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Lessons · Accounting · the examination, and the part that has not moved

The examination, and the one requirement that has not moved

The Uniform CPA Examination is national: the same examination whichever state will license you. It is required on every pathway, old or new. Once the first section is passed a state allows a window in which the rest must be passed, and the length of that window is the state's to set.

Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.

In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a qualified accountant. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.

What it is for

While the education requirement has been rewritten around it, the examination has stayed put, which makes it the stable thing to plan around and the safe thing to start. The window is where candidates lose work already done: sections passed outside it can expire and have to be sat again, and the window length is exactly the kind of number that differs by state and has recently been extended by many boards.

How to think about it

Treat the examination as the fixed point and the window as a date you own. Find your state's window length when you pass your first section, not when you are near the end of it, and work backwards from it. Which section am I sitting next, and what is the last date the first one still counts? Boards set these rules and change them, so any figure you plan around has to come from your own board's page rather than from here or from somebody who qualified in a different year.

Worked example

The examination is the same everywhere
It does not differ by state, which is unusual among the licences here.
It survived the change
Every pathway, including the newer ones, still requires passing it.
The window starts at the first pass
Not at registration, and not at the application for a licence.
Its length is a state number
And several boards have changed it recently, so it is looked up rather than assumed.
Sections can expire
Which is work already done, lost to a date rather than to a failure.

Your turn

Say which pass starts the window for the remaining sections.

The window starts when the  section is passed

The trap

Treating the window as beginning at registration or at the licence application. It begins at the first pass, and a section can expire inside a gap nobody was counting, which is work already done lost to a date rather than to a failure. Boards set these rules and change them, so any figure you plan around has to come from your own board's page rather than from here or from somebody who qualified in a different year.

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