Carla is a NINJA CPA Blogger.

Hey NINJAs!

It has been a while since my last post, but I am back. A lot has happened since January.

I survived another tax season, I got a new job, and I had yet another retake with the beast, FAR. I was really hoping this time would be my final match up, but sadly I scored a 71.

For my latest attempt I decided it would be best to not tell anyone when I was actually taking the test. I thought that would be less stressful as the only pressure would be from me. It was a great plan; however, the part of the plan that wasn’t so great was the date that I had picked to take the test ….. April 16th.

Yeah, you read that right.

Less than 24 hours after the end of busy season I was going in for my test. I selected that date because the firm I was with traditionally closed down the office for that day. So I thought this would fit in perfectly with my plan to not tell anyone when my test was.

I wouldn’t have to request time off from work and could save my vacation time for later. I thought it was the perfect time.

My studying started out great. I would get home at night and study for a couple hours but as tax season progressed the time I had to study began to diminish and by the 1st of April I was working an average of 12 hours a day. I was exhausted by the time I got home and all I wanted to do was go to sleep, so I didn’t get much studying done.

To add to the craziness the last two weeks of tax season, I was offered a new job at another firm and turned in my resignation with my last day being April 18th. Needless to say April was a very crazy month between busy season crunch time, trying to train my replacement and trying to sneak in some study time whenever possible.

A trifecta recipe for disaster.

So now it is the middle of May and I am torn on my next move. I had started studying for REG before I got my score for FAR and now I don’t know if I should continue or do another retake of FAR.

On one hand I think I should take a break from FAR and focus on passing REG (especially since all the tax knowledge is still fresh in my mind), but on the other hand does it make more sense to retake FAR again because I have been studying that section most recently?

I do not currently have REG scheduled and am shooting for an early July test date. Has anyone experienced this and if so, what advice can you offer? Should I continue on with REG or should I retake FAR again before moving on?