Secrets of the CPA Exam (My test scores!)

In this week’s video we talk about some very important topics on the CPA Exam… and I share my own test scores!

VIDEO SUMMARY

So we are talking about secrets of the CPA exam. So what we are going to talk about is technically not a secret, because it is all publicly available information. But what I find is that very few people understand the information that I am about to give to you. And if you are thinking of taking the CPA exam, it is crucial you understand this info.

Now in the sake of full disclosure, I feel like I need share with you my own scores from the CPA exam, so you can decide if you want to listen to me or not. Now the exam has already changed since I took the exam, but these scores will still give you a good idea of how I did. So without further ado, here are my scores from the CPA exam.

FAR        85           PASS

AUD       67           FAIL

REG        87           PASS

BEC        86           PASS

AUD       91           PASS

So now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about the Exam. And the secret I’m going to talk about, has to do with statistics. If you understand the statistics of the CPA, you are going to have a much better understanding going into the exam, what you are really up against. And the statistics you need to review are posted on the AICPA website. Most people don’t know about these, so I’m going to show you where you can find them.

The AICPA stands for the American Institute of CPAs. And they are the governing body that is in charge of putting on the CPA exam. Now I have to say, having gone through the exam process myself, my opinion is the AICPA does an amazing job of putting on this exam. You can tell the exam questions are well thought out and the whole process is well managed.

So I am going to go to the aicpa website, aicpa.org. Now there is a lot of information on here, but what you are going to want to find on the homepage is the section on the CPA exam. And then you are going to look for the section on exam scoring. And then there is a section on Exam passing rates. And that’s what you are looking for. There is a document on exam passing rates, and the AICPA publishes a new document every year. And what this document is, is it contains the overall score of everyone who has taken the exam over the last year.

Here is what you will see when you open up the file. I am using the passing rates from 2016. What you will find is that the amount of people who pass each section of the exam, is somewhere around 50%. So there are four different sections, and every time someone sits for a section, roughly half the people pass, and half the people fail.

Now to get a CPA, you have to pass all four sections. So if every section, there is a 50% chance you are going to pass, you are likely going to fail two of the four times. So to get your CPA, you are likely going to have to sit for six tests. These aren’t odds. These are results. This is what is happening. People fail half of the time.

So what does this all mean? It means the CPA exam is hard. How hard? You have the statistic on exactly how hard it is going to be. 50%. Now think about that for a minute. This is not 50% of your average person on the street. This is 50% of accounting Masters students. Accounting students in general are pretty smart people. These aren’t just accounting students, they are Masters accounting students. So this is a really smart group of people. And 50% of them are failing on each section.

I explain all this, because if you are going to take on the challenge of the CPA exam, it is going to be tough. You are going to have to sacrifice. It will probably take you over a year to do all these tests. You are probably going to fail one in the process and you will have to find the stamina to keep going. Your friends are not going to understand why you are spending all this effort on studying. But what ultimately happens through all this hard work is that the CPA exam really means something. It is a major accomplishment that you can share with the world.

So I hope this talk on the CPA exam was helpful. I think discussing the statistics around the exam, really helps to put things in perspective so you are prepared for what to expect.

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Neither Zach De Gregorio or Wolves and Finance Inc. shall be liable for any damages related to information in this video. It is recommended you contact a CPA in your area for business advice.