[jkpoker1]

Can some people post the level of difficulty of exams for me. I’ve read some places people think AUD and BEC are the easiest exams. I’ve taken REG and BEC and have found REG to be a different beast in comparison to BEC. I would like to try to get 2 sections out of the way in the next testing window (easier sections) so I can dedicate more time to study for REG and FAR. I just want to figure out if I should just use the wiley book and testbank to study for BEC and AUD because I plan on purchasing a review course (such as Gleim, Becker, Yaeger) for REG and FAR because I honestly believe I can’t pass harder sections just with the wiley test book. Thanks for any help.

Quest to be a CPA

BEC-74 (7/13),
REG- ?? (8/13)
AUD-TBA
FAR-TBA

[peetree]

I'll let you know next Tuesday but right now in terms of hardest to easiest.

REG

FAR

BEC

AUD

Some people will switch up the top two given what their background is in and some people think AUD is the toughest. Everyone will probably give you a different answer because people have different strengths and weaknesses. For me, the areas of tax and law can burn for eternity.

FAR 02/21/13 - 95
REG 07/02/13 - 87
AUD 08/02/13 - 94
BEC 08/30/13 - 85
Ethics Exam - 90

Illinois candidate awaiting his license

Used Becker Self Study | Ninja Audio | Becker Flash Cards | Ninja Notes | Wiley Test Bank

[evesocal]

They are all hard. It kind of depends on your experience. I work in tax so REG was somewhat easier for me, although a lot of REG is business law and other stuff that my work experience didn't help with at all.

I found AUD to be the next easiest, and then BEC and FAR. But my scores don't reflect this perception.

The volume of material in FAR is easily twice that of AUD.

B: 75
R: 80
A: 77
F: 81
Ethics: 84, 92 and done!
Licensed in California

[P or F.. I think Im gonna BARF]

For starters, I think a lot of people underestimate BEC, which is a huge mistake. My advice to anyone pursuing CPA would be not to underestimate BEC, and give it the respect it deserves. To answer your question though, it's difficult to rank them considering the following:

They are all very difficult in different ways. For instance, AUD had tons of concepts to memorize. BEC had tons of equations to memorize. FAR had a vast amount of material it covered. REG had trap questions all over the place, where you could know the material but completely miss the question.

B - (08/29/2013) Passed
A - (07/02/2013) Passed
R - (10/17/2013) 73 - Rematch
F - (05/29/2013) Passed

[Noct]

A question like that is highly subjective, so any answer you get is going to be a personal opinion. I tried to rank my exams in difficulty, and I honestly can't. Each exam has its specific challenges and nuances.

FAR – Huge amount of material covered, but the material is fairly linear and it covers subjects you probably learned in school. Not overly complex.

REG – Really two distinctly different exams crammed into one. Probably minimal exposure to the material in school.

Tax – Highly complex and often illogical. Requires a large amount of prep time if you don't work in tax.

Law – Also complex and fairly diverse topics. Requires a fair amount of memorization.

AUD – Similar to FAR in that the topics are probably familiar from school. Less volume of material than FAR, but more detailed and involved. I initially underestimated this one.

BEC – The dumping ground for any subject deemed test-worthy that doesn't fit into any of the other three. Because of this, BEC covers a broad range of topics from simple to complex. You can't afford to ignore anything because it could end up being a significant portion of your exam.

FAR - 79 - 07/2012
AUD - 65, 78 - 11/2012
BEC - 76 - 11/2012
REG - 78 - 01/2013
ETH - 98 - 01/2013

Material: Wiley books

[MrsBing]

REG

FAR

Can't judge AUD and BEC yet, but I heard they're a little easier than FAR and REG, but it all depends on your background. I think REG is harder than FAR for me because I only had one tax class in college. FAR is a little more familiar because some of the easier stuff is a base for a lot of the accounting classes, but the reason it's so hard is because there's so much material. It's like 4 college accounting classes in one.

Becker, Wiley Test Bank, and Ninja 10 Point Combo!

FAR: 89
REG: 87
AUD: 92
BEC: 75
Ethics: 90

Licensed Arizona CPA

[taxgeek83]

I think it depends on you as an individual. I've seen a lot of people come away from AUD with amazing scores – I'm a smart person and learn fast, but I barely squeezed by with an 80. I can run numbers all day and I love tax (I can very sincerely say that I am looking forward to REG!) but have to work a little bit harder to understand the conceptual stuff. That being said, FAR is up next and we'll see how much my theory holds true….

[Anonymous]

For me, AUD was “easy” (if there is such a thing in this context) with BEC next.

REG was a monster, and I totally did not expect it!

