9 Tips to Help You Pass the EA Exam on the First Try

1. Focus Your Studies

   I have some bad news and some good news. First, the bad.

   I hate to break it to you, but it is impossible to review every detail that could appear on the exam. The reason is simple — time.

   A printed version of the Internal Revenue Code by itself is well over 4,000 pages and this is only one source for potential exam questions. There are also Treasury regulations (roughly four times the size of the IRC), hundreds of IRS forms, numerous publications, and plenty more.

   The good news? You don't have to know it all to pass!

   Many of the rules never reach an actual test or appear so infrequently that it is a waste of valuable study time to learn them for the exam. With exam preparation, information can become a disadvantage if it distracts you from the core topics that you need to master to pass. The goal is to simplify the learning process and reduce preparation time, all while improving your retention of the subjects that matter the most.

2. Ask For Help

   It is way more efficient to ask an expert for help than it is to spend countless—often frustrating—hours researching tax code on your own. This is so important that we integrated an academic community allowing you to get help from instructors and fellow students. Whether you're reading your textbook, watching a lecture, or practicing study questions, we bring the conversation right to you.

3. Focus on Biggest Opportunities to Improve

   We made the course flexible, so you can use it in a way that best suits you. The strategy I generally recommend is to go through each section, answering questions only once. Then, at the end of a chapter, you should reattempt questions you got wrong (once more).

   We display your best opportunities for improvement by topic in a personalized target using a color-coded system. If you are not in the green, that is OK, just go back and review the book and any available lectures for your trouble areas. Then, move to the next chapter and repeat until you are finished with all chapters.

   Now it is time to use the Fast Focus feature which allows you to drill down to the areas with the greatest potential to improve your score. I would use Fast Focus to concentrate on one chapter at a time. Continue using Fast Focus until you are feeling confident and most of your trouble areas disappear.

4. Pass a Practice Exam

   If you are thinking about taking a practice exam, you should be very close to scheduling your test. But, before you make plans to call Prometric, you need to pass a practice exam. It is recommended you achieve a minimum score of 70% on your practice exams, but preferably 80% before scheduling your test. If it takes you more than 3 times to do that, you are taking the practice exams too early. A practice exam is your best indicator of exam readiness, but remember, take practice exams under realistic conditions (no looking up answers).

   TIP: Stay away from the testing center if you do not pass a practice exam. Our practice exams are as close as you will get to the actual exam. If you can pass our practice exams, you should expect to pass your real exam.

5. Parking Lot Review

   Throughout my career, I found it very helpful on various exams to write notes with all the important information that I had not quite mastered onto a single page—front and back—and I would review this information in the parking lot. Once I sat down to take the test I would brain dump everything I could recall in a few minutes onto the provided scrap paper. Careful not to spend too much time. Ironically, I rarely needed to refer to the paper as the process of creating the notes helped me retain it.

   You should create a parking lot review to bring with you to the testing center so you can review them in the parking lot before the exam. To create a parking lot review, you can convert the Flashcards and your Notes to List View, but writing your own notes definitely helps you retain the information better.

6. Locate the Question Before Reading

   Before you spend time reading the question, skip to the end (usually the last sentence) to determine what the questions wants. Knowing that gives you a different perspective as you read the rest of the question and it helps you zero in on the important details required to answer correctly.

7. Mark and Move

   When you take the exam, on each part, you will see 15 questions that you didn't study. Those questions are experimental and don't count towards your score, so don't get discouraged.

   Don't worry too much about questions with complicated calculations. Chances are you won't need a calculator for more than a question or two; I didn't.

   Avoid spending valuable time trying to answer difficult exam questions. We highly recommend using a mark-and-move strategy on the test. If you are not 100% certain, choose an answer, mark, and move on. You can come back to it at the end if you have time. Just make sure you use all available time to review.

8. How to Handle Question Logic

   A tricky exam question can cause you to select the wrong answer, even when you understand the rules. Taking your time to carefully read the questions and identify important logical indicators can help you define the scope of the question, and hopefully prevent you from missing out on points on topics you know.

   Logical Qualifiers - NOT, EXCEPT, EXCLUDED, and INCLUDED. A qualifier is a word that determines the scope of the question. These words apply logic to the question and can alter the answer dramatically. The IRS may use logical qualifiers alone or combine them with additional indicators to direct the test taker to the correct answer. Be careful here as each qualifier or indicator can affect the outcome of the question.

   Quantity Indicators - ALL, NONE, and ONLY. These indicators refer to the amount or frequency of an occurrence. A quantity indicator states the amount involved.

   Probability Indicators - MUST, ALWAYS, NOT ALWAYS, NEVER, COULD, LIKELY, and MAY. This indicator refers to the likelihood or frequency of occurrence.

   EXAMPLE: The following statements about dividends received from a dividend reinvestment plan are correct, except:

   1. Reinvested dividends are not taxable if not removed from the plan.
   2. Reinvested dividends are taxable in the year paid.
   3. Reinvested dividends are taxable and are added to the basis of the stock or mutual fund.
   4. Reinvested dividends are treated as ordinary or qualified dividends.

   In this question, the phrase “correct, EXCEPT” implies that the answer is the only one that is FALSE (not correct). This type of tricky question is very common on the Enrolled Agent exam. Do not get caught by the wording of the question.

   The correct answer (A) contains two qualifiers, which can easily trick you.

   While two qualifiers are used, this is not a double negative. A double negative occurs when two negatives are used in the same sentence for emphasis. The two negatives cancel each other. A double negative changes the answer to a positive, for example, “The following statements about dividends received from a dividend reinvestment plan are not correct, except.” In this case, the correct answer would be a true statement.

9. Choose the Best Answer

   Test-taking skills can add those critical points to your results. A question or two can be the difference between passing or failing. The following fundamentals will help you hone your skills. These characteristics are common on many exams, especially with multiple-choice questions that can lack all the details you desire to be 100% certain of your answer.

   Triggers - A trigger is an important detail or fact that you must understand to determine the correct answer to a question. Common triggers include age, income, citizenship, marital status, residency, support, and use. When you recognize a trigger, consider why it is in the question. Is it important? Would changing it affect the answer? Often there are reasons why this information is in the question. If you do not understand why something is there, take pause, and try to recall if there is a rule. If you cannot remember, choose the best answer, mark the question and return to later for review.

   EXAMPLE: George, a single taxpayer, has W-2 income of $31,000. During the 2018 tax year, he contributed $7,500 to his traditional IRA. George has excess contributions of how much?

   1. $2,500
   2. $2,000
   3. $500
   4. None of the above.

   The answer here is different if George is over age 50. The age trigger is unstated, and the catch-up contributions are an extension of the normal rules. To answer correctly you must assume the more common scenario (usually the baseline rule). In this case, you would assume George is under age 50.

   If a trigger is not present, you will do better on the exam if you assume it is not a factor in arriving at the answer.