[IndianaCPA]

How would you rank the exams? I think they go Financial – Regulation – Audit – Business. Does anyone disagree? How long would you take to study for each of them if you were also working full time?

B 74, 79
A 62, 81
R 76
F 75

Done!

[jobach_lsu]

REG>FAR>BEC>AUD

REG and FAR are close, but I would say REG was a bit more difficult because of the sims. My REG sims were just plain stupid.

AUD 4/4/2014 - 97
FAR 5/29/2014 - 97
REG 7/10/2014 - 90
BEC 8/1/2014 - 89

[Anonymous]

@Mamabear, that works for me! 🙂 I was going through the partnership material for FAR last night and I'd much rather be doing basis calculations again than memorizing goodwill vs. bonus methods of new partner contributions. Not my idea of fun!

[missjones513]

BEC, REG, FAR, AUD

FAR may move depending on if I passed it.

REG - 5/29/12 (64), 10/1/12 (74), 5/20/13 (75, expires 12/31/14)
FAR - 8/14/12 (64), 8/5/14 (75)
BEC - 11/19/12 (70), 2/25/13 (72), 11/21/13 (73), 1/21/14 (73), 8/30/14 (72), 11/24/14 (75)
AUD - 4/22/13 (65), 10/12/13 (79)

I'm done!!!

Ethics - Pass

[Vlakmir]

I think it depends on your experience.

I worked a tax internship the months before REG, that helped. I did a tax/law class right before it too, definitely helped.

I had 3 internships total – 2 in auditing. So AUD was a breeze for me. AUD really starts to click after you have a little real life experience. I can imagine it is difficult when you have to conceptualize things you have never seen before.

IMO,

1. FAR – Hardest/Most time consuming to study for. Maybe because it was my last test, got burned out?

2. REG- Once again, lots of materials, lots of rules.

3. BEC – The difficulty comes from the “mixed bag” feel that is BEC

4. AUD – Can be easier if you have experience, though I imagine this is harder for those without auditing experience.

REG - 92
AUD - 90
BEC - 82
FAR - 82
BISK Review Materials
DONE! /Happydance

[Anonymous]

Just took FAR two days ago. I told myself I would take a week off but I can't resist jumping into new material because it's so exciting (sense the sarcasm?).

About to jump into day 1 for AUD section… hopefully it's a breeze compared to REG & FAR. I've heard there's a solid overlap between FAR –> AUD.

Any thoughts y'all?

[Vlakmir]

Aud is easier if you have experience in it, or are good at conceptualizing “WHY” what you are knowing is important. Also, I felt making my own flash-cards helped a lot because there are lots of little rules.

E.G “Types of opinion for XYZ situation” ? –Disclaimer – *reason why*. Quick review, and mobile.

If you pass FAR and REG you can pass the others. The true testament is how hard you can finish through….it can be…burn-out time about the third test….

Also, if you didn't add the bit about sarcasm I would've slapped my computer monitor, pretending it was your face. I really thought you were serious for a second….derp on me

REG - 92
AUD - 90
BEC - 82
FAR - 82
BISK Review Materials
DONE! /Happydance

[Sarah1421]

Bobcat87 – Although I haven't taken my AUD exam yet (Saturday's the day!), I think there's TONS of overlap with FAR. I'm so happy I took FAR first… AUD definitely added another ridiculous level of detail and terminology, but I find it more conceptual.

It will probably depend on your background whether your experience will be similar to mine. I don't working in accounting (yet) and my degree's in business, so I'm sure I would have floundered in AUD without the FAR concepts down first (for example, it helps knowing about accounting principle changes, when to capitalize, long term/short term investments, journal entries, etc). You're looking at the financials from a different perspective in AUD… so without that solid understanding of the financials, I think I'd had a REALLY hard time.

FAR - 90
AUD - 91
BEC - 86
REG - 87

[lsutigers03]

Well judging from my grades for me I guess it's BEC – AUD – REG – FAR

REG - 78
BEC - 74, 67, 69, 69, 70, 79
FAR - 76
AUD - 69, 69, 69, 74, 85

Licensed Louisiana CPA

“You never fail until you stop trying.”
― Albert Einstein

[Anonymous]

So far, I'd rank them: REG (by far) -> AUD -> FAR

Absolutely hate REG and all of its crazy exceptions on top of exceptions. FAR was easiest so far…tons of material but pretty straight forward if you understand and can apply the material. General knowledge of debits and credits can go a long way to helping you get through the exam. Audit was difficult because there was a lot of picking the lesser to two evils. Many answers seemed right but one was “better” than the others (especially when it comes to choosing the correct tests). From what it looks like, people see BEC as rather easy but, who am I kidding, it's the CPA exam…there's no such thing as easy.

[riceperson]

From hardest to easiest:

FAR

AUD

BEC

REG

Even though I got the higher scores on FAR and AUD, I felt that the actual studying time I put into them, and the material were the most difficult.

BEC I felt was difficult because I didn't know how to allocate my time and was doing poor on the MCQs closer to test date.

REG I felt my strategy of blowing off certain material paid off, and I felt the test was very simple.

FAR 69, 83
AUD 85
BEC 80
REG 82
FINISHED

[Author]

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