MAcc Students Rank High on CPA Exam First-Time Attempts
JONESORO – Arkansas State University’s Master of Accountancy (MAcc) students performed significantly above the national average and highest in the state on the 2017 Uniform Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Exam, according to the recently released National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) Report on the 2017 CPA Exam.
Of the A-State MAcc students, 85.7 percent passed sections of the CPA exam on their first attempt. The national average among all first-time takers was 52.9 percent. Arkansas State ranks tops of four universities in the state with an average score of 78.5.
The Uniform CPA exam is a 16-hour comprehensive national exam that consists of four sections: auditing and attestation (AUD), business environment and concepts (BEC), financial accounting and reporting (FAR), and regulation (REG).
Candidates take one section at a time and have four hours to complete each section. A minimum score of 75 is needed to pass each section. Candidates must pass all four sections within 18 months in order to qualify for certification. The CPA exam includes traditional multiple choice questions, written communication tasks, and task-based simulations that require the application of accounting knowledge and skills to arrive at solutions for practical real-world situations.
The AUD, FAR and REG sections include at least one research question that requires the candidate to search the applicable authoritative literature to locate the appropriate guidance.
“The CPA license, the only license for accounting professionals, is considered to be the accounting profession’s highest standard of competence,” said Dr. James Doering, chair of the Department of Accounting and the Jones and Company Louis and Ann Schaaf Professor in Accounting. “We are proud of the success of our MAcc students. The strong results are attributable to our dedicated faculty, committed students and challenging curriculum. The excellent pass rates reflect the high quality of the accounting program.”
NASBA, formed in 1908, serves as a forum for the nation’s Boards of Accountancy that administer the Uniform CPA Examination, license more than 650,000 certified public accountants and regulate the practice of public accountancy in the U.S.
