CPA Core Exam Explained

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Current as of October 12, 2026. Dates are CPA’s and subject to change.

CPA Core is the second module in the new CPA Professional Program. The cases start here, and so does the optional Licensure path.

In this post we cover how each exam is structured and what’s on it. Then we walk through an example of the skill these cases test most, and finish with what we think will be trickiest. It’s the written version of our video, CPA Canada 2027: NEW Core Module – Format, Cases & Requirements. For all five exams at a high level, see Analyzing the New CPA Professional Program Exam Blueprints and its video.

At a glance

Item Common Licensure
Who it’s for Candidates not pursuing a public accounting licence Candidates considering a public accounting licence
Format Two to three cases The same Common cases (Part A), plus one 2-hour case (Part B)
Time 3 hours 5 hours
To pass Sufficiency on the overall exam Sufficiency on Parts A and B combined, plus readiness for licensure on Part B
Sittings September 16, 2027, then every January, May and September from 2028 September 16, 2027, then every January, May and September from 2028

Source: Exam Guide; CPA Western School of Business schedules.

Who writes it, and when

Core is Module 2, after Foundational Development. CPA calls the Core exam Professional Final Exam 1. Whichever path you’re on, you write the same Common cases.

For the first sitting on September 16, 2027, the Licensure module starts May 29 and the Common module starts July 10. From 2028 there are three sittings a year: January 20, May 18 and September 14, each with its own module beforehand (schedules).

Structure

The Common cases are two to three cases in three hours, each between 60 and 120 minutes. The exam doesn’t control your time between cases, so managing it is on you. On the Licensure path, you write those same cases as Part A, then Part B: one more case, two hours long, timed separately.

CPA describes these cases as “non-complex situations” that need “some integration among competencies”. Direction comes through “clear requirements and case facts”, and CPA says the cases are “not meant to be time pressured” (Exam Guide).

Content

Topic Common and Part A Licensure Part B
Assurance 20 to 35% 30 to 50%
Financial reporting 20 to 35% 20 to 40%
Tax 10 to 25% 15 to 25%
Data analytics 5 to 15% Up to 10%
Non-financial reporting 5 to 15% Up to 10%

Source: Exam Guide.

Strategy, finance, ethics and governance, and management decision-making have no allocation on Core, on either exam.

Part B also goes deeper in each area. What Licensure adds (Module Guide):

  • Financial reporting on non-routine transactions.
  • Assurance inside and outside the CPA Canada Handbook, such as ESG, cybersecurity frameworks, dataset accuracy and non-financial KPIs.
  • Higher-complexity tax and GST, including selling a business by asset or share sale, income splitting, and the section 167 GST election.

Our reading is that anything Licensure-only doesn’t carry forward into Leadership or Professional Readiness: in the Module Guide, those modules build on Core Common, not Licensure. If that’s right, once a Licensure candidate has shown that technical depth on Part B, they won’t need it again on later exams. Neither guide says this directly, and the Exam Guide also says “all prior learning is also testable”, so treat this as our view for now.

The level. CPA says Core applies competencies “at increased levels of proficiency”, with the CPA Ethical Mindset, including professional judgment. Ethics, for example, moves up to “analyze”, Level 3. Collecting data, and preparing it, “including cleaning data and grading quality”, also reach their highest level in Core.

Passing and reference materials

If you pass Part A but not Part B, you can still progress in the program; you just won’t be licensure-eligible before certification. CPA says a separate exam will be available after certification. We assume it will be similar to today’s Post-Designation Public Accounting (PDPA) exam. What happens if you pass Part B but not Part A isn’t stated yet.

Both exams are non-disclosed. As with Foundational Development, that means the exams won’t be released after each sitting the way CFE exams are. You’ll have the CPA Canada Handbooks, the Income Tax Act and the Excise Tax Act.

What CPA’s samples show

CPA published three Core sample cases, which together make up a full Part A and Part B exam:

Sample Path Length
Quartz Construction Common (Part A) 60 minutes
Mont-Bellevue Academy Common (Part A) 120 minutes
Seaway Property Management Licensure (Part B) 120 minutes

We don’t know yet whether CPA will publish more. So while this will be candidates’ first go at case writing, they’ll have very limited practice material, a big contrast with CFE and UFE writers. Past CFE material may help to some extent, but the design and content have changed significantly.

The key skill: finding the requirements

Here’s the kind of email you could get in a Core case. It’s our illustration, not from a CPA sample, but it’s modelled on how CPA’s samples deliver their tasks: inside emails and dialogue rather than a “Required” list.

From: Dana, CFO

Thanks for coming in next week. Our bank wants audited financial statements this year for the first time, so I’d like your thoughts on what that will involve and what you’ll need from us.

We also signed a three-year contract in March to supply a new customer, and they paid us $300,000 up front. I’m not sure how we should be recording that.

Our controller mentioned we may have missed some corporate tax instalments. What’s our exposure?

And could you take a look at the inventory listing I’ve attached? A few of the numbers look off to me.

It reads like a normal email. But there are four requirements in there, and each one is a different topic area.

What the email asks What it really is Topic area
“What will an audit involve?” What an audit engagement requires, and what the auditor will need from the client Assurance
“How should we record the $300,000?” Revenue recognition on an upfront payment for a three-year contract Financial reporting
“What’s our exposure on the instalments?” The interest, and possible penalty, on missed instalments Tax
“Look at the inventory listing” Checking the data for errors and anomalies before anyone relies on it Data analytics

CPA says Core gives you “clear requirements”, but in the samples they arrive inside emails and conversations, not as a numbered list. In our experience, most past CFE cases set out the requireds in the narrative at the start, rather than inside the appendices. So outlining, planning and thinking through your response before you write matters even more. Before you start writing, read the whole case, pull out every request, and map each one to what it’s actually asking.

What we think will be trickiest

Our read of the blueprint, not CPA’s. It’s here to give you a feel for the exam, not to tell you how to study.

Finding the requirements. As the email shows, the tasks are buried in emails and conversations. Pulling them all out before you start becomes a skill in itself.

Little practice material. You’ll be learning case writing with only three sample cases to practise on.

Data that needs checking first. Mont-Bellevue’s donation log has duplicates and dates out of sequence, and the job is to find them. Expect to judge the data before you can use it.

Part B on its own terms. On the Licensure path, Part B decides readiness for licensure. If you know the CFE, we think it will feel close to a Day 2 assurance role case, with more technical content.

The bottom line

CPA Core has two paths, the same Common cases for everyone, and a separate Part B case on the Licensure path.

Gevorg CPA

Planning for CPA Core? Reach out to us

Whether you’re deciding when to start the new program or how to prepare for this exam, the Gevorg CPA team is here to help. Get in touch with your questions, and visit our CPA Professional Program page for more detail on the new program.

Want to know when our exam resources for the new program are available? Join our 2027 program mailing list and we’ll let you know.

Next in this series: CPA Leadership, the five-hour case.

CPA resources

Links as at October 27, 2026.

September 2027 CFE Day 1 Cases: Which to Write?

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CPA Canada has released the Day 1 case lineup for the September 2027 Common Final Examination (CFE), and there is good news for anyone who wrote in 2026. If you wrote the June or September 2026 CFE, you will be able to write a new Day 1 version of the same case you already know. That’s a really nice move by CPA Canada, and it gives every writer in the September 2027 sitting a fair shot.

Here’s what’s being offered, who can choose what, and how we recommend you decide.

Source: CPA Canada, CPA PEP Capstone modules.

September 2027 CFE Day 1 cases

For the September 2027 CFE, you can write one of the following Day 1 cases:

  • Puck Points Video Games Inc. (PPVG) v1: the new Capstone 1 case
  • Karnat Bread Company Ltd. (KBC) v2: first tested as v1 on the June 2026 CFE
  • Singular Textiles Corporation (STC) v2: first tested as v1 on the September 2026 CFE

And yes, we love that the new case comes with the sound of a hockey game in the background. We also got a sneak preview of the name for the September 2028 v1 case, Q&S Choco Inc., which also seems great.

As a reminder, the Day 1 case is the Capstone 1 case carried forward a few years. The users, background and much of the situational analysis stay the same, while the strategic and operational issues are new.

