ISSUED: 13 October 2016
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — For the second year in a row, Shepherd University accounting students had the highest passing rate in the state of West Virginia on the certified public accountant exam administered by the American Institute of CPAs.
Eleven students from Shepherd took the exam in 2015 and 61.9 percent passed with an average score of 73.5 percent. This is both the highest passed percentage and highest average score in the state; the second highest passed percentage was 48.4 percent and the second highest average score was 72.2. Of the Shepherd students who took the test for the first time, 58.8 percent passed, earning an average score of 75.4, which is also the highest rate for first-time test takers in the state.
The exam is given in four sections—auditing, business environment and concepts, financial accounting and reporting, and regulation. Shepherd students had a 44.4 percent pass rate in auditing, an 80 percent pass rate in business environment and concepts, a 75 percent pass rate in financial accounting and reporting, and a 66.7 percent pass rate in regulation.
“Shepherd students succeed! The accounting graduates are an example of Shepherd’s prior motto,” said Roger Hamood, associate professor of accounting and accounting department chair. “This is what has kept me at Shepherd for 37 years.”
Cindy Vance, assistant professor of accounting, and Daniel Williams, associate professor of accounting, credit the challenging curriculum with the students’ success.
“The CPA exam results represent the knowledge and the analytical skills of our students,” Vance said. “Not only am I proud to be a faculty member at Shepherd, but I am also proud to be an alum.”
“As you can see from our graduates, having challenging classes pays off for the students when they sit for the CPA exam,” Williams said. “The fact that our graduates have earned the top scores in the state in multiple years means our program is doing a great job of educating them with the skills they need for a career in accounting.”
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