EA Exam Changes for 2006

The IRS has issued a press release related to the 2006 Special Enrollment Examination indicating that Thomson Prometric has been chosen to develop and administer the Internal Revenue Service’s Special Enrollment Examination.  The IRS’s goal is to have Thomson administer the exam before the end of 2006.  The IRS anticipates Thomson will make available the new version of the exam in October 2006.  While the IRS was previousily able to administer the exam in 90 locations, Thomson will make available approximately 300 testing centers.  Additional changes are as follows:

• Candidates will have eight weeks to take the exam

• Individuals taking the exam will not have to take all four parts of the exam in one sitting.

• A candidate who passes one section of the exam will be allowed to carryover the section passed.

• Individuals taking the exam will be allowed to take the exam up to four times each calendar year..

• The new exam will be multiple choice with true or false questions eliminated from the exam.

• The length of the exam will be about the same

• Thomson will review the relevancy of the existing exam content by surveying existing Enrolled Agents, the tasks they perform, and the knowledge required of an EA.

• Policies related to parts previousily passed will be reviewed.

• The IRS will retain oversight of the exam process to insure quality standards during the development and administration of the exam.