There’s an EA Exam in your future, so why wait? April 16 might be beckoning with family fun and time with friends, but the end of tax season is the best time to study for the EA Exam.
After all, the EA Exam is on your “someday” list, and at this moment, tax laws are fresh in your mind. Knowing when to study for the EA Exam becomes a matter of brushing up and corralling all that knowledge clattering around your brain.
Of course, you might be wondering how to study for the EA Exam. Condense your timeline into one year, and the advantages of being an enrolled agent — the authority to represent clients before the IRS and the higher earning potential that comes with it — are finally yours. Consider these top seven reasons to study for the EA Exam now, and the next phase of your career is here.
7 reasons to study for the EA Exam after tax season
Tax laws are top of mind
Memorizing tax law is like hunting for eels with your bare hands. Just when you think you have it, it slips away.
However, when tax season ends, you can look back on three successful months of making tax law work for the benefit of your clients. Knowing when to study for the EA Exam helps apply all that knowledge toward a higher purpose — one that elevates your career and value to clients.
You spend less time studying for the EA Exam, and have the framework to contextualize new information. Combine that recent knowledge with Surgent EA Review’s top-rated exam prep course, and you’ll make even faster progress toward passing the exam and getting your EA certificate.
You only need to study one tax year
If you’re wondering how long to study for the EA Exam, it helps to know the exam’s annual calendar. Each year’s version is offered from May through February. You can start studying as early as March 1, although most candidates wait until tax season is over.
Candidates have a two-year window to pass all three sections, but taking advantage of the longer timeline comes with a risk. Starting to study for the EA Exam as soon as tax season ends, and taking the test in the first year, protects you from wasting your time studying material that could be headed for irrelevance.
No time like the present
Sure, tax season is busy, but face it. You are busy year-round. Thinking about how long to study for the EA Exam, you must carve out the time from hectic days at work and home any time of the year. Plan your approach by carefully scrutinizing how you use your time, resign yourself to giving up a few things and map out a study plan that maximizes the hours you can devote to study every week.
You have time to get comfortable with the test
Remember how unnerving final exams could be when you were in school? Add the pressure of strict security protocols — fingerprinting, ID scans, body scans, storing personal items in a locker — and you have the EA Exam atmosphere.
Knowing what to expect can help ease your mind. When you begin studying for the EA Exam as soon as tax season ends, you can build time in your schedule to become familiar with test procedures. Visit Prometric’s “What to Expect” page, and you’ll minimize any unsettling surprises that could dampen your test score.
Grab your exam spot
When athletes reach the postseason, they don’t want to wait too long. They want peak performance when they reach the big game.
Exam day is the same. Schedule too late, and your newly acquired knowledge will get stale.
Knowing how long to study for the EA Exam, and starting when tax season ends, gives you the time to schedule your exam at the right moment. Seats fill up fast, so scheduling early prevents the possibility of waiting for weeks after you’re ready. Plus, a deadline keeps your study plan on track.
Take care of yourself
Your study plan is a crucial navigational chart for this part of your career journey, but don’t let it become an anchor that weighs you down. Avoid burnout by filling your schedule with stress-relieving workouts, family milestones and fun with friends. Eat right and get plenty of sleep because overextending only makes your study time counterproductive. If you realize you’re slipping, take a three-day break, adjust your schedule and get back on track, refreshed and ready to go.
Minimize temptation by sharing your study schedule and goals with family and friends. That way, they understand the limitations of your time and won’t try to lure you away.
Study smarter
The time you devote to studying matters but using those hours wisely is more important. The right exam prep course makes every minute count, shaving weeks off your study schedule and sending you to the EA Exam much sooner than you expected.
Surgent EA Review’s full suite of technology and adaptive learning significantly reduces your study time:
- A.S.A.P.® Technology: Adaptive learning assesses your knowledge base and advises you to study what you don’t know and review what you do know.
- ReadySCORE™: Surgent’s ReadySCORE builds confidence by predicting, with remarkable accuracy, your likely score if you were to sit for the test on that day.
- Daily Surge: Surgent’s Daily Surge pops up every time you log in, with suggestions on the topics you should cover to stay on track.
- MyMCQ™: Surgent customizes practice multiple-choice questions to your accumulating knowledge base, pushing you to master more challenging concepts with each round.
- Full access until you pass: Surgent EA Review materials, including free content and software updates, stay available at every step.
- Unlimited practice exams: With Surgent, unlimited practice exams help ease your test anxiety.
- 100% pass guarantee: With Surgent’s 99% pass rate, the odds are excellent that you will pass, but you have the comfort of knowing that you don’t lose your investment if something goes wrong.
Now is the time to study for the EA Exam
Don’t let all that momentum and knowledge acquired during tax season go to waste. Make this the year that dreams come true. Create a study plan, stick to it, choose the right exam review and you’re on the way. Surgent EA Review is your partner on the journey, using technology and human guidance to customize your study plan and pass the exam in less time.
Don’t forget that Surgent is your trusted partner for a fulfilling career on every front. Surgent Income Tax School offers up-to-date, easily accessible CPE courses, and it can even teach you how to start and grow your own business.
What are you waiting for? Partner with Surgent EA Review, and before you know it, you’ll be climbing the next rung on the career ladder.