One thing that has definitely changed from the Comprehensive Tax Course to the Advanced Level I Tax Course is the number of forms and schedules involved. Sometimes I actually feel a bit overwhelmed. I’ll usually read the learning activity and will have a pretty good idea of what forms I need and will get them printed and then sit down with a pile of paper and try to decide where to start. A lot of the forms and schedules are interconnected so it’s not always as simple as just doing them in any order you want, one at a time. Sometimes I’ll get started in one place, only to realize that there’s something elsewhere that I need to complete first. Some of that is just the growing pains of learning the intricacies of all the various tax forms, but it can be a bit discouraging. On the tax preparation questions, you won’t know how you did until you’ve completed the return so sometimes it can be a little scary when you’re 5 forms in and have no idea whether you’ve done everything right. Obviously, in real life you won’t have answers to compare to but when filling out many of these forms for the first time it can be very helpful to use the answers to guide you and confirm that you’re on the right path.
