CPA Exam Pass Rate
Most people who are not in the accounting field would be surprised to know that the CPA exam pass rate is much lower than the Bar exam.
There is some debate as to whether the exam is much more difficult, or other factors play a part the low CPA exam pass rate. The difficult part about proving that theory, is that most CPAs have not taken the Bar exam, and most lawyers have not taken the CPA exam to compare. What we do know is that the CPA exam pass rate is low and requires a great deal of preparation and studying to pass and become a licensed CPA. The time restrictions make this even more difficult. Each section (there are 4 sections) of the CPA exam must be taken and passed within an 18 month rolling time frame. This puts a lot of pressure on candidates to do well on the exams and to take them as soon as possible, so they don’t miss their window and are left retaking an exam they already passed.
Only about 3% of all CPA candidates take and pass all four sections of the exam the first time. This means, that 97% of CPA candidates will have to retake one or more sections of the CPA exam. Since the CPA exam has changed over from a paper and pen exam to the uniform computer based test, it seems that the exam has gotten easier. The biggest difference is that you can take each section separately, instead of being tested on all of the material, making it very difficult to study and do well on each section. However, some critics of the computer based exam say that the CPA exam pass rate is heavily affected by the time restraints and other hurdles that have been placed since introducing the computer based exam.
Below is the 2011 CPA exam pass rate chart that was released by the AICPA. Candidates should remember that the CPA exam results are mailed by AICPA.
| Quarter 1 | Quarter 2 | Quarter 3 | |
| AUD | 43.88% | 47.95% | 46.23% |
| BEC | 42.32% | 46.48% | 44.73% |
| FAR | 42.43% | 44.27% | 43.46% |
| REG | 41.28% | 45.01% | 43.33% |
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