[HoldMyBeerCPA]

Ahh, the old which exams to take in which order thread has re-surfaced.

This time, it’s due to the changes in the CPA exam.

Unfortunately, I will have to take all section of the exam post-changes so I’m wondering which order to take the exams in. Currently, I have an NTS for BEC which expires in November, but I’m wondering if I should go with BEC first and take it along with another exam in the Q2 window or go another exam?

This will be my first time taking the any kind of exam of this magnitude, so really, I have no idea what to expect. Secondly, busy season for us auditors at my firm is in full swing and at this rate, I think 15-20 hours per week of studying would be the most I can do.

Given the info above, which exam would you all recommend that I take first?

Thanks in advance!

S.K.

P.S.: Individual/Corporate Taxation has NEVER been a strong suit of mine. I’ll be using Roger CPA Review and it recommends 5-6 weeks for study time, but I figure that I’ll to tack on at least an additional two weeks to that time frame.

[tacctfin11]

I would recommend FAR first. You can get the beast out of the way and have a downhill climb.

FAR- 76 01/08/2016 exp 08/04/2017
AUD- 82 04/14/2016
BEC- May 28th

baby

REG- TBD

[acardone51]

I agree with the above…I'm only halfway done, but since I have AUD on Thursday my order will be FAR-BEC-AUD-REG

I didn't have much of a reason for taking it in this order but I'm really glad I did. FAR is the biggest and it's a great one to get out of the way..it also will set you up nicely for Audit and to a lesser degree BEC. I took BEC second because I wanted to get it over with before the changes, so it actually wouldn't be a bad idea to go with Audit second while the FAR materials are more fresh in your mind. But since you have BEC already paid for, I'd suggest

FAR-BEC-AUD-REG

[EZ_Sims_4_me_Pls]

take FAR until you get a passing score

from there, schedule one test at the start of a window, at one at the end – I would go with REG after FAR, then probably BEC, saving AUD for last.

[HoldMyBeerCPA]

Well…that makes it just about unanimous so far (pun intended). I was hoping to get both exams in before memorial day so I can somewhat enjoy that time off, but if it takes 7 weeks to study for FAR and 4 weeks for BEC…fuhgettaboudit.

Thanks for the insight folks.

[VDP]

Maybe you should consider taking AUD as your first or second test. You're an auditor so it might be a good one to help you learn the process since you probably have a pretty good grasp on the concepts already.

[Author]

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