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 Topic: Is the CPA exam grading curved? ( Topic Closed)
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depressed
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| Posted: 02 Mar 2010 at 12:37 | IP Logged
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diabol1k wrote:
rumboj wrote:
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[QUOTE=Kfan]Well, AICPA publicly doesn't want to acknowledge that it's curved. Since some people are getting scores of 99 on these exams, do you really think that they got 99% of the questions right on such a hard exam? I don't think so. Even Gleim says in their testing materials that you just need to score in about the top 45% of test takers.
Anyways, don't worry about this too much. The key is studying hard and being prepared.
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The grade you receive is not a percentage but rather a percentile...as in you did better than that percentage of the people taking the exam. The AICPA has publicly said it isn't curved but your grade does somewhat depend on what others do. Remember that before each graded question appears on your exam, it was a pretest question in the past. That's how they assign a point value to it; some are worth less than one and others more than one. It's up to you to get it right or wrong but it is completely out of your hands as to how many points you actually earn since that depends on how others performed on the question.
After they sum and weight all the areas (MC-70%, SIMS-20%, WRITTEN-10%), they rank all the scores and set percentile ranges. You have to have done better than 75% of the testakes to have passed. My problem is, suppose a bunch of really great candidates took it in your testing window and generally ended up with averages of 85%. If you scored 83%, chances are you won't pass?? That's just wrong on so many levels. Granted, many people who take the exam are not even remotely prepared so that's unlikely to happen.
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This is the most logical explanation why I failed audit the first time I took it. Based on my performace report, I scored only 73 on Internal control while others who passed scored 77. The rest of the sections I scored 78, 80, 85 and 86; 78 comparable to passing candidates performance and the rest I was stronger than passing candidates performance but still ended with a 74. If if I take the simple average, I would have scored 80. If I take the weighted average, I would have scored 84 since the higher scores I got have higher weight. I guess 45% of the test takers in that window scored higher than me that is why I got a grade of 74. Sometimes luck plays a role too because your performance depends on how well/bad other test takers do.
__________________
BEC 75 Whew
FAR 80
REG 66 retake 10/06/09 92 YESS!!!!
AUD 74 retake 11/09/09 89 Thank you Lord!
CA Ethics 90 12/04/09
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passfirsttime
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| Posted: 03 Mar 2010 at 02:56 | IP Logged
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depressed wrote:
diabol1k wrote:
rumboj wrote:
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[QUOTE=Kfan]Well, AICPA publicly doesn't want to acknowledge that it's curved. Since some people are getting scores of 99 on these exams, do you really think that they got 99% of the questions right on such a hard exam? I don't think so. Even Gleim says in their testing materials that you just need to score in about the top 45% of test takers.
Anyways, don't worry about this too much. The key is studying hard and being prepared.
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The grade you receive is not a percentage but rather a percentile...as in you did better than that percentage of the people taking the exam. The AICPA has publicly said it isn't curved but your grade does somewhat depend on what others do. Remember that before each graded question appears on your exam, it was a pretest question in the past. That's how they assign a point value to it; some are worth less than one and others more than one. It's up to you to get it right or wrong but it is completely out of your hands as to how many points you actually earn since that depends on how others performed on the question.
After they sum and weight all the areas (MC-70%, SIMS-20%, WRITTEN-10%), they rank all the scores and set percentile ranges. You have to have done better than 75% of the testakes to have passed. My problem is, suppose a bunch of really great candidates took it in your testing window and generally ended up with averages of 85%. If you scored 83%, chances are you won't pass?? That's just wrong on so many levels. Granted, many people who take the exam are not even remotely prepared so that's unlikely to happen.
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This is the most logical explanation why I failed audit the first time I took it. Based on my performace report, I scored only 73 on Internal control while others who passed scored 77. The rest of the sections I scored 78, 80, 85 and 86; 78 comparable to passing candidates performance and the rest I was stronger than passing candidates performance but still ended with a 74. If if I take the simple average, I would have scored 80. If I take the weighted average, I would have scored 84 since the higher scores I got have higher weight. I guess 45% of the test takers in that window scored higher than me that is why I got a grade of 74. Sometimes luck plays a role too because your performance depends on how well/bad other test takers do.
