[hkumar117]

Hey everyone, I took BEC and AUD this past month and wanted to squeeze in another section before I start my last semester of grad school. I scheduled REG for 8/31 but didnt know what I was up against at the time. The material is very in depth and I’m wondering if I’ll even have enough time to cover the material and get a proper review in before my exam date. Right now I only work 2 days a week interning as a forensic accountant so I try to study around 5 hours on my off days but the material usually makes my head spin and starts to blend together after that point.

My next option is to study casually for all of August and September and then sit for REG first day of October and then study for FAR while I’m taking my classes (contingent on me passing both BEC and AUD). What does everyone here think? I would really appreciate some feedback.

BEC - 79
AUD - 7/22/15
REG - 8/31/15
FAR - Sometime in November

[ocarina]

I think you should do it in October. What's another month?

I'm actually starting it next Monday & will be testing Oct 1! It'd better to be on the safe side and get it finished instead of hell over the summer. FAR & REG are pretty dang brutal in a month time span.

That's just my personal opinion. You do have the time so maybe you can get yourself in the passing zone by end of August. Also make sure your test slot is even available. That actually made my decision for me as there was nothing open end of August, haha

FAR - 78
AUD - 82
REG - 79
BEC - 78

Study Materials: Becker Self Study, NINJA Notes, NINJA MCQ for review
Started March 2015 and finished December 2015 all on first attempt. Licensed CPA Jan 2016.

IT Auditor/CyberSec Consultant in Public Accounting
Future goals: Learn IT Network infrastructure, obtain CISA & CISSP

[PleaseDontDeleteThanks]

I'm in the same boat. REG is insane! The material took me about 85 hours to go through completely…once.

How many hours do you have budgeted? If it's 150, I'd go ahead and take it this window. What can it hurt?

Good luck.

FAR 72, 89
BEC 80
REG 90
AUD 79

[tom411]

I hear you about the material making your head spin! I currently have REG scheduled for 8/24, but I think I will be rescheduling for October since I also have BEC this month, and since my mind is running on fumes from already taking 2 exams this window (what was I thinking…). Ultimately it's up to you, but I think rescheduling and giving yourself more time to study would be a lot less stressful.

[mkrohmer]

I took reg in 5.5 weeks while working 40 hours a week. I would spend about 5 hours a day after work and most of the weekends. I have a masters in tax so a lot of the material was covered within the past year and I found the material pretty east compared to FAR and BEC. I started review around the 4 week mark and feel like I could have taken the exam then. So depending on how difficult you found it, it's not a stretch to say you can do it in 4.

However, if you think now that its not enough and you are going to push it until October I would definitely recommend putting REG on hold and taking FAR early October. I think if you put REG off that long you won't take it as seriously and space it out more which could lead to the earlier topics becoming distant. That will make the review process much harder.

BEC - 83 (1/23/15)
FAR - 80 (4/3/15)
REG - 88 (5/14/15)
AUD - 81 (7/3/15)

[Hermit]

I would take it in October.

I took the month of August off to take REG and will be my first time attempting this part. Will 3.5 weeks (8 hours daily) enough time using becker? Any tips would be helpful. My study plan right now is to watch lectures, read each subsection after problems, then use Wiley testbank for additional questions for final review. I heard REG had the hardest set of Simulations. FAR was bad enough, any way to get past REG simulaitons?

Thanks all!

FAR: 72, 72, awaiting 8/4 results

BEC: 8/3/15

AUD: 10/24/15

REG: 8/28/15

[WaitingonScoreRelease]

Hermit,

3.5 weeks if you are putting in that much time should be barely enough, as long as those 8 hours are efficient.

The business law section can go very quickly – I was able to get through each business law module in 2 days. 1 day for lecture and 1 day for doing all the HW. The tax can get kind of bothersome, but again, the first two modules in Becker aren't that bad. It also depends on how much tax accounting you've been exposed to in the past.

