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And Now, We’re Going to Judge Florida Colleges’ Performance on the CPA Exam

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

First, can I just say I am beyond thrilled that you guys even care about these CPA exam stats? I mean that. I half expected all of you to call me a boring loser for wasting precious Going Concern real estate going over these, so thanks for proving me wrong. I might still be a boring loser but at least no one is calling me one (to my face).

NOW… By popular demand, we're cracking open my now dog-eared, beer-bottle-stained copy of the 2011 Candidate Performance Book (2010 CPA exam data) to take a look at Florida colleges. You guys will have to forgive me for not being as familiar with Florida schools as I am with California's, so if I call your school by its technical name that no one uses, don't judge.

Before we get into the school stats, let's see how Floridians did on the exam overall. Florida ranked 10th in size, with 2,344 candidates sitting for the CPA exam in 2010. Candidates took an average of 2.13 exams each. They took 1,143 AUD exams, 1,469 BEC exams, 1,322 FAR exams and 1,054 REG exams. Florida came in 11th of 55 NASBA jurisdictions on pass rates for an average pass rate of 59.2%; 57.3% on AUD, 59% on BEC, 56.7% on FAR and 64.7% on REG.

For all testing events (both first-time and repeat exams), Stetson University ranked #1 with 70.2% of its 47 exams passed. Yes, only 18 candidates took 47 exams. The rest of the top five Florida schools are:

  • University of Florida 69.2%
  • University of Central Florida 61.6%
  • University of South Florida 57.5%
  • Florida State University 55.8%
  • Florida A&M had the worst pass rate of 2010, with just 31% of its 155 exams taken passed with an average score of 65.1.

Commenters asked on an earlier post for Florida International University, the University of Miami and Florida Atlantic; those schools scored 44.1%, 51.7% and 49.8% respectively.

Florida International University candidates took the highest number of exams with 171 unique candidates sitting for 472 exams, 123 AUD, 144 BEC, 117 FAR exams and 88 REG exams. Not surprisingly, they also sent the highest number of candidates.

For first-time testing events, the University of Florida had the highest pass rate, with 74.4% of the 201 first-time exams taken by 96 candidates passed. Nova Southeastern University had the worst, with 21.6% of 51 exams taken by 33 candidates passed.

Now this part is interesting: For repeat exams, no Florida schools had pass rates higher than 55.5%. I guess that shouldn't be all that surprising, assuming repeat candidates are not necessarily the best and brightest or are just too overworked to put the time and effort into the exam. The other interesting part is that even the worst school – again, Nova Southeastern – had a 33% pass rate, making the spread much smaller for repeat exams than first-time. No Florida colleges averaged a score above 75 on repeat testing events.

Considering a graduate degree from Florida A&M? You might want to reconsider. Of first-time exams for candidates with advanced degrees, Florida A&M had the second-worst pass rate (25%), second only to – you already know where this is going – Nova Southeastern at an even 16%. University of Florida candidates with advanced degrees did best on first-time exams with a pass rate of 75%. Oh wait, Florida A&M sucks across the board with a 22.8% pass rate for first-time exams taken by bachelor degree candidates. Even Nova Southeastern managed to pull 26.9% so… yeah.

That's all I got, kids. If you think your awesome alma mater should be next, hit me up.

Related Posts

How to Choose a CPA Exam Review Course

As many of you who have been reading Going Concern for some time already know, I used to be in CPA Review. I ditched that gig months ago to pursue my dream of writing full-time (so far so good) and can finally write a completely unbiased post on choosing a review course. I won’t name names here just for the sake of equal opportunity but let’s talk about how to pick a review coursntly, whether or not you actually need one.


First and foremost, if you are broke, you need to know that review courses are expensive. Like new car expensive. Ok, maybe like used Ford Focus expensive, either way, if you’re fresh out of school or still looking for work, you probably don’t have $2,000 lying around. It’s fine, you can get by on cheap textbooks but you’re going to have to bust your ass a tad harder than the guy who got his flashcards and full review paid for by the firm.

Keep in mind: the CPA exam is an investment of not just money but time. If you put $2,000 into it but still don’t study, you’re going to fail miserably. Unless you pay some brainiac $2,000 to take the exam for you but that would be illegal.

