Ten-Year Review of the CPA Law Examination.

Abstract This article presents a ten year review of the scope and changes in the Certified public accountant (CPA) examination in commercial law. Reviewing the examination in this manner reveals trends, strengths, and weaknesses in the over-all purpose and scope of the examination that are not usually noticed when reviewing an individual examination. Many fields of law are covered on the examination. Four important factors are shown by the chart and a close examination of the questions themselves. The first is the relative consistency of questions being asked in certain fields of law. Second, it includes questions on real property, estates and trusts, statutory liens, banking, Federal and state regulation, bankruptcy, copyrights, personal property, and others. The third factor noted is the multiplicity of areas covered within a single question. This is not necessarily bad when areas complement each other. A fourth factor emerged from the individual examination questions. In some of the questions, the candidate was required to know not only rules of law currently in effect.