[jeff]

Welcome to the Q1 2017 CPA Exam Study Group for REG. 🙂

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) | Another71 | NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE

[jack yassa]

@dtatham10
No worries, and good luck this time 😉

[RE2PECT]

@dtatham10- I'm going to try and not even do any mcq's the last couple days before my exam. I'm going to read through the book and go through the word documents I made from mcq explanations. Might look over some Gleim sims too.

@jack- IMO means “in my opinion”

FAR: 75 Roger & Ninja (notes/flashcards/audio/MCQ)
AUD: 73, 81
BEC: 71, retake 8/29
REG:

[HoosierCPA]

@re2pect I've debated doing something similar. MCQ's get super easy over time and it's almost like you aren't using your brain. I'm not lying when I say the last 200 questions I've done I have probably missed 5-8 tops. I try my best to make sure I understand the material rather then memorized the answer but its tough. I've been reviewing my flash cards every day just to make sure I don't forget general concepts–My 2nd option on this weekend was flash cards and sims. We will see…I'm about as indecisive as they come.

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

[RE2PECT]

@dtatham10- I'm the same way lol. Sometimes I'll sit there for 10 minutes trying to figure out what mcq's to do. I signed up for the free trial to Wiley CPAexcel so I can see some new questions. They give you access to the whole course for 2 weeks so I've been working through the tb and sims.

FAR: 75 Roger & Ninja (notes/flashcards/audio/MCQ)
AUD: 73, 81
BEC: 71, retake 8/29
REG:

[cpaMD86]

@re2pect

How's the Wiley test bank?
I've been focusing on doing all of Roger's Tax question while also doing ‘Trouble Questions' on Ninja. Haven't started SIMS :\

FAR: 9/3

[RE2PECT]

@cpaMD86- It's similar in difficulty to Ninja. It doesn't have crazy hard questions like Gleim, but there's some tough ones. The sims are ok, but I think Gleim has the best ones. It's worth it for having free access for 2 weeks. You can get through all the mcq's and sims in that time.

I wouldn't bother with Ninja's sims. Most of them have you plugging numbers into a tax form. Roger's are ok, but not great either.

FAR: 75 Roger & Ninja (notes/flashcards/audio/MCQ)
AUD: 73, 81
BEC: 71, retake 8/29
REG:

[Tardis_Wobble]

Hey guys!

So I took my exam today. I wrote a novel about it in the “test experience” since I haven't disclosed to anyone in my life that I took an exam today haha. So nowhere to vent! After a few fails at the start of the journey it became too stressful to talk about it with people or have them ask….and tell them I failed again so I just told everyone they would know when I got my certificate. Even my boyfriend of three years has no idea.

Anyway, I breezed through the first testlet and then I am pretty sure I got B2B difficult testlets. Or I am just kidding myself and I didn't know the material lol. I had majority tax questions – a lot of Partnership, some Entity, and a lot of Property! I didn't get that many individual tax questions either. The next major topic was Circular 230 stuff, and then some B-Law. I didn't get a single AMT (pretty stoked about that), but then naturally didn't get a single question on areas that I had spent a lot of time reviewing. Mainly agency questions for B-Law, and very limited Contracts.

The SIMs – I was so anxious about these based on what everyone was saying! But my SIMs were all super short and really not that difficult except for one (which was definitely a pre-test). There were no drop downs at all. I felt good about two (including the research lol). But again, for the rest I could have gotten 0 credit. But I am kind of freaking out because I was expecting these long long SIMs and seriously all of them were really short. So I am convinced I forgot to scroll down or something or didn't read the directions properly. Or maybe in this one case I got lucky?? The Speculation, it kills!!

I had been studying on and off for this exam since late October, and had to push it back a few times because of work. I started to really study more in December and just was heads down from mid-January on. These past two weeks all I have done is study. I did a total of 4500 questions between Ninja, Wiley, and all the Becker book questions. I did all the Wiley SIMS – TWICE! I can't recommend that enough. I did that starting a week before the exam. It really freaked me out at first cause they were super hard, but it was good to take a deep breath and learn the material that way.

I'm too anxious to check my score during score release because I will be cramming until March 10th for audit. I don't want to break my stride with studying for aud with a REG fail. I studied really hard but I wouldn't be surprised to see like a 68 or 70 all things considered.

