[Anonymous]

So I’ve been reading on here a lot about how some people think the grading is curved and how well others do during the time you take your exam determines your score. How the pass rate remains the same does seem a little baffling.

I did a little research to see if other exams seem to be as hard as the CPA exam. I mainly looked at the Bar exam. I was shocked to find out that they have a lower passing rate than the CPA exam. Sometimes a 30% pass rate. And get this the chances of passing after the first attempt are even lower. Most people don’t even attempt to take the exam if they fail the first time because their chances of passing drop dramatically. The exams are manually graded by humans in each state and each state releases their own scores. I found a site that one test taker was explaining her conspiracy theory about the bar exam. She stated each state uses the exams to keep the number of lawyers to a minimum when the numbers get too high or vice versa. Could this be happening with the CPA exam as well?

Disclaimer: I am not a conspiracy theorist just tying to pass the time while waiting on the score release. This is just for entertainment purposes only. I don’t want the AICPA putting put on their watch list for exposing the truth. 🙂

[mckan514w]

and I am so with you claudia- I just want this nightmare to be over but it doesn't seem to be ending any time soon.

and they ask me why I drink...

FAR- 61-next time I'll ask for lube instead of a calculator
REG-75- Never been so happy to see such a low grade
BEC- 8/11
AUD- 9/2

[jm962011]

I like the discussion going on here. Not sure how I feel about the CPA Exam being a conspiracy, but for a profession (accounting, finance) that demands transparency from its clients (CPA firms, clients that the CPA firm audits).. I mean look at SOX, the AICPA should be more transparent.

I also think accounting firms should be more transparent when it comes to compensation and promotions.

[Stilgoin]

There is a flip side to transparency. We, as accountants, are required to protect the information of our clients. There are many other services CPAs provide besides audit and tax. Business consulting, estate planning, and advisory services are just a few. There are areas where transparency is needed, but I guarantee if you start sharing client information, you will not stay in business as a CPA.

As for difficulty in questions, I believe that is subjective. Difficult for one may be easy for another. Only the data gathered from test questions can predict a statistic. I feel it is naive to think we can tell whether we had an easy or difficult exam. I hate the bad results just as much as the next guy, but I do not have enough overall knowledge about exams to know easy from hard. On my 3 passes, AUD is the only one I noticed getting more difficult in the testlests.

As far as salaries and promotions, I have no idea why transparency would be a good business decision. Can you explain?

B | 62, 78
A | 73, 67, 79
R | 82
F | 59, 59, Waiting

Ethics | 93

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
~Winston Churchill

“In a world full of critics, be an encourager."

[Pete]

The questions get longer and more heavy in the calculations on a difficult test let. You'll see more topics on random, less emphasized points from the Becker software. Sometimes, you'll get some random knowledge based question, not covered by the material at all. I noticed a slight increase in difficultly and the topics touched on more “weird” concepts, outside of Becker. One problem with judging them is that those difficult questions are more tricky, so it's very hard to gauge them.

Also, I think the levels of test-lets have varying degrees of difficulty. For example, two hard test-lets could have a different number of “difficult” questions. Because of the points awarded, they balance out though.

I noticed a slight increase in difficulty on each exam. Even when I failed, i noticed the questions getting more difficult and scored at least comparable to those, who passed, on the multiple choice part. Of course, I bombed the SIMS, spending so much time on the MC that i failed anyways.

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
F=80 I don't wanna get banned for an expletive I'm thinking with "yea" proceeding it

[mckan514w]

Someone on the BEC test thread yesterday was offering me sympathy by reminding me that other candidates probably got the same / similar exam that I got… which then brought up the question on how exactly is each one graded- by this I mean clearly every candidate gets a different exam with different content in varying percentages so lets take REG for example- if trends show that more testers do worse on Tax section than B-Law section then do the testers who get the test that are more heavily concentrated on Tax content get more of a curve than the takers whose exams are more B-law heavy… or is this how they “randomly” control the pass/fail rates…

and they ask me why I drink...

FAR- 61-next time I'll ask for lube instead of a calculator
REG-75- Never been so happy to see such a low grade
BEC- 8/11
AUD- 9/2

[bhunt815]

Based on my experience in FAR I have to say that there must be a curve, not because I failed but because I passed. If I had opened up the NASBA website on score release day and saw a 50 it would have surprised me less than seeing the 84. I just don't see how I could have legitimately made an 84 in that exam.

