[Clockwork]

I am currently studying for REG, my last portion, and it’s not going as well as it could. I am not doing very well on my practice quizzes even when I feel like I do well, and I don’t feel like I’m able to retain any of it. Almost feeling a little burnt out from the past 3. My review course is Gleim, which I have used to pass my other three parts. I have been reading through the book and doing questions. I’ve also tried taking notes here and there and making flashcards here and there, but these have always proved to be wastes of my time for the past 3 so trying to avoid investing too much of my time with that. I’m not really sure what my problem is but I’m thinking there is something better I could do to study for this one since the material is a little more in depth, it seems, than the past 3. I would greatly appreciate any and all tips from any of you who have passed REG in how to study for this part the most effectively and efficiently. Thank you!

[NattySD]

I also use Gleim, and I passed REG with it back in February (disclaimer, I do work in tax). The way I study and which I think is the most efficient (for me at least), is to read through everything once and get through it fairly quickly (while taking one 20-25 MCQ quiz after each SU, I found the pre-quizzes useless). Once you're through all the materials, do as many MCQs and SIMs as you can, switching them up and trying to do both for each SU. Definitely practice many SIMs for the sections you find harder, I found it really useful to understand the underlying concepts. Also, for each wrong answer, I review in detail and make sure I understand it. I never took notes or used flashcards for REG, I believe the best strategy is to just keep practicing problems. Also, I'd say Gleim's questions are fairly difficult, I scored higher on the REG exam than I did with Gleim, so I wouldn't get too discouraged by your lower scores while you're practicing. Just keep going with many MCQs/SIMs, and as you're understanding your wrong answers you should start retaining more (I'm currently studying for BEC, and I'm slowly starting to understand/retain more of the new information or areas I haven't studied in years with this strategy). One thing I didn't do for REG that I'm doing for BEC which seems to really help me retain the material as well is listening to the audio lectures when I'm either doing housework or falling asleep at night. I listen to each SU a few times, since I'm not actively listening at all times, but even that seems to help a lot! We'll see in May 🙂 Hope some of this helps!

[Clockwork]

Your REG score is amazing! I will try that approach and see how it goes. I always end up buying the package with the audios but I only sort of used them for FAR and haven't used them since, so maybe I'll give them another shot. I've bought the package that includes them each time, though, just in case I want to use them. I'm feeling like REG is going to take a bit more than what I've done for others. My aim is to leave myself enough time to run as many questions as I can, since studying the book doesn't seem to be getting me much of anywhere. Thank you for your response!

[tygolfer]

I don't have any experience with Gleim, I used MDS CPA review and Ninja MCQ. If you don't have Ninja MCQ, I highly recommend it. I also don't think flash-cards are super helpful. The test isn't as much about memorization as it is recollection, so just hammer MCQ and skim through your book. One thing I recommend to everyone for REG is to get a good feel for how to navigate the AL. I had plenty of time during my SIMS to use the AL extensively, and I know it definitely helped my score.

[NattySD]

@DDubois7 I agree, studying the book doesn't do much for me either, I just make sure I have at least read everything once, and then just go through a bunch of MCQs/SIMs.

I also agree with @tygolfer, I found the AL very useful for SIMs! I used both the search and navigate feature in AL, sometimes one didn't work so well for the question I had so I'd try the other instead. I had left a lot of time for SIMs on my test, old test recommended time was 1 hour I believe, which I thought would be too short, I left somewhere between 1.5-2 hours to do my SIMs on the test, and it gave me the extra time needed to use the AL without stressing over time. I definitely think that helped my score as well.

[Anonymous]

Pound out MCQs til you wanna vomit. Then vomit. Once the nauseous feeling goes away, rinse, wash, and repeat 🙂

[Clockwork]

Lol, @BrickellCPA, pretty much. Maybe it's because it's my last one and I've lost a bit of my will to study, but this one feels different from the others.

[Clockwork]

This may seem like a silly question @NattySD, but I was wondering how you did your questions. Did you use your book to look up answers or did you just do questions without the book or a combination of doing some questions using the book and then some without? Just curious, because just doing questions without barely having read the text doesn't sound completely productive to me. Again, this is probably a stupid question with an, “oh, duh,” moment attached. 😉

[NattySD]

@DDubois7 Not at all, happy to share study habits with each other! I learn much better by solving problems than I do by reading, but I do read through the entire material once before starting problems. Once I've read a study unit, I take an online quiz to see where I am at without the book (usually MCQ, but sometimes SIMs), and I go through and review all my wrong answers and make sure I know why they were wrong/make sure I can replicate the calculation without following their answer. Usually their answer explanations are thorough enough to where I don't need to go back to the book, and this is really where I learn and retain the material (this part can be time consuming, but definitely worth it). If it's something I'm really struggling with, I'll go back to the book and re-read that part, but I never use the book when I'm solving the problems initially.

It's funny you mentioned doing problems with having barely read the material doesn't sound super productive, I agree it sounds like that! What's funny is that I actually find it the most productive learning method, at least for me. If I read through the material two or three times, the amount of new material I'm retaining compared to the first time reading it is so minimal, + reading takes up a lot of time. If I read it once and start doing problems, some of them I'll already know based on the reading and it just reinforces that knowledge, and the ones I don't know I'll review in detail after the quiz is done. Once I already know my own thought process for solving a problem, I think it's a lot easier to understand why it was wrong, compared to for example reading that section in the book 3 times to understand it. Not sure if this makes more sense 🙂

[Author]

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