CPA (USA)

US Certified Public Accountant Exam (CPA Course)

US CPA (Certified Public Accountant):
A Certified Public Accountant is a professional who has earned the CPA license from any of the 55 state accountancy boards of USA all of which are part of NASBA (National Association of the State Boards of Accountancy). Each state board has the authority to grant CPA license. One must meet all the requirements of the state board including Education, Experience and Examinations.

Due to the wide spread awareness and acceptance of CPA credential, it’s understood that a CPA possesses the required knowledge of all accounting areas as analyzing financial statements, financial planning, tax preparation, internal auditing, income tax and other specializations of accounting. In a nutshell, a CPA is someone who has mastered all the elements of the accounting profession. This is also one of the many reasons,
professional organizations seek CPAs for complex accounting and finance jobs.

COURSE DETAILS AND EXAM PATTERN

How exactly is the CPA exam scored and graded?

A candidate needs a 75 or more score to pass the CPA exam and become a Certified Public Accountant. According to AICPA, the CPA exam is scored on a scale of 0-99. Candidates usually get confused if those 75 scores are supposed to be 75 percent or points. It is necessary to understand that the candidate needs to achieve 75 points to clear the exam successfully.

Multiple-Choice Question Scoring:

The MCQ test lets use what’s called a multi-stage testing approach. This means that as the candidate keeps performing through each section, the level of difficulty of the next changes accordingly. If you perform really well in the first set of questions, the next set will be difficult ones. Difficult MCQs are weighted more than easy MCQs. Thus, one correctly answered difficult MCQ would improve your score more than several correctly answered easy MCQs.

Task-Based Simulation scoring:

These consist of problems that you need to solve based on situations and concepts. They are matching or fill in the blank kind of questions.

Written Communication Scoring:

These consist of problems that you need to solve based on situations and concepts. They are matching or fill in the blank kind of questions.

This tests your ability to perform communication tasks like demonstration and creative writing. Mostly the BEC section of the CPA exam has written communication and in this you have to type out the answer in a blank word document. 04 License

License

The NASBA (National Association of State Boards of Accountancy) and the state board of accountancy governs the eligibility rules of CPA. The CPA exam requirements vary by state jurisdiction. Every state board of accountancy has a different set of requirements, but most states have a core set of qualifications for a candidate to be eligible for the CPA exam.

Let’s go through the CPA license requirements.

 In general, many states ask for 150 credit hours in some specific courses from a university or an accredited institute under NASBA.
 The candidate should pass the Ethics exam.
 Must have 2,000 hours of work experience in taxation, auditing, accounting and management consultancy (need not be under a CPA supervisor)
 Age limit: 18+ years.

Besides the above requirements, the candidate must have a bachelor’s degree in Commerce/Accounting/Business with any of the below qualifications:

 Member of the “Institute of Costs & Works Accountants in India.”
 Member of the “Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.”
 Member of the “Company Secretaries in India.”
 MBA
 Master of Commerce.

Job Catalogue

Eligibility

The CPA Exams are administered by AICPA, the world’s largest accounting body. AICPA offers membership to all the aspirants successfully clearing all 4 CPA exams. CPA license, however is issued by the 55 state boards of accountancy of US that are part of NASBA. Each state board has different eligibility criteria that needs to be met by the aspirant to take the US CPA exams.
General Rules:
o Master’s Degree in any of the streams of Commerce, Accounting or Finance
o An aspirant needs 120 credits to take the US CPA exams and 150 credits to get his CPA license
o It’s considered that one year of University education in India is equal to 30 credits of US education
o In some cases, first division graduates of a three-year degree from NAAC-A accredited universities of India are qualified to take the US CPA exams too.
Target Academy provides free eligibility check that you could use to check if you’re eligible to take the prestigious US CPA certification.