The CPA Exam pass rates for Q4 2009 have been released and as predicted - the fourth quarter passing rates dropped 10% over Q3 2009.

What was not predicted however, was that the fourth quarter pass rates would be the worst of the year.

Typically, Q1 always has the lowest pass rate for the CPA Exam and hovers around 45-46% per section. This is attributed to “busy season” for tax and audit employees.

The lower-than-usual dip in Q4 pass rates could be a result of job stress/job hunting and the “holidays”.

The 2009 CPA Exam Pass Rates are as follows:

Here is the breakdown for 2009:

Auditing and Attestation:
Q1: 47.61%
Q2: 51.79%
Q3: 51.52%
Q4: 47.99%

Business Environment and Concepts:
Q1: 46.23%
Q2: 48.62%
Q3: 52.27%
Q4: 45.65%

Financial Accounting and Reporting:
Q1: 45.54%
Q2: 50.58%
Q3: 51.18%
Q4: 46.15%

Regulation:
Q1: 47.96%
Q2: 52.25%
Q3: 52.41%
Q4: 46.57%

Get the report from cpa-exam.org here.

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The CPA Exam pass rates for the third quarter of 2009 have been released and as usual, Q3 is the strongest quarter of the year.

This site was one of the first to start tracking CPA Exam pass rate rate statistics and as I wrote in March 2008, 41-45% of candidates were passing each section.

Now, 45-52% of candidates are passing each section of the exam.

Here is the breakdown for 2009:

Auditing and Attestation:
Q1: 47.61%
Q2: 51.79%
Q3: 51.52%

Business Environment and Concepts:
Q1: 46.23%
Q2: 48.62%
Q3: 52.27%

Financial Accounting and Reporting:
Q1: 45.54%
Q2: 50.58%
Q3: 51.18%

Regulation:
Q1: 47.96%
Q2: 52.25%
Q3: 52.41%

If the fourth quarter of 2009 follows the trend from Q4 2008, scores will dip approx. 9% on average.

Get the report from cpa-exam.org here.

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The CPA Exam pass rates for the April/May 2009 window have been released. The percentage of passing CPA candidates was up across the board compared to the January/February 2009 window. The biggest movers were Financial Accounting and Reporting and Regulation, which jumped approximately 5% and 6%, respectively.

Get more information by clicking here.

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The Q1 2009 CPA Exam pass rates have been released. While BEC and FAR remained about the same comparatively to Q1 2008, AUD and REG’s pass rate jumped 2.95% and 2.30%, respectively. Q1 passing rates are historically the lowest of each year, so it will be interesting to see what the third quarter brings, when the pass rates are usually the highest.

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I’m not really sure why this is. I’m guessing that there’s a logical reason why the CPA Exam pass rate dropped almost 9% overall in the fourth quarter compared to the third (feel free to clue me in if you know…maybe it’s obvious and I just don’t see it). The average passing rate for 2008 was 48.6% overall, which means that in a given sitting for a single section, 48.6% of the candidates passed that particular exam.

Get the CPA Exam pass rates.

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This isn’t breaking news by any means…this is from the Fall 2008 Uniform CPA Examination Alert and I didn’t get around to posting it when it first came out.

The bulletin says that 46% of those who sat for all four parts passed it the first time, which seems high to me. I have always thought that the first time pass rate was around 15 percent. The 17-25% quit rate also seems high. Likewise, I thought that 85% of those who start the exam eventually passed it. I don’t remember where I got these figures from…maybe they’re urban legends.

This bulletin is more interesting than previous ones. The Elijah Watt Sells winners are listed.

You can get it here.

Correction – after reading it 3x, they’re saying that 46% of those who pass all four parts do so the first time. According to their figures, only 28% of those who sit for all four parts pass the first time.

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They’re up from the first quarter of 2008. My guess is that tax season/year end audits for calendar year corps has something to do with it.

Get the pdf here.

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BEC 46.94%
FAR 45.95%
REG 45.66%
AUD 44.66%

Get it here.

Surprisingly, AUD had the lowest passing rate. It is generally regarded as the least-difficult section of the CPA Exam, while FARE is the hardest. Opinions vary, obviously.

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According to the AICPA, the third quarter of 2007 by far had the highest candidate passing rate. BEC was the only exception and it was lower than the 2nd quarter by less than 1%.

The worst time to take the exam? January/February.

The difference between the third quarter passing % and that of the 1st quarter is staggering.

AUD: 6.82% higher

BEC: 3.29% higher

FAR: 8.73% higher

REG: 8.27% higher

Combining this little nugget with a previous post, statistically, you are more likely to find success on the exam if you take two sections during the window of July/August.

This shouldn’t tangibly affect anyone’s exam prep or test scheduling, but it is somewhat interesting.

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I was perusing the Uniform CPA Exam’s official website – cpa-exam.org and found something that I didn’t know existed…archived webcasts.

According to these webcasts:

-41-45% of all candidates who sit for a section pass it.

Thought: This is interesting because the people taking these exams aren’t just people who casually went to the center, signed up, showed their 2 forms of signed ID and took the exam. These are people who went through the trouble to get their 150 hours…get their NTS…pay the exam fee…drop a grand or more on review materials and sacrifice valuable time preparing for the exam. Taking the CPA Exam isn’t something you just stumble into – it’s an intentional process and if you have an NTS in your hand, you haven’t taken it lightly.

AT BEST, 45% of these CPA candidates passed their exam section, leaving the other 55% wondering what went wrong.

Basically, if you fail a section…congrats: you’re an average CPA Exam candidate.

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