Anyone think they should change the passing score to a 70?

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  • #166093
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I know this will never happen, but I’m interesting in seeing how many people wished the passing grade would change to a 70. I, personally, don’t think it would make a difference because then people will complain that they keep getting 68 and 69 and can’t hit that 70. The exam will probably just get scaled differently so the passing rate stays the same. So, I’m ok with that 75 passing grade.

    What do you guys think?

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
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  • #327852
    Minimorty
    Participant

    Haha. Did you start this thread just to ruffle my feathers? I think we all know where I stand on this one.

    #327853
    jeff
    Keymaster

    Considering I once rolled out of bed and took AUD without studying (NTS expired that day…put all of my effort into REG) and scored a 69, no 🙂

    AUD - 79
    BEC - 80
    FAR - 76
    REG - 92
    Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS)
    NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE | Another71
    #327854
    kandisjoy
    Participant

    No, I don't think so… even though I scored between a 70-74 several times when I was taking the exam. We wouldn't want Jeff to have to change the name of his website!

    another66-68 not that cool

    another69 – probably already taken by a porn site (I'd check, but I'm at work)

    But in all seriousness, I agree with Jeff's post. Also, when I scored a 70-74 (I actually got two 71s), it was because I hadn't fully committed to studying. We want this exam to be difficult to pass so that we maintain the integrity of the license. You shouldn't be able to half-ass this test and pass, and I think that we mostly ensure that with a passing score of 75. I say mostly because there will probably be some cocky bastard that responds to this “I didn't try at all and I passed, suckers!” 😛

    FAR: 71, 77
    BEC: 70, 82
    AUD: 62, 78
    REG: 71, 68, 85

    CA Licensed 11/2011

    #327855
    mla1169
    Participant

    Mini would have a 99 as a passing score…….LOL!

    FAR- 77
    AUD -49, 71, 84
    REG -56,75!
    BEC -75

    Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

    #327856
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    You want to lower the passing score to 70? Then take the PMP exam.

    We're CPA's. We are called to a higher standard.

    Yeah, it is tough, but do we really want to have MORE competition in the CPA job market?

    I'm OK with 75 as the passing grade.

    Just be thankful we don't have to take the old pencil and paper test! Two days straight! 19 hours! All four sections at once! And only once or twice a year! Man, I am SO GLAD to have the computerized exam! It is tough, but better than the old exam.

    #327857
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    @Jeff- When I took AUD and didn't study, I got a 47. Haha! For some reason, my college instructors made Auditing seem so gibberish. It wasn't until I used Yaeger when I finally understood what the heck Auditing was about. Hence, my 40 point increase.

    #327858
    KasiaS
    Participant

    I'm in agreement with everyone else. As much as I hate hearing about fellow candidates who post 74s, I think a 75 is approriate and that is precisely why the CPA is as valuable as it is. If it was easily attainable, it would lose the prestige.

    FAR 88 (07/15/11)
    BEC 83 (08/31/11)
    AUD 81 (10/15/11)
    REG 83 (11/26/11)

    Used NIU Correspondence CPA Review

    #327859
    Tebowwwww
    Member

    I am 100% convinced that the '75' designation is an arbitrary number and the AICPA just looks at the curve and slaps a big 75 wherever they want the pass/fail designation to be.. They could call it a ten million to pass but the curve would still be the same.

    REG (7/7/11) 75
    FAR (7/28/11) 76
    BEC (8/27/11) 81
    AUD (10/15/11, 1/20/12) 63, 91

    DONE!!!

    #327860
    goforCPA
    Member

    While I agree that 75 is just about the right mark, I disagree that all those who pass are necessarily more knowledgebale in the accounting field than those who keep on getting another 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74….given that you really need to study hard to pass, I am often puzzled at those who are CPAs but do not have a common accounting sense, didn't that hard studying instill the common accounting sense in their brains???

    October 2011-May 2013. Did not loose any credit!!
    AUD - 73, 79
    REG - 86
    FAR - 72, 83
    BEC - 80, last one, DONE!!

    #327861
    hopeful_cpa
    Participant

    I agree… as much as i Hate that 75, it is a good benchmark to pass. Although, recently I have been coming across a lot of people, especially doctors, who really dont think the cpa exam is hard lol and they feel their usmle is more difficult. now i'll tell you, my brother is a doctor and all he had to do was memorize a ton of stuff, really not trickery or thought process goes into that at all… they dont get it, it kinda ticks me off.

    BEC: Done
    REG: Done
    AUD: Done
    FAR: Done

    I'M DONE!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    #327862
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    @hopeful_cpa

    Agreed. I have friends who began law school last and this year and they think the CPA Exam is some kind of joke. Some think it's “like studying for the LSAT's.”

    -_-

    I tell them no, it's more difficult than the BAR…

    #327863
    Mayo
    Participant

    Personally, I think the exam is good at 75. To be quite honest, it being a bit tougher or offered less often might be a good thing for the profession.

    Mayo, BBA, Macc

    #327864
    katiekanton
    Member

    I'm in agreement with Tebowwww, the 75 is the score they assign to whatever percentage correct 45% of the test takers got above, so it doesn't matter if it's a 75 or a 50, the same number of people would pass. That's an awkward sentence. There's a few ways they could do it.

    If they grade your raw score (as opposed to the assigned score you see) on a percentage of points basis, they might look at where the 45% mark is, and let's say it's 61%. They mark this up to a 75 and adjust the 45% above that line to their adjusted score. It probably isn't an “add 14 points” method but a percentile method, which is why they can technically claim it isn't “curved”.

    If they do it as they should since they use adaptive testing, there might be many different possibilities for the total points a candidate could end up with, but there's a minimum amount of points required to hit that 75. So for instance, if you get all the questions right on the first testlet, and you get a hard testlet for your second and you do well on it, so you get an especially hard third testlet (because they're experimenting on you and separating the very highest level of test takers), your total available points might be 325 where a person who got a medium, medium, medium testlet's total available points are 150. The examiners might decide that a candidate needs to get 200 points minimum to pass, and map the 200 to a 75. I doubt they do it this way though. It'd be complicated and I really don't think they care enough to do all the software writing that would be required.

    If instead of “the passing score should be 70” you mean “the passing rate ought to be raised to 55% from 45%” then I guess that's a separate argument. I personally believe that the whole exam is deformed, and the process isn't designed to achieve the goal of protecting the public interest. I believe it would be better if there were a basic baseline of information that any accountant who practices needs to know and if 80% of the candidates know it they pass, and if only 10% know it they pass. Since we're not going to do that, I do believe there is some value in “curving” since it smooths out differences between testing windows and waves, and years for that matter, and is an automatic adjustment for bad or ambiguous questions.

    AUD - 88
    FAR - 90
    REG - 85
    BEC - 88

    #327865
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Sure…70 is a great number for me. After I pass these tests, change it back to 75. :-).

    #327866
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I remember kin late 2010 they were talking about bumping it up….if they want to make the exam more difficult they should just lower the passing percentage….I.e. 35% pass rate…if you are not in the top 35% of raw scores for the window the you fail.

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