How the BAR section and the CPA Exam work

The exam in one picture

The Uniform CPA Examination has a Core plus Discipline structure. Every candidate passes the three Core sections, and then one Discipline section of their own choosing (AICPA, Everything You Need to Know About the CPA Exam; NASBA, CPA Exam Candidate Guide):

Group	Sections	Who takes it
Core	Auditing and Attestation (AUD); Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR); Taxation and Regulation (REG)	Every candidate
Discipline	Business Analysis and Reporting (BAR); Information Systems and Controls (ISC); Tax Compliance and Planning (TCP)	Each candidate chooses one

Every section, Core or Discipline, is four hours long, and you need a score of at least 75 on each of your four sections. Which order you take them in, how long a passed section stays valid, and what else your state requires to sit and to be licensed are set by each jurisdiction's board of accountancy, so check your own board's rules through NASBA (NASBA, CPA Exam FAQ).

BAR is the Discipline that builds most directly on FAR. It suits candidates heading toward financial reporting, controllership, financial planning and analysis, advisory or transaction work, and anyone who enjoys numbers that tell a story.

What BAR covers

The AICPA's blueprint organizes BAR into three content areas, each split into groups and topics, with representative tasks showing what a newly licensed CPA is expected to do (BAR blueprint, section introduction):

Area	Weight	What it includes
I. Business Analysis	40–50%	Financial statement and ratio analysis; non-financial and non-GAAP measures; managerial and cost accounting and variance analysis; budgeting, forecasting and projection; capital structure; valuing investment alternatives; risk management (including the COSO ERM framework); economic and market influences
II. Technical Accounting and Reporting	35–45%	Goodwill and indefinite-lived intangibles; internally developed software; revenue contract analysis; stock compensation; R&D; business combinations; consolidations, VIEs, noncontrolling interests and foreign currency; derivatives and hedging; leases (especially lessors); public company reporting (Regulation S-X, Regulation S-K, XBRL, segments); employee benefit plan statements
III. State and Local Governments	10–20%	The annual comprehensive financial report; government-wide, governmental, proprietary and fiduciary fund statements; deriving the government-wide statements and reconciliations; typical government transactions

Two points are easy to miss. First, Area II is not "more FAR": it is a short list of advanced topics, and some are tested from a particular angle. Leases, for example, focus on lessor accounting, sale-and-leaseback and reading a lease agreement, and revenue focuses on analysing contracts and data to decide whether revenue was recognized correctly. Second, data runs through everything: the blueprint expects you to judge the completeness and accuracy of source data, choose how to transform data, and interpret the output of analytics, such as a chart or an exception report.

Skill levels

Each task is assigned a skill level from the revised Bloom's taxonomy. BAR's allocation is (blueprint, introduction and BAR summary blueprint):

Skill	Weight	What it looks like
Remembering and Understanding	10–20%	Recall a criterion or concept
Application	45–55%	Calculate an amount, prepare an entry or a statement
Analysis	30–40%	Interpret results, compare alternatives, reconcile, read an agreement
Evaluation	none	Not tested in BAR

Area I has the highest concentration of analysis tasks, while Areas II and III lean toward remembering and application. In practice this means you must be able to do the arithmetic and explain what it means.

Section assumptions

Unless a question says otherwise, assume a for-profit business entity reporting under U.S. GAAP, and treat all information given as material. Government questions announce themselves with words such as "city", "state", "municipality" or "local government". Where public business entities and other entities are accounted for differently, the difference itself can be tested (BAR blueprint, Section assumptions).

How the section is built

BAR has 50 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and 7 task-based simulations (TBSs) arranged in five testlets (Blueprints, Introduction; AICPA, Learn what to study for the CPA Exam):

Testlet	Content	Count
1	Multiple-choice questions	25
2	Multiple-choice questions	25
3	Task-based simulations	2
4	Task-based simulations	3
5	Task-based simulations	2

A task-based simulation is a condensed case: a set of exhibits (agreements, trial balances, schedules, emails, data extracts) and several items to complete, such as entering amounts, choosing accounts or treatments from lists, filling in a schedule or locating guidance in excerpts of the authoritative literature. Simulations carry as much weight as the MCQs: for BAR, the score is 50% MCQ and 50% TBS (AICPA, Learn more about CPA Exam scoring).

One clock, no going back

The four hours run on one clock across all five testlets. Inside a testlet you can move freely and change answers, but once you submit a testlet you cannot return to it (AICPA, Frequently asked questions). You are offered an optional, standardized 15-minute break after the first simulation testlet (testlet 3) that does not count against your testing time. You may also break between other testlets, but the clock keeps running (NASBA, Candidate Guide, Breaks).

