CPA Exam

CPA Exam Requirements

The Pennsylvania State Board of Accountancy has reviewed the education and work experience requirements to sit for the CPA Exam and to become certified. Below, you will find the current regulations and the changes which took effect with the April 2004 Computerized Exam. The Board has adopted national standards regarding new completion requirements for the Uniform CPA Examination.

Education Requirements | Work Experience | Requirements to Pass the Exam | Exam Costs and Fee Structure | Applications | Prometric Testing | Completion Requirements | Grade Reporting

Education Requirements

Before applying for the exam, candidates must have graduated with a
baccalaureate or master's degree and have completed at least a total of 24 semester credits in accounting subjects. These subjects include accounting and auditing, business law, finance, or tax subjects acceptable to the State Board of Accountancy.

Candidates who have completed 150 semester credits (currently optional in Pennsylvania) must have the 24 semester credits in the subjects noted above. An additional 12 semester credits in accounting and auditing, AND tax subjects are required. (The 150 hour requirement may become mandatory after Dec. 31, 2011. See below.)

150 Hour Requirement

The 150 hour requirement may be mandated for CPA certificate applicants after January 1, 2012. The 150 hours of college education would have to be completed through a combination of undergraduate and/or graduate study. You do not need to accumulate the 150 hours prior to taking the uniform CPA Exam. You may continue to accumulate college credit after receiving your undergraduate degree. Once you have 150 hours of college education, passed the uniform CPA Exam and met experience requirements, you may apply to the Pennsylvania State Board of Accountancy for a CPA certificate and license.

The 150 hour requirement would not apply to an individual who successfully completed one or more parts of the CPA Exam prior to Dec. 31, 2011.

Work Experience

In addition to passing the exam, CPA candidates also need to satisfy work experience requirements to become licensed.

Work experience must:
  • Be in public accounting or as an internal auditor or an auditor with a unit of federal, state or local government
  • Have been supervised by an individual who is currently licensed to practice public accounting as a CPA in Pennsylvania or another state

Candidates who have not completed 150 semester credits must complete two years (3,200 hours) of work experience (including 800 hours of attest activity) to become certified.

Candidates with graduate degrees or 150 semester credits only need to complete one year (1,600 hours) of work experience (including 400 hours of attest activity) to become certified. The amount of education completed at the time of application for the certificate is directly related to the amount of work experience necessary to obtain licensure.

Under current law, individuals taking the CPA exam for the first time after Jan. 1, 2000, must complete work experience within 120 months (10 years) preceding the date of application for the CPA certificate.

Requirements to Pass the CPA Exam

The uniform CPA Exam is a four-part, computer-based examination, that is administered at least five days a week during an examination window during the first two months of each quarter.

First time candidates must pass all parts of the examination during a rolling 18 month period, beginning on the date that the candidate first passes one part. The numeric scores are reported on a scale of 0-99, with 75 as the passing score. The scale does NOT represent "percent correct." A score of 75 indicates performance that reflects sufficient knowledge and skills to protect public interest.

Pennsylvania adopted special completion requirements for candidates who, as of the launch date of the computer-based examination, have received conditional credits as a result of passing at least two parts of the paper and pencil examination. For example, candidates who first sat for the exam in November 2003 have until November 2008 to complete the exam before credit expires. A full list of deadlines can be viewed at www.cpazone.org/exam/requirements.

Exam Costs and Fee Structure

Exam Costs and Fee Structure for the CPA Exam in Pennsylvania

Section

Fees

Auditing & Attestation

$209.33

Business Environment & Concepts

$161.63

Regulation

$173.55

Financial Accounting & Reporting

$197.40

Exam Application Fee

$95.00

All Fees are Non-Refundable and subject to change.

 

Exam Application Fee

An application fee of $95 is required regardless of the number of sections for which the application is made. This fee is not refundable. Applicants will be able to apply for one or more section(s) of the examination at a time.

Note: It is recommended not to apply for an exam section unless you are ready to take it within 6 months.

All fees must be paid at the time of application and must be in US dollars. Certified checks or money orders must be drawn on a US bank and made payable to CPA Examination Services.

All Re-exam candidates are required to pay both an application fee and an examination fee.

Applications

Applications can be obtained by going to www.nasba.org/nasbaweb.nsf/exam or by calling CPA Examination Services at (800) 272-3926.

First-time candidates must complete and submit the application forms, along with any required documentation, including an official transcript, to:

CPA Examination Services
P.O. Box 440555
Nashville, TN 37244

CPA Examination Services will contact you once the application has been reviewed. Allow eight weeks from the date your application is postmarked for processing.

