@quitting–Different and neither are substantially easier or harder. For me, the CPA is harder but my wife who has passed both thinks the Bar was harder.
I am taking the CPA after being out of school for 20 years so I am in essence relearning everything from scratch. I took the Bar exam shortly after law school and everything was very fresh on my mind. Also, I took BarBri which owns Becker but BarBri is a FAR superior review course to anything I know about for the CPA review courses. If I had taken BarBri before Law School, I would have aced every class with flying colors. The boiled it down to the essence of what you needed and nothing more. They apparently knew exactly what we needed. All I know is, I could pass the Bar without Law School but I couldn't pass the Bar without BarBri.
I am not taking any review course for the CPA but using materials so that may be a factor. I saw a little of a Peter Olinto video for BEC and I thought this was a waste because all he wanted to do was tell me how much money I was going to make. All I want to know is what do I need to pass and no fluff.
One thing I find more difficult about the CPA than the Bar is what is tested. The Bar tests EVERYTHING they say they will cover. There are more questions so if you do not know a topic extremely well, that will be diluted by the rest of the material. On the CPA, if you get the bad luck of the exam hitting a topic that you don't know as well, you are sunk. I believe the SIMS last time just came at me on things clearly out of my wheel house and blew me out of the water. The BAR would have enough topics that not knowing one or two SIMS at all would be diluted. Also, the Bar sims are similar to the BEC in that you can BS a question. I recall one that had never been tested and we were the first. I panicked at first and then took a deep breath and thought to myself… What should the law be? Strangely, when I looked it up that night, I hit it out of the park. When there are numbers involved, it is not subjective and merely objective. A transposed number can cost you.
Like I said, different. I think like a lawyer and not an accountant as well. My wife is an accountant at heart. Hope that helps.
B Passed
A Passed
R Passed
F 8/31/2016