A sensible pacing plan (our suggestion, not an AICPA rule):

Block	Suggested time	Running total
Testlet 1, 25 MCQs	about 35 minutes	0:35
Testlet 2, 25 MCQs	about 35 minutes	1:10
Testlet 3, 2 TBSs	about 45 minutes	1:55
Testlet 4, 3 TBSs	about 65 minutes	3:00
Testlet 5, 2 TBSs	about 45 minutes	3:45
Reserve	about 15 minutes	4:00

Simulations take longer than you expect. If an MCQ stalls you, make your best choice, flag it, and move on; spend reserve time only on items where another look can change the answer.

Tools and formulas

The exam software provides a spreadsheet that is similar but not identical to Excel and a four-function calculator (AICPA, Frequently asked questions). The AICPA also publishes the analytics definitions and valuation metrics the Exam uses for ratios such as inventory turnover and for models such as WACC and the dividend growth model. Those formulas are not shown with the MCQs; a simulation that needs them provides them (AICPA, CPA Exam analytics definitions and valuation metrics). This course teaches each formula in its own words, flags where the AICPA's definition uses an average balance and where it uses an ending balance, and asks you to learn them.

Scoring and score release

Scores run from 0 to 99, and 75 passes. The score is scaled: it reflects which questions you answered correctly and how difficult they were, so 75 does not mean 75% correct, and scores are not curved against other candidates (AICPA, Learn more about CPA Exam scoring; NASBA, Score Information). Every exam also includes unscored pretest questions, MCQs or simulations, that you cannot tell apart from the scored ones, so treat every item as if it counts (AICPA, Frequently asked questions).

When you can test

Core sections can be taken year-round, but Discipline sections can be scheduled only in the first month of each calendar quarter: January, April, July and October (NASBA, CPA Exam FAQ). Scores for a Discipline window are released together after it closes. The AICPA's target dates are (AICPA, Find out when you'll get your CPA Exam score):

BAR testing window	Target score release
January 1–31, 2027	March 16, 2027
April 1–30, 2027	June 9, 2027
July 12–August 12, 2027	September 28, 2027
October 1–31, 2027	December 17, 2027

These are targets and can move, and some boards need at least one extra day to release scores (NASBA, Candidate Guide). The July 2027 window is unusual: the Exam moves to a new delivery platform in July 2027, no appointments are available from July 1 to July 11, and score timing is adjusted for twelve months while questions are recalibrated (AICPA, CPA Exam user-interface changes coming in 2027). If you fail, you receive a Candidate Performance Report comparing your performance by area and question type with candidates who scored just above passing; use it to plan a retake.

Which standards are tested

New accounting standards are not testable the day they are issued. Under the AICPA's policy, a new pronouncement becomes eligible in the later of (1) the first calendar quarter beginning after its earliest mandatory effective date, for any type of entity, and (2) the first calendar quarter beginning six months after it was issued. Once it is eligible, the guidance it replaced is removed (AICPA, CPA Exam Policy on New Pronouncements).

This course is written for the blueprints effective January 1, 2027. For BAR they match the 2026 blueprints except for one clarified task: the OPEB liability task now explicitly covers plans administered through a trust and plans that are not (AICPA, Summary of revisions … effective January 1, 2027). Where a FASB or GASB standard has been issued but is not yet testable in 2027, the lesson teaches the current rule and tells you what is coming.

Example. A standard is issued in September 2025 and is effective for all entities for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2027. Six months after issuance points to the second quarter of 2026, but the first quarter after the effective date is 2028. The later date governs, so the standard is not testable in any 2027 window.

How to use this course

1. Follow the weights. Area I is the largest block and the most analytical; give it nearly half your time. Area II rewards precise journal entries. Area III is small but very learnable.
2. Work every example by hand first, then in a spreadsheet. BAR rewards fluency with present values, variances and schedules.
3. Treat explanations as lessons. For each practice question, make sure you can say why each wrong answer is wrong.
4. Practise simulations under time. Each unit has simulation-style exhibits; the practice exam has seven.
5. Take the AICPA's free sample test to learn the real interface, the spreadsheet and the research tools (AICPA, Get familiar with the CPA Exam by practicing with our sample tests).

Check yourself

• How many MCQs and simulations does BAR contain, and how are they spread across the five testlets?
• What are the three content areas and their weight ranges?
• Which skill level does BAR not test, and which area has the most analysis tasks?
• In which months can BAR be taken, and when are January 2027 scores targeted for release?
• What does a score of 75 mean, and why is it not "75% correct"?
• A standard was issued in March 2026 and is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2026. Under the AICPA policy, could it be tested in the April 2027 window?