The Philippine CPA Board Exams: Assessment

The CPA exams have traditionally been tagged as one of the most difficult licensure exams in the country. It has been associated numerous time in the likes of the BAR exams and the Physician Licensure Exams.

However, in the past few years there has been an increase in the number of board passers and a substantial increase in passing rates, raising questions such as:  Is CPA exams still competitive and reflective of the competence required in the profession?  Are the examination being administered and given by BOA a true measure on how qualified the new CPA board passers are? Is the increasing passing percentage, than the usual, a sign of an easier way to become a CPA?

There are two possible factors supporting the increasing trends: it is either (1) Candidates are well prepared and are knowledgeable enough to pass the exams, as the result of good undergrad training and rigirous review before the actual exams or (2) the questions being administered by the board of accountancy were out-of-date and are repetitive in nature resulting to a lower level of difficulty than the usual.

Table A: Number of Passers, Examinees and Passing Percentage from Oct 2006 to May 2012

	Passers	Examinees	%
Oct-06	1,597	6,499	24.57%
May-07	1,406	4,654	30.21%
Oct-07	2,299	6,213	37.00%
May-08	1,268	4,651	27.26%
Oct-08	2,442	6,663	36.65%
May-09	1,231	4,262	28.88%
Oct-09	2,888	6,929	41.68%
May-10	1,886	4,772	39.52%
Oct-10	3,978	8,216	48.42%
May-11	2,130	5,259	40.50%
Oct-11	4,066	8,525	47.70%
May-12	1,995	5,315	37.54%

Exhibit B: Line Graph - Passing Percentage (CPA Board)

From 2006 to early 2009, the median passing percentage falls roughly around 30% to 37%, change in Oct 2009, the passing percentage surge into an averege of 40% to 47% with the exeption of the May 2012 exams.
There was also an increase to the number of examinees from 6,400 in October 2006 to 8,500 in October 2011, brought about by the increase in demand in the accountancy and finance profession, here and especially abroad.


As a very delicate profession that are bound by integrity, confidentiality and competence when rendering our services to our clients, the board should ensure that only the best of the best, the "cream of the crop" should enter the profession otherwise there will be a lot of issues that they might face moving forward.

To summarize, having a higher passing percentage and a higher number of passers and candidates will help the CPA profession to be more recognized, here in the country as well in abroad, on the context that those who passed are qualified and competent enough and the metrics for accepting candidates are up-to-date and reflective on how they can contribute to the practice.

The prestige and priveldge of being a CPA should live on each and every licensed member and should never be compromised for any other reasons that are within our controls.