselves Will Probably Get You Kicked Out of the CPA Exam
Last week I wrote about the current Prometric mask rule as of May 2022 which in essence says you don’t have to wear a mask at the testing center but you can if you want to. This distinction is important as Prometric has always been a bit of the TSA on steroids when it comes […]
As of May 1 You Are No Longer Required to Wear a Mask at Prometric But You Still Can If You Want To
May 1 marks the two year anniversary of Prometric reopening its testing centers to CPA candidates after shuttering every single American test site in March 2020 due to… you know what I don’t need to type all this out, you know why they were closed. While the nail techs waited anxiously for Prometric to reopen […]
4 Reasons Why the Profession Is Struggling to Convince Students to Become CPAs, #4 Will Not Shock You
I buried the link I’m about to share with you all in Footnotes last Friday; however, since its author intended for it to spur a conversation about the profession’s pipeline problem, I thought it best to highlight it in its own post should any of you feel like discussing it. “In my view, the future […]
State of the Accounting Profession 2022 Via the AICPA Trends Report
As I snarkily mentioned last week, the AICPA has finally released its much-anticipated 2021 Trends in the Supply of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits (or Trends, for short) report [PDF here], a behemoth data dump of accounting industry stats first released in 1971 and released every two years since 2009. We’re […]
NASBA Is (Still) Considering Remote CPA Exam Testing Even With Virus Concerns Waning
There are big changes coming to the CPA exam in the future, but one thing that hasn’t changed much since 2004 is the process of testing at Prometric. When the exam went computerized at the turn of the century, gone were the massive gymnasiums and chicken tables of yore and in came the soul-crushing sterility […]
Taking the CPA Exam In 2023? Here’s What You Need to Know About Rolling Your Scores Over In 2024
I was tempted to start this post with “it’s hard to believe it’s already 2022,” but you know what, time has been pretty nebulous for at least the last two years, if not longer, and it really doesn’t even matter anymore. It’s as if the aliens who run the simulation cranked us up a la […]
Believe It or Not, You Can Master Work-Life Balance While Studying For the CPA Exam
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment prospects for CPAs are expected to increase by 22% between now and 2028. Earning a CPA accreditation signals to accounting firms that you’re dedicated to advancing within the field, and gaining CPA expertise early in your career opens up a range of prospects, including higher income and […]
You Should Be Watching Your CPA Review Course Videos at 2x Speed and Here’s Why
Personally I’ve never been a fan of watching YouTube at 2x speed because I’m already distracted as is. If I’ve got a video up on my phone, chances are I also have the TV on in the background, a cat loudly puking in the other room, and my drunk neighbor stomping around upstairs. Yeah, it […]
Study Plan Ideas to Organize Your 2022 CPA Exam Goals
Last week I introduced you guys (and gals) to the joys of bullet journaling with some suggestions on how to whip up some spreads to organize your 2022 CPA exam goals, and we went over the basics of setting up your first bujo. This week I’m throwing a few study-specific spreads at you in the […]
Take Charge of Your 2022 CPA Exam Study Plan With Bullet Journaling (No, This Is Not Sponsored)
I know it’s a bit out of character for us to promote something usually associated with Pinterest moms and lifestyle influencers but I assure you, no one is paying me to write this post. Well, the owners of Going Concern are but that’s beside the point. I started bullet journaling last year and let me […]
NASBA Will No Longer Publish CPA Exam Performance Data Until the New CPA Exam Debuts in 2024
This just in, NASBA is shelving its annual Candidate Performance on the Uniform CPA Examination book and publication of candidate performance data for the next few years as it invests the bulk of its efforts into the CPA Evolution project: IMPORTANT UPDATE: Due to the necessary and important focus on bringing CPA Evolution to fruition, […]
Finish the Year Strong With These Quick Tips For Studying For the CPA Exam During the Holidays
Today is November 24, 2021 (in case you didn’t catch the tiny little publish date in the upper left-hand corner of this post) and with yesterday’s CPA exam score release, that leaves just one more score release for 2021 before we call this year a wrap. Where the year went is beyond me, but that’s […]
Do Professional Examinations Have to Be Hard to Be Valuable?
