This is the first of four parts about my career in accounting. The others to follow will be:
My Career in Accounting: The CMA Exam and the Becker Course
My Career in Accounting: Changes
My Career in Accounting: The State of the Profession
The first CPA exam was given in New York in 1896. Other states soon followed and the need for a uniform exam was soon realized. By 1917 the uniform CPA exam was adopted with four parts:
Auditing 3.5 hours
Law 3.5 hours
Theory 3.5 hours
Practice 1 and 2—4.5 hours x 2
I took the exam in May 1975, and it was the same format as in 1917. The timing of my taking the exam was one month before graduation from the UW Foster School of Business. I took the Becker CPA Review during the last half of my senior year. I passed on my first attempt with high scores. By mid-June 1975, I was really tired of studying accounting.
Subsequently, the exam has changed, been shortened, and gone from paper and pencil to online. When I took the exam, one had to take all the exam parts not already passed. For a first timer, that meant all of them. Now the exam parts are taken independently. The exam is now mostly multiple choice. In 1975, the exam was mostly essays and big spreadsheets. But then, in 1975 men were men and a dollar was worth 40 cents.
While the exam is uniform, it is about the only part of licensure that is uniform. The exam is created by the AICPA, administered at Prometric testing centers in partnership with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA), but licensure is by the individual state boards of accountancy. Experience and educational requirements differ by state.
In about 2000, there was a push for 150 semester hours of college (225 quarter hours). No additional degree was required, just five years of college instead of four. This made the disparities between states even more pronounced. There were reasons given for the additional year of college, but at the time I was part of a small group that pushed back against the additional educational requirement.
I always thought the real reason for the additional education was to limit the number of new CPAs each year. Now, almost 25 years later, we see it (and other factors) worked. The number of new CPA licensees each year is half what it was 25 years ago. Most CPA firms are struggling to get sufficient new staff. But that was the point all along—limit supply so fees could go up. They have.
For me, I passed my exam in 1975, did my public accounting experience and was licensed on March 23, 1979. I recently decided to retire my license after 45 years. My license number was 05808, meaning I was the 5,808th CPA licensed in WA. The number now is over 45,000!
No, I’m not retiring. I’m just retiring my CPA license. CPAs who have been licensed for over 20 years and are over 60 years of age (done and done), can use the title, “CPA—Retired.” That will be me.
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