The September 2025 CFE BOE Report – what’s the ‘so what’

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Just weeks before the upcoming CFE, CPA Canada dropped the September 2025 Board of Examiners (BOE) report. We know that getting a massive PDF of examiner feedback right before you walk into the exam room can feel intense, but take a deep breath, and let’s walk through it together.

While this feedback is incredibly important, our review of the material is that the feedback is largely consistent with past feedback. Think of this report not as a list of new things to panic-learn, but rather as a set of timely, critical reminders for the core case-writing strategies you already know. We have pulled out the key points noted by the BOE, and added our interpretation of this feedback. If you are a June 2026 CFE writer, reference this as you remind yourself how you will be focusing your case strategy, but know these are all the exact skills you have been working on the last few months.

For September 2026 writers, you should review this in detail as an important component for preparing for your exam. These points will be pivotal in your preparation for the CFE.

What Didn’t Surprise Us: The Usual Suspects

Honestly, when reviewing this report, nothing truly surprised us. The traps candidates fell into in September 2025 are the exact same hurdles we have seen for years, and they remain the core focus of our GCPA programs.

1. The Case Fact Integration Trap

The BOE highlighted yet again that candidates are failing to properly integrate case facts into their analysis. We call this the “parallel lines” problem: a candidate states a technical accounting rule and drops a case fact right next to it, but fails to actually connect the two. They run parallel, never intersecting.

Stating a rule and dropping a number from the case does not earn you a Competent (C). You must explain the “So what?”

  • Weak: “Per IFRS 15, performance obligations must be distinct. The company sells software with a two-year maintenance agreement.”

  • Strong (Integrated): “Per IFRS 15, performance obligations must be distinct. Because the maintenance agreement provides a separate service over two years that the customer benefits from independently, it is a separate performance obligation. Therefore, revenue cannot be recognized all at once.”

We actually made a highly requested YouTube video breaking this exact issue down based on the May 2025 BOE report. It came up yet again in the September 2025 report as a primary reason candidates failed to reach C.

2. The Panic Over “Unknown AOs”

Another trend that didn’t surprise us is how candidates freeze when faced with non-routine Assessment Opportunities (AOs).

The BOE noted that when candidates encountered a technical Financial Reporting (FR) or Strategy & Governance issue that didn’t perfectly match a pre-memorized study template, many completely abandoned the “CPA Way.” Instead of stepping back and applying a basic framework, writers wasted valuable time doing frantic Knotia searches or writing disorganized brain dumps.

Identification is half the battle. If you struggle with this, revisit our article on How to Tackle Unknown AOs on the CFE, where we break down the exact step-by-step framework to secure partial marks without spiraling out of your time budget.

Why Candidates Failed: A Day-by-Day Breakdown & Action Items

To protect your pass, you need to understand exactly where the previous cohort tripped. Here are the direct quotes from the BOE, paired with our exact GCPA interpretations and immediate action items.

Day 1 Failures

BOE Quote: “Candidates who were not successful tended to treat the situational analysis as an independent exercise, failing to link the constraints and strategic goals to their evaluation of the strategic options.”

    • GCPA Interpretation: The point of listing the SAF at the start of your response, is for it to be the basis for you to integrate the key points within your response below. Just listing the situation analysis factors, and failing to integrate them, does not get you any marks.

BOE Quote: “Weak responses often restated case numbers without applying the specific adjustments requested by the board of directors, lacking the depth required for quantitative analysis.”

    • GCPA Interpretation: For Day 1, simply copying and pasting exhibit data into Excel gets you zero marks. You must execute the specific “what if” scenarios (e.g., a 10% drop in sales) explicitly requested by the board to show the true financial impact. Use the case facts you have been given, there is a reason for all of them and CPA Canada wants you to consider and comment on these.

BOE Quote: “Many candidates did not integrate the operational issues into the broader strategic direction of the company, resulting in siloed and fragmented recommendations.”

    • GCPA Interpretation: Operational issues (like a broken IT system or staffing shortage) aren’t isolated problems—they actively prevent the company from achieving its main goals. Connect the operational fix back to the overarching strategy. In the GCPA CFE review program, we teach our students to use a Decision Matrix to ensure they capture all key components necessary to prepare a proper overall recommendation.

BOE Quote: “A common deficiency among unsuccessful candidates was the lack of a holistic conclusion that synthesized the overall mandate and provided a clear, supported final recommendation.”

    • GCPA Interpretation: Choosing an option at the end is not enough. You must step back, answer the overarching question the CEO or Board hired you to solve on page one, and explain how all your recommendations work together as a cohesive plan. For GCPA students – this issue is also addressed by appropriately utilizing a decision matrix and our overall conclusion approach.

