[pharaoh]

There is tons of material in REG, I am not done yet going through the material and already feel that I don’t remember the first few chapters. What do you guys do? Any tips? Never tried Ninja Audio, does it help with REG?

FAR 8/2016
AUD 1/2017
REG TBD
BEC TBD

[Mike J]

Practice. You'll get it.

What helps is drawing parallels. eg, compare partner basis vs SCorp vs CCorp.

Take notes as you go. As you see MCQ that give you trouble, put the solutions in your own words.

Those are quick suggestions.

[Julia]

I do reg notes and reg audio on constant loop. I got Becker books to compare w ninja notes. I rewrite the notes every few days.
No easy way – lot of info.

[Anonymous]

Other than pray to the CPA Gods?

REG is the toughest section in my opinion. I am waiting on the score and have moved on to FAR, but if I didn't pass I plan on studying the authoritative literature and IRC directly. It would help with the SIMs.

[Anonymous]

That's what the review phase is for! I am almost through my study materials, and then I am going to go through the Ninja MCQ, my notes, my flashcards, and probably the book to pull it all together.. There are definitely parallels in terms of how things are taxed, but it's hard to memorize because none of it is intuitive….

[tygolfer]

I felt the same way when studying for REG, that there was too much information and I couldn't learn it all. I would stick to the plan that has worked for you so far, but for me the best thing to do was just keep hammering MCQ and understand all the answers to the practice SIMS.

[wakefern58]

I feel the same @Pharaoh – I think the only option is continuous repetition until it sticks. How did you feel about the REG material thus far compared to FAR material in terms of amount and difficulty?

[alexio senchez]

Another tip is to utilize what people write on this forum. As the new testing window begins, start reading all the “I just took REG…” posts and you'll begin to see a pattern of which topics are tested more heavily during the testing window. This will help you put more focus on those specific topics during your final review.

For example, last quarter's BEC was very heavy on IT and COSO, everyone was writing about it. When I went to take BEC at the end of the testing window, sure enough I had plenty of IT and COSO questions on it.

Alex

[pharaoh]

Thank you all for the tips.

@wakefern58 – REG for me is harder, I don't have any experience with tax. With FAR, I was familiar with, I would say, 50% of the material, like cash, AR, inventory, etc.. the most common for those who practiced accounting. With FAR, my struggle was with Governmental and NFP, because of lack of experience. But they were just two chapters of the whole thing, now the whole REG is foreign to me, there is 1 ton of rules and 2 tons of exceptions and only 0.000000000001 of memory 🙂

FAR 8/2016
AUD 1/2017
REG TBD
BEC TBD

[AndrewE]

@pharaoh I guess test difficulty depends on the individual I felt REG was hard but its do-able.. I'm looking at FAR now and asking myself how people have done it -.-

BEC- 77
AUD- 70, 75
REG- 73, 5/22
FAR- Q3

[Earla Riopel (NYCARE)]

@pharoah lost my credit in REG in 2010. Recently retake REG (since 2010), just before the new April 2017 format. It was my worst score while taking US CPA exams, since the paper form format. Don't ask. The long gap is a very long story for another time.

By nature, I have been doing Canadian Individual Taxation since 1991. I enjoyed tax very much. The MCQs part hasn't changed much, except new amounts and new rates which are normally given in questions. The SIMs part of the exam is much more of time management issue.

Hopefully, with the added time in the new format (4hrs total), it might help. My last March 2017 exam was really tight on time, didn't even have time to press the exit button.

Also, the DRS and Research portion can drag you down. Pay attention on DRS tabs, if you must, write the required question/answer on your ‘noteboard' to avoid flipping back and forth the DRS tabs and get lost, and forgetting where are all the related documents located to answer the Q.

For DRS, not only check the AICPA site (sample test), but check Roger, Surgent & Gleim (YouTube) videos. They have good ‘exam strategy' in answering DRS.

As for me, I have been using my pre-March 2017 Ninja (via print screen copies only – use them for saving time) & 2014 Becker PDF texts & MCQs/SIMS (via Amazon Cloud Reader). In addition, I got the Wiley pre-2015 theory/problems textbooks & hardcopy test banks.

Also I listen and take extra notes from Roger, Wiley & Pedersen lectures, & other exam tips from various exam review providers, especially Ninja.

Check @CPA_Fans_Page & @RiopelEarla Twitter sites related to CPA exam – YouTube created/saved playlists links, if you require additional study materials. I have recently been spending time on them.

Lastly, Ninja, Becker & Wiley MCQs/SIMs test banks are great for extra practice, if you have time. Good luck.

[Want2BeCPAsoBad]

I guess we all learn different to me REG was piece of cake. I just say practice MCQ AND know the exceptions to the rules and everything falls into place. I feel the same but with AUD, No calculation makes this test harder, it just doesn't click.

[Tyler23]

IMO B. Law is way harder to memorize and comprehend for me than taxation. Secured transactions, assignments, perfection, defenses, it's endless. Wondering how everyone else is memorizing this info…

[CPYay]

@Pharaoh

I'm rooting for you Pharaoh!!!

I used Ninja Audio and listened to it everywhere I went. I paired this with relentless sessions of MCQs.

I have no idea how much they contributed to my success because I walked into the REG exam feeling completely unprepared and walked out feeling defeated.

But… adding audio to the mix–especially if you have a commute–is a great option.

[Anonymous]

Everybody is drastically different. I studied for 3 weeks and passed REG (I like tax and law). But I studied 2 months for AUD and failed and studied another 2 and a half months and thank god passed, but I felt really unsure of myself. Some things just click with some people while others struggle with it.

[HoosierCPA]

OP I just mentioned this in a prior thread but I will repeat. REG was the hardest section for me, took my 5 shots, so here is my best advice!

-Sims, sims, and more sims. This may be the most important advice I have. Sims make or break you on this exam (at least from my experience). As I said in the prior post. Every fail I had I was comparable or stronger on mcq's (besides once, I had weaker in 1 category) but I was always weaker in sims. They are brutal so the more you study them the more comfortable you will be.

-An extension to the sims, to narrow your focus, mainly focus on the sims for individual and corp tax. You can skim the other sims but don't expect to see them come exam day.

-Basis is huge, everything and anything regarding basis is fair game, if you can nail this down it'll pay off, trust me!

-Those are my biggest takeaways, don't blow off the late chapters (b-law, commercial paper, etc) as those are easy mcq points.

-Study material: Ninja mcq's are great, ninja sims don't waste your time. Stick with Becker sims and if you are able financially I would consider Gleim sims.

Good luck!

FAR - 78
REG - 72,74,71...please just go away REG nobody likes you!
BEC - 82
AUD - Aug 16

[Author]

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