CPA First Exam Participation Rate 86.6%... Up 3.3% Compared to Previous Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji-hwan Park] This year, a total of 11,655 candidates took the first Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam.

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced on the 2nd that out of 13,458 applicants nationwide for the 56th CPA first exam held on the 28th of last month at 29 universities, 11,655 candidates attended, resulting in an attendance rate of 86.6%.

This figure is 3.3 percentage points higher than last year's 83.3%. With the total number of test takers increasing compared to previous years, the competition ratio, calculated based on the expected number of successful candidates (approximately 2,200), rose sharply to 5.3 to 1 from last year's 4.1 to 1.

Since 2017, the attendance rate for the first exam has consistently remained in the high 80% range annually. However, last year, the attendance rate declined compared to previous years due to the spread of COVID-19.

By region, Gwangju recorded the highest attendance rate. A total of 482 candidates applied in Gwangju, of which 429 appeared for the exam. In Seoul, which had the largest number of applicants with 10,548, 9,105 candidates, accounting for 86.3%, took the exam.

For this CPA first exam, the number of test sites and supervisors was significantly expanded. The FSS increased the number of test sites and supervisors by 3.4 times and 3.6 times respectively compared to the previous year. This measure was taken considering the increase in examinees and COVID-19 prevention.

The FSS posted the provisional answer key immediately after the exam and plans to announce the successful candidates on April 9 after receiving objections to the provisional answers, finalizing the answers, and grading.