[Anonymous]

What should I take next? Reg seems easy, I am a tax person. Basis shamish. What is a good part to take next since I will suck at FAR

[kandisjoy]

First of all, you're crazy. Just thought I'd get that out of the way. ; ) I kid… I had to take REG three times so.. yeah. I hated REG.

ANYWAYS, logically you should always take the test that you feel will be your most difficult test first. That way your 18 months doesn't have to include the extra study time you might need for that test. After that it doesn't really matter which one you take. I'd say take FAR before AUD since sometimes you need to know journal entries to take AUD, and FAR will give you experience in that.

FAR: 71, 77
BEC: 70, 82
AUD: 62, 78
REG: 71, 68, 85

CA Licensed 11/2011

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice Kandis. The reason I chose Reg first was because I had spent six months studying hard and passed the enrolled agent exam. I figured bang Reg out while all the tax info was fresh in my brain. I agree FAR should be next as it will be the most difficult for me. Out of 52 practice sims on reg I got 100 percent on 47 of them. Far seems like a foreign language to me. Chinese would be easier to grasp.

[Yvonne570]

REG sounds like a good starter for you. Expect to study very long and hard for FAR. This one, the review courses say 5 weeks. I say 5 months at least.

AUD - Passed:)
FAR - Passed:)
REG - Retake TBD
BEC - Missed by 3 points Retake TBD

[Anonymous]

REG and I are sworn enemies…I came out of our tumble victorious, but only just. If you can knock out REG no problem, the rest are easy.

[Anonymous]

Baseball: your scores are amazing. Thanks for the encouragement. I am giving myself untill mid Feb 2012 for Far. The end of the window is best for quick score release incase of a retake.

[yankeeaccountant]

I wish I could belong to this club. I don't hate REG , I leave that to Audit (my arch nemesis!!!) BTW I think Audit is written in Swahili. But the b-law portion is what really gives me a hard time. The tax portion is enjoyable (yes, I said that!) but the other half-grrrrrrr.

[katiekanton]

I'm the opposite. I LOVE LOVE LOVE business law. Tax not so much.

AUD - 88
FAR - 90
REG - 85
BEC - 88

[yankeeaccountant]

@katie

are you busy on Nov 1st? maybe you could pinch hit for me on all my blaw mcq's!!!!!! hahaha

[katiekanton]

Sure. I'll do your b-law, you do my tax. Doesn't bode well for me since I plan to specialize in tax.

(We're just joking if you're monitoring this, CPA people.)

AUD - 88
FAR - 90
REG - 85
BEC - 88

[Anonymous]

Haha thanks, Broadstreet; congrats on the EA, that's an impressive cert that will make you very marketable in the tax field. I will say for you REG-lovers (aka masochists) you are very lucky if you enjoy tax. Business law wasn't too bad, but with every tax lecture I had to listen to, I died a little inside. I remember sitting in my undergraduate and graduate tax classes going, “if I ever end up doing taxes somewhere, it may be the end for me…” lol. Anyway, I studied by far the hardest for REG and just barely walked out with a pass; I know the score doesn't matter because a pass is a pass, but mine is just a testament to the mutual hate REG and I hold for one another. I will say that with FAR, it was the complete opposite for me. The theory of financial accounting has always made sense to me, as did accounting for complex areas (e.g. derivatives, pensions, consolidations). But my advice would be not to memorize journal entries; instead, I would suggest that you understand what principles are driving the answer (e.g. What are we really doing when we amortize a lease? What is the logic behind it for financial reporting purposes? What components make up an amortization table and what does each one mean? etc.) and try to tie it back to introductory accounting theory concepts (I DEBIT this account because it's an expense, asset, etc.; I CREDIT this account because it's a revenue, liability, equity, etc.). In my opinion, if you take the approach of trying to make sense of each concept instead of memorizing blocks of journal entries, you will fare much better on FAR 🙂 Good luck!

[Author]

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