[nicole_123]

Hey,

First time poster although I’ve lurked here and there. I’m taking the exam in three weeks and I’m kind of freaking out looking for any advice/words of encouragement on how I should go about the review phase of my studying. I’ve done all of the lecture videos, skills practices, SIMS, and MCQ’s for R1-R6 using Becker. I’ve read the book and taken notes on just about everything. I still haven’t touched BLAW but my plan is to skip the video lectures on those and just focus on reading the book, taking notes, and MCQ’s. I plan to do one module a day on BLAW until those last two chapters are done.

Currently I’m at a loss for how to go about reviewing the tax material. I felt like I understood most things when I was studying it for the first time and now I feel like I’ve completely forgotten everything. I know everyone says to hammer MCQ’s but I’m finding that I’ve forgotten how to do too many of them. Can anyone offer any advice? would it be beneficial to go back through each chapter one module at at time, reviewing the notes and redoing those MCQ’s.

I’m also considering purchasing NINJA but i’m unsure if I’ll even have enough time to make that worthwhile. I’d really appreciate any advice you all have. Thanks!

[nalratoss]

It's okay to feel nervous and completely unprepared. I passed REG with the mindset that I might have failed but luckily I escaped with a pass. The amount of material is so overwhelming, any test taker could get lost or distracted.

My suggestion is to read the book but focus on these interrelated concepts that are treated differently under different tax jurisdictions. For example, I used Gleim and capital gain/loss were mentioned in loss treatment for individual taxation and corporate tax. Read these two parts together, keep in mind the differences between how capital loss is treated in individual tax and corporate tax. When you study c corp tax and partnership tax,one of the most heavily tested topics is formation (contribute property to the company in exchange for ownership/partnership interest), keep an eye on differences. The exam likes to test you these differences.

Also, if you find yourself not having enough time for everything, just focus on tax first.

The AMT stuff is annoying. I find it annoying and a lot of people feel the same. If you don't have time for that, you can focus less on that. Same goes for bankruptcy law of the BLaw part.

[Madhav]

@nicole123 It is normal to feel unprepared. As for my experience, if you practice sims related to different entities like Individuals, C corp, s corp, llc and others. It will help you. After failing for first time, i practice sims related to those mentioned topics and i got two or three exact sims from those topics. Also AICPA heavily test on these topic. I highly recommend practicing those sims and you will be good to go even if you miss other sims. I missed or made educated guess on couple of sims but was dead on right on tax related sims and i eventually passed with 77. I did same thing with Audit and passed with 76. So i would recommend to look at AICPA exam blue print and try to restudy heavily tested topics.

[Anonymous]

Hello, I would say for REG, you need to be careful about just doing one module a day for R7 and R8. That will only leave you just over a week in the review phase. Unless you've already reviewed a lot of the tax stuff, this might not be enough time. If this is your first exam, I would strongly recommend planning to take at least two of the mock exams to help with your endurance.

I agree that reading (as opposed to watching) the lectures is a good call. This will save you a lot of time. As for the skills practices, I personally found these a waste of time. Stay light on the sims as well if you are going to skip something, but not the MC. I found progress tests to be the most helpful for figuring out which areas I was weak in. As for purchasing supplemental material, I'm not sure I would worry about that until you at least finish all of the Becker stuff.

3 weeks is still a lot of time to prepare so don't freak out. I did all of REG in just under 4 weeks while working full-time, granted I had a strong background in tax.

Especially, if this is your first exam, you will never feel 100% ready at some point you just have to make the dive.

[Anonymous]

I actually have a different philosophy. I felt the mock exams were a waste of energy. 3 hours wasted that could be used learning the material or doing a review. To build endurance just hammer MCQs for stretches with small breaks.

Also I wouldn’t totally ignore the Becker skills practice section. For the last 3 chapters in Becker listen to the second page lecture in each skills practice while driving. I listened to those 3 times each while driving to work and it helped me understand the little details of Ethics and Business law. Some of those lectures were only 5 minutes long.

Definitely do the AICPA practice exam SIMs a couple of times. I had a few sims similar.

[Anonymous]

I’d add on that I would briefly review 1 to 2 chapters per day along with a portion of the MCQs for each chapter either a few hours later or the next day. Don’t do all of them. Do enough to see if the material is sticking for each chapter and then note areas of weakness.

[Author]

Replies