The other day, a reader sent us this Bloomberg Opinion piece on the CFA exam with a quick note attached: Imagine the original article where “CFA” is replaced with “CPA” The article’s title? Wall Street’s CFA Program Is a Colossal Waste of Time It starts off by informing us that the “notoriously difficult” Chartered Financial […]
The Most Terrifying Halloween Costume You’ll Ever See (If You’re a CPA)
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! Featured Photo by Monstera from Pexels
The CPA Credential and the Profession Are in a Race For Relevance, Says ICPAS CEO Todd Shapiro
Interest in the CPA credential has been down significantly since at least 2016, and we have discussed this issue to death so I don’t need to link you to the evidence (but here’s some anyway). The problem here is that talking about it isn’t solving it, thus we will continue talking about it and hope […]
Lawyers Complain the Pandemic Made the Bar Exam Too Hard, Should CPAs Complain Too?
Stumbled across an interesting article yesterday that I thought was worth sharing with you if for no other reason than it’s been a while since we’ve instigated a pissing contest with lawyers over whose professional licensing exam is harder. The article suggests the law profession should just get rid of the bar exam completely due […]
Opinion: The Profession Is Not ‘Diluted,’ It Is Evolving
[Ed. note: The following is a letter we received in response to a reader letter we published in September which lambasted the AICPA for diluting the profession. We are publishing it with permission from its author, who we have chosen to keep anonymous due to the anonymity of the original letter writer. We hope this […]
Opinion: It’s the AICPA’s Own Fault No One Wants to Be a CPA Anymore
[Ed. note: we received the following in response to my newsletter column dated September 14, 2021. In the column, I referenced the 2019 AICPA Trends report, which stated that non-accounting majors made up 31% of all firm new hires at that time. The reader comment is published here with permission from its author who wishes […]
Number of the Day: $2,626
A question we’ve often been asked through the years from aspiring CPA candidates is: Do accounting firms give out bonuses for completing the CPA exam, and if so, how much? The answer is, yes, many public accounting firms do throw some money new CPAs’ way for passing all four parts of the exam, but the […]
NASBA Systems Will Be Down This Weekend So Print Those NTSs, Folks
NASBA announced this morning that its systems will be down this weekend for what we presume to be a little planned maintenance. From their website: CPA Exam Candidates: The Gateway System, CPA Central and other NASBA system will be down for a scheduled outage on Saturday September 11th, 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Central). You […]
The NASBA Candidate Portal Went Down Last Week and All Hell Broke Loose For People Who Don’t Print Their NTS In Advance
While the rest of us were binge drinking and yelling at 10-year-olds in “Call of Duty” or eating hours or whatever it is you get up to on a Friday night, it seems some CPA exam candidates learned the hard way that you can’t trust NASBA’s website to be up when you need it most. […]
Things Are (Sort Of) Getting Back to Normal at Prometric Soon
As we trudge ever onward toward month 18 of “two weeks to stop the spread,” it’s time to start thinking about a return to normal at everyone’s favorite place where CPA candidates’ goals and unreasonable expectations get crushed: Prometric. The company recently announced a softening of policies enacted early on in the pandemic, some of […]
The CPA Exam of the Future Includes the Flexibility to Adapt to … the Future?
In a move wholly uncharacteristic of the accounting profession, the benevolent overlords of the CPA exam are thinking ahead. WAY ahead. So far ahead we can’t even imagine what the world might look like by then. Here’s hoping you still have a job and Alexa has figured out how to turn my dining room Christmas […]
The Accounting Profession Is Running Low on CPAs, But There’s an Obvious (and Completely Ignored) Fix For That
Soooo not sure if you heard but there’s a pipeline problem. This website has been around since 2009 and I’ve been loitering out here on the periphery of the accounting profession like a stalker in the bushes since I started in CPA review way back in 2007, so suffice to say we’ve seen some shit […]
Is It Time For Prometric to Ditch the Mask Mandate?
On May 16, 2021 the CDC announced that fully vaccinated individuals could enthusiastically rip the masks from their faces and go forth out into the world maskless like they did prior to all this mess. Social distancing? Gone. Hiding in your apartment? Forget it. From the CDC website: If you are fully vaccinated, you can […]
PSA: You’ve Still Got to Wear a Mask at Prometric
At this same time last year, we were all wondering if the world as we knew it pre-March 2020 would ever return or if we’d be stuck in dystopian purgatory forever. Thankfully we — we as in those of us in the United States — made it through and might even have a normal summer, […]
Here’s Your Open Thread For the Sixth CPA Exam Score Release of 2021
Hey hey, it’s May. Just in case you forgot or are still stuck in an endless, nightmarish loop in which passing days are both rushing by and dragging on forever at the same time. What’s up with that, anyway? It feels like every time I look up, another month has passed me by. Is it […]
Which Big 4 Firm Had the Most 2020 Elijah Watt Sells Winners?
