Update from Craig N. Mills Vice President — Examinations

　　It’s all good news, I’m happy to say . As I’m sure you know, the CBT contract for the administration of the CPA Examination in the U .S . was recently extended until 2024 by the AICPA, NASBA, and Prometric . And 2009 was a record-setting year for the CPA Examination, with 267,000 scheduled sections, more than 93,000 examinees, and, of course, the administration of the millionth examination section last July .

　　 Meanwhile, we have made much progress toward the launch of CBT-e and look for- ward with great anticipation to implementing CPA Examination improve- ments in January 2011 .

　　The scheduled testing of IFRS and other international standards is gen- erating many requests for additional information – and that’s under- standable . The article in this issue focuses on the types of international standard questions likely to be included on the CPA Examination and identifies the sections in which the questions will appear . To provide additional help to candidates, we plan to post sample IFRS questions on the CPA Examination website .

　　Doug Warren, the new Chair of the BOE, is an expert on regulatory issues with years of service as member and Chair of the Tennessee State Board of Accountancy as well as service on the BOE and as Chair of the BOE State Board Committee (SBC) . He brings to his leadership of the BOE a thorough knowledge of issues currently facing the profession as well as a complete understanding of every aspect of the CPA Examination and its role in the licensure process . Given his unique per- spective and commitment, Doug’s tenure as BOE Chair is bound to be stimulating and eventful, particularly as it will coincide with the introduction of the many examination changes . I think you will enjoy reading about Doug’s views on several important topics in the interview article included in this issue .

　　The State Board Committee (SBC) has recently sponsored another highly successful CPA Examination Forum for state board Chairs (or members) and Executive Directors . This time, the participants were state board representatives from western states, and the Forum was held in Salt Lake City, UT . As you will see in the article about the Forum, state board participants were pleased to have this special opportunity to discuss examination developments . The third in the series of SBC-sponsored Forums will be held on May 27th in Dallas, TX with state board representatives from central states in attendance .

　　January 2011 will bring many CPA Examination changes, including CBT- e, new Content and Skill Specifications (CSOs/SSOs) and a new authori-tative literature release . Much information about what will be new and different in 2011 has already been provided and more is yet to come . The “Roadmap to 2011” article in this issue provides an update with respect to what information is available, where to find it, and what else to expect .

　　In the first CPA Alert issue of every year, we have the pleasure of introducing new members of the BOE . Joining the BOE this year are four CPAs and one psychometrician, all of them outstanding professionals with a wealth of expertise and the willingness to devote their time to BOE initiatives . Please read about them . We also wish to express our appreciation for the significant contributions of the BOE members who have just completed their terms of service: Michael Daggett, CPA, Fritz Drasgow, Ph .D . (psychometrician), Lisa Johnson, CPA, and Barbara Porter, Executive Director of the Idaho State Board of Accountancy .

　　We will continue to keep you informed as we meet our goals toward the release of the new CPA Examination next year . Meanwhile, please contact me at cmills@aicpa.org with your comments on any examination topic .