By Ryan McDonough, CPA, Ph.D.
If you sat for the CPA Exam before 2004, your memory probably involves a test spanning two days, a pencil and a paper booklet, and only a few chances to sit each year.
A big shift occurred when the exam became computerized; candidates could schedule each of the four parts on their own timeline, and task-based simulations of real-world scenarios took on a larger role. Today's candidates are living through another big shift.
The exam is still computer-based and scenario-driven, but now it can be scheduled almost any week of the year, and candidates get to choose a discipline to be tested on.
If you supervise, mentor, or have been involved with hiring the people sitting for today's exam, what your junior staff are navigating looks different than what you went through, and this article can help bridge that gap.
How we got here: CPA Evolution
The exam candidates take today is the product of the CPA Evolution Initiative, a joint AICPA and NASBA redesign that led to the launch of the new CPA Exam in January 2024.
CPA Evolution grew out of an acknowledgment that the entry-level job had changed. Firms increasingly rely on technology, data analytics, and specialized advisory services, and the exam needed to reflect that.
The biggest change to the CPA Exam was structural. The four-section model — AUD, FAR, REG, and BEC — was replaced with a core and discipline structural design.
Three Core sections, and choice of one Discipline
To achieve licensure, a CPA candidate must pass three Core sections, which cover topics all newly licensed CPAs need to know. The candidate must also choose (and pass) one Discipline section to go deeper into a specialty; for example, a person headed for a tax practice may lean toward TCP.
Regardless of which Discipline section you pass, your CPA license is still the same.
The core and discipline design at-a-glance:
| Section | Focus | |
|---|---|---|
| Core (all three required) | AUD — Auditing and Attestation | Audits, attestation, ethics, professional responsibilities |
| FAR — Financial Accounting and Reporting | Financial statements, transactions, and not-for-profit | |
| REG — Taxation and Regulation | Federal tax, business law, professional responsibilities | |
| Discipline (choose one) | BAR — Business Analysis and Reporting | Financial analysis, technical accounting, accounting for state and local governments, data and reporting |
| ISC — Information Systems and Controls | IT audit, SOC engagements, data management, security and privacy | |
| TCP — Tax Compliance and Planning | Advanced individual and entity tax compliance and planning |
Sitting for a section
Each of the four sections is a four-hour computer-based exam, so the CPA Exam is 16 hours of testing in total. Within a section, questions arrive in five testlets; two testlets of multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and three of task-based simulations (TBSs).
Scores are based on a 0-99 scale, and you need a 75 to pass, though 75 does not equate to "75% correct."
Scores are scaled based on the difficulty of the question, and the exam isn't curved. For the five sections, multiple-choice questions and task-based simulations each count for half your score; the Information Systems and Controls discipline is the exception, with MCQs weighted at 60% and TBSs weighted at 40%.
There will be unscored pre-test questions mixed in; they look identical to the real questions, so treat every question as though it counts.
The power of task-based simulations
Multiple-choice questions determine whether you know something. Task-based simulations determine whether you can apply what you know.
A simulation drops you into a realistic work scenario, often with documents, communications, and data, and asks you to work through it the way a practicing CPA would.
Winners of the Elijah Watt Sells Award — a prestigious award given to CPA candidates who average 95.50 or higher and pass every section on the first try — advise that CPA candidates focus on understanding, not memorizing, when preparing to sit for the exam. The award winners also recommend lots of practice, including reviewing the free AICPA sample test so the software feels familiar on test day. The AICPA has also released a retired Task Based Simulation from the FAR section of the CPA Exam.
The testing window is open nearly year-round
Candidates can schedule the Core sections year-round, with scores typically released in one to two weeks. The Discipline sections are available during specific windows each quarter, with scores released about six weeks after each of those testing windows closes.
There's also a credit clock that candidates need to be aware of; meaning, there is a rolling timeframe to finish all four sections after passing your first. NASBA recommends a 30-month window (it used to be an 18-month window), and many states have adopted that, but know that the timeline is set by your state board, so it is important to confirm yours.
