By passing the EA exam, individuals demonstrate their expertise in tax preparation and consultation, allowing them to represent taxpayers before the IRS. If you’re considering taking the EA exam, it’s crucial to understand the exam basics, including what’s inside the exam, how hard it is, and the registration process. Although the exam can be challenging, with dedication, focus, and proper preparation, many candidates successfully earn their EA designation, opening the door to a rewarding career as a tax professional. To become an Remote Bookkeeping enrolled agent, it is necessary to pass all three parts of the Special Enrollment Examination (SEE) within a consecutive two-year timeframe. Each part of the exam consists of 100 multiple choice questions and lasts for a duration of 3.5 hours. To successfully pass, a minimum score of 105 is required on each part of the exam.
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- Remember, the goal is to pass each section with a score of 105 or higher, and if you don’t pass, you always have the opportunity to retake.
- You will also receive diagnostic information which may indicate areas of weakness in your performance where you may need continuing education.
- You can take each exam part up to four times within a single testing window.
- The testing window runs from the beginning of May to the end of February.
- You are not allowed to access notes, books, reference materials, or electronic devices at any time during the examination or during breaks.
- To pass the EA exam, you need to answer a specific number of questions correctly.
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. It signals a high level of expertise and allows them to practice before the IRS.
Do I need a degree to become an Enrolled Agent?
The question stem is the part of the question that asks you to do something. Keep in mind that you can take the three parts in any order and on your own schedule. Assess your strengths and either start with what’s easiest to ea exam passing score gain confidence or tackle the most challenging part first to get it out of the way. You can take the Enrolled Agent exam from May 1 through the end of February of the following year.
EA vs CPA – Which is Better for Tax Professionals?
The Enrolled Agent exam is designed to test your knowledge of tax law, not your ability to outsmart the test makers. If you find yourself second-guessing an answer, chances are it’s probably correct. The Enrolled Agent exam is a challenging test that covers a variety of topics. The questions can be tricky, and it’s important to know how to approach and interpret them correctly. Here is some helpful information on Enrolled Agent exam questions and approaches you can take to study. NATP is comprised of over 23,000 leading tax professionals who believe in a superior standard of ethics and exemplify professional excellence.
Diagnostic Reports: Understanding Your Score Breakdown
- In general, any criminal offense resulting in a felony conviction under federal tax laws or a felony conviction related to dishonesty or a breach of trust, that is less than ten years old.
- This means that candidates who answer more difficult questions correctly will receive higher scores, while those who answer easier questions correctly will receive lower scores.
- The IRS has a list of approved CE providers, some of whom provide SEE test preparation courses.
- In fact, research consistently shows that those who use test prep for the Enrolled Agent exam, CPA exam, and other certification tests for financial professionals are much more likely to pass.
- The exam does not include true or false propositions, direct question and answer formats, or scenario-based questions.
- Moreover, you’ll hopefully have less need to return to unanswered questions or review answers you were unsure about.
All the practice exams I’ve taken just say the percentage right, they don’t seem to have the weights of the questions to say what the actual score is, so I don’t know if I would’ve actually passed. I’m currently sitting at about 75-80% correct on the tests, but have no idea where that relates even remotely to a passing score… This is a high pass rate compared to other professional accounting exams, like the CPA, which has an average pass rate of 45-50%.
As you move through a module, jot down the question numbers of any high-priority questions to return to if you have time, so that you’re not trying to decide what to work on when you reach the review screen. If you underperform on the initial modules, you won’t have as many opportunities to drive up your score, because you won’t see as many high-value questions in the second modules of the sections. So, if for example you perform well on Quant module 1, the questions you see in Quant module 2 should be more difficult overall than those you saw in Quant module 1.
The topics of the experimental questions cannot be known, so this breakdown accounts for the remaining 85 questions. Each exam part covers major topics the IRS calls “domains.” The IRS releases Exam Content Outlines Opens in new window detailing these domains and the content tested in them. We’ve broken down the domains tested per part, the approximate number of questions per domain, and percent of the exam covered by each domain. Each of the three EA tests has 100 multiple-choice questions and a 3.5 hour testing time.
There will still be some “easier” questions, which are needed for calibration, so not every single question will be harder in module 2, but taken as a whole, module 2 will be more difficult than module 1. On the other hand, let’s say your performance isn’t so great on Verbal module 1. In that case, the questions you see in Verbal module 2 should https://www.bookstime.com/ be a bit less difficult overall than those you saw in Verbal module 1. So, what exactly does it mean that the Executive Assessment is adaptive at a module level?
Obtain or renew your Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) Opens in new window
Unlike traditional raw scores, scaled scoring adjusts for varying difficulty levels across different exam versions. This blog will explain how the scoring system works, how to interpret your scores, and what it means for your EA exam success. Bryce Welker is a dynamic speaker, expert blogger, and founder of over 20 test prep websites. He shares his knowledge on Forbes, Inc.com, and Entreprenuer.com, empowering readers to boost their careers. With his help, countless students and professionals have passed certification exams and achieved their dreams.