Guide to CPA (U. S) - Simandhar Education

The exact moment I knew I became part of the World’s most reputed Accounting Body, AICPA. I cracked each paper at the very first go and CPA (U.S) as a suffix to my name, made my heart race. As beautiful as America was, I realized I had every chance to thrive in any corner of the world and CPA (U.S) is my global passport.

Achievement is talent, hard work, opportunities and a little bit of luck. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, writes that the tallest tree in the forest is the tallest not just because it grew from the hardiest acorn; it is the tallest also because no other trees blocked its sunlight, the soil around it was deep and rich, no rabbit chewed through its bark as a sapling and no lumberjack cut it down before it matured. 

The process of CPA (U.S) is pretty much like the tree above. As an Indian student, it’s not the exams alone but there are a bunch of things you have to take care about.

Is CPA (U.S) a big deal?

Absolutely. Having an International degree on your profile opens doors to abundant opportunities for excellent personal and career growth. Whether it’s settling abroad or earning good money, CPA can take you a long way. Work through the right path, maybe one day you will become a CFO or COO of a Fortune 500 Company or you can handle personal accounts of your favourite Hollywood star or NBA player.

Where can I settle and live?

AICPA has currently established MRAs with the following professional bodies:

• Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia
• Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants
• Canada, Mexico, and United States Memorandum of Understanding
• Chartered Accountants Ireland (formerly the Irish Institute of Chartered Accountants)
• Instituto Mexican de Contadores Publicos
• New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants
• Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants

Where should I write the exams?

At present, Indian students are eligible to write exams in United Arab Emirates and United States of America.

You can sit for the exams in any city in any state in the U.S.

Am I Eligible?

Each state or jurisdiction has its own set of rules regarding education requirements and I strongly recommend you to go through it on NASBA.org. Most states or jurisdictions require 120 credits to sit for the exam and the number of credits depend on the marks you scored plus NAAC accreditation of your college.

What to do once you have established that you are eligible?

Once you have decided what state or jurisdiction to apply for, you should get your International Student Evaluation done from NASBA.

Next step after getting the evaluation report from NASBA

Once you get the evaluation report from NASBA, you can make an exam application with the relevant State board or jurisdiction. It takes anywhere from a week to a month to receive Notice to Schedule(NTS). NTS enables you to schedule your exam dates. Visiting Visa is granted to you only if you have the NTS.

What are the exams about?

There are 4 sections or papers in the CPA exam.

1.Auditing and Attestation (AUD)

2.Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR)

3.Regulation (REG)

4.Business Environment and Concepts (BEC)

Each exam is 4 hours long and is prometric. Exams 1 to 3 consist of Multiple Choice Questions and Task based simulations (a practical application of the concepts you learned, case study). Exam 4 consists of MCQ’s and written communication (essays).

Does competition effect you? Yes, it does. The pass mark for each paper is 75 percentiles. Your scored is based on relative performance i.e. all the people writing the test in the same period. There is no negative marking in MCQ’s.

AUD is the most notorious of all and your fluency in language makes a lot of difference and the reason why I recommend you to buy classes from foreign institutions.

REG is U.S tax, it is completely different and new for us but definitely manageable.

FAR has both U.S(GAAP) and IFRS and has heavy syllabus compared to other papers.

BEC has written communication where most students struggle to perform but it’s the easiest of all the papers.

What to do after I pass the exams?

Take a break and party hard! You deserve it!

Most state boards require a 1 year experience to grant you license.

Why BECKER?

Speaking purely from experience

1.       The faculty guide you through every page of every book, highlight areas that can’t be missed before the exam and keep reminding that CPA’s are the Best!

2.       The Becker Software lets you set study plans, shows your performance statistics on each topic and prompts that practice is how you succeed.

3.       The Syllabus isn’t ambiguous and the practice questions leave no topic uncovered. In all the 4 exams, I haven’t been in a situation where I felt a question looked completely new or out of the blue.

4.       The practice tests will instil a lot of confidence in you as they administer the test in the real time format and that’s all you need before the D-Day.

5.       Most importantly, the language. As the lectures are taught by foreign faculty, you will be all set to perform on the International Platform! 

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