subject: CPA Passing Rates, Overall and Per Section [print this page] CPA Passing Rates, Overall and Per Section
Many of us have heard the horror stories of people failing the Uniform CPA Exam, all or in part. These do sound discouraging and may even influence a good number of CPA hopefuls to delay taking the CPA Exam.
However, the personal experiences of those who have actually taken all of the four sections covered in the CPA Exam, whether these yielded positive or negative results; can serve as a good motivating factor for future exam-takers to look carefully where others have gone wrong.
This being said, the CPA Passing Rates from previous years up to 2009 actually went a few notches higher. It seems that a lot more CPA hopefuls are working harder at passing the CPA Exam, leaving no stone unturned until every aspect of the test has been thoroughly researched and reviewed.
PASSING RATES PER SECTION
For 2009's CPA Passing Rates, the overall rate is 49.1%, a number that is noticeably higher than 2008's and in previous years; while passing rates broken down into each of the four sections of the CPA Exams are as follows:
Auditing and Attestation - 50.0%
Business Environment and Concepts - 48.3%
Financial Accounting and Reporting - 48.5%
Regulation - 49.8%
Out of all these tests, only the Business Environment and Concepts section is done in purely multiple choice format. The rest of the sections are 70% multiple choice and 30% simulation.
Based on the above-given CPA Passing Rates, we can see that BEC had the lowest passing rate despite the fact that it is 100% multiple choice and can be completed within a maximum of two hours.
On the other hand, the section that was least expected to get excellent CPA Passing Rates was Auditing and Attestation and yet, it scored the highest among all four sections.
There could be two reasons why this happened. First, CPA candidates underrated Business Environment and Concepts. Knowing that this is a hundred percent multiple choice, many may have gone on with the notion that this section will be such a breeze, hence; preparation for BEC was minimal.
Secondly, with the common understanding that the Auditing and Attestation section was the hardest, a lot more people focused on thoroughly reviewing for this test, hence; taking the highest in the CPA Passing Rates among all four sections of the CPA Exam.
INCREASE IN CPA PASSING RATES
On the average, the CPA Passing Rates during the previous years increased as mentioned earlier and this could be attributed to the fact that the CPA Exam was computerized beginning some six years ago.
There was a time when taking the CPA Exam meant sitting in for long hours in order to take all four sections of the exam consecutively. This considerably gave lower CPA Passing Rates.
Nowadays however, exam-takers can sit in for the tests one at a time, giving ample time for CPA candidates to review for each section and also to recover from each test before taking the next one.
With this computerization, CPA Passing Rates noticeably improved and they keep improving each year. Hopefully, this will be an up and up trending when it comes to CPA Passing Rates per year.
