The proposed 2024 CPA Exam, redesigned in response to the changing landscape of accountancy and focused on competencies crucial to the success of newly licensed CPAs, is available for review and comment.
The exposure draft released recently is a result of the CPA Evolution initiative, a joint effort by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) and the AICPA that launched in 2020 to create a CPA licensure model that recognizes the rapidly changing skills and competencies that accounting requires today and tomorrow.
The 2024 CPA Exam Blueprints include three required Core sections — Auditing and Attestation, Financial Accounting and Reporting, and Taxation and Regulation. The blueprints also include three Discipline sections, of which exam-takers must complete one of their choosing — Business Analysis and Reporting, Information Systems and Controls, and Tax Compliance and Planning.
The exam is structured to meet CPA Evolution's stated goal for licensure: "The goal of licensure is protection of the public interest, or more specifically, providing the public with assurance that those individuals who are licensed possess a minimum level of knowledge and skills necessary for safe and effective practice."
Through Sept. 30, 2022, the AICPA is seeking input on the proposed 2024 CPA Exam. Interested stakeholders can send an email to practiceanalysis@aicpa.org to comment on the following questions:
- Do the Core Exam Blueprints include the knowledge and skills required of all newly licensed CPAs to protect the public interest?
- Do each of the Discipline Exam Blueprints include the knowledge and skills required of a newly licensed CPA to protect the public interest?
Further details regarding feedback can be found in the exposure draft.
The 2024 CPA Exam already has gone through multiple, extensive levels of research and review.
CPAs familiar with the CPA Evolution project were asked to provide agreement ratings on the proposed groups and topics for all proposed Core Exam sections. The same CPAs participated in a trio of three-hour virtual panels, one for each of the Discipline Exam sections, administered by the AICPA and the American Institutes for Research.
Those reviews generated feedback regarding some areas of the Discipline sections that spawned a series of follow-up interviews. A Socialization Survey featuring more than 400 participants followed, then a Confirmation Survey with 300 participants produced more than 1,000 comments — all reviewed by the AICPA and approved by its volunteer senior committee, the Board of Examiners.
For more information on the exam process and other licensure initiatives, visit the CPA Evolution website.
— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another Journal of Accountancy article, contact Bryan Strickland at Bryan.Strickland@aicpa-cima.com.