A quick note on dates: CPA Canada’s schedule labels the spring 2026 sitting as May 2026, but it was written June 2 to 4, so we refer to it as the June 2026 CFE. There is also no CFE in May 2027, which makes September 2027 the only sitting next year. For the full schedule of the remaining Day 1 cases, see our post What Day 1 Cases Will Be Tested in 2026, 2027 and 2028 CFEs?

Why this matters for 2026 writers

If you were unsuccessful on Day 1 in 2026, you won’t be forced to start from scratch on an unfamiliar case:

  • June 2026 writers wrote Karnat Bread v1 and can write Karnat Bread v2.
  • September 2026 writers wrote Singular Textiles v1 and can write Singular Textiles v2.

Both groups get the same advantage: a second attempt on a case they already know. That keeps things level for everyone writing in September 2027.

Who can choose which case?

  • First-time writers must write the case linked to the Capstone 1 module they completed, provided that case is available. For first-time writers in September 2027, that’s Puck Points Video Games v1.
  • Repeat writers (previously unsuccessful on the CFE) can choose any of the cases offered for the sitting.
  • Candidates challenging the CFE, such as internationally trained accountants, can also choose any of the cases offered.

Which case should you choose?

If you are eligible to choose your own Day 1 case, how do you decide which to choose? We get this question a lot. We talk more about it in this article and video. The punch line is that it doesn’t really matter. But you do still need to make a decision, so let’s talk about how to decide.

If you wrote in June or September 2026

Your preference would be to write the version 2 of the same case you wrote previously. You will already be familiar with the following:

  • The Capstone case facts and the company’s history
  • The industry and how the business makes money
  • The users and their competing preferences
  • The mission, vision, values, key success factors and board objectives
  • The quantitative constraints, such as covenants and financing

That familiarity saves you real time on exam day. You’ll read faster, you’ll spot what has changed, and you can spend your energy on the new issues rather than learning a new business. If you want a fresh attempt on your case, our CFE practice cases include GCPA original Day 1 mocks. The GCPA mock exams for KBC and STC are already available, and our mock exam for the PPVG case will be available closer to July 2027.

A few things to keep in mind before you commit:

  • A familiar Capstone case only helps so much. The case moves forward in time, and the issues will be new. Read it fresh and build your situational analysis from what’s in front of you.
  • Watch out for anchoring. Candidates sometimes force last exam’s issues onto the new case. Answer what is actually asked.
  • Expect ambiguity. Regardless of how you felt writing your previous attempt, expect this one to be quite different, especially as we’ve seen CPA write more ambiguous Day 1 cases.
  • This is the last sitting for both v2 cases. Based on the CPA Canada schedule, Karnat Bread and Singular Textiles are not offered after September 2027. If you need another attempt, you’d be switching cases. Puck Points, on the other hand, returns as v2 in September 2028.

If you’re challenging the CFE or don’t have a prior case

We usually recommend choosing v1, which in this case would be Puck Points Video Games. Historically there is a slightly higher pass rate for v1 writers. The difference is barely noticeable, but it’s there. V1 also gives you a safety net, since Puck Points v2 will be offered in September 2028 if you need another attempt.

The other take, which is the counter to our opinion above, is that if you choose a v2 exam, you’ll be able to make use of the Day 1 CFE v1 that has been publicly released, which gives you an extra exam to practice with. That is indeed a valid point.

This is what takes us to our overall opinion: it doesn’t really matter.

Our honest take

At the end of the day, it matters less which case you choose and more how well you prepare for Day 1.

The candidates who pass Day 1 are the ones who:

  • Move efficiently through the core of the exam
  • Protect time for the overall recommendation
  • Understand the case well enough to apply real judgement
  • Use a decision matrix to build a cohesive plan (taught in the GCPA program)
  • Practice mock Day 1 cases under exam conditions, then debrief

Pick the case you’re most comfortable with, then put your energy into your Day 1 strategy.

Day 1 strategy: further reading

Whichever case you write, these GCPA articles cover the Day 1 strategy that actually moves the needle:

Looking ahead to September 2028

For planning purposes, the September 2028 CFE is scheduled to offer Puck Points Video Games v2 and a new case, Q&S Choco Inc. v1.

Extra resources

We’re the Gevorg CPA Coaching Team. If you want help preparing for Day 1, including mock exam cases and Day 1 strategy coaching, check out our CFE Review Day 1 course for a comprehensive prep package, or browse our CFE practice cases and strong answers.

Frequently asked questions

What Day 1 cases are offered on the September 2027 CFE?

Three: Puck Points Video Games Inc. v1 (the new Capstone 1 case), Karnat Bread Company Ltd. v2, and Singular Textiles Corporation v2.

Can I choose which Day 1 case I write on the September 2027 CFE?

It depends on your situation. First-time writers must write the case linked to the Capstone 1 module they completed, which for September 2027 is Puck Points v1. Repeat writers and candidates challenging the CFE, such as internationally trained accountants, can choose any of the three.

I wrote the CFE in 2026. Can I write the same Day 1 case again?

Yes. June 2026 writers can write Karnat Bread v2, and September 2026 writers can write Singular Textiles v2. The users, background and much of the situational analysis carry over, but the strategic and operational issues are new.

Should I write the v1 or v2 Day 1 case?

Honestly, it matters less than how well you prepare. If you wrote in 2026, v2 of your case saves you time because you already know the business. If you’re challenging the CFE or don’t have a prior case, we usually recommend v1 (Puck Points). It has had a slightly higher pass rate, and v2 comes back in September 2028 if you need another attempt.

Is there a May 2027 CFE?

No. September 2027 is the only CFE sitting in 2027.

Will Karnat Bread or Singular Textiles be offered again after September 2027?

No. Based on CPA Canada’s schedule, September 2027 is the last sitting for both v2 cases. If you need another attempt after that, you’d be switching cases.

What Day 1 cases are planned for the September 2028 CFE?

Puck Points Video Games v2 and a new case, Q&S Choco Inc. v1.

Gevorg CPA

Lock in your CFE prep now

September 2027 is the only CFE sitting next year. That’s a long runway, and the candidates who use it well start early. Whether you’re writing Puck Points for the first time or going back to Karnat Bread or Singular Textiles, lock in your CFE prep now to make the most of the time you have before the 2027 CFE.

Questions about which program fits you? The Gevorg CPA team is happy to help.

CPA Foundational Development Exam Explained

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Current as of October 12, 2026. Dates are CPA’s and subject to change.

Foundational Development is the first exam most candidates will write in the new CPA Professional Program. It’s five hours, it’s entirely objective format, and two thirds of the marks sit in testlets, a test format that’s new to CPA Canada.

In this post we cover who writes it and when, how it’s structured and what content is tested. Then we walk through an example testlet, so you can see what one looks like, and finish with what we think will be trickiest. It’s the written version of our video, CPA Professional Program 2027: First Module FD Exam 1 Format, Testlets & Requirements. For all five exams at a high level, see Analyzing the New CPA Professional Program Exam Blueprints and its video.

At a glance

Item Detail
Module Module 1
Format 50 objective-format questions (33%) and 4 to 8 testlets (67%)
Time 5 hours
Reference materials available during the exam CPA Canada Handbooks, Income Tax Act, Excise Tax Act
To pass Sufficiency on financial reporting and management decision-making combined, and overall
Disclosed? No
First sitting September 15, 2027

Source: Exam Guide; CPA Western School of Business schedules.

Who writes it, and when

Once you meet the admission requirements, either through the Knowledge Assessment or the existing admission requirements, you start in Foundational Development, Module 1 of the program.

Milestone Date
First module starts May 15, 2027
First exam sitting September 15, 2027
Then January 19, May 17 and September 13, 2028

Source: CPA Western School of Business schedules.

Because 2027 is the first year of the program, there are no January or May sittings in 2027, only September. From 2028, exams will run in January, May and September. Under the Education and Experience Policies, you must write the exam within one year of finishing the module, with up to three attempts.

Structure

The exam is five hours long, and is made up of entirely objective format type questions. That gives students an average of two minutes per mark. There are two parts to the exam, as explained below.

