For just as long, the Part 3 pass rates have been the highest, and the Part 1 pass rates the most varied. You just need to use the right EA review course for you and consistently follow your study schedule. However, statistically, the business section of the exam is the most difficult, with only about a 60% average passing rate. Once you pass this exam, you are licensed by the federal government to represent taxpayers before the IRS.
Your best chance at successfully passing this challenging exam involves a comprehensive review of all parts of the exam. The most effective way to prepare yourself is to enroll in an Enrolled Agent Review Course. These commercial courses will cover all three parts of the exam in depth and often provide feedback on your progress in addition to practice tests to simulate the actual exam. Generally, candidates who pass a part of the examination can carry over a passing score up to two years from the date they passed that part of the examination. To provide candidates flexibility in testing because of the global pandemic, the two-year period is extended to three years. Therefore, in this analysis, I will mainly compare the EA exam to the U.S.
Answer plenty of practice questions
After that, you have two years to complete and pass all three sections. If you do not pass a section on the first try, you may re-take that section up to 4 times within ea exam pass rate one testing window. Candidates who pass a part of the examination can carry over passing scores up to three years from the date the candidate passed the examination.
The relatively lower difficulty does not mean the exam doesn’t take preparation to pass, but the process is more forgiving than the more grueling options out there. 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. The number one step you can take to prepare for any test is to know the material. For the Enrolled Agent exam Part 1, this step involves digging deeper into the topics in the syllabus and understanding each topic at an intermediate college level of depth. Thankfully, when you use an enrolled agent review course, all of this information will be available to you.
#1 rated EA Review course
If Part 1 is the first encounter many candidates have with the EA exam, the low pass rate is likely the outcome of candidates being insufficiently prepared. These candidates either underestimated the difficulty of the exam or the amount of study time necessary to learn all the material. Part 1 currently has the lowest pass rate, which has been the trend for the last several years. This is likely due to an increase in candidates taking the Enrolled Agent exam as they try to get the designation, which is becoming increasingly popular. And thankfully, you can also save money on your course with my enrolled agent course discounts.
- The great news is the pass rate has been increasing year over year.
- For just as long, the Part 3 pass rates have been the highest, and the Part 1 pass rates the most varied.
- Consider how competitive this industry has become— the BLS expects positions to decrease by 4% over the next ten years1, with automation being one of the core causes2.
- So even though the highest EA exam score is 130, you don’t have to get a perfect score to become an Enrolled Agent.
- Because you have 3.5 hours to finish 100 MCQs, you can allocate 2.1 minutes to answering each exam question.
Make sure you account for the testing window closure during March and April in your plan to earn your Enrolled Agent certification. However you decide to register, you must complete your registration (and wait, https://www.bookstime.com/ if you faxed or mailed it) before you can schedule your exam. An individual with 5 years of relevant employment with the IRS may apply for enrollment to become an Enrolled Agent (EA) without taking the exam.
Know the material
But if you want to know more about the enrolled agent pass rate, I have a post that breaks down that topic. The foundation of your EA score is the number of the 85 operational questions you answer correctly. The IRS mathematically transforms your number of correct answers into a standardized scaled score.
The testing center that administers the exam, Prometric, advises against drawing this conclusion because significant discrepancies in candidate populations exist. Consequently, there are big differences between the candidate populations for each exam part. Before you can begin working with clients at a firm or on your own, you have to pass the EA Exam, which is luckily one of the more accessible tests out there.
Scoring at least 105 points demonstrates that you have the knowledge to practice before the IRS and deserve all the benefits that come with earning your EA. What it does mean is that you should feel good about your ability to earn a passing score, provided you study. Various topics on each section of the EA exam are weighted differently, so you should factor that into your exam preparation. You may want to study more for those topics that are weighted the most, and spend less time on material that appears on the exam with less frequency.
Depending on your prior education and experience, certain EA exam Part 1 content areas may be more familiar to you than others. To determine which content areas you know well and which ones you don’t, start your EA review with a practice quiz. Then, use the results of your practice quiz to discover and target your weak areas in particular. Focusing on your weaknesses is definitely one of the most effective ways to learn.
Enrolled Agent Exam Difficulty: Which EA Exam Part Is Hardest?
Persons not scheduled to take a test are not permitted to wait in the test center. A complete list of test center rules can be found in the Candidate Information Bulletin at Prometric. The test is offered from May 1 to the end of February of the following year.