August 2026 CPA Exam News Roundup: OBBBA Hits REG & TCP, Q2 Pass Rates Are In, 40+ Jurisdictions Expand CPA Licensure Paths, and Kesler Launches Study Notes + Video + Audio Lessons
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We missed the July roundup, so this August edition is doing double duty: catching up on the CPA Exam changes that went live in July and covering the newest data available as of August 7, 2026.
And July was not a quiet month.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is officially testable on REG and TCP. The AICPA released Q2 2026 pass rates. The Q3 Discipline testing window came and went. More than 40 jurisdictions have now changed laws or rules to create additional CPA licensure pathways. Texas just put its new pathway into effect on August 1.
And at Kesler CPA Review, we rolled out the biggest expansion of our lesson-level teaching system yet: 210 Study Notes, 913 Bite-Sized Video Lectures with 85+ hours of instruction, and 210 Audio Notes.
Here is what changed and what it means for your study plan.
1. OBBBA Is Officially Live on REG and TCP
The countdown is over.
As of July 1, 2026, provisions from H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), are now eligible to be tested on the REG and TCP sections of the CPA Exam.
The AICPA’s official CPA Exam guidance says provisions of the Act with effective dates in 2024 and 2025 became eligible for testing beginning July 1, 2026. Other OBBBA provisions do not all become testable at once. They generally become eligible in the calendar quarter beginning six months after the provision’s effective date.
That distinction matters.
July 1 was not a switch that dumped every provision in the entire OBBBA onto the CPA Exam. It was the first major testing date for the provisions that fit the AICPA’s approved timing and the existing REG and TCP Blueprints.
The AICPA also states that once a new tax-law change becomes eligible for testing, the older content affected by that change is removed from the Exam.
For candidates, the practical rule is simple:
If you are sitting for REG or TCP on or after July 1, 2026, do not study from tax materials that were frozen before the OBBBA update.
Make sure your review course, textbook, notes, question bank, and final-review materials are mapped to the current 2026 testing window.
The other four CPA Exam sections are not directly affected by this tax-law rollout. The OBBBA issue is specifically a REG and TCP study problem.
The AICPA’s July review of the CPA Evolution Exam also confirmed the implementation approach: 2024 and 2025 effective-date provisions became eligible July 1, while later provisions phase in under the six-month testing policy.
What this means for you: If you delayed REG or TCP specifically to avoid learning two versions of tax law, that transition is now behind us. Study the current version, confirm your provider has updated its materials, and stop mixing pre-July and post-July tax rules in the same review stack.
For more on the current CPA Exam structure, see our CPA Exam Content & Structure guide.
2. Q2 2026 CPA Exam Pass Rates Are In
We finally have the first half of 2026 in the books.
The AICPA released official Q2 2026 CPA Exam pass rates in July.
Here are the latest numbers:
| Section | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | 2026 Cumulative |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUD | 47.80% | 49.38% | 48.65% |
| FAR | 43.46% | 42.47% | 42.95% |
| REG | 66.65% | 66.87% | 66.78% |
| BAR | 41.30% | 45.62% | 43.64% |
| ISC | 66.79% | 67.98% | 67.45% |
| TCP | 79.28% | 79.75% | 79.53% |
A few things jump out.
TCP continues to post the highest pass rate, with 79.75% of Q2 candidates passing.
FAR remains the lowest Core section at 42.47%.
BAR had the biggest quarter-over-quarter move, rising from 41.30% in Q1 to 45.62% in Q2, a 4.32 percentage-point increase.
AUD also moved closer to the 50% line at 49.38%.
But do not turn this table into a Discipline-selection shortcut.
The AICPA explicitly warns that pass rates reflect the preparedness and characteristics of the candidates sitting for each section. Discipline candidates self-select into BAR, ISC, or TCP. A higher pass rate does not mean the Exam is objectively easier or that you personally have a better chance of passing it.
What this means for you: Use pass rates as context, not as a study strategy. Choose your Discipline based on your background, interests, career direction, and which content gives you the strongest starting position.
For historical data, see our CPA Exam Pass Rates page.
3. August 7 Is a Core Score Release Date, and the Q3 Discipline Window Is Closed
If you are waiting on a Core score, today may be your day.
