The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) announced in a press release on April 4, 2016 that an updated version of the Uniform CPA Examination will be launched April 1, 2017.

According to AICPA.org, changes to the next version of the CPA exam include:

• "Increased assessment of higher-order cognitive skills that include, but are not limited to, critical thinking, problem solving and analytical ability.
• Additional task-based simulations (TBSs) will be included on the exam, which are an effective way to assess higher order skills.
• New exam blueprints containing approximately 600 representative tasks across all four Exam sections will replace the Content Specification Outline (CSO) and Skill Specification Outline (SSO). These blueprints are more robust than the CSO and SSO, identifying content knowledge linked directly to representative tasks performed by newly licensed CPAs.
• Total CPA Exam testing time will increase from 14 to 16 hours – four sections of four hours each."

 Read the full release on the AICPA's website or learn more about the new CPA exam at www.aicpa.org/nextcpaexam.

AICPA

Founded in 1887, the AICPA represents the CPA profession nationally regarding rule-making and standard-setting, and serves as an advocate before legislative bodies, public interest groups and other professional organizations. The AICPA develops standards for audits of private companies and other services by CPAs; provides educational guidance materials to its members; develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination; and monitors and enforces compliance with the profession’s technical and ethical standards.

The AICPA’s founding established accountancy as a profession distinguished by rigorous educational requirements, high professional standards, a strict code of professional ethics, a licensing status and a commitment to serving the public interest.