If you’ve got the cash for a full review, the first thing you’ll want to do is your homework. No, not practice MCQ, we’re talking research. A simple Google search will give you plenty of options (hell, there are less than a dozen CPA review providers so it’s not like you have to slog through pages upon pages of results). Remember: every candidate is different and what works for the stock photo chick on the company’s website may or may not work for you. Before you start looking for a course, take a personal inventory of your own needs and think up some questions to ask. Try these if you’re really stumped:

• Is there an instructor or teacher available if I have questions about homework or content? And if so, how long should I expect to wait for a response?

• How long from purchase do I have to access the material? Will it expire? Can I renew after that period and if so, are there any limitations on when?

• Are there any discounts available?

• Am I limited to one format or can I have the flexibility of combining online/live courses?

• What is the policy for students who fail a part? Is there a repeat or discounted option?

• Will I have access to updates as they are released and is there a cost and/or time limitation for this?

Those are a start. Most of this information is available on CPA review courses’ websites but sometimes it helps to get a real person on the phone and ask. You can quickly tell what sort of operation you are dealing with by the way the company’s phone staff handle your questions. The exam is a commitment and so is your choice of review course so be sure you are comfortable before you commit.

If you have already committed to a course that isn’t working for you, call around and ask if there are discounts available for students who have taken other courses. Most CPA review companies offer this.

Keep in mind that review courses – like all businesses – are still interested in making money above all else. Some will push full programs with all the bells and whistles while others rely on materials that look like they were made at Kinkos; at the end of the day, it’s not how shiny your review book is but how effective the instruction style is in teaching you the concepts that will help you pass.

And you will, as long as you put in the effort.

Adrienne Gonzalez is the founder of Jr. Deputy Accountant, a former CPA wrangler and a Going Concern contributor . You can see more of her posts here and all posts on the CPA Exam here.

Here’s Your Open Thread For the First CPA Exam Score Release of 2021

So it’s February already even though it feels like just yesterday we were all duking […]

How Simulations are Changing for the 2011 CPA Exam

As most of you already know, the CPA exam is changing and our last two testing windows are quickly approaching. If you are concerned about the impact of IFRS on CPA exam content, get FAR done this year. If you absolutely hate written communication, knock out BEC in 2010 as it will contain them in 2011. A few topics will be moving around and for an overview of everything that’s changing starting January 1, 2011, check out the updated Content Specification Outlines for all the gruesome details.

The biggest and most obvious change will be a shift in the thinking of the CPA exam itself
Whereas we have always considered the CPA to be a world-renowned designation and GAAP the be-all-end-all of accounting rules, we now must recognize the global nature of capital markets and future CPAs will be expected to demonstrate a working knowledge of international standards in financial reporting and auditing.


For 2011 simulations, we’re expecting that the AICPA Board of Examiners will continue to use a similar format (you may see tabs that you recognize if you’ve already taken exam parts and done some simulation problems) but instead of getting 2 large sims, you’ll get 7 task-based simlets (6 in Regulation).

Contrary to popular rumor, BEC WILL NOT CONTAIN SIMULATIONS
Blame that on the folks who don’t read but BEC will only contain written communications (3, of which 2 will be graded) and will go from 90 multiple choice to 72. You’ll get an extra 30 minutes to complete this part, which will be taken away from Audit.

The Unknown
It’s difficult to say at this point what candidates should expect come January 2011. Will research still be worth 1 point and therefore easily blown off if you’re running out of time? Will simlets require extended journal entries that can take quite a bit of time to put together? The honest answer is that we don’t know.

The AICPA used to have a tutorial at cpa-exam.org but since they redid their website, these tutorials have moved to their main page and can be found here. The cpa-exam.org site is still down and, presumably, will not be brought back now that everything is stashed on the AICPA’s website.

So our guess is that the new format WILL be available in tutorial form from the AICPA before January though we haven’t seen anything to date. When the research function changed in mid 2008, they made it available for practice at least one window prior to the new function appearing on the exam and 2011’s simlets should be no different. We’ll let you know if we spot the new format available for practice so stay tuned and better knock out some exams while you can, there are only four testing months left before everything changes!

Adrienne Gonzalez is the founder of Jr. Deputy Accountant, a former CPA wrangler and a Going Concern contributor. You can see more of her posts here and all posts on the CPA Exam here.