Comparative analysis of CPA and professional certification examinations

CPA, GRE & DAT exams

Any profession in our country today and even worldwide, has certain standards that must be met by professionals or students. The accounting profession, graduate schools of any subject, and dental school are all examples of organizations that utilize the scores of certain tests in examining the capabilities of certain individuals in relation to their chosen profession. This paper will examine the CPA exam, traditionally known for its difficulty and long historic past. It will also examine the GRE exam, which is also known for it's difficulty to pass in certain sections, and the changes it is incorporating for 2007 as a result of much criticism as its use as a tool for predicting future student achievement. Finally, this paper will also discuss the DAT exam, which appears to be the most straight-forward exam of all three, with the highest pass percentage rate, and the recipient of a very low amount of criticism.

The CPA exam

The Uniform CPA Examination is the examination that individuals must pass in order to get licensed as Certified Public Accountants in the United States, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam. In order to take the examination, individuals must meet the requirements for education, experience, and knowledge and most states require 150 credits at a university. In order to become a certified public accountant, all four parts of the CPA exam must be passed. The four parts are: auditing and attestation; financial accounting and reporting (business enterprises, not-for-profit organizations, government entities); regulation (professional responsibilities, business and tax law); and business environment and concepts. The CPA exam takes two days to complete, and each of the four parts is graded on a scale, with the minimum passing score being 75. The four parts of the exam have different formats, with the business environment section being the only section that is 100% multiple choice. The auditing, regulation, and financial accounting and reporting sections all include multiple choice questions and simulations. The simulations are essay questions that must be written, and are graded on organization, conciseness, clarity and responsiveness to the question.

Background of the CPA exam

Accounting education began in 1883 at the Wharton School, and began as a conceptual accounting course. The state of New York created the concept of a CPA certificate based on passing the exam, and other states also passed CPA laws. By 1931 accounting was the strongest field in business schools, and as the accounting profession grew with the development of corporations and large scale production, management accounting was added to the collegiate curriculum (Wyhe, 1994). In 1957 the need for a balanced accounting curriculum led the AAA Committee to define management accounting, and by 1961 the focus shifted to the need to get public accounting recognized as a profession that needed more than four years of college. In 1974 the AICPA created a Board on Standards for Programs and Schools of Accounting to identify standards to justify a professional accounting curriculum, and by 1993, 32 states had passed the 150 credit requirement to take the exam. Finally, the CPA exam has disappointing results, as in 2004, the national average of all students that took the CPA and passed was 6.1%. The AICPA website indicates that less than 20% of CPA takers pass all four parts the first time.

The GRE exam

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for many graduate schools in the United States and English speaking schools. It is a computer-adaptive test where although there is a fixed number of questions, the difficulty and scoring value of questions depends on the response to the previous question by the test taker. The GRE is made up of two parts: the General Test and the Subject Test in psychology. The general test is made up of three section; verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing. The verbal and quantitative tests each yield a separate score between 200 and 800 (Princeton Review, 2006). The subject test, only required by some programs, measures knowledge of psychological concepts that are essential to graduate study, and it also yields a score from 200 to 800 (Princeton Review, 2006). The subject test tests knowledge in the areas of biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, biology, chemistry, computer science, English literature, math, physics and psychology. Admission to graduate school depends on the test takers scores on the verbal and quantitative sections of the GRE.

Background of the GRE

Historically speaking, there has been widespread criticism of the GRE, as some have argued for decades that GRE scores do not constitute a meaningful measure of a potential graduate student's knowledge or capability for success. Many schools and universities have disagreed with the subject test requirements, and the GRE has been considered in certain historic times as irrelevant. In fact, recent reports and questionnaires indicate that the GRE is not as significant in determining graduate admissions as once believed. Researchers have suggested implementations and changes in the GRE that would make it more realistically predictive, such as the development of improved versions of GRE test subjects in more areas of the social sciences. The graduate schools could use these social science scores to as a better gauge of how well students have retained the fundamentals basics in certain subjects during their college years. For the fall of 2005, the average score accepted by graduate schools of the GRE verbal section was 498; for the GRE quantitative, 522; for the GRE analytical, 511. Interestingly, for the percentage of students that took the GRE, 81% of them submitted to graduate schools their scores on the GRE verbal and quantitative, while only 32% submitted to schools their scores for the analytical section. The GRE is undergoing significant changes for test takers in 2007, and it will no longer be offered in computer-adaptive format. It will last four hours long, and all GRE test takers will be required to take it at the same time.

The DAT exam

The Dental Admissions Test (DAT) is a multiple choice standardized exam taken by potential dental school students in the United States. The DAT is used by dental schools as a basis for deciding whether to grant the dental school applicant into its dental school. It is a computerized test that can be administered almost any day of the year. Each applicant may only take the exam three times before having to ask for special permission to take the exam, and after taking the exam, applicants cannot take it for another 90 days. The DAT is made up of four sections: a survey of the natural sciences, perceptual ability, reading comprehension, and quantitative reasoning. Immediately after the exam is taken, results are available to the test taker, and dental schools usually summarize the scores by listing the academic, science, and perpetual ability scores. Schools usually place importance on an applicant's scoring on the high perceptual section as well as biology scores, though the competitive applicant scores well overall.