Part What it is Weight
Stand-alone questions 50 objective-format questions 33%
Testlets 4 to 8 testlets, each designed to take 20 to 60 minutes 67%

A testlet is a set of questions built on one shared scenario: every question in it uses the same underlying information. Question types include multiple choice, multiple select, fill in the blank and drop-down list, and CPA says that list isn’t exhaustive (Exam Guide).

Content

Every topic area shows up on this exam.

Topic Weight
Management decision-making 15 to 25%
Financial reporting 10 to 20%
Big data and data analytics 5 to 15%
Ethics and governance 5 to 15%
Finance 5 to 15%
Non-financial reporting 5 to 15%
Strategy, risk management and innovation 5 to 15%
Assurance and trust 5 to 10%
Tax 5 to 10%
Value creation May be integrated into the other topics

Source: Exam Guide.

Management decision-making covers areas like management accounting, costing, performance, and IT and AI solutions. Here it’s at the “analyze” level: budgets and forecasts against strategy, variances, choosing a costing method, relevant costing decisions (make-or-buy, product mix and capacity, keep-or-drop, sell-or-process-further), pricing, performance and incentives, and IT and AI solutions, including privacy legislation and AI regulation (Module Guide).

The module also introduces the foundational topics, like economics and law, and the sub-foundational ones, like emerging technologies.

The level. CPA describes this module as applying competencies “at low levels of proficiency” and “in a directed manner”. In practice, the learning outcomes are a mix: many of the Decision Competencies are at identify or apply, while technical areas like management decision-making are at analyze, which is Level 3 on CPA’s five-level scale (Module Guide).

This is also the first exam that assesses the 24 Decision Competencies. The Knowledge Assessment doesn’t, which makes sense as the KA is an entrance exam, not the CPA program itself. We’ll cover the Decision Competencies in a later post.

Passing and reference materials

To pass, you need to demonstrate sufficiency on financial reporting and management decision-making combined, and also demonstrate sufficiency on the overall exam.

It’s a non-disclosed exam. Our reading is that we won’t get these exams after each sitting, the way CFE exams are released. Instead it will work like Core and PEP today, where the exams aren’t publicly released. CPA doesn’t define the term in the Exam Guide.

From this exam on, you get reference materials: the CPA Canada Handbooks, the Income Tax Act and the Excise Tax Act.

How a testlet works: an example

Testlets are two thirds of this exam, so here’s what one looks like. It’s our illustration, not a CPA sample.

The scenario. A manufacturer sells one product for $50 a unit. Variable costs are $30 a unit, and fixed costs are $120,000 a year. Next year it expects to sell 10,000 units. A new customer has offered to buy 2,000 extra units at $40 each. The company has spare capacity, so the order wouldn’t add any fixed costs.

Question 1 (fill in the blank). Enter the break-even point in units.

Question 2 (fill in the blank). Enter the increase in operating income if the company accepts the special order.

Question 3 (multiple choice). Select the factor the company should consider before accepting the order.

A. Whether the lower price could affect its regular customers and pricing
B. The share of fixed costs allocated to the order
C. The original cost of its existing equipment
D. Last year’s operating income

Question Working Answer
1. Break-even $120,000 ÷ ($50 − $30) 6,000 units
2. Special order 2,000 × ($40 − $30) $20,000
3. What to consider The real risk is pressure on the regular price A

For question 3, allocated fixed costs and the original equipment cost don’t change with the decision, and last year’s income isn’t relevant.

What this shows. All three questions come from one scenario, but none of them needs the answer to another. Each question uses different facts, and one fact isn’t needed at all.

Fact Used in
Price, $50 a unit Question 1
Variable cost, $30 a unit Questions 1 and 2
Fixed costs, $120,000 a year Question 1
Special order, 2,000 units at $40 Questions 2 and 3
Expected sales, 10,000 units Not needed

So with a testlet, start by reading the facts and the context carefully. Then work out which facts each question actually needs. CPA hasn’t published how testlets are marked, and in CPA’s sample questions, each question in the testlet draws on the scenario facts on its own.

What we think will be trickiest

Our read of the blueprint, not CPA’s. It’s here to give you a feel for the exam, not to tell you how to study.

The breadth. Every topic area is on this one exam, and none is worth more than 25%. There’s nothing you can afford to leave out. From our experience in coaching candidates, the volume of content required here is likely to cause some overwhelm even if the level of proficiency required remains on the lower side.

Answers you type in. Multiple choice is predictable: you can rule options out, and a guess still has a one-in-four chance on a four-option question. When you have to put your own number on the line, that safety net is gone. You know it or you don’t, and statistically you don’t benefit from the chance to guess.

Multiple select. These ask you to judge every option, not just spot the best one. That’s harder when you only half know a topic. In CPA’s sample, they’re also worth more: 4 and 5 marks each.

The good news. This is the most predictable exam in the program. CPA has published the topics and the level for each, and an objective-format exam rewards preparation you can plan. Of the four required exams, it’s the one we feel most confident about preparing for. And for the most part, candidates prefer the structure and familiarity of objective format over case writing. For anyone feeling overwhelmed by the technical breadth, one small saving grace is not having to apply the case-writing strategies the CFE is known for, yet.

The other piece of good news is that this exam does not yet introduce case writing. Now, at GCPA we’re big fans of case writing, but from the student perspective this gives students a chance to focus on the broad reach of the technical requirements, without also learning an entirely new style of reading and writing an exam.

The bottom line

Foundational Development is five hours, objective format, with two thirds of the marks in testlets.

Gevorg CPA

Planning for Foundational Development? Reach out to us

Whether you’re deciding when to start the new program or how to prepare for this exam, the Gevorg CPA team is here to help. Get in touch with your questions, and visit our CPA Professional Program page for more detail on the new program.

Want to know when our exam resources for the new program are available? Join our 2027 program mailing list and we’ll let you know.

Next in this series: CPA Core, where the cases start.

CPA resources

Links as at October 19, 2026.

CPA Knowledge Assessment Explained

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Current as of October 12, 2026. Dates are CPA’s and subject to change.

Foundational Development is the first exam most candidates will write in the new CPA Professional Program. It’s five hours, it’s entirely objective format, and two thirds of the marks sit in testlets, a test format that’s new to CPA Canada.

In this post we cover who writes it and when, how it’s structured and what content is tested. Then we walk through an example testlet, so you can see what one looks like, and finish with what we think will be trickiest. A video version is coming soon on our YouTube channel. For all five exams at a high level, see Analyzing the New CPA Professional Program Exam Blueprints and its video.

At a glance

Item Detail
Module Module 1
Format 50 objective-format questions (33%) and 4 to 8 testlets (67%)
Time 5 hours
Reference materials available during the exam CPA Canada Handbooks, Income Tax Act, Excise Tax Act
To pass Sufficiency on financial reporting and management decision-making combined, and overall
Disclosed? No
First sitting September 15, 2027

Source: Exam Guide; CPA Western School of Business schedules.

Who writes it, and when

Once you meet the admission requirements, either through the Knowledge Assessment or the existing admission requirements, you start in Foundational Development, Module 1 of the program.

Milestone Date
First module starts May 15, 2027
First exam sitting September 15, 2027
Then January 19, May 17 and September 13, 2028

Source: CPA Western School of Business schedules.

Because 2027 is the first year of the program, there are no January or May sittings in 2027, only September. From 2028, exams will run in January, May and September. Under the Education and Experience Policies, you must write the exam within one year of finishing the module, with up to three attempts.

Structure

The exam is five hours long, and is made up of entirely objective format type questions. That gives students an average of two minutes per mark. There are two parts to the exam, as explained below.

Part What it is Weight
Stand-alone questions 50 objective-format questions 33%
Testlets 4 to 8 testlets, each designed to take 20 to 60 minutes 67%

A testlet is a set of questions built on one shared scenario: every question in it uses the same underlying information. Question types include multiple choice, multiple select, fill in the blank and drop-down list, and CPA says that list isn’t exhaustive (Exam Guide).

Content

Every topic area shows up on this exam.

Topic Weight
Management decision-making 15 to 25%
Financial reporting 10 to 20%
Big data and data analytics 5 to 15%
Ethics and governance 5 to 15%
Finance 5 to 15%
Non-financial reporting 5 to 15%
Strategy, risk management and innovation 5 to 15%
Assurance and trust 5 to 10%
Tax 5 to 10%
Value creation May be integrated into the other topics

Source: Exam Guide.

