Pass rates

CPA exam pass rates by section

By Joey Arnold, CPA · Last updated August 22, 2026

Source: AICPA, Q2 2026 release.

As of Q2 2026, pass rates run from 42.47% on FAR to 79.75% on TCP. That’s a spread of nearly forty points across six sections of the same exam, and it’s the first thing most candidates want to know.

It’s also the number most likely to be misread. Below are the current rates, three years of quarterly history, and — more useful than either — what the figures can and can’t tell you about your own odds.

Current pass rates

Q2 2026

Section	Pass rate
TCP	79.75%
ISC	67.98%
REG	66.87%
AUD	49.38%
BAR	45.62%
FAR	42.47%

Two things moved in Q2 2026. BAR gained the most ground, up from 41.30% to 45.62% — a rise of just over four points, the largest quarterly move of any section. And FAR was the only section to fall, slipping from 43.46% to 42.47%.

Three years of pass rates

2024

Section	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Year
AUD	44.63%	46.58%	47.80%	43.54%	45.79%
FAR	41.92%	40.58%	39.82%	36.80%	39.59%
REG	63.43%	63.45%	62.97%	60.52%	62.61%
BAR	42.94%	40.26%	40.11%	33.68%	38.08%
ISC	50.93%	57.93%	61.88%	56.40%	58.00%
TCP	82.36%	75.67%	72.91%	72.16%	73.91%

2025

Section	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Year
AUD	44.30%	49.05%	50.03%	48.78%	48.21%
FAR	41.67%	43.52%	43.07%	40.20%	42.12%
REG	62.03%	63.58%	66.05%	60.73%	63.12%
BAR	37.64%	47.26%	39.46%	39.71%	41.94%
ISC	61.23%	71.96%	66.91%	66.75%	67.79%
TCP	74.94%	80.63%	76.68%	76.72%	77.65%

2026, through Q2

Section	Q1	Q2	Year to date
AUD	47.80%	49.38%	48.65%
FAR	43.46%	42.47%	42.95%
REG	66.65%	66.87%	66.78%
BAR	41.30%	45.62%	43.64%
ISC	66.79%	67.98%	67.45%
TCP	79.28%	79.75%	79.53%

Every section is passing better than it did in 2024

Compare the year columns and the same thing happens six times out of six. Every section’s 2026 rate is above its 2024 rate.

The gains aren’t small, either. ISC has moved the most — 58.00% in 2024 against 67.45% so far in 2026, a rise of more than nine points. BAR and TCP have each gained over five. Even FAR, which sits at the bottom of every table on this page, is passing three points better than it was.

The exam didn’t get easier. 2024 was the first year of the restructured exam, and first years are hard in a specific way: nobody had sat it, no one knew how the new sections would actually be tested, and the study material was written against a blueprint rather than against experience. Candidates were guessing, and so was everyone teaching them.

What changed is that the guessing stopped.

This matters because the numbers people quote at you are usually the 2024 ones — they were the scariest, so they traveled furthest. BAR passed 33.68% in the fourth quarter of 2024 and that figure still gets repeated. It’s a point-in-time low from the hardest quarter of the exam’s hardest year, and BAR is passing above 45% now.

The quarter you sit in shows up in the numbers

Here’s the pattern that isn’t in anybody else’s version of this page.

In both 2024 and 2025, every section’s weakest quarter was either Q1 or Q4. Not most sections — all six, both years, twelve out of twelve.

And in 2025, the first full year with a settled exam, every section’s strongest quarter was Q2 or Q3.

The likely explanation isn’t complicated: Q1 and Q4 are busy season and year-end. The people sitting the exam in those windows are studying around their heaviest work of the year, and it shows up in aggregate.

Be careful what you take from this. It’s an observation about who sits when, not proof that the exam is graded differently — the AICPA doesn’t move the passing standard by quarter. But if you have any latitude over when you schedule your hardest section, the data points the same way two years running, and it points away from January and December.

If you don’t have that latitude, this isn’t a reason to worry. It’s a reason to plan the workload deliberately rather than hope busy season goes quietly.

What a pass rate can’t tell you

A pass rate is a fact about a group of people. It isn’t a forecast about you, and it’s worth being precise about the three things it leaves out.

It doesn’t know who chose the exam. This one matters most for the three Disciplines, because candidates pick their own. TCP’s 79.75% belongs substantially to people who prepare tax returns for a living. BAR’s 45.62% belongs partly to candidates who landed on BAR because it sounded like their day job rather than because they chose it. The numbers describe those pools, not the material. More on choosing a Discipline →

It doesn’t know how anyone prepared. Every one of these figures mixes candidates who finished a full study plan with candidates who sat underprepared to beat a credit deadline. Those are different populations inside the same percentage.

It doesn’t compound the way people assume. A candidate isn’t a coin weighted at 42%. Preparation moves your individual odds far more than the section you’re sitting does, which is why the same person can pass FAR and fail a section with a higher published rate.

Use these numbers to set expectations and to plan where your hours go. Don’t use them to predict your result.

How the sections compare

Each section page covers what’s tested, why candidates fail it, and how to study it around a full-time job.

Core sections — FAR · AUD · REG

Disciplines — BAR · ISC · TCP

Choosing between the three Disciplines is its own decision, and the pass rates are the worst way to make it. How to choose →

Where to start

The most useful thing you can do with a pass rate is stop reading it and start studying.

Start free →

No credit card, full access to Chapter 1 of every section. All six sections — $1,249 · See what’s included.

Pass rate FAQ

What is the hardest CPA exam section?

By pass rate, FAR — 42.47% in Q2 2026, against 45.62% for BAR, 49.38% for AUD, 66.87% for REG, 67.98% for ISC and 79.75% for TCP. FAR’s difficulty is mostly volume: it covers more ground than any other section, so candidates run out of time rather than ability.

Why is TCP’s pass rate so much higher than the others?

Because candidates choose their Discipline, and TCP is chosen disproportionately by people who work in tax. At 79.75% in Q2 2026 against 67.98% for ISC and 45.62% for BAR, it has the highest rate of the three — but that reflects who sits it as much as the material. If tax isn’t your day job, plan as though the number is lower.

Are CPA exam pass rates going up?

Yes, across every section. All six are passing better in 2026 than they did in 2024 — ISC by more than nine points, BAR and TCP by more than five each. 2024 was the first year of the restructured exam, when neither candidates nor review courses had experience of how it would actually be tested.

Does the quarter I take the exam in matter?

The data says the pool performs differently by quarter. In both 2024 and 2025, every section’s weakest quarter was Q1 or Q4 — busy season and year-end. The passing standard doesn’t change, so this is about who sits when, not how it’s scored. If you can choose, it’s an argument for spring or summer.

What score do I need to pass the CPA exam?

75, on a scaled score from 0 to 99. It isn’t a percentage of questions answered correctly and it isn’t a curve against other candidates in your window.

How many times can I retake a section?

There’s no lifetime limit on attempts, but your passed sections expire on a rolling window that varies by state, so retakes have a real deadline attached. Check your state board for the window that applies to you.

Pass-rate figures are AICPA published results for Q2 2026 (the latest available); rates update quarterly. Source: AICPA CPA Exam pass rates.