FAR 04/11/2016 - 84
AUD 05/12/2016 - 79
BEC 07/06/2016 - 81
REG 08/29/2016

[Accountant183748]

@bhunt815 that's exactly how I feel! How I passed any of these exams is beyond me because I feel I did horribly on all them! I did work hard and study my ass off, I'm not saying I didn't put in any effort, but when I was taking the exams (especially BEC) I felt like I had no idea what they were even asking.

That brings me another point I've always wondered…I know that harder questions are “worth more” so to speak, so what if you get a difficult test and you get every single question wrong? Do you get points just for making it to a difficult section?

[jm962011]

Maybe I wasn’t clear when I was talking about transparency. Firms should not, and good firms won’t, share client information. My first comment about transparency was directed towards the AICPA and how they should be more transparent in the CPA exam results and how they chose questions. I say this because they demand transparency from firms and CPAs in the sense of “did you audit this client?” “Show me how you audited this client.” “Do you have any conflicts of interest that would impair your ability to audit this client.” The same happens with tax work… did you ask the client reasonable questions to make sure you were getting the true answers to determine the taxability? Did you consider all of the tax implications when deciding to go with your decision? Maybe that isn’t transparency but rather reliability??

CPA firms tell their clients to be transparent… Have documentation and support for financial approvals, collect receipts when employees are to be reimbursed, etc.

Shareholders require transparency from the companies in which they are invested that is why we have audited financial statements. Shareholders want to invest in companies that aren’t using shareholder money illegally. Shareholders don’t want executives that are using shareholder money and company dollars to line their own pockets.

Ummm… transparency in salaries and promotions can actually create happier employees. Please google it. Literally when I google “transparency in salaries” there is a Forbes, WSJ, and NPR article in the top 5 search results. I want to know why Joe or Jane got a promotion and I didn’t, even though we’ve all been here the same amount of time. It should be very clear what the requirements to get promoted are. This is where firms get caught with discrimination in their hiring practices. Haven’t you seen the studies where they put the two resumes that are exactly the same but one is for a male and a female and they offer the male a job? Or they offer the male more money? I’ve also heard of studies where they will make both male but one has a difficult to pronounce name. I honestly can’t believe it’s 2016 and we are still going through this.

I mean, why do some people get “put on partner track” but others don’t?

Many industries already have some transparency – you can look up the salary of that Illinois State Auditor that is giving you a hard time. Any school that gets public funding must list salaries as well.

[tman102938]

@Allie530 yea, I thought this thread deserved a revival.

@mckan514w that's a good point. I've never even thought of that. That makes the scoring process even more questionable..The way I understood the exam is that they look at how everyone did on various questions and assign points to each based on how much the question was missed…then they make some sort of master board of questions and points assigned to use as a guide in grading the exams…but now i'm thinking there must be an extra analysis that is made to determine your proficiency in each area..because to @mckan514 ‘s point you could end up with heavily weighted points (difficult questions) in one area of testing and lightly weighted points in another area.

BEC:69,79 PASS
FAR:77 PASS
REG: 7/30
AUD:68,64

"If you want something, go get it. Period."

[Stilgoin]

@jm962011 When dealing with other people’s money, I can see salaries being public knowledge, but for private companies in a capitalist market, that business should be free to run any way they choose as long as it is legal. I think it is naive to say all policies and salaries should be public knowledge. As a business, you are opening yourself up for scrutinization and liability. Business owners have to be aware of finding that line between sharing too much vs. not sharing enough, and it can be difficult. It all depends on what type of business you are referring to, as there are so many different kinds.

B | 62, 78
A | 73, 67, 79
R | 82
F | 59, 59, Waiting

Ethics | 93

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
~Winston Churchill

“In a world full of critics, be an encourager."

[sancasuki]

I heard that some employers try to tell their employees not to share their salary info with other coworkers. Apparently that is illegal.

Pay Secrecy

I actually knew how much of a bonus 3 of my coworkers got since they paid it through the entities I did the books for and not the usual payroll. They definitely didn't value me much at all that's for sure…..

[Stilgoin]

If you read the article, that law is limited and does not apply to all employees. 😉 I should add, I am surprised at the extent of the law regarding pay secrecy. In a rural community with a small business (>250,000 in sales), a customer base that knows how much you pay your employees can have a very negative effect on your business.

B | 62, 78
A | 73, 67, 79
R | 82
F | 59, 59, Waiting

Ethics | 93

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
~Winston Churchill

“In a world full of critics, be an encourager."

[Author]

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