Management decision-making covers areas like management accounting, costing, performance, and IT and AI solutions. Here it’s at the “analyze” level: budgets and forecasts against strategy, variances, choosing a costing method, relevant costing decisions (make-or-buy, product mix and capacity, keep-or-drop, sell-or-process-further), pricing, performance and incentives, and IT and AI solutions, including privacy legislation and AI regulation (Module Guide).

The module also introduces the foundational topics, like economics and law, and the sub-foundational ones, like emerging technologies.

The level. CPA describes this module as applying competencies “at low levels of proficiency” and “in a directed manner”. In practice, the learning outcomes are a mix: many of the Decision Competencies are at identify or apply, while technical areas like management decision-making are at analyze, which is Level 3 on CPA’s five-level scale (Module Guide).

This is also the first exam that assesses the 24 Decision Competencies. The Knowledge Assessment doesn’t, which makes sense as the KA is an entrance exam, not the CPA program itself. We’ll cover the Decision Competencies in a later post.

Passing and reference materials

To pass, you need to demonstrate sufficiency on financial reporting and management decision-making combined, and also demonstrate sufficiency on the overall exam.

It’s a non-disclosed exam. Our reading is that we won’t get these exams after each sitting, the way CFE exams are released. Instead it will work like Core and PEP today, where the exams aren’t publicly released. CPA doesn’t define the term in the Exam Guide.

From this exam on, you get reference materials: the CPA Canada Handbooks, the Income Tax Act and the Excise Tax Act.

How a testlet works: an example

Testlets are two thirds of this exam, so here’s what one looks like. It’s our illustration, not a CPA sample.

The scenario. A manufacturer sells one product for $50 a unit. Variable costs are $30 a unit, and fixed costs are $120,000 a year. Next year it expects to sell 10,000 units. A new customer has offered to buy 2,000 extra units at $40 each. The company has spare capacity, so the order wouldn’t add any fixed costs.

Question 1 (fill in the blank). Enter the break-even point in units.

Question 2 (fill in the blank). Enter the increase in operating income if the company accepts the special order.

Question 3 (multiple choice). Select the factor the company should consider before accepting the order.

A. Whether the lower price could affect its regular customers and pricing
B. The share of fixed costs allocated to the order
C. The original cost of its existing equipment
D. Last year’s operating income

Question Working Answer
1. Break-even $120,000 ÷ ($50 − $30) 6,000 units
2. Special order 2,000 × ($40 − $30) $20,000
3. What to consider The real risk is pressure on the regular price A

For question 3, allocated fixed costs and the original equipment cost don’t change with the decision, and last year’s income isn’t relevant.

What this shows. All three questions come from one scenario, but none of them needs the answer to another. Each question uses different facts, and one fact isn’t needed at all.

Fact Used in
Price, $50 a unit Question 1
Variable cost, $30 a unit Questions 1 and 2
Fixed costs, $120,000 a year Question 1
Special order, 2,000 units at $40 Questions 2 and 3
Expected sales, 10,000 units Not needed

So with a testlet, start by reading the facts and the context carefully. Then work out which facts each question actually needs. CPA hasn’t published how testlets are marked, and in CPA’s sample questions, each question in the testlet draws on the scenario facts on its own.

What we think will be trickiest

Our read of the blueprint, not CPA’s. It’s here to give you a feel for the exam, not to tell you how to study.

The breadth. Every topic area is on this one exam, and none is worth more than 25%. There’s nothing you can afford to leave out. From our experience in coaching candidates, the volume of content required here is likely to cause some overwhelm even if the level of proficiency required remains on the lower side.

Answers you type in. Multiple choice is predictable: you can rule options out, and a guess still has a one-in-four chance on a four-option question. When you have to put your own number on the line, that safety net is gone. You know it or you don’t, and statistically you don’t benefit from the chance to guess.

Multiple select. These ask you to judge every option, not just spot the best one. That’s harder when you only half know a topic. In CPA’s sample, they’re also worth more: 4 and 5 marks each.

The good news. This is the most predictable exam in the program. CPA has published the topics and the level for each, and an objective-format exam rewards preparation you can plan. Of the four required exams, it’s the one we feel most confident about preparing for. And for the most part, candidates prefer the structure and familiarity of objective format over case writing. For anyone feeling overwhelmed by the technical breadth, one small saving grace is not having to apply the case-writing strategies the CFE is known for, yet.

The other piece of good news is that this exam does not yet introduce case writing. Now, at GCPA we’re big fans of case writing, but from the student perspective this gives students a chance to focus on the broad reach of the technical requirements, without also learning an entirely new style of reading and writing an exam.

The bottom line

Foundational Development is five hours, objective format, with two thirds of the marks in testlets.

Gevorg CPA

Planning for Foundational Development? Reach out to us

Whether you’re deciding when to start the new program or how to prepare for this exam, the Gevorg CPA team is here to help. Get in touch with your questions, and visit our CPA Professional Program page for more detail on the new program.

Want to know when our exam resources for the new program are available? Join our 2027 program mailing list and we’ll let you know.

Next in this series: CPA Core, where the cases start.

CPA resources

Links as at October 19, 2026.

Analyzing the New CPA Professional Program Exam Blueprints

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CPA has released the exam blueprints for the new CPA Professional Program, in its Exam Guide, issued August 27, 2026. For the first time, there’s enough detail to really think about these exams: what each one will be like, and how to prepare for it. If you’re planning to start the new program, here’s what you need to know.

This post goes through each exam at a high level. For each one we cover three things: the structure, the content, and the study focus, including which exams give you reference materials and which don’t. At the end are our key takeaways.

CPA calls Core, Leadership and Professional Readiness “Professional Final Exams” 1, 2 and 3. We use the exam names throughout. Here are the program and exam details:

At a glance

Exam Format Time Reference materials available during the exam
Knowledge Assessment (optional) 150 objective-format questions, two timed parts 5 hours None – closed book exam
Foundational Development 50 objective-format questions and 4 to 8 testlets 5 hours Handbooks, Income Tax Act, Excise Tax Act
CPA Core, Common Two to three cases, each 60 to 120 minutes 3 hours Handbooks, Income Tax Act, Excise Tax Act
CPA Core, Licensure Part A: the Common cases. Part B: one 2-hour case 5 hours Handbooks, Income Tax Act, Excise Tax Act
CPA Leadership One comprehensive case 5 hours Handbooks, Income Tax Act, Excise Tax Act
CPA Professional Readiness One 2-hour judgment case and one 1-hour ethics case 3 hours Handbooks, Income Tax Act, Excise Tax Act

Source: Exam Guide.

The Knowledge Assessment

CPA calls the Knowledge Assessment an optional entrance exam. It’s for candidates who don’t have the required accounting and business courses to enter the program but do meet the eligibility requirements to write the Knowledge Assessment. CPA Western School of Business’s Knowledge Assessment page has more information, including the cost and planned offerings.

The covered content is as follows:

Part Topic Weight
A Assurance, data analytics, ethics and governance, finance, non-financial reporting, strategy, tax 10 to 15% each
A Foundational competencies, such as economics and law 10 to 15%
B Financial reporting 50%
B Management decision-making 50%

CPA’s full name for that last area is “Management Decision-Making and Information (Data) Systems/Technology”. It covers budgets and forecasts, variance analysis, costing methods, cost-volume-profit and break-even analysis, pricing, performance frameworks and scorecards, responsibility centres, incentives, continuous improvement, and IT and AI in decision-making.

This exam is pure technical knowledge, and it’s broad. There are no reference materials: no Handbook, no Income Tax Act, nothing. It’s the only exam in the program where you can’t look anything up. You also need a pass on financial reporting and on management decision-making separately, and a pass overall.

Foundational Development

This is the first exam most candidates will write.

The exam is five hours long and entirely objective format. There are 50 stand-alone questions, worth 33% of the exam. The other 67% is four to eight testlets. A testlet is a set of questions built on one shared scenario, and each one is designed to take 20 to 60 minutes. Question types include multiple choice, multiple select, fill in the blank and drop-down list.

