Pub. 3 2021 Issue 1

9 nebraska society of cpas W W W . N E S C P A . O R G Douglas W. Skiles, CPA, is chairman of the CPA Ex- amination Review Board and the Prometric lead. He is also currently a shareholder with Skiles, Loop, Bremer & White, CPAs, PC. He is a former NASBA central regional director, past chairman of NASBA’s Relations with Member Boards Committee, former NASBA rep- resentative on the Board of Examiners’ Practice Anal- ysis Sponsor Advisory Group (SAG), past chairman of the CBT Examination Administration Committee, and a former member of NASBA’s Audit Committee, Ed- ucation Committee, and Enforcement Committee. He served on the Nebraska Board of Public Accountancy from 2003 to 2013, with three years as its chairman. He is a former chairman of the State Board’s Education & Examination Committee, Educational Advisory Committee, and Legislative Committee, and a former member of the State Board’s Quality Enhancement Program Committee. During 2011 to 2013, he chaired the Experience Work Group, a collaboration between the State Board, Nebraska Soci- ety, and other stakeholders, which successfully passed new experience requirements in 2013 for Nebraska CPA candidates. He also has served as an accounting instruc- tor for the University of Nebraska at Kearney and McCook Community College. You may contact him at 308-345-5100 or dskiles@slbwcpa.com. credentials. The ERB must review, evaluate, and report on the appropriateness of the policies and procedures utilized in the preparation, grading, and administration of the Uniform CPA Examination and other examinations in general use by Boards of Accountancy for the licensing of certified public accountants. The findings of the review are provided annually at the NASBA regional meetings. The Exam & COVID-19 Changes have been happening rapidly with all facets of the exam. Prior to COVID, the AICPA had been systematically retiring obsolete questions as the focus moved from testing knowledge to testing application of skills based on knowledge. This meant more simulations and fewer questions. NASBA has been working to upgrade the interface between the candidate, the states, and its partners, the AICPA and Prometric. Prometric made timely upgrades and training that helped prepare for the pandemic. I personally was on site at Prometric’s headquarters the end of February 2020 as the pandemic was just spreading in the northeast. Once colleges began closing campuses, Prometric in turn suspended testing. As COVID began to spread across the country, concern grew over the fate of CBT. Many Prometric test sites were on college campuses, which were closing their doors andmoving to online classes. This was not an option for CBT. Prometric has very strict requirements to keep the delivery of the exam consistent and safeguarded from theft of exam questions. So, as test sites closed, Prometric began to focus on the challenges of “distancing” within the test sites. This meant that fewer seats were available at any one time and candidates needed to know if the test site they were scheduled for would be open or closed when they were scheduled to test. The challenge for the ERB then became what is changing, how will we review it, and what resources are available to do the review. Further complicating the reviewwas NASBA’s COVID travel ban. Thanks to the continual upgrading of technology, particularly within Prometric, several tools were available for the ERB to do the vast majority of the review and testing of controls. The ERB is continuing to focus on the guiding principles of testing. The 12 components of testing listed in the ERB annual report are the framework of the review and, even though COVID has changed the landscape, the framework has not changed. Continual challenges and changes will occur in the future as the content and delivery of the exammust keep pace with the business and technology world. As we face these challenges, it is good to know that the Nebraska Society of CPAs and the Nebraska Board of Public Accountancy work together exceptionally well, especially from a bird’s eye view compared to other states across the land. And that, in part, is due to our Nebraska pride and volunteerism that makes all these things possible. t As COVID began to spread across the country, concern grew over the fate of CBT. Many Prometric test sites were on college campuses, which were closing their doors and moving to online classes.