[rahee]

Hey guys, I am taking REG in exactly one month. What should my study plan be? I went through the material once, but I am still struggling on a few sections in every chapter. I would say I understand about 60% of each module. What should I do? Any advice/suggestions? The material is hard for me since I have no experience in tax.

Thanks in advance!

[Tim]

I would go module by module doing MCQ's to identify concepts I don't understand very well. When I find something I need to know better I would reread that section of the book and then do more MCQ's on that topic until I was confident. Then go back to identifying more weak areas to reinforce.

[rahee]

Thank you for the advice! I think that is what I'll do. How many mcqs do you do (weekdays and weekends)? And do you jumble them up or do a lot of questions for one chapter until you feel comfortable with the material?

[Tim]

I have a very unusual/irregular study schedule that I doubt would work for many other people. I do MCQ's in batches of 20. I'd say a couple batches of 20 and you should be able to find some areas you need to improve on. I'm assuming you're using Becker and unfortunatley I'm not familiar with how well Becker lets you narrow down the MCQ's to a specific topic but hopefully it lets you. After rereading the topic I'd just do as many MCQ's as I need until I feel like I know the concept very well. It could be 20 or 40 or more depending on the topic.

[eMeRGeD]

I took the exam on the 1st. In general I'd say that basis calculation is important and something I focused on while studying. I struggled with the law part while going through the material so I spent a lot of time on that as well. MCQ was the best thing for me, and I did all 2500 of wiley's and then went through all the ones I missed. The important thing with that was reading through the answers when I got it wrong (or right if I guessed) and really try to grasp what was going on. Sometimes writing down things helped, especially with a lot of tax credit calculations.

Best of luck!

[rahee]

Thanks guys! Speaking of basis…I am struggling with C-Corp Basis (particularly at formation)–how did you learn that? I feel like the chapter in Becker is easy to understand, but the MCQs are hard. Any advice?

[Cheeks Malone]

I felt the same way about REG. I made it through the material, but still felt very under prepared for the test. I did sets of 20 or 30 MCQs (I had Wiley) to get myself ready for the real testlets. I also did about 120-150 questions each weekday and double that on the weekends. I also tried to make sure I wasn't just memorizing question answers, but reading the solutions and working them out on pencil and paper.
I cannot stress enough that you should be working through all of your calculations with pencil and paper while practicing. This will help bridge the gap between reading the material and actually performing the tasks/answering questions.

[Author]

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