On May 5 the AICPA announced that of the 75,000 brave souls who sat for the CPA exam in 2020, 89 of those managed not only to pass each part on their first try but also scored a cumulative score of at least 95.50 which is necessary to qualify for the esteemed Elijah Watt Sells […]
Here’s Your Open Thread For the Fifth CPA Exam Score Release of 2021
We’re seven and a half months away from Christmas but that didn’t stop the benevolent overlords of the CPA exam from gifting candidates with an early score release this week. Scores were due today according to the AICPA score release schedule. #CPAExam candidates! Waiting for your score(s)? They will be released tonight at 7 p.m. […]
The First Batch of 2021 CPA Exam Pass Rates Are Out and They’re … Not Bad
In 2020, CPA exam candidates somehow managed to outperform 2019 with pass rates slightly higher than the prior year across the board. This feat was made that much more impressive by the fact that for at least a small part of the year they couldn’t even test thanks to the raging coof but thankfully that […]
You Might Want to Read This If You Plan to Take the CPA Exam This Summer
Here we are in the Second Summer of COVID and while vaccination numbers are encouraging, obviously there are still some hiccups to work out as we make the slow but steady slog back to whatever version of “normal” exists now. It’s encouraging, but as with anything we should temper our expectations and do our best […]
FYI CPA Exam Candidates: NASBA Systems Will Be Down (Briefly) This Weekend So Plan Accordingly
Active CPA exam candidates should have gotten an email about this upcoming planned outage however if your inbox looks anything like mine, it’s entirely possible that said email was lost among the Hello Fresh spam and discount codes from brands you bought from once that try and act like they genuinely miss you. So consider […]
Mark Your Calendars: ‘Navigating the CPA Exam’ Webcast on April 20
Consider this your unofficial invitation to “Navigating the CPA Exam,” a joint webcast from NASBA and the AICPA that will help guide CPA exam candidates through the perilous journey on the way to CPA licensure. Are you a candidate currently pursuing the U.S. CPA license? Join NASBA/AICPA for a webcast on April 20, 1 – […]
AICPA Report: Accounting Education Is Lagging Woefully Behind Necessary Real-World Skills
Not sure if y’all heard but we live in the future now. Not the cool Ray Bradbury one with casual weekend trips to exotic Mars destinations and robots to do all the tedious things we’d rather not, but the future no less. And here in this dystopian nightmare glorious future, technical aptitude is in high […]
NASBA Celebrated St. Paddy’s With Another Batch of On-Time CPA Exam Scores
Apparently yesterday was St Patrick’s Day. I don’t know about everyone else but I didn’t even realize it, maybe because we’re all still in a quasi holding pattern of lockdown depending on where we are and getting shitfaced with strangers in kelly green T-shirts wasn’t on the menu. Or it could be that I no […]
What I Learned From Failing the FAR Exam Twice
Before working in my current position as a senior tax associate, I was helping people to make the world a better place in a different way, as a manager for a Montessori preschool. I valued my relationship with the staff and children, but my interest was continuously drawn more into the business side of the […]
The Latest CPA Exam Scores Are Out, But Not Without a Brief Hiccup First
According to the AICPA time table, the second batch of CPA exam scores for the first half of 2021 were due on February 23, which means that candidates were anticipating them starting some time last week. Even with the entire world in turmoil, the benevolent overlords of CPA exam administration have done a spectacular job […]
YSK: NASBA Is Still Exploring the Possibility of Remote CPA Exam Testing
Back in September we talked about the NASBA Summer 2020 State Board Report, in which the benevolent overlords who torture you for fun who oversee the CPA exam discussed the possibility of remote testing. I know it was a loooooong time ago (let’s be real, yesterday is a long time ago when on Corona time) […]
The Not-So-Secret Way to Get an Elijah Watt Sells Award
Since 1923, the Elijah Watt Sells Award has recognized the extraordinary achievements of the top-performing CPA exam candidates each year, a rare and hard-earned reward for above-average scores. The few, the proud, the … wait, wrong slogan. Have you ever wondered just who Elijah Watt Sells even was? Most people probably assume he was some […]
Here’s Your Open Thread For the First CPA Exam Score Release of 2021
