The CPA Exam changes in July 2027.
New delivery platform, new interface, and score releases go quarterly for at least a year. Here is the published schedule and what it does to your plan.
What is changing
Beginning July 2027, the exam moves to a new technology platform with a new user interface. The content does not change: same Blueprints, same sections, same MCQs and simulations. What changes is the calendar. Core sections stop releasing scores every few weeks and move to quarterly windows through at least mid-2028.
Today, a core score arrives one to three weeks after your file reaches the AICPA. The last fast window: file by June 30, 2027, score July 13, 2027. After that:
Core sections · 2027 Q3 through 2028 Q2
| Testing dates | Target score release |
|---|---|
| July 12 – September 30, 2027 | October 19, 2027 |
| October 1 – December 15, 2027 | December 28, 2027 |
| January 1 – March 15, 2028 | March 28, 2028 |
| April 1 – June 15, 2028 | June 27, 2028 |
Discipline sections · 2027 Q3 through 2028 Q2
| Testing dates | Target score release |
|---|---|
| July 12 – August 12, 2027 | September 28, 2027 |
| October 1 – 31, 2027 | December 17, 2027 |
| January 1 – 31, 2028 | March 17, 2028 |
| April 1 – 30, 2028 | June 16, 2028 |
What a failed section costs after July 12, 2027
Walk one through. You sit FAR on August 20, 2027. Your score arrives October 19. It is a 71. The earliest retake window is already half over, so you sit again in late October and see that score December 28. One failed section: four months from first sitting to a passing score, against a 30-month clock that never stops running. Today the same miss costs about six weeks.
The 30-month window does not pause for the transition. Every quarter a score spends in transit is a quarter you cannot spend studying the next section, because you do not know whether there is a next section.
The math to beat it
Finish all four sections before July 12, 2027, and none of this touches you. The method is about 95 hours per exam: 2,000 MCQs, 50 simulations, no lectures. Four exams is roughly 380 hours. From October 2026 that is under 10 hours a week. Already passed some? Subtract 95 hours per section done.
The candidates who got caught in the 2024 CPA Evolution transition remember how the last-minute rush went: booked-out testing centers and score delays measured in months. The people who finished early do not remember it at all.
Put your exam dates in the planner →
Schedule from the AICPA's published target score release dates and platform transition announcement, as of September 2026. All dates are subject to change; those are their capital letters, not ours. If the links break, Google it.