[jaredo155]

I was an econ major my first go round in undergrad, and so I went back and took the accounting hours required to sit for the exam. One of the courses I never got to take was Advanced Tax (i.e. corporate tax, partnerships, etc), and I am trying to decide if it would be worth my while to squeeze it in this summer while studying for REG. I had Intro to Tax, and I actually worked in a corporate tax department for three and a half years. I am using Yaeger review as well as the Ninja review products, and I am sure that if I put my mind to it I can learn it on my own. To anyone who has taken the exam without having Advanced Tax, did you find it took quite a bit longer trying to learn the material instead of just reviewing it? I do much better learning in a classroom, and the course actually wouldn’t cost me anything because I work for a University. I am just trying to decide if the course would be overpreparation and a waste of valuable time. Any advice or thoughts are greatly appreciated.

AUD - 2/2013 - Passed!
BEC - 5/2013 - Passed!
FAR - 8/2013 - Passed!
REG - 11/2013 - Passed!
"Do or do not, there is no try." - Yoda

[J]

Obviously it depends on several factors (i.e. quality of professor, specific topics covered, etc.), but I found the Advanced Tax course that I took to be quite beneficial in terms of REG. I took it two years before I sat for REG (Spring 2011) and of course I had to go through many of the topics again, but I had a sense of familiarity with a lot of the material to the point where I came upon something in the Wiley book and recalled the chapter of the book that we used in the class in which the information was located, if I wanted to delve further into detail.

Review courses are going to cover basically everything (or almost everything that you need to know), but if you really want to learn the material and get another perspective, I believe that it was one of the most useful courses that I took.

[Anonymous]

I took Advanced and agree with InterFC1 – I did feel like it gave me a familiarity with what I was studying. Of course take that with a grain of salt because I didn't leave REG feeling like I passed. Whether or not it's worth all the extra $ to take an entire class..not sure… but I was glad while studying that I had taken Tax II. I will say topics in my Tax II class were heavy topics in my SIMS.

[jaredo155]

Thanks for the responses! I was leaning towards taking the course, because I definitely want to learn the materail as thoroughly as possible. The only reason I was questioning it is I am a new dad, going to school for my Master's part time, and working full time, so I am trying to make this process as efficient as possible. At the end of the day I know it is short term sacrifices for long term payoffs.

AUD - 2/2013 - Passed!
BEC - 5/2013 - Passed!
FAR - 8/2013 - Passed!
REG - 11/2013 - Passed!
"Do or do not, there is no try." - Yoda

[neika822]

In college, I HATED TAX. I just couldn't grasp it. I only took the bare minimum (intro to Tax) as an undergrad, and then an additional tax course in my MSA program, which was basically another intro with a bit of corporate tax mixed in. I had to work my butt off to get that B.

That was in 2010. I took Reg and studied using Becker and Ninja beginning in 2013. I felt like this time, I understood it better and passed with a 77. I fully know that I could have studied more and spent more time on the tax topics, too.

So, I totally think you can take Reg without an Advanced Tax course. Would it be helpful? Sure. But don't stress yourself out over taking the course beforehand.

R - *77*(02/'13)-Becker & NINJA
A - 71('11); *87*(04/'13)-Becker & NINJA
F - *76*(08/'13)-Becker & NINJA - "server upgrade" survivor
B - 60('11); *82*(10/'13) -Becker & NINA

DONE, DONE, AND DONE.

CPA in Massachusetts; issued 01/24/14

[Anonymous]

I think it also depends on the review course you are using. You may want to use more of a “teaching” course for REG versus a review course and you'll probably be fine. I used CPAexcel and if I had not taken Tax II then I would have been a little lost.

[SeattleAccountant]

@jaredo, recommend that you take Tax II class.

Reason 1: a lot of that stuff is in the review but if you are unfamiliar with the issues it is going to take you longer time to master. Accordingly, time will have to be spent either studying harder on your own OR you can take it in school and be guided.

Reason 2: it is a free class to you (work for school). Take it and make a good use of it.

I'm going thru REG review right now and can report that a lot of topics come from corp/partnership tax class I've taken.

Becker Class of Jan - Aug 2013: FARB DONE!!!!
CPA license pending 🙂

[Author]

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