[Anonymous]

I just started studying REG and want to take it by March 10th before the exam changes. I’m a slow studier but thought if I pushed myself I could get it done. I work in industry so it’s a litter busier than normal but we don’t have a true “busy season”. Plus, I don’t have many outside distractions, like football season, family events, etc.

However, as I started outlining my study plan, I realized my REG book is actually longer than my FAR book! REG is a shorter test than FAR and everyone always talks about how FAR is “the beast” and the most material to cover. What gives? I don’t know how I’m supposed to read so much material in such a short time and still have time for MCQs, sims, and a full week of review before my test. Please help!!

[aaronmo]

This is really hard to answer…

FAR covers MORE ground…and it has concepts that are, fundamentally, more complex. There is nothing in REG as obnoxious as dollar value LIFO, pension adjustments or diluted EPS. There are more overall concepts to know in FAR…and many are far nastier than anything you'll see else where.

Where REG gets you is just the totality of memorization intrinsic to tax…and applying it to 6 different entities with variations that can be quite subtle. Plus toss in governance. Add UCC…which can be quite detailed with lots of IF A than B kind of things. A lot of people have a hard time with business law…I had 7 years in contracts management, so that was nothing for me. Still…without a background in it, contracts can be tough.

AUD - 96
BEC - 84
FAR - 89
REG - 86

Aaron and always remember, YMMV

I profit from your CPE frustration. You're welcome.

[A1lessio]

I loved reg. Individual tax is easy, corp tax requires serious studying and then blaw is tricky at first but then it get's pretty easy. I work in tax and took it during summer busy season. I would go days without studying and just bang out mcqs on the commute to work. If you work in tax you may really enjoy the material and I found it would directly relate to work. FAR on the other hand is a serious struggle.

AUD - 86
BEC - 70
FAR - 78
REG - 84

People who subject themselves to the strictest discipline, who give up certain pleasurable things in order to obtain a goal are the happiest of men.

AUD (08/02/2016)

[Anonymous]

@aaronmo – You make a good point that a lot of the topics in FAR are just unnecessarily complicated. Tax is a lot of rules but isn't quite as difficult.

I work for a mid-sized S Corp. We have about 50 shareholders in multiple states with income in multiple states so it can get pretty complicated with composite returns and the complexities of pass through entities. We're engaged with a local firm, but I just recently started taking on a lot of the tax responsibilities and being the one who communicates with our firm. I've learned quite a bit about S Corp taxation just in the last few months.

I also loved my undergrad and masters tax courses. They were both the hardest accounting classes in each of my programs and I was really good at them. I'm good at financial accounting too but I may actually be better at tax and I managed an 86 on FAR. I HATE blaw though. I'm starting with it to get it out of the way and it is such a drag. What I've tried doing is rather than reading an entire chapter and then doing MCQs, I read a section of a chapter and do a few questions to break it up and help me focus.

I just find it interesting that FAR and AUD are the two 4 hour tests, but my REG book is quite a bit bigger than my AUD book. If I took 3 months studying for FAR, does it seem manageable to study for REG in just 2 months? FAR was first, so I had to refine my study patterns, plus I'm a huge college football fan which got in the way of studying for FAR.

[aaronmo]

2 months for REG sounds about right…I thinks that what I put in.

You know how it is…a lot depends on the individual. I had far less background in accounting than most here, and I suck at memorization, so some things are time intensive for me. On the flip side…sorry to be cocky, but…I'm pretty sharp. I learn and understand strategic concepts well, I read well and I'm very good at analysis. Everyone brings in their own strengths and weaknesses.

What you're seeing above is that your background matters. I work in tax NOW, I didn't then…and had little background. There's nothing HARD in individual taxes…or business…it's just the memorization and the volume. That, for me, is far more difficult and annoying than far harder concepts that you may see in FAR. FAR is a more a total test of your conceptual knowledge of accounting, then adding in lots of details/exceptions with IFRS.

I'd wager there's also a degree of how confident/secure the test taker is; I have to be pretty damned confident and tend to be obsessive/over prepper'. You could likely slide by exams knowing less.

My REG score was impacted by 4 test crashes…and losing around 10 minutes of exam time (not counting the time it took me to cool down and continue). Not trying to make excuses, but the only reason I got through that is because I had this stuff down hard enough where panic attacks didn't totally derail me and only cost me 5-10 points. It takes me a while to get to that level of confidence, and it's probably not even necessary for many people. How many times are you going to have 4…4!!!!…crashes?

AUD - 96
BEC - 84
FAR - 89
REG - 86

Aaron and always remember, YMMV

I profit from your CPE frustration. You're welcome.

[Anonymous]

4 crashes?! They should have given you bonus points for that. How does that even happen? Your scores are really impressive, though!

I totally get what you're saying with needing to feel confident going into the test. I don't understand how people can say, “oh, I'll just cram for a couple weeks and hope for the best”. If I'm going to take a test, I want to prepare well for it. My main goal is a 75, but above that I also want to see what my best is. Cramming and sitting through a test I know I'm not prepared for totally stresses me out, which is part of what I'm worried about. I may just study my best and take it before March 10th just for the heck of it, but that's totally opposite of my style.