There isn't really any good way of preparing for the Sims other than know the MCQ material very well, and knowing how to use the search feature of the IRC very effectively and efficiently when it comes exam time, because there might be stuff in there you have never seen before.

Then again, I haven't got my score yet, so who knows if what i'm saying will he helpful or not 🙂

Good luck!

Aud: 99. (May)
Bec: 89. (April)
Far: 84. (Feb)
Reg: 79. (July)

[makiu]

@mkrohmer

I'm planning to take REG at the end of August and study in a 3 weeks period. Here is my situation. I loss credit for REG after passing in the first try while studying the MST program and EA as well. So, I felt like driving a car in my home car garage and left FAR for the end. ( huge mistake). None of the less, that was almost 2 years ago. I want to hear your feedback if is possible to come up with a study plan in a 3 weeks time period studying aprox. 40 hours a week for a total of 120 hours…+/-. I would like to give it a try but I do not know is there has been any change in the areas to be tested such as IFRS TAX CODE some crazy stuff like that. If any other ninja read this post and could help me, I would really appreciated in advance.

Thank you

BEC-PASS

AUD-PASS

REG-LOSS CREDIT

FAR-70 , Retake August 10

[hkumar117]

I appreciate all the responses. I spoke to a good friend of mine whose further in the CPA process than I am. I'm going to wait until 8/4 to see if I passed BEC and then proceed accordingly. If I didn't pass BEC when I gave myself 6 weeks, then it will be difficult to do REG in 4 weeks. If I passed BEC, then I'll continue on grinding REG

BEC - 79
AUD - 7/22/15
REG - 8/31/15
FAR - Sometime in November

[Kayla123]

I have REG scheduled for 8/27 which will give me exactly 4 weeks to study, so I am in the same boat as you.

I would say to give it a shot in August- worse case you fail and have to redo it, but at least you are taking advantage of the opportunity to pass it earlier. And if you fail, just sit for it again in October. I like to take advantage of the testing windows- since I passed AUD in May my time is ticking with the 18 month expiration, so I would rather try the exam in a testing window even if I don't feel confident because you can only take a test once per window so you might as well take advantage of every opportunity to sit to prevent your 18 months from expiring.

AUD- 99
FAR- 93
BEC- 90
REG- 94

[makiu]

@Kayla123

Sounds great!! Thank you..

[Last Chance CPA]

BEC was the only section i passed on the first try and I was under the same conundrum, I took it on Oct 4th…giving me that extra month gave me the pass. I understand squeezing in REG in as many windows as possible, but I think you are burnt out…take it in October.

How is it working in forensic accounting?

FAR - 76
AUD - 75
BEC - 75
REG - 76

Now I need some experience!!! And some networking...

[hkumar117]

I can understand why some people are saying to take it in as many windows as possible but I also don't want to be underprepared and end up with a 74. Hopefully I passed both BEC and AUD so I can work through REG for the rest of August and September.

@LastChanceCPA – I use to intern at a tax firm but switched to a small forensic accounting firm once busy season ended. It's been a great learning experience. I almost never do the same thing twice. From doing trend analysis to creating normalized earnings schedules, theres always something new. I'm hoping to leverage this experience for an offer at a Top 10

BEC - 79
AUD - 7/22/15
REG - 8/31/15
FAR - Sometime in November

[Hermit]

@Waiting Score Release,

thanks for the advice. I am including 7 days a week for that 8 hours, which now might change to 7 days a week for 10 hours a day. I feel that if I take one day off, I get extremely lazy. I was told from a good friend that the longer you try to study the material harder it is to remember it, but also giving enough time to study. I have taken individual tax twice, but not business law or corporate tax at UC level. Plus I prefer math over reasoning. I felt better about FAR than I did BEC or AUD. But feel better about AUD now that I work in the Audit group at the big 4.

AUD 10/24

FAR 72, 72, waiting release 8/4

BEC 8/3

REG 8/28

[Author]

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