Best US CPA certification Institute in India [2023]

Eligibility for the CPA can be classified into:

a) Eligibility for taking up the exams and
b) Eligibility for getting the Licensure.

A student has to have a minimum of 120 credits to take up the CPA examination while he has to have a minimum of 150 credits to get the licensure. Eligibility requirements  differ  from  one  jurisdiction (read as State) to the other and hence requirements will depend upon the jurisdiction where a student chooses to get his licensure.   Links  to  all  Boards  of  Accountancy  can  be  found  at  www.nasba.org.

There is no one answer for this question since this depends on each individual, their strengths and weaknesses. Generally speaking most of  the  students find BEC to be easiest  and FAR to be the most difficult. FAR  is considered  the  most difficult mainly on account of the volume of the syllabus and not on account of the difficulty. Between Auditing and Regulation the feeling is neutral. Both are equally easy and difficult in the sense there is very little to choose from.

Thus depending on the student’s thought process, they may want to take the easiest paper first and the difficult the last. For instance, Someone with a good Accounting and Auditing background would prefer taking up Auditing first, followed by Regulation, followed by BEC and then last FAR.

Hence, with an overall target of 12 months to complete all 4 papers a student must aspire to complete Auditing, Regulation and BEC in about 8 months time and complete FAR in the balance 4 months. However, this is only an indicative exercise and may be adjusted to the work schedule of the student.

The Online Exam is made up of 4 papers of 4 hours each. They are as under :

• Auditing  and  Attestation  (AUD)
• Business  Environment  and  Concepts  (BEC)
• Financial  Accounting  and  Reporting  (FAR)
• Regulation (REG)

Each paper has 5 smaller sections called TESTLETS  comprising of Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs), Task Based Simulations (TBS or Simulations) and in the case of BEC, Written Communication Tasks (WCT). The table in the following page will give a clear idea on the structure of the Exam.

The passing score in each paper is 75 and to understand what the score meansone needs to understand the exam structure and the scoring pattern in detail. Whilst a modest attempt  has been made to explain this in brief from a student perspective it is felt that this may not be very relevant. A student must be prepared to score 85+ in the exams in which case the passing score must be easily achieved. The score by a student does not indicate nor can be interpreted as a percentage. Thus a score of 75 is not 75% but is a weighted combination of scaled scores from the MCQs and TBSs for Auditing, Regulation and FAR papers and a weighted combination of scaled scores from the MCQs, TBSs and WCTs for the BEC paper. The scores are calculated using formulas that take into account factors like whether the question was answered correctly and the relative difficulty of each question. Thus difficult questions have more weightage as compared to easier questions and hence a student has to answer more number of easier questions right as compared to difficult ones.

The following are the sequence of events once a student decides to pursue his / her CPA  :

• Decide on which study program to join after appropriate due diligence  
• Get a preliminary evaluation done by the Institution conducting the study program.  This  is only to ensure that a candidate is eligible before he / she enrols for a program.  
• Join the Study Program
• Get the transcripts / credentials evaluated by the official agency.  
• Apply and pay the required fees in the respective State Board of Accountancy.  
• Receipt of Notice to Schedule (NTS) from the State Board of Accountancy.  
• Use the NTS to schedule the exams in the Prometric Centre where the student is planning to take up the exams. It is important to note that the NTS is valid only for 6 months. Hence a student has to take up all papers for which he or she has registered with the State Board of Accountancy within 6 months of receiving the NTS.

Generally the Institution where the student is undergoing the study program will assist the student in completing the activities listed above.

With exams administered in India in 8 locations (Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Trivandrum) a candidate from India can take the exam at  the authorized Prometric test centres in these cities. Prior to testing, a candidate must first select a participating U.S.Jurisdiction (read as State), contact  the Board of  Accountancy in  that State to obtain Application materials and submit the completed application along with  the  required fees as instructed. After receiving the Notice  to Schedule (NTS), the student may use the NTS to apply to take  the Exam in the location of his choice.