[Want2BeCPAsoBad]

I went through the first chapter for REG (roger) yesterday and finished it all and score 75,85,90,95 in quizes for the Chapter I plan to to start Chapter 2 today. Is one month enough to study for REG? I really don’t want to do BEC right now something just doesn’t click, so I will push that to the side and do REG while my BEC to retake it processed.

[Spartans92]

Studied for 8 weeks first time (no work).. didnt focus much and failed. Retake, studied another 7 weeks (while working) and I concentrated on the material. Passed on second try. Went from 69-85.

I didnt really think about time because it always doesn't work for me.. I plan to do x amount of chapter/ questions per day I always fall behind. But I was understanding the material cuz I was able to explain to myself why I was right and the other options were wrong.

For the record: I studied about 8-11 weekdays. Pretty much whole day saturday (by sessions) and 3 hrs on sundays.

BEC- PASS

[Want2BeCPAsoBad]

For me it will be around 20 weekdays at 2 hours per day, and I can only do about 2 blocks of 3 hours on weekends since my kids have a lot of activities. I also get 2 days off to study for test before the exam, so that can be and additional 10 hours of uninterrupted study since my kids will be in school.

[Want2BeCPAsoBad]

BTW, My REG is scheduled for 1/26. So If I want to change it I probably need to do it today. I hope more people respond :-/

[Spartans92]

Yea, everyone is different and have different learning style. Wish you the best of luck! I highly recommend adding Ninja.. I was able to see where my weaknesses were and targeted those areas. I was very weak on timing differences on my first round and I targeted that area the 2nd time.. That's one of the features I like the most.

BEC- PASS

[Track55]

I dont think ur job matters. I had a tax internship and failed. I had zero audit experience and got a perfect score. Its more, did u do all the Ninja questions or not.

Its nice to be doing it for ur kids so I hope u pass.

AUD - 74, 99 !!
REG - 74, 92
BEC - 83
FAR - 73, 86

Studying for Ethics exam

California candidate
Business and Industry

[KaliKingz]

I didn't study much for the REG exam, maybe 30 hrs.
I do work in tax and have a Masters in Tax.
I think working in tax does help you a great deal.
During my tax internship, I got really basic tax returns, but as a staff I am expected to understand the code and apply a lot of the knowledge that was tested on the exam. On the other hand, if you work in a niche market, working in tax will not help much for the CPA exam.

[Jay]

REG was the only exam I passed.. First try no less. I worked in Tax for 2 years or 2 seasons of relevant experience for the exam. I studied 3 weeks and was reviewing and realized i forgot some of the earlier topics so I pushed the exam another 3 days.. I got an 82 on the exam with 3 and a half weeks of studying semi-seriously. Semi-seriously in that i studied 3-4 hours per night but could have done more.. especially on weekends. Working in Tax definitely helped.

But I recommend going hard on it.. Take it from someone who has failed so many of these because I just didn't take it seriously or put in the hours. Now i'm back to taking it serious for BEC in 2 or 3 weeks and then AUD in 2 or 3 weeks after and FAR in 2 to 3 weeks after that….. I hate this exam process but I know it'll be worth it.

I recently heard someone say to me that you can either go hard for 6 months, a year, 2 years, whatever or you can take 5 years, 10/15 years because once you start you know you can't quit. Imagine quitting and looking back at yourself.. can't quit, gotta work through it. Wish I was this motivated 2 years ago….

Good luck.

REG 82 (08/08/15)

[Anonymous]

You definitely want to take it in Q1. Don't push that to Q2 – it'll get “harder” and take 5 months to get a grade. If your schedule makes it better to take closer to the first week of March (and you don't have another exam – or are willing to forgo it to help REG) – push it back.

To be noted on working in tax, I think it will definitely help you to some extent. How much will depend on the type and variety of returns you do. At small generalist CPA firms – you'll probably get exposed to a lot.

[Namstut]

@want2BeCPAsoBad I do not have any tax experience (I don't even do my own taxes!!) and I studied REG for 7 weeks. I have a full time job (50+ hrs/week) and I have kids so it all depends on your personal situation. I covered 2 chapters a week on average and then reviewed for 2 weeks (I use Becker, which has 8 chapters). I failed with a 74 because I skipped some of the important concepts and it bit me in the arse.

