Took just took REG in the last few days. The advice here, as usual, has been very good and even a bit inspirational.
Using Becker. Felt like I over-studied for BEC and was lost in the forest from trying to have all the Becker stuff down. Indeed, I could have studied another couple of months and still not felt ‘ready' with the Becker stuff. I took about 3-4 months on BEC, so I decided to put a line in the sand and put a date on the calendar, pay for the exam and take REG in just over 2 months after I got my BEC pass. I am a tax-nerd (already have my EA) and did very well in business law.
Not quite sure what to think about the experience. I think I did well on the MCQ's… indeed, MCQs would be my strength. I recently had COVID, so my brain has been a bit mushy recently. It took a while to get ‘into the game'. I have a system of scoring myself where I am confident that I had at least 30/38 on the first testlet without having to go back and check. Out of the other 8, I felt that I had a better than 50-50 chance on 4. Back on the BEC, I could -not- tell a difference in difficulty between the first set and the second set of MCQs and that had me concerned. On my experience with REG, from the first question of the second set I could tell that they were really throwing fastballs at me now. I think I had about 27/38 on that set where I was very confident in my answers. I got the whole MCQ part done in about 90 minutes.
As for TBS. I hate those. I especially hate Becker TBS's. As for BEC, on the exam they all seemed logical and even fun. I think I caught most of the ‘tricks' I was supposed to see and the numbers even back-checked. I never had that much luck or fun with Becker TBS… and for BEC, I was missing a few modules just because I decided life was too short to deal with some of the stuff they were throwing at me. I did every single section/module of REG and yikes… some of those were horrible… liquidating distributions for different business types, qualified business income deduction, general business tax credits… In a year, I don't think I could have myself together. Knowing that the ‘real' REG would not be as bad as Becker, I was less worried this time, but I don't think I performed so well on the REG exam TBS's.
Most of the TBS seemed to be really splitting hairs in ways that you mess up one small part and your entire response is going to be invalid/wrong… given three items, how much is taxable? You need to know the status of each of three items and add up the right numbers. Any one of the three wrong, and you miss the question. If I got 50% of the answers on the 6 TBS's right, I was probably doing well. Again, it's not from not knowing my stuff, it's just a very difficult format without the usual reference materials and cheat-sheets one would have in real-life for even an experienced practitioner to be sure that they have everything just right.
I wonder, can -part- of a TBS be experimental and the rest of it be legit… or are (only) entire TBS's experimental?
How did I do? When I took BEC, I thought I was probably dancing between a 74 and 75, and I ended up with an 85. I feel less confident on this one. My (one) Becker sample test was a 50, and I know that you can instantly add 15-20 onto that for a real-world score. I feel real good on MCQ's and terrible on TBS, so maybe I am actually in the 75 range this time. I know how people struggle with this exam and some very sharp people have to take it over and over and over, but… and let me say this with as much compassion to those who do struggle… I do think I probably did better than the 40-some % who did not pass, and that performance is based on 1) being able to ‘catch' what the question was asking (although I admit I didn't always know what the answer was even with the ‘catch') and 2) having some real-world experience. I just don't know if that is good enough, though.
BEC
85 (Sept 20)
REG
78 (Dec 20)
AUD
81 (Jan 21)
FAR (Summer 2021)
Kristen
"Enrolled to practice before the IRS"
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