The covered content is as follows:

Topic Weight
Management decision-making 15 to 25%
Financial reporting 10 to 20%
Data analytics, ethics and governance, finance, non-financial reporting, strategy 5 to 15% each
Assurance and tax 5 to 10% each

Source: Exam Guide.

Foundational Development is extremely technical. You need to know the rules and apply them accurately, across every topic area.

CPA Core: Common and Licensure

CPA Core is where the cases start, and it has two paths. On the Common path, you write the Common exam. On the Licensure path, for candidates considering a public accounting licence, you write the same Common cases as Part A, plus a Part B case, in the same sitting.

The Common exam is two to three cases in three hours, each case between 60 and 120 minutes. The exam doesn’t control your time between cases, so managing it is on you. Licensure adds Part B, one two-hour case. On the Licensure path the sitting is five hours: three for Part A and two for Part B, each timed separately.

The covered content is as follows:

Topic Common Part A Licensure Part B
Assurance 20 to 35% 30 to 50%
Financial reporting 20 to 35% 20 to 40%
Tax 10 to 25% 15 to 25%
Data analytics 5 to 15% Up to 10%
Non-financial reporting 5 to 15% Up to 10%

Source: Exam Guide.

Core is extremely technical and case focused. You need solid technical knowledge in assurance, financial reporting and tax, applied in a case. CPA describes these cases as non-complex, with clear requirements.

CPA Leadership

One comprehensive case, five hours long: the longest single case in the program. CPA describes it as moderately complex, with limited direction and less prescriptive requirements. You decide your own approach, which issues matter most, and how to structure your response. CPA also says it’s designed to be time pressured, the only case exam it describes that way.

The covered content is as follows:

Topic Weight
Strategy, risk management and innovation 20 to 35%
Ethics and governance 15 to 30%
Management decision-making 15 to 30%
Data analytics and finance 10 to 20% each
Assurance, financial reporting, non-financial reporting and tax Up to 10% each

Source: Exam Guide.

Leadership is less technical than Core, but it’s still a case. The focus moves to critical thinking and judgment. You’ll need to prioritize, connect your analyses to each other, and land on a recommendation that holds together.

CPA Professional Readiness

Two cases in three hours: a two-hour case focused on professional judgment, and a one-hour case focused on ethical decision-making. You manage the time between them. CPA says these cases are not meant to be time pressured, and you must pass each case to pass the exam.

The covered content is as follows:

Area What CPA says
Topic weights None published
Technical areas May provide context but are not the focus
Calculations No complex calculations; detailed analysis is provided where needed
Approach Complex and ambiguous, with multiple acceptable approaches
Ethics case No clear right answer

Source: Exam Guide.

This is the least technical exam and the most judgment focused. It’s still case writing, but the emphasis is on professional judgment, ethics and the public interest. Technical analysis supports the decision rather than driving it.

Key dates for the first year of exams

Exam Module starts First sitting
Knowledge Assessment Not a module March 23, 2027
Foundational Development May 15, 2027 September 15, 2027
CPA Core, Licensure May 29, 2027 September 16, 2027
CPA Leadership June 26, 2027 September 15, 2027
CPA Core, Common July 10, 2027 September 16, 2027
CPA Professional Readiness December 11, 2027 January 20, 2028

Going forward, exams will be offered in January, May and September.

Key takeaways

  1. Greater emphasis on professional judgment and critical thinking. The Knowledge Assessment and Foundational Development are objective format and highly technical. Core brings in cases, still very technical. By Leadership and Professional Readiness, the technical content steps back, and critical thinking and judgment take over.
  2. Only the Leadership exam will be publicly disclosed. Of all the exams, CPA lists only Leadership as a disclosed exam; every other exam is non-disclosed, just like the current CPA PEP exams (only the CFE cases are disclosed). That means candidates won’t have a bank of past exams to study from, look for patterns in, and use to predict what’s coming. Past exams have been a huge part of how candidates prepare. With fewer to lean on, critical thinking becomes even more important. You’ll need to really understand the technical content, read each case on its own terms, and work out what’s being asked and what matters.
  3. We don’t know yet how the exams will be marked. Will there still be NC, RC, C and CD? The Exam Guide doesn’t say. It says each exam has a passing standard set by the Board of Examiners, defines sufficiency as a mark that meets the minimum threshold, and says Professional Readiness cases are marked holistically. We don’t expect the four levels used on Days 2 and 3 of the CFE to carry over as they are. We expect a similar model, but we won’t know the details until CPA releases them.
  4. Trust the transition. The profession has done this before. Having so few past exams isn’t a disadvantage for the first group of candidates; it’s simply how the exams work going forward. Candidates who write the new program now will be in largely the same position as those who write it years from now.

We’ll keep this post updated as CPA releases more details. As you start your journey in the new CPA Professional Program, reach out to the Gevorg team for support.

CPA resources

Links as at October 5, 2026.

Passing the CFE on Your Third Attempt: What Rachael Learned After Two Close Calls

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If you’ve been unsuccessful on the CPA Common Final Examination (CFE), you’re in far more common company than most people realize. Having coached CPA candidates for years, we’ve seen just how many different paths lead to the Canadian CPA designation, and plenty of them include more than one CFE attempt.

That’s why we sat down again with GCPA alum Rachael, who passed the CFE on her third and final attempt. What makes her story valuable isn’t the unsuccessful results. It’s how she worked through them, adjusted her approach, and kept going.

Watch the full conversation on YouTube

Rachael’s CFE Timeline

  • Attempt 1 (May): Unsuccessful, Decile 1. She did not clear Level 3 (depth in her role, Assurance) and also fell short on Management Accounting at Level 2.
  • Attempt 2 (September, immediately after): Unsuccessful again, Decile 1, this time on Level 1. By her own estimate, she was one or two questions away.
  • Attempt 3: Registered for May, then chose to defer to September. She passed, and cleared every area.

Two Decile 1 results in a row. As Rachael put it, it felt like “a cruel, cruel lesson.” But it wasn’t the end of her story.

Coming Close Twice

Rachael received her first results while on a family vacation. She gave herself time to feel it, then decided to go straight into the September rewrite with a focused sprint: review what she knew, dig deeper into Assurance, and tighten up her time management.

The second result, arriving just before Christmas, hit differently. “It felt like pure exhaustion,” she shared. She had gone in with hope and a “what’s the worst that could happen?” mindset, and then it felt like the worst had happened.

Her takeaway, and the one she most wants other candidates to hear: there is no direct line and no perfect journey. You take each thing as it comes.

You Don’t Have to Relearn Everything

When Rachael restarted in February, she felt lost. Should she redo everything? Did she really know anything at all?

The answer was no, she didn’t need to redo everything. Looking at the stacks of cases, Integrations, and Practice Cases from her earlier attempts, she realized that what actually needed restudying was much smaller than it looked. “It’s more going to be the mind game and the time game,” she said. The real work was deciding what to review and how.

Knowing When to Wait

After studying through the spring for a May rewrite, Rachael made the difficult decision to defer. She had been doing all the right things, but she was mentally exhausted. Work was heavy following a major ERP implementation, and when she told her family she was stepping back, their response was simple: they had seen it too, and they supported her.

Today, the CFE is offered only in September, so candidates rewriting will have a longer runway by default. Rachael’s advice for using that time well:

  • Build up gradually. Push through spring and summer, then start easing off in August.
  • Protect the final 10 days. Before the exam, shift to light review only: notes, cue cards, good sleep, and whatever helps you decompress. Even if you’re working until the week of the exam, find a way to shift gears mentally.
  • Trust that you won’t forget. Many candidates worry that slowing down means losing ground. Rachael found the opposite. That breathing room is what let her walk in with the mental capacity to perform.

What Rachael Did Differently the Third Time

Better pacing. On her first attempt, she tried to do too much, including writing three Day 3 cases back to back to simulate exam day. By the third attempt, she recognized that she already knew she could sit for five hours and work through roughly 21 Assessment Opportunities across three cases. She didn’t need to prove that to herself again.

Trusting what she knew. A first-time writer often walks in wondering whether they know anything. A rewriter has results that show exactly what they do and don’t know. “The idea of going into Day 3 and knowing nothing is just not the truth,” Rachael said.