If it only takes you a day to go through a chapter and get high review scores I think you will not have any problems getting ready for the 26th by covering all of the material in 3 weeks and leaving the last week for review. I think you can move your exam at the last minute (it might depend on the state, not sure) so if you feel that you are not ready 2-3 days before your scheduled date you can always move it.

Good luck!

AUD 7/6/16 Passed
BEC 9/3/16
FAR TBD
REG TBD

[Goingallin]

Namstut: Do you read the book as well as do the homeweork questions? What is your study method? I have Beckers too and is dreading REG bc like you, I know nothing about tax. Do you think Becker did a good job covering the material?

[Jdn9201]

I work in tax and have my master's in tax as well. I took REG in Q4 2015 after studying for about 5 weeks. I estimated I studied about 60-70 hours overall. I had Roger and thought he did very well for tax, although some of the SIMS I found myself relying more on my work experience than anything I learned in the study materials. I think having the background helps significantly. I don't recommend this, but I pretty much blew off business law to concentrate on making my tax score. I only made an 82 on the exam, but i think that was because of my lack of time on business law. People need different amounts of time, but I found my sweet spot was studying for 6 weeks, take exam, take 2 weeks off, then repeat. There's no way I could have dragged one out over 8-12 weeks and maintained enough focus throughout.

BEC - 88 8/29/15
REG - 82 11/14/15
AUD - 83 1/8/16
FAR - 80 2/29/16

[N4]

5 weeks. I would recommend 4 to 6 weeks for Reg

FAR (5/31) PASS (Best birthday gift ever!)

[Namstut]

@goingallin

I studied for my original REG exam by watching the video, reading the chapter, doing all of the HW MCQs for that chapter. Then during the review weeks I re-read the whole text book, did most of the SIMs, did both practice exams and tackled 50-100 review MCQs daily. It might be an overkill for some but I have a terrible memory and I blame it on being middle-aged because I never had this problem before. 🙂 I am also discovering that I do not have an auditory perception and this might be the reason why it took me more than 8 weeks to prepare for AUD and BEC. I passed both on the first try but I think I wasted my time listening to lectures.

Now preparing to retake REG on January 2nd I read the chapter and did 50 review MCQs. If I got over 90 I moved on to the next chapter. If less, I reviewed my weak areas and did another 50. Now I am redoing all of the SIMs and planning on hitting MCQs in the last two days before the exam.

I think Becker is doing a good job preparing you for REG. I have no one else to blame but myself for not passing it the first time.

At the end of the day you should use the study method that works for you. Some can listen to the audio only (or read the book only) and kill all of the MCQs on their first attempt.
I am still trying to figure out what works for me so I really am not the best person to give advise on how to study. 🙂

One advise I would give you is do not blow through Business Law sections. Study all sections. These easy points might save you at the end of the day. I think everyone will agree that SIMs are hard and the majority of those who fail show a weaker performance on SIMs. It's 40% of your total score so even if you get only half of them correctly but you are strong on MCQs you have a good chance of passing. It's my personal opinion and I might be wrong but I know this was the reason I failed.

Good luck!

AUD 7/6/16 Passed
BEC 9/3/16
FAR TBD
REG TBD

[Want2BeCPAsoBad]

So I usually watch the lecture and take my own notes for then hit MCQ on Roger until I start getting 90+, then I move into the next lecture I'm currently doing Corporate tax chapter. I decided to push it off to Febrary 1st, to have one full week of review and have 4 days of hard core study Sat-Tues with a testing day on a Wednesday.

Some of you suggested supplementing Roger with Ninja. Should I do it now? or once I finish the material buy Ninja to hit more MCQ for final review?

I'll keep you posted. 🙂

[Noche]

I studied 7-8 weeks as soon as my first tax busy season ended. I am glad I waited until after my first busy season because a lot of the concepts were familiar while studying REG. About 40% of the material was fairly straightforward and easy to understand due to the tax experience. On weekdays, I studied about 1-2 hours after work. On weekends, I tried to study about 4 hours each day.

REG 80 [07/27/2015]
BEC 84 [11/25/2015]
AUD XX [02/01/2016]
FAR XX [05/30/2016]

[Author]

Replies