No More Essay Questions on the Uniform CPA Examination; Statement of Ray M. Sommerfeld, President of the American Accounting Association Before the National Conference on Proposed Changes in the Uniform CPA Examination

There are overwhelming reasons for the Uniform Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Examination to discontinue the use of essay questions and to rely totally on objective questions, preferably of the multiple-choice variety. As a matter of practical concern, this approach would save in excess of $2 million annually. An overview of the examination process illustrates that the preparation, grading, administering, and security of the uniform exam process has received consistently "clean" opinions. However, due to validity and reliability issues, essay questions should be avoided. Moreover, the current format requires a completely new examination to be created for each sitting -- resulting in unique and substantial problems. Other significant factors include: 1. the importance of pretesting and the lack thereof, and 2. the relationship of pretesting to grading. On behalf of the American Accounting Association (AAA), the 1986-1987 president of the AAA, Ray M. Sommerfeld, spoke about the need for additional research and financial commitment before accepting an all-objective exam format. One of the AAA's fears is that such a conversion would have a negative impact on accounting education.