What the pass rates say
Full year 2025 cumulative pass rates, per AICPA quarterly data, looked roughly like this:
AUD - 48%
FAR - 42%
REG - 63%
BAR - 42%
ISC - 68%
TCP - 78%
Early Q1 2026 numbers held the same pattern, with TCP near 79%, REG and ISC in the high 60s, and FAR and BAR in the low 40s and AUD at 48%.
Note that the pass rates reflect candidate preparedness, not necessarily exam difficulty. Additionally, candidates self-select into the Disciplines, so it would not be safe to assume that a person has a better chance of passing TCP than BAR. In other words, don't pick your Discipline by its pass rate; it’s better to pick a discipline based on personal interest and career goals.
How the CPA Exam stays current
There is a CPA Exam Policy on New Pronouncements that establishes when new standards or laws will be implemented in the CPA Exam. For example, changes in accounting and auditing pronouncements become testable the later part of (1) the first calendar quarter after the earliest mandatory effective date, regardless of entity type, or (2) the first calendar quarter beginning six months after issuance.
Internal Revenue Code and federal tax changes are testable the quarter beginning six months after the effective date or enactment date, whichever is later. Other federal laws follow the same six months after effective date approach.
Uniform acts become testable a year after a majority of jurisdictions adopt them. All other subjects follow the later of the first quarter after the earliest mandatory effective date or six months after issuance.
Once a change becomes eligible to be tested, content in the exam is updated — outdated content is replaced or removed.
You can see this playing out with H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025. The AICPA Board of Examiners determined that provisions with 2024 and 2025 effective dates become eligible for testing in REG and TCP starting July 1, 2026, with later provisions phasing in six months after their effective dates. The Board also baked supporting assumptions into the 2026 Blueprint revisions so the blueprints won't need reissuing when the act's provisions go live.
The path to licensure is also undergoing important changes
In 2025, the AICPA and NASBA updated the Uniform Accountancy Act to recognize three pathways:
A master's degree plus one year of work experience
A bachelor's degree plus 30 credits (150 total) plus one year of work experience
A bachelor's degree (120 hours) plus two years of experience. Many states have been adopting this new pathway, and all pathways require the candidate to pass the CPA Exam.
The redesign of the CPA Exam and the pathways to licensure arrived in the middle of a broader conversation about the next generation of CPAs, and the recent data is encouraging. University graduates majoring in accounting are still on a decline — but declining more slowly.
The AICPA's 2025 Trends report counted 55,152 accounting degrees in 2023–2024, a 6.6% drop that was smaller than the prior year's 9.6% drop. However, enrollment, the leading indicator, is moving up as National Student Clearinghouse data showed undergraduate accounting enrollment rose 7.3% in fall 2025. This increase marks a third straight year of growth in undergraduate accounting enrollment, with graduate enrollment up for the first time since 2019.
The CPA Exam has changed, workforce development is shifting, and licensure requirements are being rewritten. What hasn't changed is what the CPA licensure stands for. Knowing how it's earned today is the first step to supporting the people working toward it.
If you're just starting out, map your four sections early, choose your Discipline for career fit, plan around continuous Core testing and quarterly Discipline windows, and confirm your state's credit window and licensure pathway before you schedule anything. And practice the task-based simulations, because understanding the concepts will get you further than memorizing them.
About the expert
Ryan McDonough, Ph.D., CPA, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Accounting and Information Systems at Rutgers Business School — Newark and New Brunswick. His research primarily addresses issues related to governmental accounting and auditing. He also teaches public sector accounting, auditing, and forensic accounting courses. Ryan’s professional experience includes roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. He’s a member of GPAC and is currently serving on the executive committee of the Government and Nonprofit Section of the American Accounting Association.
About the AICPA’s Government Performance and Accountability Committee
Comprising 12 volunteer committee members, and in collaboration with staff at the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants®, the Government Performance and Accountability Committee advises government officials, regulators, and stakeholders, advocating issues that matter to the accounting and finance profession. If you’d like to learn more about GPAC, please email Lori Sexton.