How I went 4/4 - AMA
Hey everyone! I wanted to share what helped me pass 4/4 in about a year. This sub provided me so much support that I would love to share with any current (or soon to be) exam takers. I’ll be sharing in order of when I passed, how much time I spent studying & SE scores, how many takes at each exam & score, and my methods / what I found beneficial. Ask away in the comments or DM - I promise I’ll get back to everyone. 😊
FAR- 1 take, 76. ~220 hours in Becker, SEs . Passed in May 2025.
I absolutely hammered simulations throughout my studying, the only areas i really focused on MCQs for was on Govt/NFP - I made sure to know this like the back of my hand for easy points on the exam. The simulations I really focused on was anything complex/multi layered - SoCF, bank recs, consolidations, AJEs, lease, etc. I would try the sim, then watch the skill builder vids on 1.25 or 1.5 and take notes. Then would redo the simulation until it stuck. Other areas I remember focusing on MCQs were subsequent events, contingencies, & impairment testing. I think FAR is the hardest to study for due to wide breadth of information but it’s much more straightforward due to heavy math. You will use an insane amount of paper.
REG - 1 take, 90. ~110 hours in Becker, SEs 83, 83. Passed in September 2025.
FWIW, I’ve been in corporate tax for 10 years so this one naturally came a lot easier to me. I already had a strong foundation in depreciation (and all what goes into it), estimated tax payments, book to tax adjustments, etc. I focused a lot more of my time on individual rules since it is a decent sized portion of the exam + it’s an area I have 0 experience in. Additionally, I focused on BLAW for MCQs for the easy points. Personally, I think REG you need to drill memory over theory (as seen in FAR) - I didn’t use flash cards but I could see them being very beneficial if you’re struggling on topics. Obviously things are going to change soon for this (and TCP) with institution of BBB, so take all this with a grain of salt.
TCP - 1 take, 85. ~75 hours in Becker, SE 78. Passed in December 2025. See notes from REG but a few things I will add is: take reg before to get a really good foundation of tax concepts because some will reappear in TCP. There’s not A LOT of overlap but I think REG gives you a great foundation, esp if you aren’t a tax person. I would focus on all things basis (particularly S Corp & p ship), LKEs, PAL, estimate payments & various financial planning vehicles. The biggest difference id say between REG and TCP is TCP is way more focused on strategy / advice - think like an advisor and you’ll be fine. & Yes Becker is enough to pass this - I’m sure they’ve added more information since I’ve taken it.
AUD - 4 takes, 63/71/73/88. ~230 hours in Becker, ~40 hours in NINJA, SEs 77, 72, 85, 84, 81. Passed in May 2026. Excuse my language but this one was a mother fucker. Being a tax guy, I really struggled with gray areas that is AUD. It was tough for me being subjective and thinking which of the possible answers (hint sometimes there’s multiple that are correct!) are correct. I personally believe you can skip all the lectures in Becker and learn just by doing the MCQs and being familiar with SIMs for AUD. For my retakes, I would do sets of 20 random MCQs with 1 SIM in clusters of 2-4 chapters in Becker. On my last retake, I exclusively used NINJA just hammering MCQs based on the 4 areas of the blueprint (a quality I absolutely loved about NINJA). I only did SEs on take 1 and take 4. Really focus on SSAE vs SSARS, transaction cycles, COSO, and allllll the acronyms. I did so much note taking I used up almost 5 notebooks. I struggled and this one really humbled me. But I finally passed on May 6th score release.
Notes: I work full-time (industry International Tax Mgr), married (no kids so this made it easier) & 10 years post undergrad and 5 years post grad school. I would study before work and/or after work depending on how I was feeling but I always shot for 20-30 hours a week (15-25 for my AUD restudies). Anyone can do it, you just have to be committed and be very adaptable / receptive to various study methods.