Texas A&M again had the most candidates of any school in the state in the first quarter (266 as compared to 191 from the University of Houston and 175 from UT-Austin), and Mays students had the highest overall pass rate for schools with more than 5 candidates at approximately 78 percent. Baylor was second at 74 percent and UT third, with 73 percent. The national pass rate for the quarter was approximately 42.5 percent, according to a report for the first quarter of 2011 by the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy.

“It is also notable that four of the top ten candidates in the state for the past 12 months are Texas A&M graduates,” says Jim Benjamin, head of the accounting department at Mays.

Benjamin attributes the students’ success on the exam to Mays’ curriculum, which is structured to include time to prepare for the exam, and the quality and motivation of the students. Success on the test helps graduates secure jobs afterward, he says.

“I continue to believe that our remarkable success on the exam is a result of the quality of our faculty and courses, the ability and work ethic of our students, and the structure of our program,” he says.

A significant number of fifth-year students in the Professional Program at Mays took the BEC (Business Environment and Concepts) and FAR (Financial Accounting and Reporting) sections in the first quarter. The Texas A&M pass rates for those sections for the quarter were 90.9 percent for BEC (175 candidates) and 82.6 percent for FAR (195 candidates).