EA Exam

[Lion]

Yeah

Yeah, we just had the pencils and scratch paper they gave us. There I sat doing long division by hand !! Oh, well, I did pass all four parts, which was a good thing because I never want to go through those two days again! Not to mention the four months or whatever it was out of my life devoted to preparing and then more months waiting on the results; it was about a year before the Certificate of Enrollment was in my hands. Sounds like a much friendlier system now.

[Roberts]

I purchased Arthur EA Review and passed it all the first time without having done a tax return in my life (except my own). My own opinion was that it wasn't any better than the others I saw. My only real experience prior to studying was to take the basic H&R Block class to see if it interested me at all. When I passed that in January, I started studying for the EA in April.

1. Expect to study for 200 hours. The amount of time IS important. One of the websites back when I took the test said if you HONESTLY study for 200 hours, you have something like a 90% chance of passing everything the first time.
2. Go over everything 4x. First time, make notes and highlight. When you take practice tests, if you guess or don't know an answer, highlight it for further review. Second time through, just go through the highlighted parts, removing sections you now understand better. 3rd time through, just study the parts you aren't getting. 4th time, go back over everything you highlighted. This way the important stuff is fresh in your mind. Write down notes - if you write it down in your own words, you are more likely to remember it.
3. Become an expert on the test itself. Past questions, how the test works, what it takes to pass... review each study site and review their hints and facts about the test - make notes. You'd be shocked how many people taking the test I talked with didn't even know what the expected passing grade was supposed to roughly be. Gleim has a few pages of how to pass the test on their website - read them carefully.
4. Don't get discouraged if you fail a section - even though you will be upset, realize it happens. Refocus, study some more and pass.

[Roberts]

Yeah, we just had the pencils and scratch paper they gave us. There I sat doing long division by hand !! Oh, well, I did pass all four parts, which was a good thing because I never want to go through those two days again! Not to mention the four months or whatever it was out of my life devoted to preparing and then more months waiting on the results; it was about a year before the Certificate of Enrollment was in my hands. Sounds like a much friendlier system now.

The stress of only being able to only take it once per year was massive. Then you had to wait weeks just to get the results. It was psychological warfare.

[Gary2]

Having taken Part 1 yesterday, I figure it's time for an update.

I relied mostly on the WiseGuides online study questions that I mentioned previously. I also used the free Fast Forward Academy test questions, but did not go through the entire test bank. I managed to squeeze in one HRB practice exam before the system got turned off for a major upgrade.

I also tried the Gleim free online trial, which gave me questions but not answers. I now understand that the reason they're so expensive is because of their sales force. Rather than giving you answers, they give you a submit button, which sends your trial answers to one of their people who will personally contact you to review your strengths and weaknesses. They do make having a personal counselor one of their selling points, and I suppose some people may find that useful, but I recognize a sales pitch coming at me when I see it - so I never submitted my questions for review.

I made minimal use of the printed material that I received from Wise, partly because it's very tedious reading, partly because it's a thick book to carry around, and partly because I think the typesetting isn't comfortable. However, I've already started making use of the printed volume for Part 3 of the exam, because it's difficult to find anything else comparable. I did read Pub. 559 (Survivors, Executors, and Administrators), almost cover to cover, that being the major gap in my training and experience as far as this part of the exam is concerned. I also reviewed parts of various other pubs.

The online study question approach works well for me, because it's easy to take it in small bites. It provides value in two ways, giving me a sense where my weaknesses may be, and teaching me to read carefully and thoroughly (e.g. not stopping at answer (a) when it's clearly right, since the correct answer might be "(d) Both (a) and (b)").

All of the test banks have noticeable overlap, but also have distinctive questions that the other banks don't. The Wise study bank (which I paid for) is about twice as big as the free Fast Forward Academy study bank, but you can certainly pay them for more questions as well. In the case of Wise, there are noticeable duplicates, e.g. asking the same question with slightly different numbers, or recognize vs. realize, etc. They also toss in some true/false questions, which I never found useful. It wouldn't be fair to draw any analogous conclusions about FFA, because I was only using the free subset and not even all of it. I prefer the Wise explanations, which often (but not always) explain why the wrong answers are wrong. Both test banks have some sample questions that are either wrong or poorly worded.

The FFA online system is prettier, and a bit easier to read, but clunkier to use. Wise works by selecting an answer (clicking on the radio button), which triggers it to display the screen that says whether it's right, along with the explanation. It's very fast and efficient when you're on a roll. FFA, on the other hand, requires that you first click the radio button, then click the "Answer" button to see if you're right, and then click the "Explanation" button to see the explanation if you want. Wise let's you reset the entire test bank or each subsection (e.g. Filing Status is one subsection, Taxable and Non-taxable Income another, and so on). FFA doesn't have a reset, but does have the ability to show "only new" or "only ones I got wrong". (I wouldn't assume that their pay version doesn't have a reset; I don't know.) I don't have the FFA printed material, so I can't compare them to Wise.

In the end, I think they're fairly comparable. You'll have to decide for yourself which study style is best for you, as well as compare pricing. Both have features that I didn't use (e.g. I didn't use the FFA practice exam or the Wise online flash cards). Wise has more packaging options and will sell one part at a time, but the full bundles seem redundant.

I can't really judge how I would have done without using any study guide. Much of the material is stuff that I already knew. For the biggest gap (estate and gift taxes), I think reading Pub. 559 and the Form 709 instructions was more valuable than the test banks, which is not to say that the test banks weren't useful study tools. I think I can say that there was at least one question on the exam that isn't answered in any of the study materials I used, without violating the confidentiality agreement.

And, oh, by the way, I passed.

[Lion]

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

[S T]

Gary2, does not surprise me about your passing - Your knowledge and responses on the Board have answered many of our questions and pointed us in the right direction.

Congratulations!!

Sandy