[GWS CPA]

Comparison of Old and New Charts of Content Areas

Old (O) and New (N)
Roman numerals are not used; instead, Arabic (regular) numbers are used.

OLD Content Areas

O1: Conceptual Framework, Standards, Standard Setting, and Presentation of Financial Statements
17%-23%

O2: Financial Statement Accounts: Recognition, Measurement, Valuation, Calculation, Presentation, and Disclosures
27%-33%

O3: Specific Transactions, Events, and Disclosures: Recognition, Measurement, Valuation, Calculation, Presentation, and Disclosures
27%-33%

O4: Governmental Accounting and Reporting
8%-12%

O5: Not-for-Profit (Nongovernmental) Accounting and Reporting
8%-12%

NEW Content Areas

N1: Conceptual Framework, Standard-Setting, and Financial Reporting
25%-35%

N2: Select Financial Statement Accounts
30%-40%

N3: Select Transactions
20%-30%

N4: State and Local Governments
5%-15%

OBSERVATIONS

FAR has reduced its number of areas from 5 to 4.

FAR was the only section in the old version that had 5 areas as opposed to 6 for AUD, BEC, and REG.
Now, it is tied with AUD with 4 areas each while BEC and REG has 5 each.

Even though, FAR has 202 tasks, the most for any 4 sections of the new CPA exam.

O1 is N1.

O2 and O3 move to N2 and N3, respectively, for Recognition, Measurement, Valuation, and Calculation.
The rest of O2 and O3 move to N1 for Presentation and Disclosures.

O4 is N4.

O5 moves to N1 (Reporting only), N2, and N3 because nonprofit organizations use accrual accounting, just like for regular businesses. Nonprofits are the third most popular U.S. industry behind retail and manufacturing.

IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) are in N3 for differences between IFRS and U.S. GAAP, so no calculations or analysis required because IFRS (or other foreign accounting standards) is not significant for new CPAs.
Likewise, AUD (not mentioned previously) does not have ISAs (International Standards on Auditing) or other foreign auditing standards in the new version because it is too advanced for new CPAs.

N1 increases its percentages from O1 tremendously due to O2, O3, and (a little) O5 moving to N1.
N2 increases its percentages while N3 decreases its percentages due to more reprehensive tasks in N2 than in N3.
N4 widens its percentages by 3% each side, not necessarily increasing or decreasing its percentages.

Each of the new content areas has a 10% variance (25%-35%), just like the skill level percentages. The percentages widen from 6% (O1, O2, and O3 were common Financial Accounting concepts) or 4% (O4 and O5 were other financial accounting and reporting concepts).

NUMBER of Areas, Groups, Topics, and Tasks for Old and New Outlines

Areas: 5 for old; 4 for new

Groups: 50 for old; 34 for new
Topics: 64 for old; 45 for new
NOTE: A group without a topic does not count as a topic itself.

Tasks: 202 for only new because the old outlines did not show the tasks within each group or topic

Since the CPA exam is in the new version, the number of groups and topics for each area of the old outlines are not shown below.

NUMBER of Groups, Topics, and Tasks for each Area in the New Version
N1: 6 Groups, 15 Topics, 57 Tasks
N2: 12 Groups, 8 Topics, 62 Tasks
N3: 12 Groups, 0 Topics, 42 Tasks
N4: 4 Groups, 22 Topics, 41 Tasks
TOTAL: 34 Groups, 45 Topics, 202 Tasks

NUMBER of Tasks by Skill Levels for each Area in the New Version

N1
Remembering and Understanding: 12
Application: 35
Analysis: 10

N2
Remembering and Understanding: 12
Application: 39
Analysis: 11

N3
Remembering and Understanding: 13
Application: 25
Analysis: 4

N4
Remembering and Understanding: 15
Application: 26
Analysis: 0

TOTAL
Remembering and Understanding: 52
Application: 125
Analysis: 25

(R&U stands for Remembering and Understanding)

All of the content areas have much greater importance in Application than R&U. The reason for this is that a lot of candidates have taken at least 4 financial accounting courses (1 basic, 2 intermediate, and 1 advanced to most of the candidates) and they are familiar with the concepts a lot.

N1 (for presentation of financial statements), N2, and N3 have Analysis, and Analysis is more important than R&U (25%-35% Analysis and 10%-20% R&U) for the same reason just mentioned above.

N4 does not have Analysis because governmental accounting is not as common as regular financial accounting (including nongovernmental nonprofits). Governmental accounting uses fund accounting and budgetary accounting, which these accounting concepts are usually not found in nongovernmental and regular business accounting.

Best of Luck for the CPA candidates taking the new version soon.

[Cruzer]

Definitely feel like the new exam will hit any new accounting standards (i.e. revenue recognition, lease accounting). Does anyone else feel these are two very important topics that could be tested? As far as financial statement accounts, I have come up with cash, payables & accrued liabilities, revenue recognition and compensation & benefits as the biggest areas of remembering and understanding in relation to financial statement (30-40% of exam). If you are predicting 20 R&U questions this could be 6-8 questions on the exam.

[Anonymous]

In lay man's terms they are testing less Governmental and more O1. Everything else is just grouped together differently?

[Author]

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