How Difficult is the EA Exam? Enrolled Agent Exam Prep Course

As I have noted, the SEE is a long and complex assessment of your familiarity with a great deal of federal taxation and tax accounting information. And, of course, it requires you to answer hundreds of multiple-choice questions. As a result, the only way you can pass the EA exam is to study well for several months. Moreover, when people don’t study, they have a high chance of failing, affecting the overall EA exam passing rate. Finally, let’s go over the best way to reach a passing score for the SEE exam. Some candidates try to just study the EA course syllabus and don’t purchase any additional enrolled agent exam prep.

• Still, you can read my TaxMama review to learn more about this popular EA training course.
• Passing the EA Exam takes time, and you’ll want to do everything you can to prepare for it, but it’s also not as grueling as the CPA Exam.
• In order to pass the Enrolled Agent exam, also known as the Special Enrollment Exam (SEE), you’ll need to understand how to calculate the EA exam pass score.
• This means you get the help you need with difficult EA exam topics right when you need it.
• Regular recapitulation aids in transferring knowledge from short-term to long-term memory, securing the concepts in your comprehension.

Scoring Mechanism Explained

A score of 105 is the minimum required to pass each part of the the SEE. Enrolled Agents, along with Attorneys and CPAs are the only tax professionals with unlimited representation rights, meaning they can represent clients on any matters before the IRS. The IRS EA exam is a comprehensive three-part test that tax preparers must pass in order to become an IRS Enrolled Agent. After tax preparers pass all three Enrolled Agent exams and complete the other requirements (there aren’t many!), the IRS distinguishes them with the EA designation.

How Can the IFRS Course Help You Stand Out in the Accounting Industry?

Prometric has released data on EA Exam pass rates for the past three years. However, it’s important to note that not everyone who takes one exam part takes the other two, and the pass rates therefore can’t be reliably compared to one another. For example, the number of candidates who take SEE 1 is nearly twice the number of those taking SEE 2 and SEE 37. You are responsible for pacing yourself and making sure you have enough time to complete the exam. One of Becker’s tips to pass the SEE Exam is learning to spend no longer than about 1.8 Insurance Accounting minutes answering each question.

• You’ll get a score ranging from 40 to 104, so you can see how close you were to passing.
• You can take the Enrolled Agent exam from May 1 through the end of February of the following year.
• Remember, becoming an Enrolled Agent requires dedication, perseverance, and a commitment to maintaining a high level of tax expertise.
• A score of 105 is the minimum required to pass each part of the the SEE.
• So, my theory for May’s pass rate slump is that tax preparers are burned out and lack the energy needed to do better on the EA exam.
• These advanced systems are designed to reduce your study time from hundreds of hours to dozens and make sure that time is as well spent as possible.

How many questions do you need to pass the EA exam?

But if you want to know more about the enrolled agent pass rate, I have a post that breaks down that topic. If you fail the EA exam, you’ll receive immediate notification of your result as well as additional information about your performance. You’ll get a score ranging from 40 to 104, so ea exam pass rate you can see how close you were to passing. A 103 means you were really close to passing, while a 70 indicates that there was a good amount of information you didn’t know.

That said, passing the EA Exam still requires time, dedicated study, and expert guidance. One obvious reason is the overlap of the testing window’s beginning and end with the tax busy season. So, my theory for May’s pass rate slump is that tax preparers are retained earnings burned out and lack the energy needed to do better on the EA exam. Prometric, the testing center that administers the exam, advises against reading too deeply into the pass rates because candidate populations differ greatly for each exam part. That doesn’t necessarily make Part 1 the hardest exam, it just means it occupies a difficult position on many peoples’ journeys.