I took REG yesterday, and here's my report.
There is was no way it was 60% Tax vs 40% Business Law. My test was more like 80/20. There was so much obscure stuff on there that wasn't covered by test banks from Gleim, Wiley or Becker (I used all three to prep for this). There must be a disconnect between the prep courses and the AICPA because none of the current prep courses come close to satisfying what this test is demanding of you to know. The test prep makers either need to step up, or the AICPA needs to adjust the difficulty.
My MCQ started off extremely hard, in fact I marked my first four questions and thought “They seriously can't be asking these questions on the 1st testlet yet alone on Reg”. Those questions were so far out of left field and specific, that it made me question if the test makers were going through a terrible divorce and jumped into a pool ofJack Daniels when they wrote these. I couldn't decipher if my tests got harder or not, because the 2nd and 3rd had questions with more calculations and a few lengthy ones word ones, but still had a lot of 1-2 sentence questions.
The sims as expected, were a nightmare. The sims/mcqs from available testing materials don't even come close to helping you prepare for them. The sims on Becker ask you to do a 5K in comparison to the Marathon the actual tests want you to fulfill. Not only that, but the questions are asked in such a backwards way that it's a time sink to actually try to figure out what the test wants. Early modern English is easier to decipher than most of these questions. Unless you have had career experience in working in tax, expect to be frustrated out of your mind.
This is my advice for anyone taking the exam, ignore business law except for ethics and circular 230. Just focus on tax, with the lions share on individual and corporate. I'm going to start studying again and hoping that my score comes fast enough that I can get in and register to get in before the end of the year one more time.
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