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I think the "scale" occurs to the extent that one test is harder than another test. If the majority of candidates do well, and therefore get hard tests, then it it is even more unlikely that the candidate who does poorly and gets an easy test will pass. Conversely, if the majority of candidates do poorly and get easy tests, it becomes even more likely the candidate who does well with a hard test will get a great grade. I don't understand it exactly, but this has to be how the test is manipulated by the examiners. I don't think they subjectively manipulate the test (except for regrades of writing sections on close scores), but I do think the grading system they use inherently has this curve built into it.
__________________
FAR: 85 (Left sims blank!)
AUD: 98
BEC: 84 (Did not study Cost Accounting - Becker Ch. 5!)
REG: 94
*Passed each section first time using Becker online review!
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bonzo_dog
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| Posted: 04 Mar 2010 at 14:50 | IP Logged
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passfirsttime wrote:
diabol1k wrote:
rumboj wrote:
Kfan wrote:
Well, AICPA publicly doesn't want to acknowledge that it's curved. Since some people are getting scores of 99 on these exams, do you really think that they got 99% of the questions right on such a hard exam? I don't think so. Even Gleim says in their testing materials that you just need to score in about the top 45% of test takers.
Anyways, don't worry about this too much. The key is studying hard and being prepared.
|
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The grade you receive is not a percentage but rather a percentile...as in you did better than that percentage of the people taking the exam. The AICPA has publicly said it isn't curved but your grade does somewhat depend on what others do. Remember that before each graded question appears on your exam, it was a pretest question in the past. That's how they assign a point value to it; some are worth less than one and others more than one. It's up to you to get it right or wrong but it is completely out of your hands as to how many points you actually earn since that depends on how others performed on the question.
After they sum and weight all the areas (MC-70%, SIMS-20%, WRITTEN-10%), they rank all the scores and set percentile ranges. You have to have done better than 75% of the testakes to have passed. My problem is, suppose a bunch of really great candidates took it in your testing window and generally ended up with averages of 85%. If you scored 83%, chances are you won't pass?? That's just wrong on so many levels. Granted, many people who take the exam are not even remotely prepared so that's unlikely to happen.
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I don't think this is correct. Look at the pass rates - it's around 50%. If the way scoring goes is as you stated, pass rate would be 25%.
That said, I have no idea.
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I disagree. His definition is the most accurate I have heard.
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This explanation can't be right as stated. First, there is the reason that diabol1k gave. Second, if the score was a percentile, you should expect to see reported scores to be more or less evenly distributed across a scale of 0 to 100 (making allowance for the fact that people with very low scores would be reluctant to report them). Instead, I see mostly scores in the 60-90 range.
What I could see possible is a formula that converts a percentile to the numeric score, e.g. the 50th-55th percentile being mapped to a score of 75.
__________________
FAR -- 78
BEC -- 87
REG -- 86
AUD -- 84
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CharliePapaAlfa
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| Posted: 04 Mar 2010 at 15:03 | IP Logged
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Once you pass all 4, you stop caring. My suggestion to you all is to reallocate your passion for discussing this topic into studying for those exams which you have not passed yet.
__________________
B 81 5/18/09
A 50,63,64,82 8/28/08
R 84 8/24/09
F 60,65,76 4/13/09
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passfirsttime
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| Posted: 04 Mar 2010 at 16:11 | IP Logged
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CharliePapaAlfa wrote:
| Once you pass all 4, you stop caring. My suggestion to you all is to reallocate your passion for discussing this topic into studying for those exams which you have not passed yet. |
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For me, this is a nice diversion during tax season. I don't start back on BEC until 4/16.
__________________
FAR: 85 (Left sims blank!)
AUD: 98
BEC: 84 (Did not study Cost Accounting - Becker Ch. 5!)
REG: 94
*Passed each section first time using Becker online review!
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