William Parrott, Ph.D., an associate professor of accounting at the University of South Florida wrote a great article recently on the old “paper and pencil” version of the CPA Exam vs the new computer-based exam.

The article is titled “Passing the CPA Exam – Is It Easier or Harder Now?“
It compares the two exam formats in the follow areas:

• Length of the CPA Exam
• Knowledge Tested
• Fixed vs. Flexible Scheduling
• Applying to Sit for the CPA Exam
• Studying for the Exam
• Taking the CPA Exam
• Exam Day Differences
• Exam Format Differences
• Exam Grading
• CPA Exam Pass Rates and Release of Exam Results
• Cost, “Conditioning” the Exam, Exam Location
• CPA Review Options

If you have a boss who likes to tell “war stories” about the old exam format and remark that new candidates have it so “easy”, slip a copy of this under his/her door. Maybe at the end of the day we can all just agree that old school or new, the Uniform CPA Examination is one of the toughest professional examinations around.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Esthr under this Creative Commons license.

Related posts:

1. Q1 2011 CPA Exam Passing Rates Released – Worst in 3 years; REG down 15.8%
2. Update: AICPA Changing the Passing Score for the CPA Exam?
3. Fourth Quarter 2008 Passing Rates Down 9% Over Third Quarter; Still Higher Than First Quarter

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