Day 2 Failures

BOE Quote: “Unsuccessful candidates in the depth roles often provided superficial, bulleted lists that did not adequately use the specific case facts to support their analysis.”

    • GCPA Interpretation: Day 2 is about proving you are an expert in your chosen role. High-level, surface bullet points fail the depth test. You have to thoroughly exhaust the case facts and explain the detailed implications specific to your role.

BOE Quote: “Some candidates spent excessive time quoting accounting handbook criteria for complex financial reporting issues but failed to conclude on the final accounting treatment.”

    • GCPA Interpretation: Copy-pasting massive blocks of text from Knotia gets you zero marks if you don’t actually tell the client what to do. If you write out the IFRS criteria but forget to state, “Therefore, capitalize the asset,” the marker cannot guess your intent.

BOE Quote: “We noted a recurring issue where candidates struggled with time management, leaving common core assessment opportunities unaddressed or severely underdeveloped.”

    • GCPA Interpretation: You cannot sacrifice the common core for your role. If you spend 3.5 hours hyper-focusing on your specific depth role and leave the mandatory Financial Reporting (FR) and Management Accounting (MA) AOs blank, you will automatically fail Level 2.
    • One area that can really hurt a candidate is going on a Knotia treasure hunt. Knotia is available to you, but it should be used with caution. If you do NOT know where you are going, you should give yourself a strict 3-minute limit with which to treasure hunt in Knotia. Losing time in Knotia has been a proven cause of failure due to missing other AOs because of running out of time.
    • At GCPA, we teach outlining and preparing a detailed time budget for Day 2. If you do not stick to your time budget, you will run out of time, and you will be at risk of failing due to this common issue.

BOE Quote: “Candidates failed to recognize the broader implications of management accounting issues, performing basic calculations but omitting the critical qualitative analysis.”

    • GCPA Interpretation: Calculating a variance or a breakeven point is only half the job. The qualitative analysis—explaining why the variance happened and what management should do about it—is what actually secures the C grade. You must bring the numbers back to the case, and apply the numbers to your conclusion and recommendation. Numbers without analysis are just math, and the CFE is not a math exam.

Day 3 Failures

BOE Quote: “Time management remains a significant issue on Day 3, with candidates attempting to reach excessive depth on early assessment opportunities at the expense of later ones.”

    • GCPA Interpretation: Day 3 is a breadth day. Trying to write a flawless, Day 2-level response on the very first AO will ruin your time budget. You need to aim for a solid “RC” (Reaching Competence) across the board and keep moving. We posted an article about this recently as well, check it out here.

BOE Quote: “Candidates often provided misdirected responses, answering what they thought was the issue rather than addressing the specific question asked by the user in the case.”

    • GCPA Interpretation: When rushing through an AO, candidates sometimes forget the exact issue and details requested, and either make assumptions or just assume they are being asked for items they might have seen in a past case. Read the specific user’s question carefully and address their actual concern, rather than regurgitating a memorized template that doesn’t fit the scenario.
    • At GCPA we advise students to write a fairly detailed Issue statement, even though issue statements themselves are not awarded marks, it helps to remind students of exactly what the AO is asking without having to revisit the case narrative. In the heat of an AO response, it is very easy to forget the specifics of an issue, and being able to glance up at your own response and see the exact details there, can save you.

BOE Quote: “There was a noticeable failure to identify hidden assessment opportunities, particularly in Strategy and Governance, where triggers were subtle.”

    • GCPA Interpretation: Because candidates are rushing on Day 3, they skim right past subtle, one-sentence triggers for S&G or Assurance issues. Actively hunt for these embedded requests; they will not always have a neat heading. In our view, this is the ‘heart’ of the Day 3 exam – needing to go into enough depth to present a real analysis with case facts, but moving on quickly to tackle the rest of the exam, and therefore master breadth.

BOE Quote: “A large number of candidates failed to demonstrate breadth, missing the ‘Reaching Competence’ threshold on multiple AOs simply because they ran out of time to provide any response.”

    • GCPA Interpretation: Spending 25 minutes on a 9-minute AO guarantees you will leave the final three AOs completely blank. Dropping the pen when the time budget expires is a non-negotiable survival skill. This is the flip side of the issue discussed above where candidates skim over an AO too quickly.

We talk about this at GCPA often. The BOE has told us that the Day 3 exam tests candidates’ discipline to manage time, address an issue, and move on. They are not hiding this from us, so we want candidates to really understand this and incorporate it in their exam approach.

Final Thoughts and References

You can read the full September 2025 BOE report here.

Remember, the BOE is trying to give you the information you need to succeed and if you consider their feedback and do your best to focus your studies accordingly you can absolutely do this.

Looking for CFE support? Review the resources, templates, and CPA coaching programs available at www.gevorgcpa.com to help navigate your path to becoming a Canadian CPA.