Transcript Report from the Board of Examiners

Report from the Board of
Examiners
NASBA Annual Meeting
October 28, 2008
Douglas E. Warren,
CPA
I’m Doug Warren
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Past Chair of the Tennessee State Board of
Accountancy
Chair-elect of the BOE
Today’s Topics
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Practice Analysis update
BOE strategic initiatives
CBT-e
Operational update
Practice Analysis
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Foundation of the validity of the CPA Exam.
Based on entry-level practice.
Determines the content and skills to be tested.
Surveys last year
Exposure draft May, 2008
Revisions based on comments
Recommendation presented to BOE this month
New SCOs/SSOs
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The Exposure Draft of proposed new CSOs/SSOs
was available for comment from May 1 through July
31, 2008.
50 responses were received, including 10 from state
boards.
Content Committee considered the comment letters
and recommended several changes to the proposed
outlines as a result.
Practice Analysis Oversight Group
(PAOG)
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Formed to ensure that all stakeholders could
have visibility into the process
Provided assurance that the practice
analysis was conducted in accordance with
best practice
Monitored throughout the practice analysis
and developed the technical documentation
PAOG (cont’d)
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Linda Biek (Exec. Dir.)
Gary Fish (Illinois Board)
Michael Henderson (State Board Cmte.)
John Katzenmeyer (NASBA Board)
Nina Kavich (Regulation subcommittee)
Janice Wilson-Marcum (CLEC)
BOE Strategic Initiatives
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Skill Assessment
Pipeline
Global Issues
BOE - Strategic Issue #1
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Skill Assessment
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How much should the CPA Exam assess the
ability to apply information correctly?
How can we test skills better than we do today?
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Task-based Simulations
Application of cognitive research
BOE - Strategic Issue #2
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Pipeline
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Is the CPA Exam or the administrative requirements
presenting inappropriate barriers to some individuals or
groups?
Why do people stop taking the CPA Exam?
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Studies of candidate test-taking patterns and behaviors are
under way.
Cohort studies have been introduced to follow cohorts (groups
of candidates) through the entire examination process.
A survey of candidates who have stopped testing for more
than a year was recently sponsored by the AICPA, NASBA and
Prometric.
Cohorts
05Q3
06Q2
Total N
10,314
9,279
Passed All
47%
40%
Dropout?
35%
32%
Passed Last
Failed Last
Active
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11%
24%
18%
5%
27%
28%
BOE Strategic Issue #3
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Global Issues
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IFRS
-IFRS and entry-level practice
-Recommended changes to content outlines
-Item writing procedures
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General business environment
International administration of the CPA Exam
CBT-e
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Six months after BOE approval, work on
CBT-e is well under way in content, systems,
and psychometric areas.
Major CBT-e changes to come:
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Task-based simulations (TBS)
Written communication testing in BEC only
Implementation of these changes at the same
time as introduction of new CSOs/SSOs
CBT-e (cont’d)
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TBS and BEC written communication items
are being developed
Plans are being made for a standard-setting
process to set new passing scores. (CBT-e
changes will be significant enough to require
that new passing scores be established.)
CPA Examination Status
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Successful and growing.
New research task format was introduced on
July 1, 2008 to candidate acclaim. (To
prepare candidates for the new interface,
new Tutorial and Sample Tests were posted
on the CPA Examination website in May
2008.)
When the candidate navigates
to a document, the Table of
Contents displays the
document title…
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…the document pane
displays the content...
…and all possible responses
in that document are
automatically displayed in the
answer pane 16
Candidate Comments
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AUD 7/1/08 – The improvement in the
research/authoritative literature portion
makes a huge difference. Thank you for
hearing us.
REG – 7/12/08 – The new format of the
simulation regarding research is great.
Thank you for the improvement.
Annual Volume Growth
Uniform CPA Examination
Calendar Year Total Volume
250,000
240,000
224,494
200,000
(Projected
total)
202,334
178,226
150,000
100,000
175,990
(Jan. - Sept.)
107,954
50,000
0
2004 (Apr.-Dec.)
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2005
2006
2007
2008
Thank you
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It’s been a pleasure to speak to you today.