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Don’t Worry, We Didn’t Forget Those Texas College CPA Exam Results

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

You guys were obviously sick to death of the CPA exam stats but – just in time to celebrate Caleb's triumphant return to this side of the pond – we're whipping out the NASBA Candidate Performance book once again to take a look at which schools in Texas did best on the exam in 2010. Settle in.

The top 5 Texas schools are as follows (this is for both first-time and repeat exams):

  • Texas Christian University 68.2%
  • University of Texas – Austin 67.2%
  • Trinity University 63.9%
  • Southern Methodist University 60%
  • Rice University 59.5%

Honorable mention: Texas A&M came in 6th with a pass rate of 59%.

Texas Southern University did the worst, pulling a 19.1% pass rate out of 68 exams taken by 33 candidates.

University of Houston – University Park sent the highest number of candidates and took the most exams with 651 candidates sitting for 1,800 exams for a pass rate of 44% even.

Of all Texas schools, only Trinity, Texas Christian, University of Texas-Austin and Southwestern averaged scores above 75, with Texas Christian pulling the highest at 78.5.

Overall, Texas ranked 3rd in size and 15th in performance nationally on first-time exams with an average pass rate of 57.7%; 55.7% on AUD, 58% on BEC, 56.2% on FAR and 61.2% on REG.

Of the top 20 schools across the country for first-time exams taken by candidates with advanced degrees, Texas boasted six; University of Houston – University Park, University of Texas – Austin, University of Texas – Dalls, University of Texas – Arlington, Texas A&M and Texas State – San Marcos all ranked in the top 20 nationally. Note that the only Texas school that ranked in the top 20 for first-time exams taken by candidates without advanced degrees was University of Houston – University Park, which came in 10th.

The University of Texas – Austin came in 18th nationally for first-time candidates with advanced degrees; 124 candidates passed 222 and failed 69 for a pass rate of 76.3%.

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How Much Harder Is AUD Going to Be in 2011?

Continuing with our previous posts on the 2011 CPA exam for FAR and BEC, we proudly present one heck of an Audit wrap up for those of you planning to take it next year.

Audit, unfortunately, is the one section that I think will be just a tad harder than it is this year but only in one small area. We’ll get to that in a minute.


Simulations – As with FAR and REG, Audit will contain 7 smaller simulation problems next year (called “simlets” or “task-based simulations”) instead of two large simulations. Written communication is gone and placed into BEC. Since AUD was the largest exam time-wise up until now, a half hour will be moved out of Audit and put into BEC. Now 4 1/2 hours, it will be cut down to 4. Since AUD is often one in which candidates run out of time even in 2010, it is all that much more important to learn important time management strategies to assure you do not run out of time.

MCQ – Multiple choice questions will make up 60 – 70% of your score while TBS (task-based simulation) problems will make up the remainder.

Research This is where Audit gets tricky and why I feel it is the only section that will be slightly harder in 2011 than it is now. Currently, research is just a tab buried in simulations and frankly not worth your time unless you have tons left and really love looking through the Code of Professional Conduct (or need something to copy for your written communication, though we would never recommend such a thing).

In 2011, research will be its own TBS with the same weight as other simulation problems (if graded). For FAR and REG this isn’t much of an issue as you only have the ASCs to dig through in FAR and just two sets of code for REG. But for Audit, you have a grand total of TEN different sets of code to search; the Code of Professional Conduct, PCAOB ASs, SASs, SSARS… you get the point. It wouldn’t hurt to try out the new research problems on the AICPA’s website here so you can get an idea of what you are up against. It is very similar to 2010’s research except that it is on its own and actually worth a couple points.

Ethics and Independence – Content-wise, professional ethics and independence are moved out of REG and into AUD (except those that pertain to tax practice, which will continue to be tested in REG) and international audit standards will be peppered in throughout. Planning the engagement will now make up 12 – 16% of problems whereas before it accounted for up to 28% of this section. Internal control is upped to 16 – 20% (from 12 – 18%). Audit procedures will get far less testing than in 2010, going from 32 – 38% of questions to 16 – 20%.

Hope that helps and see you on Tuesday for our last 2011 wrap up, Regulation!

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Friendly Reminder: You Should Schedule Your CPA Exam Date Yesterday if You Plan to Test in 2018

Psst. Hey you. You sitting there screwing around on the Internet instead of studying for […]

All About the 4.5th Section of the CPA Exam: Ethics!

We covered Ethics before but since this is the last in our daily columns this week on the CPA exam, it’s a good way to wrap things up. Once again, if you are looking for CPA exam tips, tricks, hints or just have an idea for a topic you’d like to see addressed here, get in touch with us.

Last time we talked about the ethics exam, we suggested the following:


Speak to your state society of CPAs to find out if they offer some kind of ethics exam support. Helplines exist but you’ll never find them if you don’t look.

Because the ethics exam is open book, not timed, and allows potty breaks (unlike, say, FAR), take your time and don’t rush through it. You have more than 1.5 minutes to read through and answer the questions, take advantage of this fact.

If all else fails, try to find a lifeline. The CalCPA Education Foundation gives you a “lifeline” if you have unsuccessfully attempted their ethics exam three times.

A few more things to keep in mind:

If possible, choose the Online version of exam materials in searchable PDF form so you can search for keywords that will answer the questions. It beats flipping through a book and is often cheaper than the book version of the exam anyway.

Don’t take the ethics exam too early or you may have to take it again. If you decide to take the ethics exam before you have completed all four parts of the CPA exam, be sure you know how long your score is good for (probably a year max). You don’t want to have to take it twice so wait until you are at least 3/4 of the way through the exam or completely finished to tackle ethics.

Though review courses don’t have coursework on ethics, there are tons of resources available that consist of tips from others who have taken and passed the ethics exam. Start with the CPAnet forums, plenty of candidates and would-be CPAs have shared their experiences and many are happy to help if you have specific questions about how they did it.

Hope that helps and thanks for joining us for this week of CPA exam goodness!