What You Need to Know about Registering for the CPA Exam – In a Nutshell

Author: Brittany

My point of view on registering for the CPA exam

Welcome back folks! I hope you all did not miss me too much over Winter Break! In this blog post I am going to talk about the CPA exam registration process- in a nutshell.

During the first semester in the MAC program I was introduced to the process through my ACC 600 class – Managerial & Career Effectiveness. Every MAC student is required to take this course. During class the professors go over the whole registration process step-by-step. This whole process was new to me and I thought the class presentation was a huge help. Therefore, in an effort to provide you with a heads up, I am going to share what I know about the exam registration process with you!

Exam Requirements

One of the first topics regarding the CPA exam that we covered in our ACC 600 class was the exam requirements. For those of you who don’t already know, here are the NC exam requirements:

• Citizen or resident alien
• Good moral character
• 18 years or older
• Bachelors Degree. Concentration in Accounting (30 hours are needed).
• 150 hours and experience are needed for a license in NC.

Application Form

After meeting all of the above mentioned requirements, I had to fill out an NC Application form. It was only a few pages and really straightforward and easy. The only tasks that took a little bit of extra time to complete were obtaining my transcripts and then going to the post office to get two identical photos of myself that were of passport quality.

Also, an interesting thing about this form that I have never had to do before was to include the signature of 3 people who could vouch for my moral character. Fortunately, not hard to do, but kind of an interesting side note!

Once I completed the form I actually personally dropped off the application at the NC CPA office, which is located about 3 minutes from NCSU off of Oberlin Road. It took about 4 business days for my application to be processed.

Selecting a Date to take the Exam

After my application was processed I received an e-mail from the board with my “NTS” (AKA Notice To Schedule). This is an important document that I have to bring with me on my test date.. It must be shown to take the exam and it has my password, which I need to enter when I take the exam. Yet another reason this document is so important, this document provides me with the information I need to schedule my exam. The e-mail the board sent me also had a link included that I clicked on and it took me to a website that had simple directions about how to sign up for the exam. Trust me, if I say it was easy then it really had to have been easy!

The MAC program has suggested time frames as to when to take certain parts of the exam. Here they are:

• January – February: take the BEC portion of the exam
• May 15-31: take the Audit portion of the exam. These dates are selected because they are after the semester is over.
• Early July: Regulation portion of the exam
• August: Financial portion of the exam

I plan on following this schedule. I am hoping to be done with a majority of the parts before I start work in August! I have heard from numerous people that it is a very good idea to try to get as much of the exam out of the way before you start working fulltime. Therefore, that is what I plan to do.

What is next?

Now that you know about the registration process, next on my list to share with you will be about studying/preparing for the exam. That will be included in my next blog, so you will have to keep an eye out for that one!

I hope that my description of this process was helpful. I know going into it I was a little bit overwhelmed, but really the registration process is very simple! Also, I want to mention one reason why I think the process was very simple: the NCSU MAC Program did a wonderful job explaining the process step by step with all of its students.

If you have any questions please feel free to post them in the comments below. Talk to you soon!