By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
An online group made up of those who failed a state-run examination to qualify as certificated public accountants (CPA) is seeking to file an administrative lawsuit against the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), claiming the financial regulator did not sufficiently inform test takers of a new exam format.
The online cafe group, organized by 86 members who did not pass the second-stage CPA exam, said Wednesday that they have decided to file a complaint against the FSS, demanding the test administrator nullify their disqualification.
``The FSS did not fully explain to test takers about changes in the CPA exam format. This year, the regulator changed it to an absolute scale-based exam from a relative scale-based one, but exam takers could not prepare for such a change because the FSS failed to sufficiently notify them about it,'' said a message posted on the cafe.
Under the previous relative scale-based exam, at least 1,000 test takers, among those who obtained scores over 40 out of 100 on all five subjects in the second-stage exam, were selected as CPAs according to their grades.
But from this year, the absolute scale-based exam allows all test takers, who get 60 points out of 100 on all the subjects, to pass the exam and become CPAs. Also, if the number who pass does not exceed the minimum 750, more people, among those who did not get over 60 points in all subjects, are to be selected as CPAs according to their grades to meet the number.
But this year, there was no chance for those who did not receive over 60 points in all subjects as the number of people who passed reached 830, well over the minimum 750. So, some examinees, who did not obtain over 60 points in all subjects but expected to pass the exam by the rule, are considering filing a complaint.
A week ago, the Ministry of Finance and Economy announced a list of 830 people who passed the CPA exam conducted in July. The number of women who passed the exam came to 184, accounting for 22.2 percent of the total.