Graduate School Exams: CPA

The CPA Exam is a 14-hour, computer-based test comprised of four sections:

• Auditing and Attestation (AUD)
• Business Environment and Concepts (BEC)
• Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR)
• Regulation (REG)

The CPA exam employs a combination of question formats. It includes the traditional multiple choice questions and essays, as well as highly innovative simulations – questions that replicate workplace situations and require the application of knowledge and skills to arrive at solutions.

Scoring

Section scores are reported on a scale that ranges from 0 to 99. A total reported score of 75 is required to pass each section.

The total score in the AUD, FAR and REG sections is a weighted combination of scaled scores from the multiple-choice and task-based simulation questions. For the BEC section, the total score is a weighted combination of the scaled scores from the multiple-choice questions and written communication tasks. Scaled scores on the multiple-choice and task-based simulation portions of the Exam are calculated using formulas that take into account factors such as whether the question was answered correctly and the relative difficulty of each question.