3022 Pass the First CPA Exam This Year... 398 More Than Last Year

by Moon Hyewon

Published 22 Mar.2024 17:09(KST)

The Financial Supervisory Service announced on the 22nd that 3,022 candidates passed the 59th Certified Public Accountant (CPA) first exam.

Financial Supervisory Service, Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

The exam, held on the 25th of last month, had 14,472 applicants, recording a competition rate of 4.8 to 1. The number of successful candidates increased by 398 compared to the previous year.

The cut-off score (minimum passing score) was 384.5 out of 550 points, with an average of 69.9 points, rising by 33.5 points (an average of 6.1 points) from the previous year. The overall average score of all test takers was 49.9 points, up 4.4 points from the previous year.

The highest scorer was Shin Sang-hoon (24), a student at Seoul National University, who scored a total of 510.5 points with an average of 92.8 points. The youngest successful candidate was Lee Seo-jin (20), a student at Korea University.

Female passers accounted for 38.5% of the total, and the average age of successful candidates was 55% in their late 20s, 31.4% in their early 20s, and 12.3% in their early 30s. By education level, 59.2% of the successful candidates were university students, and by major, 70.7% majored in business-related fields.

The list of successful candidates can be checked on the Financial Services Commission website and the Financial Supervisory Service CPA exam website.

The second exam will be held on June 29 and 30. The expected number of candidates for this year’s second exam, including those who passed last year’s first exam, is 4,659, with an expected competition rate of 3.7 to 1.