I really can't believe I'm writing this now but when I was combing through my now dog-eared, cat-chewed, beer-bottle-stained NASBA Candidate Performance Book for my post yesterday, I realized that the Wake Forest grad who emailed me complaining about how his feelings were hurt was actually hurt over something that did not directly refer to him. Yes, he got bent out of shape over someone else's insult. Let's revisit here momentarily.
Here's what I wrote on January 9th that started it all:
These 2010 CPA exam stats have to do with first-time testing events taken by candidates without advanced degrees. The cool part is this is all broken down by section; the not that cool part is the same few schools absolutely killed it on every part.
Wake Forest ranked first for every single section, which comes as a surprise to no one. Fifty-seven candidates took AUD and only five of them failed for a pass rate of 91.2% – Wake Forest's worst performance of the four sections. For BEC, 57 candidates slaughtered 56 exams (man, must suck to be the one guy or gal who failed BEC at Wake Forest) for a pass rate of 98.2%. They also pulled 98.2% on FAR and again 57 candidates passed 56 exams. Makes you wonder if the BEC slacker failed FAR too. For REG, Wake Forest candidates took 55 exams and passed 53 for a pass rate of 96.4%.
Notice I included the part about the stats being candidates without advanced degrees before I got into any actual numbers. Obviously our friend's analytical skills aren't Wake Forest-caliber because just reading that, he would have automatically known the post was not referring to him. Why? Because I stalked him, remember? He did not do his undergrad at Wake Forest according to his LinkedIn profile and holds a Masters, which would remove him from these results. Therefore – and allow me to strap on mah smart hat for this one – it was some other loser I was talking about, not this guy.
So here's where it gets weird. According to the NASBA book, 66 of 69 BEC exams taken by all Wake Forest candidates both first-time and repeat (note: Wake Forest didn't DO any repeats in 2010) were passed. That gives us 3 failures (one of which obviously must be this guy but, again, I wasn't actually talking about him when I referred to him as a FAR-failing, BEC-bombing slacker). For first-time testing events, 63 of 64 BEC exams were passed. Now wait… if there were 0 repeats for Wake Forest in 2010, where are those 5 other exams counted in the 69 total?
For first-time Wake Forest grads with a bachelor's, 56 out of 57 BEC exams taken were passed. The book lists first-time exams taken by Wake Forest grads with advanced degrees at 7 of 7 on BEC. So, hold on, let me add this up real quick… That's 64, which matches the first-time testing events. But wait, why isn't our friend the whiner (not slacker, make sure you don't accuse him of such) dragging down the first-time candidate with advanced degree average?
So. Either NASBA got the numbers wrong or I can't add (you are welcome to audit my math). We're missing 2 failed BEC exams (one of which belongs to this guy) and a failure in the advanced degree section.
Jesus, it's like I'm never going to be able to stop singling this guy out and it's totally NASBA's fault. The lesson? Don't get butthurt over numbers. Prestige doesn't matter if you're an asshole.
