This month, The Journal of Accountancy announced that the CPA exam will undergo its largest overhaul since moving from paper and pencil to computers.
Jan. 1, 2011, will mark the launch of what people behind the exam are calling CBT-e (Computer-Based Testing evolution).
While news of these changes is obviously important for those who plan to take the exam, accounting professors and CPAs who employ future CPAs will also need to be familiar with the new format in order to mentor candidates to increase their likelihood of passing.
Exam Section Changes
For Auditing and Attestation (AUD), Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) and Regulations (REG), three groups of 25 to 30 multiple-choice questions will remain.
The written communication tasks and long (30- to 40-minute) simulations will be dropped from these three sections. They will be replaced with six or seven shorter “task-based” simulations. The shorter simulations will look similar to sections of the current long simulations, however, using the shorter simulations will lead to reduced score reporting time in the future, Mills said.
The Business Environment and Concepts (BEC) section also will continue to contain three sets of multiple-choice questions. It will not include simulations, but will add three written communication tasks on BEC topics that will be weighted at a total of 15%.
Currently, multiple-choice questions account for 100% of the BEC score.
The changes to simulations and writing are apparent in every section and reflect what Mills says is an increased confidence in the simulations.