EA classes

[Girard Van De Lay]

Since the tax season is winding down I was wondering if anyone could suggest a good EA class to get you ready for the test.


Girard

[KBTS]

EA Course

I used the Gleim self-study books when I took the exam and passed all parts on the first try. Here is a link to their website: http://www.gleim.com/accounting/ea/ Looks like they now have an online study course as well. They also offer a CD-ROM based study guide that I did demo but decided not to purchase. There are a number of EA review providers, so I am sure other board members will have experience with them.

I started studying in June and studied at least an hour a day until the test date in Septmber -so you have the right idea to get started now.

[thomtax]

Review course

I used the Arthur EA review course and passed all four parts on the first go-round. (Of course I was just lucky probably.)
The link is http://www.eareview.com/
I like the fact that they concentrated on the areas that were related to the exam, not having you to spend a lot of study time on areas where maybe one question would be asked.

LT

[Roberts]

arthur

I also used Arthur EA review and passed on the first try. Mine was also a tad bit luck since I had never done a tax return for anyone but myself before taking the test.

I was told be several at the test that the classes were a waste. It's a cram session usually with tons of information being thrown at you so fast you'll never be able to absorb the information.

As was said - it is all about time invested. I purchased the book in April and slowly ramped up. On vacation in May I slowly went through book one. In June I kicked it into gear and invested an hour every day before going home in the evening. I'd go through the book, highlight stuff and take a few notes. Then I'd take the practice test for that book and highlight what I missed. Then I'd move on. First run through of the books probably took me to August First. Then without highlighting things went faster. Took a 3 weeks to go through all the books again for the median and high difficulty section. Then it took 2 weeks to go through all the high importance sections. THEN, I did a fourth run through of EVERYTHING very quickly and then a 5th run through over the course of just a week of the most important points. By mid August I was doing 10 hours per week.

In the end I figured I had done probably 160 hours of studying plus another 100 in a H&R Block class the year before (just to learn basic tax preparation ideas and terms).