[Emily]

We all know the exams are hard and the difficulty is very subjective, but I’m interested to hear from those who have taken their exams just recently (2017-2018). Rank your exams from Easiest to Hardest, here’s mine:

I’ve only taken 3 so far (passed FAR and am waiting on 2 score releases this quarter & currently studying for REG)
AUD>BEC=FAR (Hardest)

In terms of studying:
AUD>BEC>REG>>>>>>>>>FAR

Just curious to see your responses 🙂

AUD - 83
BEC - 90
FAR - 79
REG - 93

"Highlight that, now circle it" - Tim Gearty

[felixsphone]

Exam experience is always the same for me: nerves, doubt, then it turns into excitement and then me just trying to stay focused.
As far as preparation difficulty:
REG – Hardest
FAR – Hard
BEC – Standard exam/test preparation
AUD – ?????

AUD - 75
BEC - 83
FAR - 85
REG - 84

He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.

Lao Tzu

[Emily]

What do you guys find hardest about REG? Is it the volume of information, all the % and rules that you have to memorize, or is it something else? I'm studying for REG right now and I'd like to get a grasp of what people think are hard about the exam so I can focus on those

AUD - 83
BEC - 90
FAR - 79
REG - 93

"Highlight that, now circle it" - Tim Gearty

[Nate]

@Emily, for me it was how abstract and specific the questions were, it felt like most of my questions were based off of the most random small sections of the code that hardly any tax CPA would know. The materials was also hard because it was so many things that you had to memorize. With FAR it felt like one big cohesive topic but with REG, a lot of it felt random and out of place. REG took the most repetition for me and from my perspective, don't ignore or take lightly minor rules, EVERYTHING is important for the exam. But again, for my exam, I had a lot of questions about random and abstract rules that left me sitting there with my arms up. I'm still surprised I passed REG, but I've heard a lot of people say that.

AUD: 54 (10/31/15); 83 (12/02/17)
BEC: 70 (01/31/16); 90 (07/02/17)
FAR: 73 (10/03/15); 88 (02/17/18)
REG: 83 (06/09/18)
AICPA Ethics: 91 (06/28/18)
Licensed: 08/16/18

[felixsphone]

@Emily I have no experience in tax preparation other than what I've done in turbo tax for my personal filing. The topic is very technical and there are a lot of exceptions to the rules. I'm not super bothered by the phase outs but that is something that should be taken into consideration for some heavily tested topics. It's mostly internally generated honestly, if I stuck with a more consistent study plan I don't think I'd be feeling this overwhelmed. I know you'll do great if you can stick to the plan.

AUD - 75
BEC - 83
FAR - 85
REG - 84

He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.

Lao Tzu

[Andrew]

I am definitely going to be the outlier here, but here’s how I’d stack up the exams from hardest to easiest:

Hardest = BEC
FAR
AUD
Easiest = REG

AUD - 86
BEC - 88
FAR - 91
REG - 88

Ethics - 91

Awaiting 1 year experience for licensure

[Greg]

Hardest – FAR
REG
BEC
Easiest – AUD

Adjust the length of study accordingly and they're all the same in terms of difficulty.

BEC -  89 - 1/9/2018

FAR - 87 - 7/6/2018

REG - 83 - 6/4/2018

AUD - 83 - 5/20/2018

ETH - 93 - 8/20/2018

[RoseMarie]

I have only studied for BEC and FAR so far. I find out both results this quarter so can't say how well i did but I can say that FAR was much harder for me to study for because of the length of the course and the sheer volume of material but I found the test easier. I finished FAR with over an hour left and feel somewhat hopeful that I passed. I find out about that one on 12/11. BEC on the other hand was more fun to study for, I actually like variances and capital budgeting and even economics, but I felt the test was way out of left field with the MCQ. I watched Roger, Bisk, and read Ninja for IT and still hadn't seen half the IT stuff I was tested on. I felt very uncomfortable with both sets of MCQ and couldn't tell if the difficulty changed. But on the SIMS I felt really good and decent on the WC so we will see on 12/19 how I did on that one.

FAR - 11/05/18 - 92

BEC - 12/04/18 - 95

AUD - 2/27/19 - 96

REG - 4/17/19 - 93

I’m done!!

 

[Kerias]

Audit>FAR>BEC>REG

AUD - 82
BEC - 77
FAR - 79
REG - 76

This is a marathon not a 100 yard race!!!!!!!

[JRG24]

@ Rose Marie My experience with BEC is similar. The MCQs felt harder than what I studied, but for the Sims, I know I got three of them 100% correct. The other one not so much….hopefully that one was the trail sim. I, too, am waiting for 12/18 to see how I did.

AUD - 82
BEC - 75
FAR - 81
REG - NINJA in Training

JRG

[Author]

Replies