How hard is the far CPA Exam in 2025?

The FAR (Financial Accounting & Reporting) CPA Exam in 2025 remains challenging, known for its vast content and low pass rates (around 40-45%), but is considered slightly easier as complex governmental/non-profit topics moved to the BAR discipline, though technology integration increased. It requires significant dedication (100-150+ hours) and strong foundational understanding, rewarding discipline, practice with simulations, and focusing on core financial reporting principles over sheer memorization.

How long to study for far in 2025?

You'll find the content areas, groups, and topics of FAR in the FAR CPA Exam Blueprints. Want to pass FAR fast? Then you'll need to study for 20 hours a week, so you can finish your review in 6-8 weeks.

Is the CPA Exam easier in 2025?

How hard is the CPA Exam? From Q1 2024 - Q3 2025, the overall pass rate was just over 50%, which shows that the exam is difficult, but certainly not impossible.

What are the most tested topics for far 2025?

Students find the following topics to be the hardest parts of the FAR Exam:

• Lesee Accounting.
• Bonds.
• Consolidations.
• Income Taxes.
• Not-for-Profit Accounting.

How many questions are on the FAR CPA Exam in 2025?

There are 50 MCQs and 7 TBSs on the FAR exam that you will need to get through within the allotted time. These 57 FAR CPA Exam questions are divided into five testlets, so it's a good idea to have a personal time management goal for each testlet.

How To Pass FAR CPA Exam In 2025

Is there a CPA decline in 2025?

In 2025, the CPA shortage continues to reshape finance hiring nationwide. According to The Wall Street Journal (“Aspiring CPAs Consider Ditching Grad School Plans as States Revamp Laws,” 2025) [1], the number of people sitting for the CPA exam has declined by more than 30 percent since 2016.

Is 45 days enough to study for far?

Yes, 45 days can be enough for the FAR exam, especially if you study full-time or have a strong accounting background, but it's ambitious and requires intense, focused effort (around 100-150 hours total), meaning roughly 3-4 hours daily, focusing heavily on practice MCQs and SIMs alongside lectures. For most working professionals or those with less experience, spreading it over 3-4 months is often recommended for deeper understanding. 

Is 5 weeks enough to study for far?

With work out of the way, I now had 8 hours a day to study. This gave me 200 hours to study for FAR, where the recommended time is 120 hours before reviewing the material. Five weeks looks pretty doable from this point of view.

What is the hardest part of the FAR CPA exam?

TL;DR: What Are The Hardest Topics On The FAR CPA Exam?

• FAR is considered the hardest CPA section due to its scope and technical detail.
• Most difficult areas: governmental accounting, bonds, pensions, leases, deferred taxes, consolidations, revenue recognition, depreciation, accruals/deferrals, and cash flows.

What percent of people pass far on their first try?

About half of the individuals who take the CPA Exam don't pass on their first attempt. According to the AICPA, the national average pass rate is 45-55%. Cumulative pass rates reported by the AICPA for the calendar year 2021 show that FAR had the lowest pass rate at 44.54% and BEC had the highest pass rate at 61.94%.

Can a CPA make 300k a year?

Yes, a CPA can absolutely make $300k, especially in senior leadership roles like Partner, CFO, or Director in large firms or corporations, or by owning a successful practice, though it typically requires significant experience (10+ years), specialization, business development, and working in high-cost areas like major cities, with partners at large firms often earning well over $300k. 

Which is the 3 toughest exam in the world?

The three toughest exams globally often cited for their extreme difficulty, low pass rates, and high stakes are China's Gaokao (National College Entrance Exam) for its sheer scale and competitiveness, India's UPSC Civil Services Exam for its life-altering potential and minuscule selection, and India's IIT-JEE Advanced (Joint Entrance Exam) for its rigorous engineering entrance criteria, alongside prestigious UK fellowships like the All Souls Prize Exam, with difficulty varying by individual and goals. 

