[Anonymous]

I took FAR and REG last year and failed both. I must admit I got discouraged so I decided to take some time off. I want to take REG in July and then continue on from there. I am also taking one class a semester towards my MBA mainly to get to 150 credits. I am only going to take four classes and then put the MBA on hold until I finish the CPA. I am a third year senior auditor so I am stuck for advancement until I get my license so I look at it as a do or die at this point. I am also on the older side so I want to get everything done as soon as possible. How far out would study for REG? I think my FAR problem was that I studied too long and started to forget topics. Also, if I take REG in July are there any changes I need to study for. Thanks for any advice

[PocketsWithCash]

I would suggest between 6 and 8 weeks for REG depending on how much time you have to dedicate to studying (personally, I think that if you're worried about forgetting things, you should put in later hours over less time rather than stretch it out to 10+ weeks). You'll want about 10-14 days to review after you've gone through all the chapters individually. I was pretty lazy and only reviewed for like 6 days and felt that wasn't really enough time (I realize I still scored well, but trust me when I say you'll regret it if you don't leave enough time to review).

Another thing to help if you're worried about forgetting material… dedicate 2 or 3 hours, one day a week to redoing MCQ's from chapters you've already completed – if you're using Becker, do progress tests, if you're using other material, do assortments of MCQ's from previous chapters. Like I said, I was really lazy for REG so I didn't do that, but that's what I did for FAR and it made the final 2 weeks of reviewing much easier and kept old topics fresh.

I believe the only real changes are in amounts/phase outs, like the standard deduction is different for 2014, personal exemption is different, etc. Specific phase outs aren't really that important anyway as I'm sure you already know, so any of the changes aren't a big deal.

FAR 97
REG 91
AUD 5/30/14
BEC 7/11/14

[PocketsWithCash]

I would suggest between 6 and 8 weeks for REG depending on how much time you have to dedicate to studying (personally, I think that if you're worried about forgetting things, you should put in later hours over less time rather than stretch it out to 10+ weeks). You'll want about 10-14 days to review after you've gone through all the chapters individually. I was pretty lazy and only reviewed for like 6 days and felt that wasn't really enough time (I realize I still scored well, but trust me when I say you'll regret it if you don't leave enough time to review).

Another thing to help if you're worried about forgetting material… dedicate 2 or 3 hours, one day a week to redoing MCQ's from chapters you've already completed – if you're using Becker, do progress tests, if you're using other material, do assortments of MCQ's from previous chapters. Like I said, I was really lazy for REG so I didn't do that, but that's what I did for FAR and it made the final 2 weeks of reviewing much easier and kept old topics fresh.

I believe the only real changes are in amounts/phase outs, like the standard deduction is different for 2014, personal exemption is different, etc. Specific phase outs aren't really that important anyway as I'm sure you already know, so any of the changes aren't a big deal.

FAR 97
REG 91
AUD 5/30/14
BEC 7/11/14

[Author]

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