I also am totally with you on liking concept-type material versus just a bunch of reading and memorization. When it comes to concepts, numbers, analysis, etc., I'm pretty smart, too (if my may say so myself). I hate subjects like history because it takes me so much longer to memorize than to learn a concept.

What I have going for me is that I'm a pretty calm person, I work well under pressure, and I'm a great test taker (especially standardized). I took some national general business test my senior year for extra credit in my capstone course. After the test I literally thought I totally bombed it. Turns out I was in the 97th percentile nationally.

All that being said, I think some parts of REG I will really like and will be good at, and the parts that are just reading and memorizing will take me a while. I can usually study close to 12-15 hours total M-F, then Saturdays and Sundays I can usually get in 4-5+ hours each day. So about 20-25 hours per week if I don't want to totally burn myself out. I also just found out this week that when I pass I will get a 5K bonus on top of reimbursement for fees and study materials, plus they will evaluate then what my pay raise will be (but they implied it would be pretty good). So I can use that as some nice motivation 🙂

[aaronmo]

History is concept too…the dates…who cares! You need to know the general period, and what else was happening at that time, but a day? Or even month? Totally irrelevant.

I spent time as a history major, and once you're in the nitty gritty, the dates are pretty meaningless, as is memorization. Same as accounting.

I'm also a good test taker (which means you have reading skills), and I'm USUALLY calm if I prepare well…but the REG crashes were devastating to focus. It was only obsessive over prep that let me surmount it. I remember I was on the SIMs, and just totally blanked out. I just could NOT remember how to proceed and was in total panic mode. I basically just had to close my eyes and force myself to relax. After a few minutes, I was able to proceed and get through most of it.

AUD - 96
BEC - 84
FAR - 89
REG - 86

Aaron and always remember, YMMV

I profit from your CPE frustration. You're welcome.

[Meg267]

I think it depends on the study materials too. I have Wiley materials and there is two FAR textbooks compared to one REG textbook.

BEC - 57, 68, 78
REG - 62, 82
AUD - 61, 76
FAR - 79

Licensed.
No one ever fails the CPA exam, there are only those who give up.

[mtaylo24]

Both sections were nightmares for me, but FAR certainly gets the edge over REG. REG can be broken down into 3 or 4 sections, while FAR can be broken down to 20+.

CPA (2017)

REG:  75

BEC:  76

FAR:  77

AUD: 78

 

CMA (2019)

P1: 380

P2: 360

AUD - 1st - 60 (12/12), 61 (2/13), 61 (8/13), 78! (11/15)
REG - 55 (2/16) 69 (5/16) Retake(8/16)
BEC - 71(5/16) Retake (9/16)
FAR - (8/16)

[Anonymous]

I think FAR has more material. Also REG is easier to strategize for than FAR because you know the simulations will most likely be on the tax chapters. So that tells you the majority of multiple choice questions will be on ethics(which is a gimme section that's also worth like 20%) and business law. You obviously need a strong mastery of the tax material to be able to do the sims but if you are able to do the sims well you probably shouldn't have problems with the M/C.

Meanwhile for FAR you can get sims on anything. You also don't know what they're going to test. Some of the stuff you study probably won't even get tested but you have to know it.

I will say that there's probably a bit more memorization required for REG. You probably need to have a stronger grasp on the material than you need for FAR(unless they give you some nasty sims). Since you have a tax background you should be fine during the tax sections. Just don't overlook ethics and business law.

[mitchvols]

I thought FAR was much harder than REG (I know my scores say otherwise).

mtaylo24, that is pretty much my assessment as well. To me, REG felt like it kept on building on itself, and once I was able to see the big picture, it all fit together. Obviously, there is all of the law stuff that you just have to memorize. But just a few big sections. For FAR there are so many topics that are not dependent on knowing other parts.

When I walked out of REG, I felt like I crushed it, 81 was lower than I expected, but I was obviously thrilled with it. With FAR, I felt like I got demolished, I still don't know how I passed it, let alone by 11 points.

AUD - 90
BEC - 79
FAR - 86
REG - 81

Licensed CPA - Tennessee

Finished Exams in December 2016

REG - 81

AUD - 74, 72, 90

BEC - 79

FAR - 86

[Spartans92]

FAR is way much harder because those are very book knowledge base. Whereas REG is book knowledge plus real world experience. I failed the first time but after working a month and then retook it the material was way easier to understand once you see how to apply the concepts like M-1 reconciliation of book to tax income etc.

Material wise Tax is much more manageable too only 4 chapters while FAR has a bunch of BS (NOT Balance Sheet) topics like hedging, derivatives, then mix in some pensions, EPS, Cash Flow.. its like all over the place and doesn't really link. Just my opinion. REG was much more enjoyable to study for.

I truly believe if anyone can conquer FAR they can pass any other sections!

BEC - 76
REG- 67, 85
AUD-63, 74, 80!!
FAR-65, 62, 57, 79

3 down 1 more to go. BEC is on the Line 🙁

BEC- PASS

[andrewmarii]

ds

AUD - 75
BEC - 86
FAR - 84
REG - 78

No one ever fails the CPA, people only quit the CPA exam.

[Author]

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