Working with a coach who fit her needs. Rachael worked with Mallory, a coach she found through Gevorg CPA, throughout her program. For Rachael, Mallory was an accountability partner and someone to share her thoughts, fears, and frustrations with. Other candidates may need a tougher, more directive style. Her advice is to find the right fit, much like choosing a therapist, and to remember that coaching doesn’t have to be a six-month commitment. A handful of sessions over the summer can help you refine your approach.

Taking accommodations seriously. Rachael shared that she could have applied for exam accommodations and chose not to, and looking back, she wishes she had. With only September sittings, a first-time rewrite no longer leaves you without time to apply. If you need an accommodation, plan ahead and apply. No one else needs to know, and you deserve every chance of success.

Don’t Just Repeat the Same Preparation

If you do the same thing again, how can you expect a different result? Before rewriting, be honest with yourself:

  • Did you follow your study schedule?
  • Did you have an accountability partner, study buddy, or study network?
  • Were your time management and case strategy working?

At the same time, avoid over-rotating. Failing in one area doesn’t mean you should study only that area. You still need coverage everywhere, with extra focus where your results point.

Read Your Results Carefully

Rachael’s first results surprised her. With a background in audit and risk, she expected Assurance to come easily. With years in finance, she assumed Management Accounting would make intuitive business sense. Instead, she did better in Financial Reporting than in either. Her lesson: set aside your assumptions about which areas are “easy” for you, and look at what the numbers actually say.

Equally important, the areas you passed were not luck. “Your passes were not luck. You did what you needed to do,” Rachael said.

The CFE passing profile is publicly available, but it isn’t simple. Unlike a university exam with a single percentage, the CFE is assessed across four levels, and candidates often misread them. For example:

  • Passing Level 4 (breadth) does not mean you passed Day 3.
  • Passing Level 3 (depth in your role) does not mean you passed Day 2.

Misinterpreting your results can send your preparation in the wrong direction. Take the time to understand them properly, whether with us, a mentor, or another trusted resource, before you build your rewrite plan.

And a word on online forums: be careful with Reddit threads. People aren’t necessarily lying, but they are sharing their own perception, often without the full picture. Candidates who later win awards for top scores regularly say they thought they had failed.

What Rachael Would Tell You Now

Is another attempt worth it? Rachael’s answer is unequivocal: “It’s always worth it.” Whether your path has been a two-year sprint or a five-to-six-year marathon while working and raising a family, you’ve made it this far.

On her third attempt, Rachael didn’t just scrape through. She passed on every level, including the areas that had held her back before. And the journey gave her something a first-time pass wouldn’t have: it put her imposter syndrome to rest. After a 20-year finance career and a return to accounting as a mature student, she knows she earned it. “It is mine now, and I conquered it. You can too.”

It’s hard to hear an unsuccessful result, and we’d never take that away from anyone. But the resilience and grit you build working through something difficult are qualities that stay with you long after the exam.

Preparing for Your Next CFE Attempt?

If you’re planning to rewrite, this conversation will help you think carefully about your results, your study approach, and what needs to change before your next attempt.

Watch the full video with Rachael and learn more about our CPA CFE preparation resources at gevorgcpa.com.

The Final 7 Days Before the CPA CFE: Gevorg CPA Memo to CFE Writers

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Since all of you reading this are already deep in CFE mode, we thought we’d make this blog more digestible for you by writing it as a CFE memo. Please enjoy. And for any of you who are reading this in panic mode, from the GCPA team, we believe in you, you can do this, and we wish you nothing but the best!

To: CFE Candidates

From: Gevorg CPA Team

Date: September 8, 2026

Re: How to approach the final seven days before the CFE

Purpose

In the last week before every CFE, the GCPA team receives a similar version of the following question from our students: what should I actually be doing right now? This memo will provide context and insight into what your final days of preparation should, and sometimes more importantly, should not include.

Scope and assumptions

We have assumed the following. If any of these do not hold, the advice below will not fit your situation.

  1. You are writing all three days of the CFE.
  2. You have prepared consistently. You worked through PEP, completed Capstone 1 and Capstone 2, and you have written and debriefed cases over a period of months. Your preparation is substantially complete.
  3. You are not starting from zero. If you began studying a week or two ago, this memo does not apply to you. Your priorities in the next seven days are different from the ones described here.
  4. We count the final week backwards, so “seven days out” means one week before you write. When we refer to Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3, we mean the three days of the exam itself.

Analysis

Your exam fitness is already built, the final week can’t build more

Preparing for the CFE is a marathon. Your ability to read a case, rank the AOs, and write with the right balance of depth and breadth was not built in a week, and cannot be built in a week. It was built slowly, over months of technical work, repeated case writing, and feedback. No runner builds their fitness in the seven days before a race, and no candidate builds case-writing ability in the seven days before the CFE.

That has a consequence people tend to skip past. If the fitness is already built, the final week cannot meaningfully add to it. That said, there are two things that can happen in the final week. The first is supporting your head space or mental fortitude to challenge the exam. And the second, is over-working and over studying that ultimately fatigues you to the point of hurting your exam performance.

The first thing: protecting your head space

Head space is not a soft concept on this exam. It is the difference between reading a required and trusting your first read, or reading it four times and still not committing. It is the difference between ranking your AOs and moving, or second-guessing the ranking until you have burned twenty minutes you needed at the end. Confidence shows up as decisiveness, and decisiveness is what protects your time.

So the test for any activity this week is simple. Does this make me more settled, or less? Rereading your own debrief notes and seeing how much you have fixed since May does. A brand new question bank four days out does not, and neither does the group chat where everyone is announcing how many cases they have written. This is not the week to go looking for hard truths, because there is no longer time to act on them.

The second thing: over-working yourself into a worse result

The other thing that can happen this week is that you quietly spend the capacity you are going to need. This one is hard to see, because studying feels virtuous. Nobody feels guilty at hour ten, and the cost does not show up until the exam room.

The clearest version is the candidate who writes a full case three days out, performs poorly because they are already tired, and walks into Day 1 shaken. That result told them nothing useful, because what they measured was a depleted version of themselves. The quieter version is studying twelve hours a day right through to the night before and arriving on Day 1 already spent, performing several notches below what they are actually capable of.

Why fatigue shows up where it does

Treat your brain the way a runner treats their legs in the final week. It is a muscle, it has been under load for months, and it is not fresh. Capstone 2 drew it down, and the exam is going to ask you to hold up across three consecutive writing days, not one.

Fatigue also does not announce itself as feeling tired. It shows up as degraded judgement. You rank your AOs more slowly and keep revisiting the ranking. You write more, but shallower, because you are not confident enough to commit. You misread an AO required and catch it on the last page. You run out of time on the final case of Day 3. None of that is a knowledge failure. It is a capacity failure, and capacity is the one thing this week can genuinely change, in either direction.

What is still worth working on

To be clear, we are not telling you to do nothing for seven days. We are telling you to be honest about what seven days can actually move.

Not movable now: technical depth in an area you never learned properly, comfort with a competency you have avoided all year, or a real gap in your understanding of a standard. Going after these now costs energy and returns very little, and it tends to produce panic rather than knowledge.

Still worth your time now:

  • Debriefing. If you have cases sitting un-debriefed, that is the highest value work available to you this week. The learning on this exam happens in the debrief, not in the writing, and a proper debrief of a case you already wrote costs a fraction of the energy of writing a new one.
  • Thinking through and visualizing your approach. Walk yourself through how you open a case, how you rank the AOs, when you start writing, and what you do when a required runs long. You are rehearsing a routine you already have, not building a new one. This is the single cheapest way to arrive on Day 1 feeling like you know what you are doing.
  • Reminding yourself of high level concepts. Frameworks, decision points, the shape of a good analysis in each of the competency areas. Stay at altitude. This is not the week for paragraph 5 of a standard.
  • Reviewing generally through your own notes. Your summaries, your debrief notes, your Capstone 1 material. The point is familiarity and reassurance, not new coverage. You will be surprised how much you have absorbed since May, and noticing that is genuinely useful right now.
  • Taking care of yourself. Sleep properly. Eat real meals at normal times. Go for walks, ideally outside and without your phone. Have a few intentional conversations with people who are not writing the CFE and who will talk to you about something else. Move your body a little.

