This article presents a ten year review of the scope and changes in the Certified public accountant (CPA) examination in commercial law. Reviewing the examination in this manner reveals trends, strengths, and weaknesses in the over-all purpose and scope of the examination that are not usually noticed when reviewing an individual examination. Many fields of law are covered on the examination. Four important factors are shown by the chart and a close examination of the questions themselves. The first is the relative consistency of questions being asked in certain fields of law. Second, it includes questions on real property, estates and trusts, statutory liens, banking, Federal and state regulation, bankruptcy, copyrights, personal property, and others. The third factor noted is the multiplicity of areas covered within a single question. This is not necessarily bad when areas complement each other. A fourth factor emerged from the individual examination questions. In some of the questions, the candidate was required to know not only rules of law currently in effect.

The article focuses on the formats of certified public accountants (CPA) commercial law examination. The author suggests that the examination should be designed to evaluate the candidate's analytical ability to recognize legal problems, his knowledge and understanding of basic rules of law, and his ability to express his reasoning and conclusions in clear and concise language. Two times each year, in May and November, prospective candidates take the uniform examinations for the designation of Certified Public Accountant. One of the five examinations given is in commercial law. The author recommends that the commercial law paper should be strictly composed of a series of six to eight essay questions, secondly, the design and format would consist of four to six factual problems in each question. These problems would deal with the various areas of law in which the accountant is faced on an everyday basis. Third, the candidate would not be told what the problems are. He would therefore be required to first analyze the facts to determine the problem and then to write a clear and concise reasoning, using basic rules of law in arriving at a logical conclusion.

Reviews the book "Manual on Commercial Law: Uniform Commercial Code Edition," 3rd ed., by A. Lincoln Lavine.