Glossary
CPA exam glossary
By Joey Arnold, CPA · Last updated August 24, 2026
Source: NASBA CPA Exam Candidate Guide and AICPA exam resources, current as of August 2026.
The CPA process comes with its own vocabulary. Here are the key terms worth knowing.
The acronyms on your application, the words in your score notice, the terms your state board uses that mean something specific — all grouped below by when you’ll meet them, not alphabetically.
Who sets the rules
Board of accountancy — Your state or territorial board. It issues your license and sets your education and experience requirements. There are 55 U.S. and territorial boards, and they are the members of NASBA. Almost everything that “depends on your state” traces back to this body. State requirements →
Jurisdiction — The state or territory whose board you’re applying under. You’ll see this word constantly on official material; it means “the board whose rules apply to you,” and it isn’t always the state you live in.
NASBA — The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. It’s the membership body for those 55 boards. In practice, it’s who processes your scores and where you’ll actually see them.
AICPA — The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. It writes the exam and scores it.
Prometric — The testing company. It “operates a network of computer-based test centers around the world,” and it’s who you schedule with and where you sit.
Uniform Accountancy Act (UAA) — Model legislation written jointly by AICPA and NASBA. Important thing to understand: it is not law anywhere until an individual jurisdiction enacts it. The current licensure pathways come from here. The three pathways →
Getting approved to sit
Notice to Schedule (NTS) — What you get once your application has been processed. It lists the sections you’re approved to take and is what lets you contact Prometric to schedule. Boards set how long an NTS stays valid — generally six months — after which it expires. Worth knowing: that validation period includes non-testing days, so it’s calendar time, not testing time.
Credit — What you hold once you pass a section. Your board sets how long credit lasts before it expires, and boards differ, so this is one to confirm with yours rather than take from anyone’s summary.
Inside the exam
Core section — AUD, FAR and REG. Every candidate takes all three.
Discipline section — BAR, ISC or TCP. You choose one. Whichever you pass leads to the same full license with the same rights. Choosing a discipline →
Testlet — A block of questions within a section. Every section has five: the first two multiple-choice, the last three simulations.
MCQ — Multiple-choice question. You’ll see the acronym everywhere, including in your score report.
Task-based simulation (TBS) — The longer applied problems that make up testlets three through five. These take considerably more time per item than multiple-choice, which is why raw question counts are a poor guide to how rushed a section feels. Section-by-section format →
Standardized break — The optional 15-minute break offered after testlet three. It’s the one break that doesn’t run your exam clock.
Blueprints — The AICPA’s published documents listing the topics tested on each section. They’re the authoritative answer to “is this actually on the exam?”
Scores, and what comes after
Scaled score — How your result is reported: a number from 0 to 99, where 75 passes. It is not a percentage of questions answered correctly, and treating it as one will mislead you about how close you were.
Advisory score — Your score as it first posts, before the formal notice. That notice typically follows within about 72 hours.
Score release cycle — Scores are released in batches on target dates published by the AICPA. Those dates are targets, not guarantees, and a data file arriving late from Prometric can move you to the next cycle. Why scores slip →
Candidate Performance Report — What you receive if you don’t pass. It labels your performance in each content area as stronger, comparable or weaker — measured against candidates who scored between 75 and 80, not against everyone who sat.
Mobility — Your ability to practice in a jurisdiction other than the one that licensed you. This is now determined by your own education, exam and experience.
Substantial equivalency — The older standard mobility was built on: whether your home jurisdiction’s requirements were deemed equivalent to the target’s. It’s the thing the current framework moves away from, which is why you’ll still see it referenced in older material. What changed →
Where to start
Vocabulary is the cheap part. The exam is the rest of it.
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