Under the AICPA’s current 2026 score release schedule, Core exam data files received by the AICPA by July 23 have a target score release date of August 7, 2026.
The next major Core dates are:
- Exam data received by August 15 → Target release August 25
- Exam data received by September 7 → Target release September 15
- Exam data received by September 30 → Target release October 9
Remember that these are target dates. Your section cannot be scored until the AICPA receives the exam file from Prometric.
For BAR, ISC, and TCP, the Q3 testing window ran from July 1 through July 31. That window is now closed.
Candidates who sat for a Discipline during July have a target score release date of September 11, 2026.
The next Discipline window is:
October 1-31, 2026 → Target score release December 15, 2026.
What this means for you: If you missed the July Discipline window, you are not taking BAR, ISC, or TCP in August or September. Build your plan around October. Core candidates still have year-round testing and much faster score turnaround.
For the complete schedule, see our CPA Exam Score Release Dates page.
4. CPA Licensure Reform Has Gone From Trend to Mainstream
Back in April, we were talking about 30+ states moving away from a single 150-hour licensure path.
That number is already stale.
A July 17, 2026 update from the Minnesota Society of CPAs says more than 40 jurisdictions have made statutory and/or rule changes since 2025 to offer additional pathways to CPA licensure.
The national model now recognizes three broad paths:
- A graduate accounting degree plus one year of experience
- A bachelor’s degree plus 30 additional credit hours, for 150 total, plus one year of experience
- A bachelor’s degree / 120-hour path plus two years of professional experience
All paths still require passing the CPA Exam.
And this is no longer theoretical legislation that takes effect years from now.
Texas’s new law became effective August 1, 2026. The Texas State Board of Public Accountancy now describes a Pathway B built around 120 semester hours and two years of qualifying work experience, alongside the state’s other CPA requirements.
That is a major milestone because Texas is one of the country’s largest CPA markets.
The important warning remains the same: CPA Exam eligibility and CPA licensure requirements are not identical, and every jurisdiction controls its own rules. Do not assume a headline about the “120-hour rule” automatically tells you when you can sit, what coursework you need, or what experience counts in your state.
What this means for you: If the extra 30 college credits were the main reason you postponed the CPA, re-check your jurisdiction now. The rulebook has changed dramatically in the last 18 months.
See our state-by-state CPA Exam requirements page for your starting point, then verify everything with your state board before acting.
5. The Accounting Pipeline Is Still Weak, but the Leading Indicators Are Improving
This is the first roundup in a while where the pipeline story is not purely negative.
In a July 2026 review of the CPA Evolution Exam, the AICPA reported that 55,152 accounting degrees were awarded in 2023-2024.
That was still a 6.6% decline, so the profession is not out of the woods.
But the rate of decline improved from the prior year’s 9.6% drop.
More importantly, enrollment is moving in the opposite direction.
The AICPA cited National Student Clearinghouse data showing undergraduate accounting enrollment rose 7.3% in fall 2025, marking a third consecutive year of growth. Graduate accounting enrollment also increased for the first time since 2019.
That matters because degrees are a lagging indicator. Enrollment tells us more about what the pipeline may look like several years from now.
It also lines up with what is happening on the licensure side. The profession is simultaneously reducing unnecessary education friction, improving the CPA pathway, and seeing more students enter accounting programs.
What this means for you: The accounting shortage has not magically disappeared. But if you are pursuing the CPA because you believe the credential will remain scarce and valuable, the latest data does not suggest a flood of newly licensed CPAs is about to erase that scarcity overnight.
6. Kesler CPA Review Launches Study Notes, Full Video Lectures, and Audio Lessons
DISCLOSURE: I am the founder of Kesler CPA Review. This section covers a product I built.
July was also a major product month for Kesler CPA Review.
We rolled out a new lesson-level teaching layer built around three formats:
- 210 Study Notes
- 913 Bite-Sized Video Lectures with 85+ hours of instruction
- 210 Audio Notes
The point was not to add three more boxes candidates are forced to check.
The point was to give you three ways to build the big picture before you move into active practice.
The July 23 Kesler platform update lays out the intended study flow.
Start with the Study Note. The notes condense the supported textbook lesson into an exam-focused path that surfaces the rules, relationships, calculations, vocabulary, and steps you need to see first.
