Everything is Shrinkflating These Days, Even the Number of Elijah Watt Sells Award Winners

Alternative headline for this article: You’re Not Going to Believe This But KPMG Is the Only Big 4 Firm With a 2025 Elijah Watt Sells Award Winner

Well they’ve announced the winners of the esteemed Elijah Watt Sells Award for 2025 and of the more than 87,000 people who sat for the CPA exam last year, only these six have earned bragging rights as top scorers. SIX. I remember when it was like 70.

To get the award, a candidate must score at least 95.50 across the four sections of the Uniform CPA Examination, pass on the first try, and, in the case of this particular award, have finished testing in 2025.

Something really interesting about the 2025 results, small number of winners aside, is how only one of them works for a Big 4 firm. Used to be I’d waste a good hour of my time physically writing out ticks on a piece of paper counting up the awards scattered across firms to declare a winner of winners, like in 2020 when Deloitte and EY tied at 14 each.

Anyway, your 2025 Elijah Watt Sells Award winners, in alphabetical order:

William Baker (Kansas), a graduate of The University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Business Analytics, is employed with Wendling Noe Nelson & Johnson LLC in Topeka, Kan.
Lauren Dever (North Carolina), a graduate of Dickinson College with a Bachelor of Arts in International Business and Management and a Master of Accounting from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, is employed with HealthEdge in Boston.
Stephanie Guei (Texas), a graduate of the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and a Master of Science in Accountancy, is employed with Weaver and Tidwell, LLP in Houston.
Allison Hinaman (Texas), a graduate of the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Master of Accounting, is employed with the Financial Accounting Standards Board in Norwalk, Conn.
Sophie Kapler (Michigan), a graduate of Oakland University with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, is employed with Ally in Detroit.
Xin Jie Yu (California), a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in accounting, is employed with KPMG in Santa Clara, Calif.

Obligatory quotes: “The Elijah Watt Sells Award represents one of the highest honors in the CPA profession, and this year’s recipients have demonstrated extraordinary commitment, intellect and discipline,” said Susan Coffey, CPA, CGMA, CEO of public accounting at the AICPA. “These individuals exemplify the highest standards of achievement and are well positioned to help shape the future of the profession with integrity, innovation and a strong sense of purpose.”

“The Elijah Watt Sells Award recognizes not only technical excellence but also a deep commitment to the accounting profession’s highest standards,” said NASBA President and CEO Daniel J. Dustin, CPA. “On behalf of NASBA and our member Boards of Accountancy, we congratulate this year’s recipients on their outstanding accomplishment. Their performance on the CPA Exam places them among the top candidates nationwide and reflects both their dedication to personal achievement and their future contributions to the profession.”

Fun fact: Up until 2011 the award was capped at 10 people per year, sometimes a few more in the case of a tie. The Powers That Be then decided to “standardize the score at an extremely high level (95.50)” so that it wasn’t so dependent on how other people performed in a given year and the number of winners per year naturally increased. So much so that in 2013, I asked “when tf did we get so many Elijah Watt Sells Award winners?” and the AICPA responded with a very informative email answering my semi-rhetorical question.

Does this small number of winners say something about the exam? About the caliber of candidate? Hard to say for sure. All we know for sure is that these six people should feel proud.

CPA Exam

Here’s Your Open Thread For the Second CPA Exam Score Release of Q1 2019

Adrienne Gonzalez
February 25, 2019

It’s February 25 and you know what that means. Well, you know what that means […]

CPA Exam

Illinois Candidate Caught Cheating on the CPA Exam

Adrienne Gonzalez
June 29, 2011

We have better things to do than comb through the minutes of each accountancy board’s meetings, so thanks to the tipster who obviously doesn’t and sent in the following tip from the January 25, 2011 minutes of the Illinois Board of Accountancy:

b. Mr. [Richard] York led a discussion regarding a recent candidate caught cheating by Prometric. The Committee agreed with the Executive Director’s recommendation to void the candidate’s scores for that examination. It was agreed by the Board to implement a prohibition of testing privilege for 2-5 years as provided by Administrative Rule for future candidates caught cheating.

It’s common knowledge that if you are caught cheating on the CPA exam you should expect for your scores to be thrown out and will likely receive some sort of administrative penalty (such as being barred from taking the exam again for a certain number of years) but this is the first reference I have seen to an actual candidate getting busted.

How does one go about cheating on the CPA exam anyway? With countless questions completely locked down by the AICPA, how could a candidate cheat? Sharpie notes on the palm of his hand? Smuggled in snot rags?

The official line on cheating from the AICPA, NASBA and Prometric goes something like this:

The Boards of Accountancy, NASBA and the AICPA take candidate misconduct, including cheating on the Uniform CPA Examination, very seriously. If a Board of Accountancy determines that a candidate is culpable of misconduct or has cheated, the candidate will be subject to a variety of penalties including, but not limited to, invalidation of grades, disqualification from subsequent examination administrations, and civil and criminal penalties. In cases where candidate misconduct or cheating is discovered after a candidate has obtained a CPA license or certificate, a Board of Accountancy may rescind the license or certificate.

If the test center staff suspects misconduct, a warning will be given to the candidate for any of the following situations:
· Communicating, orally or otherwise, with another candidate or person
· Copying from or looking at another candidate’s materials or workstation
· Allowing another candidate to copy from or look at materials or workstation
· Giving or receiving assistance in answering examination questions or problems
· Reading examination questions or simulations aloud
· Engaging in conduct that interferes with the administration of the examination or unnecessarily
disturbing staff or other candidates

Grounds for confiscation of a prohibited item and warning the candidate include:
· Possession of any prohibited item (whether or not in use) inside, or while entering or exiting the testing room
· Use of any prohibited item during a break in a manner that could result in cheating or the removal of examination questions or simulations

Inquiring minds are dying to know what went down.

The scariest part is that in 2 – 5 years, this candidate can head back into Prometric and give it another shot. Looks like it’s payroll clerking it in the meantime.