CPA Resources
CPA Resources

CPA exam contract renewed through 2024

NEW YORK, NASHVILLE, Tenn, and BALTIMORE, March 9, 2010 – The contract providing for nationwide administration of the Uniform CPA Examination in the United States has been extended until 2024 by the American Institute of CPAs, the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, and Prometric – the three organizations that jointly offer the CPA exam in the United States.

"This 10-year extension of the exam contract from 2014 to 2024 continues the close and highly successful collaboration of the three organizations in the delivery of the computer-based examination for the past six years," said AICPA President and CEO Barry Melancon. "The CPA exam is the gateway to the accounting profession and under this arrangement we have seen the exam improve and grow. About 93,000 candidates took the examination in 2009 – a record."

The exam is one of the "three Es" – education, examination and experience – that are required for licensure as a CPA in the United States. The CPA exam consists of four sections: Auditing and Attestation; Financial Accounting and Reporting; Regulation; and Business Environment and Concepts. The testing time for the four sections combined is 14 hours.

"NASBA looks forward to a continued and successful relationship with our partners AICPA and Prometric and is pleased to participate in an examination agreement that provides further confidence in the marketplace as to quality of content, delivery and administration," said NASBA president and CEO David Costello.

State boards of accountancy are very important to the success of the CPA exam. They are the only entities with statutory authority to issue CPA licenses, and passing the CPA exam is a licensure requirement of the accountancy boards in all 55 U.S. jurisdictions (the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands).

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

"The AICPA, NASBA and Prometric have worked diligently to increase access to the Uniform CPA Examination, to ensure accurate and reliable delivery and scoring to make this program a leader among global computerized testing programs," said Michael Brannick, Prometric president and CEO. "We are pleased to play a role as the partnership's test-delivery vendor."

In its more than 100-year history, the exam has undergone many changes. Until the end of 2003, it was a paper-and-pencil exam administered twice each year. In April 2004, the computer-based exam was launched and the paper-and-pencil examination was discontinued. The computer-based exam achieved 1 million administrations in 2009.

Today, the exam is a state-of-the-art licensure examination – technologically advanced, psychometrically sound and poised for an additional round of innovations and improvements to be implemented in 2011.

For additional information on the Uniform CPA Exam, please visit www.cpa-exam.org.

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