Watch the Bite-Sized Video Lecture when you need the concept taught visually. The lectures teach from the Study Notes and add whiteboard visuals and narration so you can see how the pieces connect. There are now 913 lesson-level lectures totaling 85+ hours.
These are different from Learn N GO.
The 913 Bite-Sized Lectures teach the lesson and build the big-picture mental model.
The 8,000+ Learn N GO lectures are still attached one-to-one to individual MCQs and are designed to diagnose a question after you attempt it.
That gives you teaching on both sides of practice: learn the topic first when needed, then get a question-specific explanation when practice exposes a gap.
Audio Notes add a third option. You can play a full chapter or individual tracks, change playback speed, rewind, skip, and follow a synchronized transcript. The global audio player keeps running when you move away from the lesson, which makes the format useful for preview and reinforcement when sitting down to read is not practical.
The Audio Library also lets you build and save review playlists.
Combined with the full textbook, 8,000+ MCQs, 275+ TBSs, 8,000+ flashcards, Progress Center, ReadySignal, mentorship, Focus Notes, and the existing Learn N GO system, this is a much more complete version of Kesler CPA Review than what existed even a few months ago.
Why we made the change: Learn N GO solved the “I missed this question and still don’t understand why” problem extremely well. But candidates also wanted a clean way to learn an entire topic from the beginning without having to rely exclusively on a giant textbook or wait until an MCQ exposed the gap.
Study Notes + Bite-Sized Lectures + Audio Notes are designed to solve that.
You can see the full new workflow in our Kesler CPA Review 2.0 walkthrough.
7. The CPA Evolution Exam Is Now More Than Two Years Old, and the New Structure Is Starting to Normalize
January 2024 still feels recent if you were studying under the old AUD/FAR/REG/BEC format, but the Core + Discipline CPA Exam has now been running for more than two full years.
The AICPA’s July retrospective is useful because several things that felt temporary in 2024 now look like the permanent operating model:
- Core sections are effectively continuous-testing sections with regular score releases.
- Discipline sections remain quarterly-window exams, so scheduling BAR, ISC, or TCP requires more planning.
- TBS application remains central. Every section uses task-based simulations, and the AICPA continues to emphasize understanding and application over memorization.
- Tax and technical content will continue changing on a defined timetable. OBBBA is the clearest current example of how new law flows into the Exam.
This matters because candidates should stop building study plans around the assumption that the CPA Evolution format is “new” and likely to change back.
This is the CPA Exam now.
What this means for you: Build your plan around the actual structure: Core flexibility, Discipline windows, current Blueprints, application-heavy TBS practice, and version-controlled study materials.
What Should You Do Right Now?
If you are actively studying or planning your next section, here is the August action list:
If you are taking REG or TCP: OBBBA is live. Verify that every tax resource you are using is current for exams taken on or after July 1, 2026. Stop mixing old and new tax-law notes.
If you just took BAR, ISC, or TCP in July: Your target score release date is September 11. Start the next section instead of spending six weeks repeatedly recalculating whether you passed.
If you missed the July Discipline window: Your next opportunity is October 1-31. Use August and September to build a real study runway rather than treating the delay as dead time.
If you are waiting on a Core score: August 7 is a target release date for files received by July 23. The next target release is August 25 for files received by August 15.
If the 150-hour requirement was your roadblock: Check your state again. More than 40 jurisdictions have now changed laws or rules to create additional licensure pathways, and Texas’s new route became effective August 1.
If your review course gives you too much text or only one teaching format: Kesler now includes 210 Study Notes, 913 Bite-Sized Video Lectures, and 210 Audio Notes alongside Learn N GO, the full textbook, MCQs, TBSs, flashcards, and mentorship.
If you are choosing a Discipline: Do not choose TCP just because 79.75% of Q2 candidates passed it or avoid BAR just because its rate was 45.62%. Choose based on fit, then prepare like the pass rate is irrelevant to your personal result.
CPA Exam Guide will continue monitoring CPA Exam changes, OBBBA testing, score releases, pass-rate trends, and state licensure reform. For study strategies and current CPA Exam resources, check out our 21 CPA Exam Study Tips, CPA Exam Score Release Dates, and CPA Exam Pass Rates pages.