CPA Exam score release day is the second most critical day in your CPA journey, after the day you take the exam. As soon as your NASBA score is made public, you’ll know what you’ve accomplished. Also, you’ll have a better idea of how long the journey will take overall.
In this article, we’ll show you the all-important CPA Exam score release dates, their significance and even what actions you should or should not take in the event that you do not pass. Even if you haven’t taken a part of the CPA Exam yet, you should keep these dates in mind as you develop your CPA Exam study strategy. Once you sit for the exam, you’ll know exactly when to expect your results.
For Exam Sections Taken: January 1 – June 30, 2022
| If you’re exam date is on / before: | Then your target score release date is: |
| January 23 | February 8 |
| February 14 | February 23 |
| March 9 | March 17 |
| March 31 | April 12 |
| April 23 | May 10 |
| May 16 | May 24 |
| June 8 | June 16 |
| June 30 | July 12 |
For Exam Sections Taken: July 1 – December 31, 2021
| If you’re exam date is on / before: | Then your target score release date is: |
| July 23 | August 10 |
| August 15 | August 24 |
| September 7 | September 15 |
| September 30 | October 12 |
| October 23 | November 9 |
| November 15 | November 23 |
| December 8 | December 16 |
| December 31 | January 11 |
Important CPA Exam Score Release Information
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) wants you to know the following regarding your CPA Exam score release date:
All dates and times are in Eastern Standard Time (EST). Furthermore, applicants both local and overseas receive their results in accordance with the same score release schedule. However, international candidates may encounter a one-day delay due to additional processing and validation.
Within 24 hours of completing your exam section, Prometric delivers exam data files to the AICPA for the vast majority of applicants.
After the AICPA cutoff dates, whatever exam data files the AICPA obtains from Prometric will be published in subsequent scheduled target score release dates.
When you take the BEC exam, you may receive your results roughly one week after the scheduled release date of the exam. This delay is caused by the additional analysis that written communication duties often necessitate.
How To View Your CPA Exam Scores
Candidate scores can be obtained immediately from the NASBA website by providing your exam section number and your date of birth. If everything else fails, contact your State Board of Accountancy to find out where you can obtain your scores.
Your test results will also be sent to you via mail, however this will normally be at a much later date.
What If You Want to Dispute Your CPA Exam Score?
The CPA Exam is not without flaws. Even with the AICPA’s extensive psychometric evaluations, frequent content analysis, and other quality control methods, there is a slight chance that an error will occur during the administration, execution, and marking of the exam.
To account for this small margin of error, the NASBA, Prometric, and the AICPA give applicants with two options for contesting their CPA Exam results.
Score Review
The first method is a review of the scores. The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) provides a mechanism for candidates who believe their exam performance was not fairly reflected by their score to request a review of their results.
When the AICPA receives a request from NASBA for verification of a candidate’s written and computational responses, they will manually evaluate their overall score.
It’s important to keep in mind that the scoring procedure includes a number of quality control methods. As a result, it’s extremely rare for a score to be adjusted. In the event that you are simply looking for bonus points, it is not recommended that you request a score review.
It’s quite doubtful that a score review will result in you receiving any additional points if you had a 74 on your FAR exam, for example. Instead, you’ll have to shell out money, fill out forms, and sit around in anticipation of the results, which may or may not be satisfactory.
Appeals
Appealing a CPA Exam score is a second option for disputing a score. This technique provides candidates with the opportunity to go over their responses to exam questions or simulations that they answered poorly. Candidates can evaluate if they want to contest the validity of one or more items on the CPA Exam by studying the incorrect responses and the questions themselves.
Whenever a candidate chooses to contest a question, they should be prepared to defend their response as effectively and extensively as possible. Similarly to the score review procedure, there are costs to pay, instructions to follow, and requirements to meet in order to proceed.
NASBA or your State Board of Accountancy can provide you with information on whether or not you are eligible for an appeal, as well as details on how to commence the score review and appeals process.
Candidates should be advised that, similar to the score review procedure, the appeals process does not always result in a change in a candidate’s final score. When it comes to passing the exam, the best course of action is usually to just move on and prepare for the next section.
When Does Your CPA Exam Score Expire?
You must pass all four parts of the CPA exam within a period of 18 months. On the day you pass your first exam, the clock starts. Credit for passing expires 18 months after the date of your exam, not the date on which you received your result. The original exam must be retaken if you fail all four components within the first 18 months of passing it.
You may have passed your FAR CPA exam, followed by your AUD CPA exam, and then your BEC CPA exam in a short period of time. However, if you waited until the day before your FAR credit expired to take the REG CPA exam, you may have failed. As a result, not only do you have to retake the REG exam, but you must also retake the FAR exam.
Once you have taken and passed the AUD exam, a new 18-month window will open for you. In order to keep this from happening, pay close attention to the expiration dates listed on your score notice and leave enough time for retakes to be completed.