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Certain People Are Not Exactly Pleased With the Way California Handles CPA Exam Scores

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez
Hulk Smash

Hey guys, I’m happy to report I’m back from the plague and would like to thank the exactly none of you who sent me well wishes while I lay dying in a hospital bed. Seriously, y’all are the worst.

OK so, as my esteemed colleague Bramwell pointed out earlier this week while I was busy trudging ever-so-slowly toward the light, December 19 marked the final CPA exam score release of 2018. For some people, no doubt that meant relief. For others, well, let’s just say their holiday festivities will likely be marred with bitterness and anger (then again, whose aren’t?). Whatever the outcome, some people are never happy. Take for example this small but incensed group who took to Twitter to gripe about the California score release process.

OK look, I get it. In a world where I can summon some dude to bring beer directly to my door in under an hour, it really doesn’t make sense that the entire score release process has to be such a pain. I’ve been writing about the exam for ELEVEN long-ass years now and I’d be lying if I said the process has improved dramatically in that time. When one considers how many other technological advances we’ve seen during that time, it’s no wonder people get upset in desperate times like these when their scores are delayed.

Still, shit happens. You know who I feel bad for? Whoever yelled at the California Board of Accountancy about their score being delayed only to find out they failed. Boy is that guy gonna be a blast on Christmas.

Related Posts

Three Myths About Simulation Questions on the CPA Exam

6 years after the advent of the computerized CPA exam, candidates are fairly used to simulations by now (just in time for them to change) but they can still be a source of fear and apprehension for candidates just starting out.

Let’s start with debunking some popular myths. Remember, all of this information is current to the 2010 CPA exam and will be changing in 2011. Since it doesn’t make sense to repeat myself, I’m talking about what to expect for the next two windows of 2010.


Only one simulation is graded. Only one written communication is graded but both simulations are definitely graded and there is no progressive difficulty like there is with MCQ. If your second simulation feels harder than the first, it doesn’t mean you’re doing better, it probably means you got screwed on a simulation that covers the one subject you blew off when you were studying. This will get easier next year as more, smaller “simlets” make your knowledge of a broad range of topics more vital to the scoring process than your intimate knowledge of two topics is now.

Research is an important tab. It actually isn’t. It isn’t worth too many points so if you have to save anything for last, it’s research. If you have time left over, by all means, knock yourself out.

Written communications are sometimes hand-graded for correctness. Actually they don’t care at all if you are right, you just have to address the issue you are presented with using keywords and write good English use proper business grammar. It’s easy, you’re supposed to be doing this all the time via e-mail and if you aren’t, maybe you should start practicing. Caleb, this means you with your IDKs.

We will dig into the details onCP 2011’s new “simlets” on Friday.

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.