Since the last time I dared to bring this issue up I was insulted personally and professionally, I’m going to approach this very carefully. Starting with a few statements of my position:
First, I have the utmost respect for those who first suffer through a college accounting education and then decide to pursue a CPA. It’s not an easy thing to do and the experience only gets worse when you add kids, work and a life to the mix. I get that. I’ve suffered through it at the side of thousands of CPAs in the last four years and, empathetic jerk that I am, I absolutely feel their pain. I’ve been the crying shoulder and the therapist as well as th aring that with CPA exam candidates has been a real joy in my life. Mostly because I’m not the one who actually has to go through it.
Second, I believe 18 months is plenty of time to get through the exam. For those who have struggled 2, 3, even 5 years with this thing, it is not at all unreasonable for me to suggest that perhaps you should find another line of work. That doesn’t mean struggling candidates shouldn’t be offered support but at some point, you have to ask yourself if the Universe is trying to send you a very strong hint. That’s fine, the AICPA is doing their job if not everyone can pass. This isn’t a kindergarten playground exercise in how everyone deserves a trophy no matter how bad their performance, this is a professional license and it is a privilege, not a right.
That being said, I was not expecting the floodgates of CPA exam candidate hell to come bursting forth on Monday when I addressed a note the AICPA wrote to candidates. In trolling NASBA’s Facebook page and getting additional feedback from candidates (beyond the “screw you, AG, you’re not a CPA” comments), it’s clear candidates are livid about this whole scoring thing. There’s no other explanation for otherwise reasonable future CPAs lashing out like they did, since we all know professionals aren’t prone to that kind of behavior out of habit.
So the first thing candidates should be doing instead of snapping at NASBA, the AICPA and me is to write down their thoughts and send them to the AICPA and NASBA. The first three quarters of 2011 are basically practice for a new, improved scoring process the AICPA hopes to debut at the end of the year and if candidates stick to yelling at accounting bloggers, the important people who can really make a change aren’t hearing them. Be clear, be concise and be honest. What would you like to see changed? What do you feel is unfair? How do you feel about this entire process? Try to keep emotion out of it (save that for your therapist, your spouse or your best friend) but be explicit about the stress this has put on you if you feel it is necessary. Remember that complaints are easy but offering solutions or feedback that can help them improve stands the best chance to change things. I assure you all that the AICPA and NASBA are listening, they just might need to block it out if it’s mostly profane vitriol and hardly any common sense. I highly doubt that either agency planned for this to get so ugly, and if they are at all like me, probably didn’t expect it would be the meltdown it was. So keep that in mind when you are yelling at them like the intelligent professional I’m sure you are.
Speaking of which, we caught up with a real live intelligent professional who asked to keep her firm name out of this but wanted to weigh in regardless. A seasoned professional when it comes to the CPA exam from her work as an HR manager for a mid-sized Bay Area accounting firm, she is also a CPA exam candidate and has been vocal in expressing her dissatisfaction with this scoring debacle.
To her, the issue is customer service and communication, or rather lack thereof. She told us:
I advise candidates on everything about licensure (e.g. application process, review courses, changes to the exam, score releases, and serve as the unofficial firm “nag” reminding people they need to get or stay on the licensure path). In both roles, it is my duty to stay informed and I really try my very best to do so. To that end, this is why I felt so frustrated with NASBA’s recent post on Facebook. I didn’t receive the AICPA memo about the delay of scores for Q1-Q3 back in October of 2010. I went through my emails and see I have only received 3 email messages from NASBA and nothing from the AICPA. One was a 11/18/10 email from Prometric and NASBA about adding additional time slots in Q4 of 2010 to accommodate the high volume of candidates scrambling to avoid IFRS, and one on 1/4/11 announcing CBT-e was launched on 1/1/11. The last message contained 6 links, including sample tests, a tutorial, and a link to their October 21, 2010 message [a letter to the state boards that explained the new scoring process]. Obviously, I didn’t click on all the links until today. I was more focused on the tutorials.
Nowhere in the body of the message does it read the scores would be delayed. My bad for not reading the ‘footnotes’ but, in my humble opinion, later scores is a material item that should be separately stated in the ‘financial statements’/email message.
The communications from NASBA need more empathy. These candidates are overachievers who are probably failing at something for the first time in their life; emotions are automatically running high. Candidates are spending a lot of time, money and now even more money because they had to go out and buy brand new materials to be ready for the 2011 exam. We were sold on the idea that these changes would result in faster score reporting – God knows we were already at our wits end that it took so long for a machine to grade the old CBT- and here we are slapped with another round of delays. And they have the audacity to say they told us this back in October. Really?
As of the writing of this post, 9,491 FAR scores and 11,828 REG scores have been released by the AICPA.
The issue continues and we will happily continue covering it here so long as you all care. Any and all input (including gripes and general bellyaching but not insults towards the author or this website) is welcome in the comments.
Personally, I actually liked BEC the best out of all the sections of then CPA exam. The material just made logical sense to me, maybe because it wasn’t strictly based on rote memorization (*cough* REG *cough*), but rather tested more general intelligence and problem solving skills within a capitalist business context.