So it’s February already even though it feels like just yesterday we were all duking it out over the last roll of toilet paper at Target. Time goes on, as it must, perhaps moreso in these strange times we’re lucky enough to be alive to see. Today has the distinction of being the first CPA […]
Just Abolish the CPA Exam, Says Guy
For at least a year now, we’ve been getting emails from some guy who really, really doesn’t like the CPA exam. And for at least a year now, we’ve pretty much ignored them because, well, abolishing the CPA exam is up there with curing cancer and people learning how to use turn signals, as in […]
Don’t Freak Out But NASBA Systems Will Be Down All Weekend
ATTENTION people taking the CPA exam this weekend: you will not be able to print your NTS the day of your exam, you will not be able to check it with your knees delicately pressed against your steering wheel while racing to Prometric, and you definitely won’t be able to track down the last cybercafe […]
2020 Was Terrible, These 2020 CPA Exam Pass Rates Not So Much
The other week, my state had the highest Rona numbers we’ve seen since this whole thing started nearly a year ago. Of course, everyone is burned out on staying home and hiding so I doubt we’ve seen the worst of it. While the pandemic still rages on, we also have to balance all that “normal” […]
With Today’s CPA Exam Score Release, 2020 Is Officially In the Bag
Rejoice, procrastinators, your remaining 2020 CPA exam scores have been released to the wild today, meaning everyone who took the exam up to December 31 should have them in hand. Unless you’re in California but that’s a whole other topic for another day. On January 12, 2021, NASBA received and processed the following scores from […]
Apparently NASBA Offices Narrowly Avoided the Nashville Bombing
In a letter to stakeholders, NASBA President and CEO Ken Bishop updated us on the situation in Nashville, NASBA’s ongoing work-from-home policy, and how their city is coping with the Rona. They’re fortunate that everyone is safe despite the frightening proximity of the Christmas morning car bomb that injured eight and damaged at least 41 […]
Hey CPA Exam Candidates, Your Last Score Release of 2020 Is Here
You know how every time you go to look up a simple recipe, let’s say sugar cookies, and you find a website that looks good only to open it up and get hit with half a dozen auto-play ads and 15 paragraphs about how the author’s great-grandma smuggled this recipe out of Poland during the […]
There’s Just One CPA Exam Score Release Left For This Dumpster Fire of a Year
Although I tried my darnedest during the last CPA exam score release to unleash a curse on AICPA servers because candidates are overdue for some unforeseen disaster given how smooth things have gone lately, it appears the collective powers of the CPA exam overlords are more powerful than any jinx. That’s right, scores have been […]
Here’s Your CPA Exam Score Release Schedule For the First Half of 2021
For those who get a special thrill out of meticulously planning your future, you’ll be stoked to hear the CPA exam score release schedule for 2021 is out — for the first half of the year, anyway. Considering the current state of the world, it’s nice to have something solid you can kinda sorta rely […]
There Are Just Two CPA Exam Score Releases Remaining For 2020
The end of the year is so close you can almost feel it, eh? Well, if it’s 75-some degrees where you are like it is by me maybe you’re having a hard time imagining it, in which case just check out how many CPA exam score releases are left in 2020. You’ll quickly realize the […]
The CPA Exam Overlords Are Extending Continuous Testing to Candidates In India
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 […]
Headline of the Day: ‘The CPA Exam Should Adopt Remote Testing’
I’m sorry to tell you that’s not an article on the NASBA blog, but rather an opinion piece in The CPA Journal by John “Jack” Castonguay, PhD, CPA. In it, he argues that remote testing benefits candidates as they will have certainty around scheduling their dates, and the profession overall as it ensures a steady […]
Pretty Soon, You Can Take the CPA Exam In Egypt and Jordan
It was way back in August of 2011 when the CPA exam first went international with 1,165 candidates sitting for 2,065 exam sections in Japan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. Just a year earlier, more than 10,000 international candidates traveled to the United States to sit for the CPA exam, a 22% […]
Now’s Your Chance to Tell NASBA How You Really Feel (About Extending the CPA Exam Window)
The following message is for current and aspiring CPAs: it isn’t often that anyone asks your opinion unless it’s a client trying to get free work out of you but there is an issue in need of your immediate attention and feedback. NASBA is soliciting comments on a proposal to extend the CPA exam window […]