Is a CPA harder than a bar?

There's no definitive answer, as it's subjective, but many who've taken both find the CPA Exam harder due to its four distinct sections, breadth of technical accounting knowledge, and the need to pass all within 18 months (a marathon), while the Bar Exam is often seen as a more intense, physically demanding sprint over two days testing broad legal concepts. The CPA's difficulty often comes from its multifaceted nature and the challenge of mastering different accounting/tax areas, whereas the Bar's challenge lies in the sheer volume of legal information and mental stamina required over consecutive days. 

What are the changes in CPA 2025?

CPA changes in 2025 focus on increased exam flexibility with year-round core testing and expanded discipline windows, updated exam blueprints emphasizing technology/data, and new, more flexible licensure pathways (like 120-credit hour options) being adopted by many states, moving away from strict 150-hour rules for some candidates, all part of the ongoing CPA Evolution model.
 

What is the hardest section of the CPA Exam?

Financial Accounting & Reporting (FAR) is widely considered the hardest CPA exam section due to its immense scope, comprehensive topics (like US GAAP), and typically the lowest pass rates, though difficulty is subjective, with some finding Auditing & Attestation (AUD) or Regulation (REG) tougher based on personal strengths, especially for non-accounting grads finding BEC hard.
 

Is a 75% on the CPA Exam passing?

Yes, a score of 75 or above on a CPA exam section is a passing score, but it's crucial to understand it's not a literal 75% of questions answered correctly; the score is on a 0-99 scale, reflecting sufficient knowledge to protect the public interest, based on weighted question difficulty and performance.
 

Which CPA Exam is the hardest in 2025?

In 2025, the Business Analysis and Reporting (BAR) discipline has statistically been the hardest CPA exam section based on the lowest pass rates (around 38-40%), closely followed by Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR), due to its massive content and complexity, though some find AUD's subjectivity tough; however, difficulty is subjective, with BAR and FAR being the toughest statistically, while Tax Compliance and Planning (TCP) is generally the easiest. 

Which is harder, far or reg?

Among the three core sections, FAR has a reputation for being the hardest, and it typically has the lowest pass rate. AUD and REG tend to be middle of the road.

Is the far CPA Exam curved?

Scores are not curved. When you fail an Exam section, you'll also receive a Candidate Performance Report that assesses your performance on that specific section. CPA Exam scoring is treated with a high level of importance, due diligence, and attention to accuracy.

Can I pass CPA in 3 months?

Passing the CPA exam in 3 months requires extreme dedication, a rigorous study plan (around 40+ hours/week), focused review of challenging topics (like FAR), consistent practice with MCQs and simulations, and prioritizing health, but it's achievable by dedicating 400+ hours to a structured routine using a review course, fitting study into daily chunks, and emphasizing active recall over passive reading. 

How many hours do people study for far?

Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) - 120 to 150 hours

FAR is a Core section consisting of 50 MCQs and seven TBSs related to financial accounting and reporting frameworks. More specifically, the three content areas in this section are: Financial reporting. Select balance sheet accounts.

Can you do an audit CPA in four weeks while working full time?

Yes, this is very doable. I studied for six weeks while working full time so 3-4 hours every day after work and then like 4/5 hours total over the weekend. If you are just studying full time four weeks is very doable!

How to pass the far CPA Exam?

To pass FAR, you'll need to understand the technical financial accounting standards and get comfortable performing accounting math under a time limit. That means really knowing the material and doing a lot of practice quizzes. If that sounds like a challenge, you can appreciate why FAR has the lowest CPA pass rate.

How long to study for far retake?

If you scored below a 70, then set your test, your re-test 4 weeks away. That's perfect amount of time for a re-study if you were below 70. But if you were above a 70, so a 70 or above, somewhere between a 70 to a 74, then you only want to wait 2-3 weeks. You can do a huge amount of re-studying and be very effective.