[mccarta7]

Which exam were you most nervous about when you began your CPA journey, before you started studying for it? Was it as bad as you thought it would be?
I am currently the most nervous about REG as I have no tax experience and slacked off a little in my two tax classes in college. After I take AUD in October REG will be next and I am insanely anxious about it and I haven’t even began studying yet. I feel like I know next to nothing about tax and I am on a tight schedule for that exam with no time to add if I’m not feeling prepared enough.

[M123]

FAR – and I had the “privilege” of being nervous – twice.

The prep materials will have everything you need. Just plan to practice a lot with MCQ and a good number of sims and you will win REG.

[Anonymous]

REG, I knew this section would give me problems. Too many rules, exceptions, and just doesn’t make sense at times because the Tax Code is written so poorly. I could make sense of FAR – especially with help of debits and credits!!

[Superdude3000]

REG simply because it was my first – had no idea what to expect. I became less nervous each time.

[Anonymous]

I was initially most nervous about FAR because of all the horror stories about how much of a beast it is. And yet I still underestimated it since it was my first CPA Exam. Going into my retake, I was nervous because I needed at least a 16 point increase to my score and didn't think I was smart enough to make that kind of a jump. Thankfully I just made it.

But now I only have REG left, and now I'm nervous because it has so much content. I wish I hadn't saved such a big subject for last 🙁

[Anonymous]

FAR. It my first exam and the universe tested my determination. I caught the flu two weeks before my exam, luckily it was a short recovery. The veneer on my front tooth (previous hockey accident left me with just a little nub of a real tooth) cracked in half while biting into an apple, the same day I caught the flu. For 2 weeks I said nothing, if I had to talk I found a way to cover my mouth or speak to the floor. Only my boss knew why I was acting so strange. I had a temporary cap but it would fall off if I did so much as pronounce the letter “f”. The flu and the dentist visits took the time I had allotted for Gov/NFP, I spent maybe 6 hours the night before the test. My tooth was fixed at 9:00 AM and I sat for FAR at 12:00 on the same day. I walked out of Prometric convinced I failed due to Gov/NFP alone. Passed with a 79.

[ixlr82day]

FAR. It was my last exam. The first time I took it I got a 49. During the first break I actually went to the bathroom and threw up. I was recovering from a cold but it was probably the exam. I cleaned myself up and went back and finished it. I knew I failed but the 49 killed me.

On the retake I studied for 3 months. M-Sunday 8-10pm everyday with my full time job as a tax acc. on the weekdays. I had dinner with family but for the most part saw friends about once a month. Mostly read the book and watched the videos. Got a 79 this past score release. I wouldn't recommend it to others simply because by the end I was burnt out. It was too many days of studying. I also used to go to the gym daily before this section but I found I got too tired at night so I stopped going to the gym. I gained around 15 lbs and was tired all the time. The last two weeks I tried to go back to a normal sleep schedule and studied less because I was too tired to focus.

[mewcifer]

FAR because I took it first. I was convinced I bombed it but barely passed. The problem was that I then had a false sense of confidence going into REG, which I subsequently failed. The next most nervous was REG retake, it was the only one of the four I had to retake and I had 3 passes in the bag so it all fell onto that last test. Thankfully passed.

With that said, I was really nervous going in to all of the exams. It seemed that the closer I got to test day, the more I'd realize I hadn't reviewed enough. I'd start my 2 week review with a list of major topics to go back over and it would just get longer as I ran out of time. I never studied on test day though just slept as much as I could the night before, woke up, had breakfast and listened to my same study playlist the whole way to Prometric.

[Author]

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