Note: All applications must contain complete and accurate information. Candidates are advised that failure to submit appropriate documentation, forms and/or fees will delay processing time and will result in denial of your application.

Additional information about the CPA Exam application process can be found at www.nasba.org.

Prometric Testing

After you apply to take the exam and are deemed eligible, you will receive a Notice to Schedule (NTS) for each exam section you are approved to take. Once you receive an NTS, schedule your test appointment as soon as possible. Since each NTS is only valid for a finite period of time (6 months from the date of the NTS), it is recommended you take your exams as soon as you are prepared. You don't want to lose a testing opportunity or run out of time.

Go to http://www.prometric.com/CPA/default.htm to schedule your exams and get instant e-mail confirmation of your appointment. You can also schedule your test by calling the Candidate Services Call Center at (800) 580-9648.

Examinations must be scheduled at least six days in advance. You select the test center location, time, and date of your exams. Tests are scheduled on a first come, first served basis. The earlier candidates schedule appointments, the better their chances are of obtaining the location, date, and time of their choice. Test appointments cannot be scheduled less than six days in advance. Walk-in testing is not allowed.

Complete list of testing sites

Testing Dates
The exam is available 5 days a week. Each year contains 4 testing windows. The CPA exam is available 60 days out of each calendar quarter.
Testing windows are:

  • January - February
  • April- May
  • July - August
  • October - November

Completion Requirements

 

New Candidates

Minimum number of subjects to be passed: 0
Minimum passing grade: 75

After April 5, 2004:
  • A candidate may take the 4 parts of the examination individually or in any combination and in any order with no requirements on number of sections passed to receive credit.
  • A candidate may take any part of the examination once during each examination window
  • A candidate will receive credit for passing each part of the examination without regard to the scores on the parts not passed
  • A candidate is required to pass all parts of the examination during a rolling 18 month period (6 exam windows) that begins on the date the candidate first passes one part
  • If all parts of the examination are not passed within 18 months of the first passed section, the candidate loses credit for the first passed part of the examination and the 18 month rolling schedule restarts with the second passed part if applicable

For example, Candidate A passes "Regulation" during April-May 2004 window and no other section. Candidate A must pass all remaining parts of the examination on or before October-November 2005 window (18 month rolling window expiration) to receive the necessary credit for passing the exam. In the event that Candidate A does not pass ALL sections before October 2005, he loses credit for "Regulation." If Candidate A passed "Financial Accounting and Reporting" in August -September 2004, then August 2004 becomes the start of the 18 month rolling window.

Examinees with Conditional Credit(s) from Paper and Pencil Exam

Minimum number of subjects to be passed:0
Minimum passing grade: 75

  • A candidate who had received credit for passing at least two parts of the exam since Nov. 1999 shall pass the remaining parts of the exam within 5 years from the date the candidate originally took the exam.
  • A candidate is permitted to take the remaining part(s) during the following number of exam windows, depending on the date the candidate originally took the exam:

Initial Exam Date

Available Exam Windows

Exam Completion Deadline

Nov. 3-4, 1999

1

Nov. 4, 2004

May 3-4, 2000

2

May 4, 2005

Nov. 1-2, 2000

3

Nov. 2, 2005

May 2-3, 2001

4

May 3, 2006

Nov. 7-8, 2001

5

Nov. 8, 2006

May 8-9, 2002

6

May 9, 2007

Nov. 6-7, 2002

7

Nov. 7, 2007

May 7-8, 2003

8

May 8, 2008

Nov. 5-6, 2003

9

Nov. 6, 2008
  • A candidate may take a part of the exam during any window between April 5, 2004 and the appropriate completion deadline.
  • If a candidate does not pass the remaining parts by the exam completion deadline, conditional credit received for parts of the exam passed before April 5, 2004 will expire. Credit will be retained for all sections passed after April 5, 2004.

For additional information and exam requirements, visit the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) at www.nasba.org or www.cpa-exam.org.

Grade Reporting

There will no longer be a Uniform Grade Mailing date.

The revised examination will contain structured response questions that require transmissions of your answers to the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) for scoring. We anticipate that a minimum of 2-4 weeks will be required to process grades/scores. For the first six months of CBT, (the first two examination windows) an additional several weeks will be needed by the AICPA to process scores. A number of examination results will need to be accumulated and compared prior to release in order to ensure that the CBT scoring methodology is applied appropriately. After these first two windows, the process is expected to take considerably less time and eventually reach two weeks.