CPA Evolution sounds like a sports car from the Fast & Furious movie franchise. Who the hell comes up with these names? At this rate, I suspect eventually the CPA credential will be progressively diluted and watered down to irrelevancy. In about 10 to 15 years time, accounting will have experienced a seismic paradigm shift in terms of the overall business structure.
By then, the Big 4 will have consolidated down to Big 2, called: “D&E&Y” , and “KPWCMG”, and the staffing model during busy season will consist of Partners only, using large Chat GPT Version 7.0 installations to do all the tick marks, tracing, vouching, and actual analysis and grunt work. Partners will simply be there to shout and be angry all the time (no different than now). Chat GPT by then will have attained sentience and will complain about stress and burnout due to insufficient down time or PTO. (Whatever the equivalent of extra PTO would be for a disembodied General A.I. – extra liquid cooling and increased airflow for its NVIDIA processors, perhaps?)
When they announced CPA Evolution two (?) years ago I thought that was just a code name. Like “CPA Evolution” was the project to modernize the exam but the actual redesigned exam would be given a fancy acronym. The fact that the gatekeepers of the credential did not give it a snazzy acronym is further evidence of the profession losing its touch and my disappointment is immeasurable.
That’s an interesting observation regarding “code name” for the CPA exam.
Well, back in the 1990’s the easiest way to make something seem “modern” or “with it” or “hip” or “up to date”, was to throw “2000” after the name, for marketing purposes. Hence, “Microsoft Windows 2000” and “Beyond 2000” (Australian TV series about futuristic gadgets supposed to change our lives, that never actually saw the light of day).
The trend still continues, to a certain extent, for example, 2K Sports publishes video games with titles like “NBA 2K24” and so forth.
So maybe it’s time to start labeling the CPA according to the year the person passed the test and got licensed. Something like “Susan Q. Poindexter, CPA 2024”.
Or maybe version numbers like software releases
“CPA version 2.7”
Or maybe just impressive sounding names, like how Apple labels its Mac OS X Version releases after mountain passes and geographical features
“CPA Big Sur” “CPA Mount Rainier”
(Just Thinking out of the box here)
At any rate, I share your disappointment & disillusionment with the overall perpetual decline of CPA as a snazzy & impressive credential. I feel like it just doesn’t command the same level of respect, attention, and admiration as say, “Airline Captain”, “Medical Doctor” or “J.D.”. Even though, based on what I have heard, supposedly it is considered a “terminal degree”. “Terminal” as in “the last certification you should need to obtain in order to have a successful career in this business”, rather than “causes death”.
The way things stand now, I see CPA as just another piece of paper that people accumulate in order to justify their position and defend their job security. So it’s effectively an arms race, and that’s why there are all these other credentials that people like to pile on top. Certified Internal Auditor, PMP, etc. etc. it’s like, we need to just draw the line and say, ok – this is it. After getting a “CPA 3000” or whatever, and then you’re mainly done with your education. As it stands now there is just this whole massive amount of money pouring into these certification and degree programs , with dubious ROI, . I think that’s why people are quitting the profession in droves (myself included). 😢
Speaking of the turn of the century, ridiculous naming conventions, and placeholder names remember when the AICPA tried to launch the XYZ credential in the very early 2000s?
When the XYZ idea was put to a vote, 83,390 (62.5%) of AICPA members were opposed and 50,034 (37.5%) were in favor, thus ended XYZ. Maybe they should resurrect the “Cognitor” idea.
Wow I never heard of that one before. Thanks for the history lesson. Wow, just Wow. “XYZ Cognitor” really just rolls smoothly right off the tongue doesn’t it ? How about CEIHP, “Certified Intelligent Educated Human Person” ? (I thought that’s was a Bachelor’s Degree was suppose to signal. That at least you are minimally qualified and trained at some basic level.)
When someone asks me at a cocktail party what I do for work I will say I’m an “XYZ Cognitor”. But first I will get a few drinks before I say that, in case they immediately try to cut me off.
Ultimately I think it really brings into focus the whole actual cannibalism and ultra-competitiveness happening everywhere everyday within accounting…. Not just between firms competing for client work, but also internal intra-firm competition. (Which is why I mentioned the notion of a certification “arms race” before). So if a Junior person is vying for limited number of promotion slots to the next level, they will use every tool at their disposal to make themselves stand out during review period, right? So they’ll gladly fork over another $3K to become a “CPA, XYZ, Cognitor” if it means a stronger chance to get $10K or $15K bump in salary. And Becker and Gleim and the other companies will gladly accept the money and print up some new certificates with embossed seals.
So you can see how it just becomes this never ending exercise in “who moved the goalposts”.
So either it’s enough to be a CPA, or it’s not enough. Personally I think I should have studied Law instead of accounting. Because whenever things start to get complicated or confusing, or contentious, or a dispute emerges, on a professional services engagement, (any kind really, could be Internal Controls, Integrated Audit, Agreed Upon Procedures, Bookkeeping, whatever), the first thing accounting people do is call General Counsel for a consultation. Everybody Lawyers up when things get hot. So Law & Legal Principles essentially becomes a superset or more powerful force than accounting principles. The Law overrides & takes precedence over GAAP & GAAS. (just my 0.02 cents ). 😭