We want to be clear that the last one is not filler at the end of the list. Rest, food, movement, and human contact are what rebuild the capacity you are going to spend across three writing days, and they are what keep your head space steady while you wait. An hour of walking outside will do more for your Day 1 performance than an hour of rereading a standard you already know. That trade feels wrong, which is exactly why so few candidates make it.

Notice what everything on this list has in common. It is consolidation and recovery, not acquisition. Habits, familiarity, and capacity respond to light work in a week. Knowledge does not.

Recommendation

Taper. Bring your volume down deliberately over the next seven days so that your capacity comes back up and your head space stays intact. Front-load anything demanding into the first two days of the week, spend the middle on light targeted review, and use the final two days for logistics and rest.

Frequently asked questions

What should I study during the final week before the CFE?

Review your own debrief notes, your recurring weak habits, and your case approach, and refresh your Capstone 1 material. Practise finding guidance quickly rather than reading it deeply. Do not start new technical topics or new study materials in the final week, since there is no longer enough time for new knowledge to become usable under exam conditions.

Should I write full cases in the last few days?

No. Write your last full case around six or seven days out, then stop. Writing a full case within three days of the exam is a poor use of limited energy, and a weak result on a tired practice attempt tends to damage your confidence without telling you anything you can act on in time.

When should I stop studying before exam day?

Stop by midday the day before you write. A short, light review in the morning is fine. After that, the cost to your clarity on Day 1 outweighs anything you would gain. Use the rest of the day for packing, logistics, and rest.

What should I prepare for CFE exam day?

Confirm your writing location, start time, and arrival window. Plan your route with a buffer. Set aside your identification and only the permitted items. Complete any required hardware or software checks in advance. Pack layers for a cold room, along with food and water. Verify every requirement against the current instructions from CPA Canada and your regional body, since these vary by cycle and location.

How can I sleep better the night before the CFE, and does it really matter?

Honestly, you are probably not going to sleep well the night before, and that is fine. Almost nobody does, and you have already worked and studied on very little sleep plenty of times. Bank your sleep in the week beforehand, when you can actually control it, then stop worrying about the last night. Keep your usual bedtime rather than getting into bed unusually early, stop studying by midday, get some daylight and light movement, and keep screens and the group chat out of the last hour. Have everything packed and your alarms set so nothing is unresolved. If you lie awake anyway, accept it and move on.

 

How to Respond to CPA PERT Reviewer Comments

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Submitting your Practical Experience Reporting Tool (PERT) reports is a key milestone in obtaining your Canadian CPA designation. After you provide your detailed experience report, it is very common for the CPA reviewer in charge of assessing your submission to have follow-up questions or request revisions.

Getting your report returned with reviewer comments is a standard part of the PERT process. Before outlining how to systematically tackle these revisions, there are a few important realities about the review process that candidates should understand.

The Human Element of PERT Reviewers

When you submit a PERT report, it is evaluated by a human reviewer. Because this process involves human judgment, there is naturally an element of subjectivity.

Two candidates could submit nearly identical experience reports. For one reviewer, the report might clear perfectly without a single question. For another reviewer, that exact same report might receive reviewer comments and revision requests. Because there is no way of perfectly predicting a reviewer’s specific preferences, receiving comments doesn’t necessarily mean you did something wrong. It simply means that your specific reviewer needs a little more context to connect the dots and confidently approve your competencies. We talked about this in detail, specifically for Alberta PERT candidates who have a reputation of facing a more challenging reviewer hurdle.

Managing Expectations: The Reality of Progression

Another common reason you might receive reviewer comments is related to where you are in your CPA journey. CPA reviewers expect to see progression in your experience over time; they will almost never approve a Level 2 technical proficiency right out of the gate.

This is a topic we have talked about in the past on the blog as well. For example, in our article, Is One Example Enough for PERT Enabling Competencies?, we discussed how the core strategy for completing your competencies relies on demonstrating a gradual progression. In your first report, you might claim a Level 0. In your second, a Level 1. It isn’t until your later reports, after providing multiple complex examples over time, that a Level 2 is typically granted.

Similarly, we have highlighted this expectation in our guide on Catching up on CPA PERT Reports. Even if you are submitting multiple catch-up reports at once, you must still show a chronological progression. If you submit your very first 6-month report and request a Level 2, the reviewer will likely ask for revisions or downgrade you to a Level 1. They need to see your duties evolve and your autonomy increase over the full 30 months.

5 Key Steps to Respond to CPA Reviewer Comments

Understanding these expectations helps frame the reviewer’s feedback. Now, let’s look at how to tackle the revisions efficiently through a clear, 5-step process.

Step 1: Note Your Response Deadline

Before you review the comments or begin drafting a response, you must make note of your submission deadline and set yourself as many alarms and reminders as required to ensure you don’t miss this. This is critical. It is not a suggestion. You cannot request an extension. You must reply within the timeline.

Missing this deadline essentially causes you to “surrender” any experience within the report that did not get cleared on the first pass. If you do not respond within the time allotted, you lose your ability to go back and edit or revise those comments to utilize your experience. We have seen students lose the ability to use over 2 years of hard-earned experience simply due to failing to respond within the allotted time limit. Treat this deadline as an absolute priority.

Step 2: Read and Process the Feedback Objectively

When a report is returned for revisions, it is important to process the feedback objectively before making any edits. Read the reviewer’s comments carefully. Reviewers often leave specific notes about what is missing or what requires clarification. Your objective in this step is simply comprehension: understand exactly what the reviewer is saying and what aspect of your role they are trying to clarify.

Step 3: Pinpoint the Targeted Area of Your Report

PERT reports are comprehensive and contain multiple sections. Once you have read the feedback, you need to pinpoint exactly which section the reviewer is targeting. Start by identifying:

  • Is this a Technical Competency or an Enabling Competency?
  • Which specific sub-competency is being targeted? (e.g., Financial Reporting vs. Audit and Assurance).
  • Which specific part of your response is in question? (Are they looking at the Situation, the Action, or the Result?)

By isolating the exact area of your report the reviewer is speaking about, you keep your revisions focused and avoid unnecessarily altering sections of your report that were already approved.

Step 4: Identify the Actionable Change Required

Next, identify what actionable change the reviewer wants you to make. Ask yourself what the core of their request is. Reviewer comments usually fall into a few common categories:

  • Lack of specific examples: You may have explained a process generally (e.g., “I perform variance analysis”), and the reviewer requires a real-world example of a specific, non-routine variance you analyzed.
  • Missing the “How” and “Why”: You might have stated what you did, but the reviewer needs to understand how you did it step-by-step, and why it matters to the organization.
  • Clarifying Autonomy: The reviewer might need you to use “I” instead of “We” to clarify your independent role versus your manager’s or team’s role.
  • Progression/Complexity: Based on the progression expectations mentioned earlier, they may need you to demonstrate more complexity to justify granting a higher proficiency level.

Translate their comment into a direct instruction. (For example: “The reviewer needs me to add an example of a complex accounting standard I applied.”)

Step 5: Draft a Targeted Revision

With a clear understanding of the targeted area and the required change, you can now draft your revision.

When writing your response, be clear, concise, and direct. Address the reviewer’s comments explicitly. If they asked how you calculated a specific metric, provide the exact methodology. If they asked for the impact of your work, explicitly state: “The impact of this analysis was…”

You rarely need to rewrite your original response entirely. Usually, you only need to add a few specific sentences or a new paragraph to your original draft to bridge the gap. Provide the specific evidence the reviewer requested so they can confidently approve your level.

  • Pro-Tip: Before resubmitting, read the reviewer’s original comment, and then immediately read your new draft. Ensure your addition directly and thoroughly answers their prompt.

Final Thoughts

Navigating PERT is a detailed process, and receiving reviewer comments is simply a standard step on your path to the CPA designation. The reviewer’s goal is to ensure your experience meets the requirements set by CPA Canada. Guard your deadlines carefully, manage your expectations regarding progression, and follow a systematic approach to your revisions to get your reports cleared efficiently.

