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Let’s Look at Some Random CPA Exam Statistics From California Colleges

This post comes courtesy of a reader request. If you would like specific CPA exam statistics, shoot me an email and I'll dig through the candidate performance book for you so you don't have to waste $90 on it yourself. You're welcome.

What are the top California schools for CPA exam performance (based on 2010 candidate performance)? Let's look.

For all testing events (both first-time and repeat exams), the top five schools in California are:

  • UC Berkeley 60.2% (well done, UCB)
  • UCLA 58.6%
  • Point Loma Nazarene University 58.5%
  • USC 57.3%
  • Chapman 56.3%

Honorable mention:

Loyola Marymount 55.9%

What was the worst school for CPA exam performance in California? La Verne with 13.3%. By comparison, the next worst school – hopefully Big 4 Veteran can resist the urge to cream himself at this news – DeVry Long Beach pulled 21.3%.

The California school with the worst average score was – again, B4V, control yourself – DeVry Long Beach, with an average score of 59.7 (remember, 75 is passing). 29 candidates taking 75 exams hooked up that dismal performance. What was the next worst? DeVry Pomona with 59.8. Considering the fact that DeVry owns Becker as property, one would think their students would have a better chance at the CPA exam, no?

PLNU had the highest average score with 25 candidates sitting for 53 exams for a 72.9 average score.

USC, UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge candidates took the highest number of exams in 2010.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo candidates performed best on repeat testing events, with 189 candidates sitting for 413 exams. They passed 50.4% of them with an average score of 72.7. They took 139 BEC exams, 99 FAR exams, 96 AUD exams and 79 REG exams. By comparison, 283 Cal Poly SLO candidates sat for 568 first-time exams, passing 58.8%.

The school with the best first-time pass rate was UCB with 67.1%.

Azuza sent the least number of candidates. Just 18 people sat for 42 exams.

If anyone really wants to nerd out on some of this data (I'm too math stupid to run ratios on the raw data as opposed to the Kool-aid NASBA publishes once a year), get in touch. I dropped statistics, I'm useless for the job. There's got to be a way to compile it, you guys are the ones good with ##s.

Earlier:
Here Are Some Random CPA Exam Facts You Didn't Know You Wanted