The concept underneath the concept
Most diagnostics tell you which section you scored worst in. That is rarely where the problem is. Financial Statement Accounts is a prerequisite for concepts in two other sections — Auditing and your Discipline section — so if it is shaky, you lose marks in a section you may not sit for months and would never trace back to FAR.
These are the real dependencies this diagnostic reasons over. They are read straight from the syllabus map the tutor uses — not a marketing simplification of it:
| If this is weak… | …these suffer, in other sections |
|---|---|
| Financial Statement Accounts (FAR) | Business Analysis (BAR), Assessing Risk & Planning (AUD) |
| Consolidated Financial Statements (FAR) | Technical Accounting & Reporting (BAR), Business Combinations (BAR) |
| Federal Taxation of Individuals (REG) | Tax Compliance & Planning — Individuals (TCP) |
| Federal Taxation of Entities (REG) | Entity Tax Compliance & Planning (TCP) |
| Internal Control & ICFR (AUD) | Regulations, Standards & Frameworks (ISC) |
The pattern is not a coincidence: every CPA candidate's Discipline section — BAR, ISC or TCP, whichever you choose — is built directly on top of the three core sections. A gap in FAR, AUD or REG does not stay contained to that section's own score; it resurfaces months later in whichever Discipline exam you sit. That is what the 25 questions are for. Spread across every section, they are enough to separate "you do not know this section" from "you do not know the one thing an earlier section was supposed to give you".
What you get at the end
A finding, not a percentage. Something like "your Financial Statement Accounts is costing you marks in Business Analysis and Assessing Risk & Planning, not just FAR" — with the sections named, so you can check it against your own experience of the exam rather than taking our word for it.
You also get the score and a per-section breakdown, because you will want them. They are just not the point. A score tells you where you are; it does not tell you what to do on Monday morning.
When the 25 questions are not enough to support a claim, it says so rather than inventing one. A single wrong answer on a concept is not evidence that you do not know it, and being told something false about your own preparation is worse than being told nothing.
Questions
Is the diagnostic really free?
Yes — 25 questions, no account needed. You can take it without signing up, and you get the full result including which concept is underneath your wrong answers.
How long does it take?
About ten minutes. There are 25 questions, mixed across every CPA section — AUD, FAR, REG, BAR, ISC and TCP — and across difficulty, weighted harder than a random draw because easy questions do not tell you much.
Is this a mock exam?
No. A mock estimates where you'd land on the 0-99 scaled score; this looks for the cause of the marks you are dropping. It is deliberately shorter and deliberately harder than a representative sample.
What happens to my answers?
They are stored without a name, an email or an IP address, and they help us learn how hard each question actually is. They are kept separate from our own learners' answers, because anonymous visitors are a different population and mixing the two would bias the difficulty estimates.