Experienced REG takers – your BEST piece of advice?

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #841134
    SkiBum1990
    Participant

    1st time REG taker next month!

    [finished all tax in BECKER book thus far (definitely need fine-tuning for sure)]

    I heard the exam is not at computational as people expected?..

    B - 79
    A - 68, 70 (UGH)
    R - Oct
    F - Nov

    "The mind can only absorb as much as the seat can take"

    "The mind can only absorb as much as the seat can take"

    B - 79
    A - 68, __ (got bumped from Aug 4 release to Aug 23-THANKS AICPA)
    R - Oct
    F - Nov (HA! 1 month to study working full-time; love NTS rules)

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Author
    Replies
  • #841191
    reallytired
    Participant

    Hey SkiBum! Just found out I passed this morning, thank the lord! I think as long as you are comfortable with the first 7 chapters, you will do great. I put 80% of my energy into chapters 1-5 and then the rest into 6-7 (and the sections for agencies and business structures in chapter 8). It was way less computational than FAR was, but I still filled up a page of notes while in the test.

    After I finished learning it all, I went back and reread sections I did poorly on the first go-round and then did all the mcq for each chapter up until chapter 6 (ran out of time) and then I took a final and then did a bunch of progress tests and took really great notes on what I got right/wrong (probably 10 sets of 40 in 3 days).

    And I think the trend is that no matter how prepared you are, the sims will be created by the devil himself.

    You've got this!

    B- Pass
    A- Pass
    R- Pass
    F- Pass

    B 10/29/16
    A 10/1/16
    R 9/2/16
    F 7/26/16

    #841218
    Lashifty
    Participant

    Congrats on passing @relly tired!

    this is my last exam, and I now have to study while working full time. Bleh! If you don't mind (or anyone really haha)

    1.If you had to focus on 3 major things what would it be? Like C- Corps or personal?

    2.I know it's a crapshoot on mc, but if you could go back in time knowing what you know now, what would you study more/less?

    3. How important is remembering the exact phase-outs and exemption amounts?

    Thanks!

    #841236
    S6
    Participant

    wish i can give you some good piece of advice, but i would need some myself. I've taken it twice and all i can say is make sure you are comfortable with everything (very cliche i know) but @reallytired is truly right. Sims are pretty rough. I failed because of them. I received Stronger on my MCQ and Weaker on SIMS. so yeah, back to the drawing board i go

    Repetition is the father of learning...

    AUD:  62, 72, 75

    REG: 57, 71, 79

    BEC: 63, 74, 65, 74, 86

    FAR: 64, 67, 76

    Ethics: 92

    #841260
    reallytired
    Participant

    1. Hmm I would for sure say know C corps, partnerships, and itemized deduction stuff really well. I would also suggest you know the stuff on 1933 and 1934 acts!

    2. To be honest, and not to sound super full of myself, I felt totally prepared for the mcq that I got. Like SkiBum said, there is a lot of conceptual stuff so be sure to read the book! I would have studied more C corp stuff but mostly because I was really struggling with it while studying. And I kind of blew off blaw stuff, which I would recommend not doing that.

    3. Unimportant. Just know that usually a “rich” person does not qualify for exemptions, like they make $160,000+. Also be sure to know the UBI amount (taxed after $1,000), the mom and pop deduction ($25,000), and maybe memorize the kiddie tax rule. From my experience, they don't test you on phase-out amounts but they do care if you know the amount someone is allowed. Also be sure to know the 10% AGI test and the 2% AGI test stuff for itemized deductions. And charitable contributions for individuals and corps!

    B- Pass
    A- Pass
    R- Pass
    F- Pass

    B 10/29/16
    A 10/1/16
    R 9/2/16
    F 7/26/16

    #841281
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    What Study Guide did you use?

    #841284
    Lashifty
    Participant

    @reallytired

    Thank you for your insight!

    Much love <3 haha

    #841302
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Know thy AMT rules and thee shall inherit the leu tp the tax code's girth

    #841305
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Know thy AMT rules and thee shall inherit the law tp the tax code's girth

    #841824
    .
    Participant

    Practice simulations on basis. The MCQs help but the simulations really test your knowledge in a different way.

    For individual tax, know which deductions are above the line or below the line. Know the most common types of itemized deductions.

    Don't skim over estate taxation.

    For partnerships, know how the partnership income flows through to the partners. Which stuff is ordinary income and which stuff is separately stated on the K-1. I thought the practice simulations were helpful for this.

    Know the ordering rules for corporate deductions. Important to know the corporate charitable contributions & dividends received deductions.

    I'd make sure to do all the ethics MCQs since there aren't many of them in the review courses but they make up 17% of the score.

    FAR- 88- 6/16- (Ninja Avg. 74%)
    REG- 89- 7/16- (Ninja Avg. 77%)
    AUD- 95- 8/16- (Ninja Avg. 81%)
    BEC- 82- 9/16- (Ninja Avg. 75%)
    [Wiley CPAExcel + Ninja MCQ]

    Finally licensed.

    FAR - June 2016 - 88
    REG - July 2016 - 89
    AUD - Aug 2016 - review phase currently
    BEC - Sep 2016 -

    Wiley CPA Excel & Ninja MCQ

    #842217
    Run
    Participant

    Best advice I can give for REG and any other exam is to do Ninja MCQs until you wanna puke and then keep going. I think I had over 115hrs of time spent on Ninja MCQs.

    AUD - 76
    BEC - 79
    FAR - 75
    REG - 82
    Perseverance!

    FAR 75 (5/19/16)
    REG TBD
    AUD TBD
    BEC TBD

    #842673
    SkiBum1990
    Participant

    Thanks all !!!!! how about for B-law? skim skim skim skim? lol was thinking of skipping 200 pages of BECKER and just learn from MCQ explanations. hmmm

    B - 79
    A - 68, 70 (UGH)
    R - Oct
    F - Nov

    "The mind can only absorb as much as the seat can take"

    "The mind can only absorb as much as the seat can take"

    B - 79
    A - 68, __ (got bumped from Aug 4 release to Aug 23-THANKS AICPA)
    R - Oct
    F - Nov (HA! 1 month to study working full-time; love NTS rules)

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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