[andrewmarii]

Hello all,

I’m currently studying for Reg and hopefully if I pass it on the first try by the end of this year that would be great. Considering if it doesn’t work out and I fail, is it possible to study during early january of the auditing busy season and retake at the beginning of the year? Also next question, is it possible to study for BEC throughout the busy season? This is my first year working in the big four and I start work in like 2 weeks so I don’t really know a lot about this.

[jeff]

This may help:

https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-during-tax-season/

[Painted_Jeans]

I think it depends on what group you will be working with.. if it public companies? private? industry? financial services?

I work with private companies and our busy season is definitely not as insane as public, BUT it is longer.. from what I know, public guys suffer harder but shorter cuz their filing deadline is end of February for accelerated filers. We have few subs that are private and have to report to public parent by end of January so thats the hardest time if you're on one of those clients.. otherwise i'd get off at 7-8 and once April is nearing end we go to regular schedule and very light summer.

I dont think you would be able to study in January regardless what group you gonna be in, but again, it depends…

[ahugemistake]

If this is your first busy season then I personally wouldn't set my expectations for studying. The amount of hours you put in depends on the client you are on, how well the team is managed and how efficient you are. It is possible however if you just stick to studying new chapters on the weekends and reviewing MCQs for them during the week.

FAR - 78*
AUD - 66, 79
REG - 73, 76
BEC - 79

[andrewmarii]

Thanks everyone for their responses, to answer everyones question I am in public accounting (Ernst and Young) and I am in the commercial sector (not FSO) if that helps. I'll probably give it a rest then to be honest but I'll just try to take a test in the beginning of January.

[Recked]

I'd probably try and get REG done by Dec 10th, then cram for BEC for 3-4 weeks and try and take it before things get too insane with busy season.
If this is your first year there I think your time would be better spent trying to learn as much as possible at your job so you can gain some valuable experience.
I'd get back to the exams after your busy season.

[TheeAccountant]

I worked 70-75 hours a week in March and the first part of April for a small local firm. I hear Big4 people put in far more hours than that. I personally had no time to study for BEC. I agree with what another poster said about taking REG in December. Then try to do BEC by the end of January or beginning of February, and then plan to do the other two sections next summer. FAR in August and AUD in September. If you’re working in AUD you won’t need to study very much for it as you’ll have learned a lot on the job. You want to give your new job 110% and you can’t do that if you try to study too.

[GmaxL711]

I agree with previous posters. I worked Big 4 audit for 5 years, and busy season is an absolute crapshoot. I watched one of my first year associates fail 3 parts because of an absolutely insane, 100+ hr/wk extended busy season last year. I also had some people who finished on their original client, only to get roped onto my client (which ruined some of their study plans). You could probably pull off an exam in the first 2 weeks of January – but after that you want to be able to be a “yes” man/woman, because quite frankly you're probably going to have to do whatever they ask anyway. It just makes you look better to be excited to do it.

I would definitely get on-boarded and figure out what your schedule is before you schedule anything though – I once got assigned to a Korean client's US branch audit and their reporting was due January 15th. So I had a mini busy season that year before my busy busy season.

Good luck!

[Author]

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