Studying for FAR now and I worry that I've “psyched myself out” about how hard this one is. I came to the realization the other day that yes, there's a lot of material, and this is hard for me because I'm not an accountant and I took the bare minimum number of accounting credit hours to be able to sit, but really this should be no worse that REG… at least that's what I'm telling myself! 😉

[futureARcpa]

FAR is tough because of the amount of material it covers. I did not study as well as I should have and didn't even cover all of the Becker material, and I surprisingly passed. As for AUD, I work as an auditor in public. I studied thoroughly and covered all of the Becker material and made a 68. Do NOT underestimate AUD. BEC, as mentioned before, is the dumping ground. It is difficult because I feel the topics are not related at all, just a bunch of randomness. Do NOT underestimate BEC either. I feel AUD and BEC are the most difficult just because so many people underestimate them. REG was tricky for me because I know nothing about taxes, except they are inevitable. I watched all the lectures but only did about half of the homework and made a 68.

Really, the difficulty of each section varies form person to person.

FAR: 79 (Becker basic)
AUD: 68 (Becker basic), 91 (Becker, WTB, NINJA)
BEC: 64 (blind), 81 (Becker, WTB, NINJA)
REG: 68 (Becker basic), 73 (Becker, WTB, NINJA), REMATCH 2/27

[nolifecpa]

obviously they were all difficult for me but i'll give my .02 on each in no particular order

REG: i have a tax backround and actually enjoyed this material the most out of the 4 but had the hardest time passing this section. hardest thing about this exam are the sims, felt like they were impossible

FAR: the hardest thing about this section is it has lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of material

BEC: HATED studying for this section the most and received the lowest passing score. think the reason why people say its the easiest is cuz it used to be all mcq with no sims and for some reason that made it easy

AUD: i have no backround in audit whatsoever but received one of the highest passing scores

REG-65,71,74,73,70,74,79
BEC-60's,60's,69,71,76*,78
FAR-67,66,65,79
AUD-54,60's,65,83*,69,80
*expired

DONE

[nbad311]

So far for me, I thought REG was the least difficult and BEC was the hardest.

Audit is difficult because it is tricky but if you are good at test-taking and being tested on deep conceptual stuff (versus straight up math), I believe audit is passable with good studying on the first try, experience in real world audit or not.

FAR might require the most study TIME because of the huge amount of material, but im not going to lable it the hardest quite yet.

REG - 65, 70, 80!
BEC - 35, 62, 79!
AUD - 73, 75!
FAR - 65, 73, 70, 75! DONE.

[Anonymous]

In my prior job at a public accounting in audit, there were at least 2 auditors who passed all the sections the first time except AUD. Do not underestimate any of them or they will bite you.

[Anonymous]

As others have said it is subjective depending on your strengths and background. But, for me, the order is unquestionable:

FAR – score pending – prediction is 65ish

REG

BEC

AUD

[Anonymous]

I think Peetree hit it on the nose…definitely depends on your strengths and weaknesses. I thought FAR was the easiest (Gov't NFP killed me though). For me the order (hardest to easiest) was:

-REG

-AUD

-BEC

-FAR

But I also just transferred into a financial accounting technical specialist role in our Big 4's advisory practice, specializing in rev rec for multiple element software agreements and hedge and derivative accounting. So you could say that the FAR material is the stuff I thrive on. Reg on the other hand (similar to Peetree's sentiments) can rot in hell.

[MintsRGood]

Section difficulty is extremely subjective. Here are my picks from most to least difficult, IMHO of course!

1. Audit–Too subjective and highly annoying. I'm a tax girl. To me, materiality is a nice way of saying that it's OK for an account balance to be wrong by X amount and still be cool. It's not cool. Get it right. Ugh.

2. FAR–Difficult due to massive quantity of topics but each topic standing alone is manageable…just too many topics to be perfect on for one sitting!

3. BEC–Every BEC exam is different for every candidate. You just do your best to prep and hope you get a good pull on exam day of topics that suit your strengths. BEC is a random crapshoot. Good luck.

4. REG–I work in public accounting and love tax! I do all flavors of returns and I know without questions that the SIMS saved me on exam day. I didn't give BLaw the attention it deserved and it almost cost me a pass. Don't be like me!!! I do sympathize however that if you are unfamiliar with tax, you hate tax, or just plain suck at tax then REG is a nightmare.

Again, exam difficulty rankings come from your own strengths and weaknesses. Pick your poison accordingly! 😉

REG: 75 DONE 🙂
AUD: 61, 71, 68, 92 DONE 🙂
BEC: 76 DONE 🙂
FAR: 72, 74, 79 DONE 🙂
Licensed Michigan CPA 🙂
-Some people dream of success...others wake up and work hard for it!!!
-The cowards never start and the weak die along the way!
-You better work, b***h!
-Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.-JFK

[RedBullRacing]

IMO it depends heavily on the exam you are given on that particular day.

AUD / BEC (I used Becker) was literally verbatim on the material.

FAR had pockets of material I wasn't familiar with

REG was a nightmare, I don't even understand how I passed. I walked out thinking: “What the hell just happend?”

BEC - 85
FAR - 72, 80
REG - 79
AUD - 81

Used only Becker. Let the book burning begin!

[Author]

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