Good luck to everyone and thanks for all your help. Pulling for all of you!! I am going to have a beer and begrudgingly pull out my audit text…

FAR - 76 - [4]
BEC - 71, 73, September 9 2016
AUD - July 28 2016
REG - October 2016

Black coffee, stress, and cottage cheese pancakes!

[isoceles]

Last weekend of studying. Test on 2/17. I couldn't be less prepared and severely underestimated the amount of time needed to learn these concepts (non-accounting background here). I'm really screwed because I've only covered taxation so far. My game plan is to study all today and finalize my understanding of all tax topics as I think I'm almost there. Tomorrow I'll put in a whole day of business law and ethics, but jut focusing on the big topics and doing MCQs. Then spend the rest of the week doing MCQs and trying to get a SIM or two in. If anyone has any business law / ethics cramming advice, let me know!!!

Thought about postponing it, but I have BEC scheduled 3/10 and really want to pass that one. Took a practice exam and actually did well on it, so fingers crossed.

Good luck to everyone.

[livealittle]

need some help on a simulation.

scenario is Richard has a farm and various items are in a chart and you pick

report on Schedule F
show elsewhere on joint return
not included or deducted on the joint return

one item is $300 interest on personal bank account

the answer says “not included or deducted on the joint return” – confused, shouldn't it be included in the interest and dividends section

BEC - 8/8/16
REG - 66, 77
AUD - 81
FAR - 9/8/16

[livealittle]

never mind on my question, I didn't read the situation carefully enough, the bank interest was on one of the kids (age 14) account.

some of these situations, I feel like I need to draw a family tree out on my notes to figure out who files where!

BEC - 8/8/16
REG - 66, 77
AUD - 81
FAR - 9/8/16

[HoosierCPA]

@livealittle yeah I know what you mean. It's easy to overlook the little details. I fall victim to it all the time.

In that situation–$1,050 of the kids income is tax free, the next $1,050 is taxed at the kids tax rate, aka kiddie tax (I believe 15%), then anything above $2,100 is taxed at the parents tax rate.

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

[CPA788]

@re2pect – How did I not know about this 2 week free trial?? I need to check that out. Can I ask you about your approach to reviewing for your retake? I reset my Becker and started just doing 10-20 MCQs per topic as a refresher (spending more time where I need to), I've finished the tax topics, and now onto blaw/ethics. When I've gotten through all categories on my first pass I guess I'll just do large MCQ batches of all chapters to identify weakspots? Being my 4th go at this idk WHAT is going to do the trick for a 75.

BEC - 74, 77
FAR - 72, 71 (retake 7/29)
REG - 69
AUD - Q4 '16

CA Candidate

[stina71223]

I am either totally drained at this point or just dont get it:

Kisco Corp.’s taxable income before taking the dividends-received deduction was $70,000. This includes $10,000 in dividends from an unrelated taxable domestic corporation. Given the following tax rates, what would Kisco’s income tax be before any credits?

Partial Rate Table Tax Rate
Up to $50,000 15%
Over $50,000 but not over $75,000 25%

Answer: Kisco Corporation's income tax is $10,750, as calculated below:

Taxable income before taking dividends-received deduction $70,000
Less: Dividends-received deduction ($10,000 × 0.70) (7,000)
Taxable income $63,000

$50,000 × 0.15 = $ 7,500
+ 13,000 × 0.25 = 3,250
$10,750

Why are we reducing taxable income if the problem says BEFORE ANY CREDITS? Isnt the DRD on taxable income essentially a credit/reduction against Taxable Income?

[isoceles]

@stina71223: DRD is a deduction to arrive at taxable income. It's not a credit.

[RE2PECT]

@CPA788- I really haven't had a set plan. I've basically been doing mcq's and sims like an animal for the past 2.5 months lol. I'm at almost 7000 mcq's and around 250 sims.

Still don't feel 100% ready, but I don't think anybody does. I just hope I get sims that are manageable this time and do as well on mcq's as my first exam.

I'd do the free trial for Wiley. Doesn't hurt to get extra mcq practice and they have a few good sims.

FAR: 75 Roger & Ninja (notes/flashcards/audio/MCQ)
AUD: 73, 81
BEC: 71, retake 8/29
REG:

[Author]

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