Looking for additional support with your PERT reports, aiming for Level 2 competencies, or studying for the CFE? Review the resources, templates, and CPA coaching programs available at www.gevorgcpa.com to help navigate your path to becoming a Canadian CPA.

Tackling Unknown AOs on the CFE

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How to Tackle Unknown AOs on the CFE

Picture this: You are writing Day 2 or Day 3 of the CFE. You just systematically completed a standard inventory valuation, worked through a variance analysis, and you are managing your time perfectly. You flip to the next appendix, read the first paragraph, and realize you are being asked for the accounting treatment of a crypto-backed joint venture in deep-sea mining.

Welcome to the “Unknown AO.”

Every year, the Board of Examiners (BOE) includes Assessment Opportunities (AOs) on the CFE that are completely non-routine, obscure, or nowhere to be found in your standard study templates. As a CPA exam coach here at Gevorg CPA, I see our candidates struggle with these issues very often. In the recent release of the May 2025 report, BOE told candidates to prepare better in this area. As part of our review of this most recent BOE report, we are tackling this issue within this article. We will highlight some of the key tactics we teach to handle these unknown AOs.

The Perspective Shift

Why does the BOE do this?

The BOE explicitly includes these unusual AOs because they want to see if you, as a future Canadian CPA, can handle the unknown in a professional environment. The test isn’t just about your technical memory; it’s about applying the CPA Way (Assess → Analyze → Conclude → Communicate) to an accounting scenario you have never encountered before.

They are testing your ability to process the unknown quickly, provide a commercially reasonable response, and move on. Spending 40 minutes hunting through Knotia for the perfect technical answer to one unknown FR AO is like spending three hours perfectly formatting the fonts on a balance sheet while leaving the income statement completely blank. You have robbed precious time from the routine AOs that actually guarantee your pass.

Remember: If it’s weird to you, it’s weird to everyone. You are competing against the curve. The candidate sitting next to you is grappling with this exact same issue. Keep your composure and execute your strategy.

Have a Planned Response

When you encounter the unknown in Financial Reporting, where we see the majority if Unknown AOs, you need to stop and think about the issue first before jumping to find the applicable handbook section. First, consider how to bucket the topic, then guide yourself to apply a framework:

1. Labeling the Unknown: Identification IS Half the Battle

First things first: simply identifying and labeling an AO as “unknown” is half the battle.

The unknown AO trap on the CFE happens when you panic and try to treat a non-routine AO exactly like a routine one. Trying to forcefully fit an obscure, software licensing issue into a standard 5-step IFRS 15 Revenue Recognition template won’t work, and it will certainly burn valuable time that should be spent tackling the rest of the exam. 

True exam confidence doesn’t mean having a photographic memory of the CPA Canada Handbook. Confidence comes from knowing what is not routine. When you read a prompt and recognize that it is highly unusual, validate that professional judgment. Actively labeling it as an “Unknown AO” in your mind stops you from wasting time searching for a perfect template that does not exist.

2. Bucket the Issue

For technical FR AOs where you aren’t clear what it is, what the actual accounting issue is, and therefore what the actual GAAP standard to consider is, the trick is to first avoid panic. Stop and really think about: What IS the thing in question?

If you had to bucket it into a category, or describe it to someone, where does it fit?

  • Is it kind of like an asset? Is it a piece of equipment, is it cash, or an investment?
  • Is it kind of like a liability? Are you going to owe someone money?
  • Is it kind of like an expense? Has someone done work for you, or will you owe someone because of a service?
  • Is it kind of like equity? Have you issued shares, or granted an ownership stake?

For example: Imagine the case introduces a complex “government carbon emission credit.” Instead of freezing because you’ve never studied carbon credits, bucket it. The company purchased them, owns them, and will use them to avoid future fines. It holds future economic value, so it is kind of like an asset—specifically, an intangible one.

Thinking about the issue in this way is going to make your Knotia search significantly easier, and will help get you somewhere in terms of answering the “what is this?” question before you apply a formal framework.

3. Apply a Technical Framework

Once you have bucketed the issue, try searching Knotia. Search the specific trigger words right out of the case alongside your new bucket category. Grab the closest criteria you can find, framed with support from your bucketing activity above, and apply it. We say this often to our students, you need to practice desperate Knotia searches as part of your studying. You will quickly learn that searching in Knotia is not as slick as you would like it to be. The more specific and unique your search word is, the more useful the search result. Do not try this for the first time on exam date.

If your search comes up empty and you are completely lost in the Handbook, stop, and default to the three key components of any accounting standard:

  • Recognition: When does it go on the books?
  • Measurement: How much is it worth?
  • Disclosure: What do we tell the users of the financial statements?

4. Bare minimum: Case facts + so what + recommendation

When all else fails, write whatever reasonable accounting logic comes to mind, but you MUST apply case facts from the appendices, and you ALWAYS provide a recommendation.

You can draft the most logical analysis in the world, but if it doesn’t use the specific numbers, quotes, or situations provided in the case, you aren’t scoring points. You need to integrate the case facts (to Assess the situation), structure your logic using handbook criteria or the Big Three (to Analyze the issue), make a definitive journal entry or treatment recommendation (to Conclude), and ensure your advice is clear and actionable for the client (to Communicate). The BOE rewards candidates who make a decision over those who skip the issue. 

Get support at Gevorg CPA

You don’t have to face the CFE curveballs alone, register for a Gevorg CPA CFE Prep program today.

We will help you navigate this exact challenge and much more. From mastering “Unknown AOs” to perfecting your time management and building rock-solid technical frameworks, we provide the grounded, strategic coaching you need to conquer the CFE.

Don’t leave your exam success to chance. Join us today.

CPA Canada 2025 Pass Rates Released

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CPA Canada has now released the 2025 Professional Education Program (PEP) and Common Final Exam (CFE) exam pass rates. The 2026 pass rates will be released in February 2027.

2025 CFE Pass Rates

Below are the official exam pass rates as reported by CPA Canada.

The 2025 CFE pass rate is 69.8%.

CFE Offering

Cumulative Pass Rates

First Attempt

Second Attempt

Third Attempt

May and September 2025*

69.8%

n/a

n/a

May and September 2024*

67.3%

n/a

n/a

May and September 2023*

70.5%

n/a

n/a

May and September 2022*

71.3%

n/a

n/a

May and September 2021*

73.6%

n/a

n/a

September 2020

75.8%

n/a

n/a

September 2019

76.3%

87.4%

n/a

September 2018

77.6%

87.5%

90.8%

September 2017

77.6%

88.1%

90.6%

September 2016

76.8%

88.6%

91.4%

May 2016

68.7%

75.4%

79.9%

September 2015

82.9%

94.6%

96.6%

*In 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021, there were two offerings of the CFE. The 69.8%, 67.3%, 70.5%, 71.3% and 73.6% pass rates are the combined averages of the first-time writers in both the May and September CFEs.

The 2025 pass rate increased 2% versus the 2024 CFE which was the lowest pass rate on record at 67.3%. 

2025 Professional Education Program (PEP) Pass Rates

Below are the updated 2025 PEP exam pass rates:

CPA PEP Module

2025 Pass Rate

2024 Pass Rate

2023 Pass Rate

2022 Pass Rate

2021 Pass Rate

2020 Pass Rate

2019 Pass Rate

Core 1

72.4%

71.9%

72.1%

74.0%

77.1%

81.9%

79.4%

Core 2

81.8%

80.4%

78.4%

82.5%

85.3%

86.2%

84.3%

Taxation

87.5%

86.8%

87.6%

87.5%

88.1%

88.0%

88.1%

Assurance

86.6%

88.1%

87.6%

89.7%

90.5%

89.1%

89.2%

PM

87.0%

87.1%

90.2%

89.5%

90.9%

90.7%

90.6%

Finance

83.4%

84.8%

87.1%

87.2%

89.1%

89.0%

89.9%

The pass rates above are the average rates for first-time writers for the 2025 year (March, June, September, December).  There is a minor increase in 2025, compared to 2024, in Core 1, Core 2, and Tax. Assurance and Finance dropped slightly in 2025 and PM was flat. 

PEP and CFE Exam Coaching

My name is Erika, a CPA exam coach at Gevorg CPA.  If you need helping passing your CPA Canada exams, contact us for more details or check out our tutoring courses.