BAR CPA Exam Study Guide
Your comprehensive guide with everything you need to know about BAR!
How to Pass the CPA BAR Exam
The BAR CPA Exam is a key discipline section in the new CPA evolution blueprint, and it’s all about understanding business finances. With our BAR CPA Exam study guide, you’ll learn how to look at company finances, compare them to what was expected, and understand how different events can affect a company’s money and performance. It also covers some specific rules for financial reporting from big organizations like the FASB and SEC for businesses and employee benefits, as well as the GASB for government finances. It’s designed to make sure new CPAs can really dig into financial reports and understand what they mean for a business.
Many CPA candidates and CPA review course providers view the BAR CPA Exam as the most similar CPA exam to pre-CPA as this will include much of the advanced financial reporting topics previously covered in the FAR CPA Exam as well as Managerial Accounting Topics that were previously covered on the old BEC CPA Exam.
This page provides you a comprehensive guide of the BAR CPA exam section, including the BAR CPA exam format, AICPA blueprint topics, question types, key areas to focus on, common BAR simulation topics, general BAR CPA Exam tips, and frequently asked questions about the BAR Exam.
BAR CPA Exam Quick Facts
Exam Pass Rate
TBD
Exam Length
4hrs.
Multiple choice
50
Simulation Questions
7
MCQ Weight
50%
Sim Weight
50%
BAR CPA Exam Pass Rates
Since the BAR CPA Exam is a fresh addition from the CPA Evolution’s Core + Discipline model, it’s like trying to predict a rookie’s season stats on their first day – we just don’t have enough data yet. The ink’s still drying on this new section, and candidates are just starting to pencil it into their study schedules. As more test-takers step up to the BAR challenge, we’ll start to see how the pass rates pan out. So, for now, let’s give it some time to set before we jump into the numbers game.
BAR CPA Exam Structure
It is very important to understand the structure of the BAR exam so that you have a clear understanding of what to expect on exam day. We will go through all of the relevant information that you should understand so that your mind will be at ease and you can focus on efficiently and effectively solving the multiple choice questions and task-based simulations you see on exam day at the Prometric Center.
How Long is the BAR CPA Exam?
You will have a total of 4 hours to complete all five testlets. You will have an option 15-minute break after you complete your 3rd testlet and the break will not count towards your 4 hours. The computer will ask you whether you would like to take a break or continue with your exam. We recommend utilizing the break to collect your thoughts and stamina as you will be approximately 2.5 hours into your exam by the time you finish the 3rd testlet. Once the 4-hour clock expires, your exam will automatically be closed and submitted, and any questions in progress will be submitted as is. You will get partial credit for the simulation you are working on when time expires. We have another article that outlines how the CPA Exam is graded. To learn more, feel free to check it out!
BAR CPA Exam Question Types
The BAR CPA exam consists of 50 multiple choice questions and 7 task-based simulations. Your score will be calculated based on a weighted combination, with multiple choice questions making up 50% of your score while your task-based simulations will make up the other 50% of your CPA Exam score.
Multiple choice questions
Will consist of one or more paragraphs and full of qualitative and quantitative information. There will be four answer choices to choose from, and you will have to select A, B, C, or D. Not every single multiple choice question will be considered in the calculation of your score. Similar to the Core CPA Exams, we anticipate that the AICPA will include various ungraded pre-test questions.
Task-based simulations
Will consist of a prompt, exhibits, and then one or more tasks that you must complete. These tasks consist of dropdowns, calculations, etc. Of the four simulations, one will be a pretest and will not count toward your score.
BAR MCQ Playlist
4 Videos
Journal entry for direct materials variance
How does XBRL work?
What is a waterfall chart?
Different Types of Cyberattacks
Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos.
BAR Exam Study Tips (General)
Looking for some tips specific to the BAR CPA exam? Here is a list of tips we put together to help you pass BAR:
1) Pretend you are a business owner
You will quickly realize that BAR has loads and loads of formulas. Do you think the AICPA really cares if you know how to plug numbers into a formula and calculate a result? The AICPA does expect you to know how to perform these calculations, but that isn’t the purpose of the CPA license. With the CPA license, you are expected to be able to interpret the results of the calculations and offer insight and advice. Remember, as a CPA, you are being paid for your ability to interpret complex financial and non-financial information. If you pretend that you own a business, then you will learn to interpret these complex topics at a level. The explanation videos in the Universal course will help you learn to think like a business owner!
2) Understand the output of each formula
As mentioned above, BAR will include a lot of formulas that you are expected to know. While many candidates simply try to memorize all of these formulas, if you start to think about the output of the formula and how it is used, then it will be easier to remember the actual formula. For example, for days sales outstanding (DSO), if you knew that we could use sales and accounts receivable information to understand how long it takes for a company to collect cash from their customers for outstanding invoices, that will make it easier to remember the inputs to the DSO formula. While you will not be given the formulas for multiple-choice questions, you will likely be given analytic and valuation formulas for the task-based simulations.
3) Carefully read each detail in a question
This seems pretty obvious, but most candidates realize that they did not fully understand the question after they realize they got it wrong. If you miss a piece of information or incorrectly use information, then you perform a calculation and arrive at the wrong answer option. In order to arrive at the correct answer, you will have to properly include or exclude each piece of information in your series of steps. The explanation videos in the Universal course will help you understand how to use each piece of information in the question!
4) Use your mental map
The multiple-choice questions and task-based simulations in BAR will typically require you to perform a series of calculations to arrive at the correct answer. The Universal CPA course will include a mental map for each topic that will help you learn a series of repeatable steps you can perform on exam day.
5) Use Microsoft Excel
The multiple-choice questions and simulations will often provide a table of qualitative information. If you copy this into Excel, and then use Excel to perform your calculations, you will minimize the risk of error. If you are proficient in Excel, you will also be more efficient, which will allow you to move through the exam at a better pace. For the exam, you will have full access to Microsoft Excel.
6) Spend most of your time on practice questions
CPA candidates that use the Universal CPA course will utilize the bite-sized video lectures to quickly learn the basics of each module, but then most of their time will be spent on the multiple-choice questions. Universal CPA students will watch the explanation video for each MCQ, which will go through the formulas and series of calculations that are needed to arrive at the correct answer. They will also learn how to interpret the results. Each MCQ basically has a mini-lecture video, which is way more valuable than one long lecture that doesn’t always focus on how to apply the information when answering a question.