[Jlee331]

REG> FAR> AUD> BEC

To me, REG is a beast, I even lost credits for that section. Honestly, they are ALL difficult.

[stacy_scm]

AUD was my struggle. Didn't get a pass until my 4th try. The others I got on the 1st try. Each exam will be different based on your background I guess. I have never worked in AUD and with more than 1 answer sounding good it was tough.

[Jlee331]

Thank you everyone for your responses. I am working on re-take BEC(lost BEC credit of 83 bc REG!) and it didn't seem any easier this round at all.
Lets hang in there, all of our hard work must be paid back.

[Valar Dohaeris]

In order of hardest to easiest, FAR, REG, AUD, and BEC. My reasons for this ranking is the amount of material to study, opportunity to be exposed to the material in school, and the style of the questions on the CPA exams. Seeing everybody's rankings is fascinating, because in my conversations, most people agree that FAR is the hardest with REG a close second and BEC is the easiest.

FAR is the hardest, because it's virtually 4-5 semesters of college (undergrad and grad at my uni). In Becker, it has the most chapters with 10 chapters (twice as thick as BEC). It's a mix of a lot of granular detail, with robust problem solving techniques, every possible JE, and you have to know US GAAP, IFRS, NFP and govt accounting conventions. Most candidates don't take governmental/NFP accounting in college. Plus, many people aren't exposed to M&A and international accounting issues either like derivatives and foreign currency.

REG is up there with FAR, because it's about 3-4 semesters of college (undergrad and grad at my uni). In Becker, it has 8 chapters with 4 of them being nothing but rules and laws to remember. There is a lot of detailed facts (ie. phase-out thresholds, exemption amounts, etc.) that need to be used in the problem solving techniques for personal and corporate/partnership taxation.

AUD is challenging, because it's all conceptual and memorization. It's only one semester at my uni, but my uni audit course didn't dive into private audits and governmental audits, so, that's new material. In Becker, AUD is 6 long chapters. I think what makes it hard is that you either know the answer or you don't. Plus, it does have the lowest pass rate. I'd say if AUD had more questions forcing test takers to actually audit, it could be very hard.

BEC could be the hardest, but they don't dive too deep into any of the various topics. BEC is a hodgepodge of junior level undergrad classes. In Becker, BEC is the skinniest book with 6 short chapters for the most part. Plus, there are no Sims. Writing isn't hard for most aspiring CPAs. There are a lot of formulas, and the cost accounting, finance, and economic material can be a lot.

BEC - 85
AUD - 81
REG - 84
FAR - 7/24/16

[tg7174]

Only took REG and BEC so far with a pass only in BEC, but I honestly hated studying for BEC. I felt like I knew the material, but then I would get weird MCQs both on the real exam and in the test banks. Honestly, it was a chore studying for BEC and I don't feel like I got anything out of it in terms of useful knowledge. For REG, the study has actually helped me a lot with approaching tax issues at my job, and I'm actually enjoying the REG re-take studying.

[Larry]

For exams, from hardest to easiest, BEC>FAR>REG,AUD.

For the study material and time preparation and daily struggles I rank the following as the hardest time to struggle with to the least:

FAR>BEC>REG>AUD

I took my exams as follows, REG>FAR>BEC>AUD.

REG - 82
FAR - 78
BEC - 76
AUD - 8/27/16

[ultrarunner]

Difficulty
FAR>REG>AUD>BEC

Passing order
AUD>FAR>BEC>REG

As a non-accounting major, FAR is the hardest. It has so much to cover.

FAR 72,67,79 (Roger+Wiley test bank)11/15
AUD 80 (Roger)10/15
BEC 80 (Roger)4/16
REG 63,78 (Roger+Ninja MCQs)5/16

[Anonymous]

REG > FAR > BEC > AUD

I am scared to death of REG. I will take it sometime Q1 early next year after I finish BEC and AUD by the end of this year. I hope I can pass REG by the CPA exam changes, that way I will only have FAR left and have 4-5 windows to pass it.

[Mehow]

BEC > FAR > REG

Working on AUD right now so I can't comment on it yet.

FAR = 86 4/22/16
BEC = 80 6/01/16
REG = 07/26/16
AUD = ?

[Author]

Replies