bgrocker79
offlineMember
Type: AUD, REG,BEC,FAR
I agree that it is depending on the person't ability. One thing I noticed while studying is I can handle numbers more than words. Sometimes wordings in AUD makes me so much confused. If I can calculate, I will have chance to get the correct answers so I think AUD is the most difficult even though I will switch to my career to audting after passing all exam.
whitesoxfancpa
offlineMember
Depends on how you learn. I did well on Auditing because I'm able to recognize words and phrases really well. With calculations, if you don't know how to calculate something or calculate it wrong, you're in trouble. With Auditing, if you recognize concepts, you can often pick out the right answer.
But let's step back a minute, here: None of these exams are easy! They all suck!!!
yankees144
offlineMember
I didn't get my grade for FAR yet so it's hard for me to judge, but this is my opinion:
Easiest to Hardest:
1 - AUD (mostly memorization and the test was almost word for word for some of my review)
2 - REG (tax is my stronger field)
3 - BEC (didn't study half the material, I got lucky)
4 - FAR (disgusting amount of information to retain, plus accounting is my weaker field of audit, tax, and accounting)
This is subjective and I would not suggest taking the tests in this order. They were all extremely difficult and by no means am I suggesting AUD and REG were easy. I'm basically listing the tests in order from 'Very bad' to 'Oh my god...'
EDIT: If I had to do it over, I would take the tests in this order:
REG, BEC, FAR, AUD
FAR and REG can be tricky if you are not comfortable with tax -> book differences, so I would take a small break in between.
bakagal
offlineMember
Easiest to hardest (all subjective!): AUD, BEC, REG, FAR. I took them in this order: BEC, REG, AUD, FAR
I'm currently studying for my last, FAR, and I'm really glad I had something in between that and REG, due to the sheer amount of info on both, and the fact that they both have tons of calculations-so having something else in between broke up the studying a bit.
luckypenny786
offlineMember
Easiest to hardest: AUD, REG, BEC, FAR
Order I took them: AUD, BEC, REG, FAR
If I had to do it again? FAR, BEC, REG, AUD
I really wish I had gotten FAR out of the way... Studying for my first section was more detailed and focused since I wasn't burned out from constant study from the rest of the sections. But it might also be a good idea to knock an easier one out of the way first for a confidence boost and more knowledge of the testing process / what to expect.
A lot of people have difficulty with BEC but I didn't think it was too bad, probably because I'm fresh out of school and a lot of the topics were more fresh in my mind, especially the business/econ related topics. Plus most of the IT topics were second nature to me. And not having sims made it a lot less scary :)
Same goes for AUD, a lot of it is academic and as long as you know the concepts you can usually come up with a pretty good educated guess, even for really tricky/wordy questions
I underestimated REG since I am a tax girl, so I didn't put as much effort into studying as I should have. I failed the first time, but then did the Yaeger cram and passed.
FARbehind
offlineMember
This is my order of difficulty from easiest to hardest:
AUD, REG, FAR, BEC
If I had to take them again I would start with FAR and take 3+ months to prepare. The amount of material is huge but I don't think this is the most difficult exam. To me it all comes down to strategy for FAR and the reason I cannot pass it is the time is never sufficient for me on this exam. And I have never been an accountant by heart and still think FAr is not the hardest.
The GaJone
offlineMember
I have over 3 years experience in public, where I do a pretty even mix of audit and tax. I thought AUD was by far the easiest. That was the only test I went in feeling like I was well prepared, and walked out thinking I for sure passed. But that's because I have experience in audit. I would have to think that AUD is a lot trickier if you're taking the test straight out of college and haven't experience auditing first-hand.
I would have to say BEC was the 2nd easiest. I literally studied less than 30 hours for BEC and passed -- granted, by the skin of my teeth, but still. REG I guess was next, because I didn't think the tax material was too overwhelming. I spent most of my study time on the business law chapters. I will say however that I felt the worst coming out of my REG exam than I did any others, and ended up with my best grade.
FAR has to be the toughest, just because of the amount of material covered. I still feel like I slacked off for FAR though and got away with it. I mean I didn't finish the gov. and non-profit chapters until 3 days before I took the exam, which left very little final review time (especially considering it was the start of busy season and I was in the middle of an audit). But I did focus most of my time on the "basic" concepts and basically ignored the complicated problems while studying, which is what they say you should do with FAR since it's "an inch deep and a mile wide", which is why I think I got away with it.
CPAWannaBe
offlineMember
The GaJone, congrats on passing BEC and being done!
I haven't taken all parts, but FAR is killing me. I am spending so much time learning how to do every problem but you're saying you didn't even waste your time with the really complex ones. I think you are right. There were some hard questions on FAR but not all of them go into as much depth as the study questions. I'm glad I am trying to get FAR out of the way.
The GaJone
offlineMember
Thanks CPAWannaBe. I remember when I took FAR, you were taking it for the first time right around the same time as me, and I remember complaining with you about how awful it was when I made my first few posts on this forum. For you, it has to be 10 times as rough since you have to balance family life in there as well. For me it was a lot easier since I live by myself and can just crank out several-hour study sessions without being interrupted, or even worry about being interrupted.
Yeah like I said, I didn't spend a lot of my time on the real complicated problems. I'd maybe run through one or two of them just to get an idea, but that was it. By doing this I was able to get through a lot more MC questions in a shorter period of time, which in my opinion made the use of my time a little more efficient. I think this was the key to me passing not just FAR but all 4 parts.
Good luck on the rest of your journey!
luckypenny786
offlineMember
GaJone, congrats on being DONE! I can't believe you took all 4 parts so quickly - that's awesome. Not to be a creep or anything, but I noticed you live in Cincinnati. I'm in Dayton and I have a lot of friends working down in Cinci. Where do you work? If you don't mind me asking...
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