Exam order
What order should you take the CPA exam?
By Joey Arnold, CPA · Last updated August 24, 2026
There’s no required sequence. You can sit the four sections in any order you like, and the exam doesn’t care.
What the order changes is how many total hours you spend — and that difference is larger than most people expect.
Why “FAR first” isn’t automatic anymore
The standard advice is to take FAR first. The reasoning was sound for a long time: FAR is the biggest section, your credit window is ticking, so get the hardest thing banked while you have the most runway.
Two things have weakened it.
The Discipline choice created real overlap. When everyone sat the same four sections, no pairing saved you anything. Now specific pairs share material, and taking them close together is worth more than any general rule about difficulty.
Many states lengthened the credit window. The urgency that made “front-load the hardest section” compelling is lower than it was. Check your own state’s window — it’s set by your board and it’s the single most important input to your sequencing.
FAR first is still a perfectly good choice. It just isn’t the answer anymore; it’s one answer.
The two things that actually decide your order
Overlap. Sections that share material should sit close together, because the second one costs you fewer hours while the first is still fresh. This is where the real savings are.
The clock. Your credit window starts when you pass your first section, not when you start studying. So whatever you sit first determines what’s under time pressure at the end. If one section worries you more than the others, there’s a real argument for sitting it early — not because it’s hardest, but because a failure there is cheapest when the clock has barely started.
Every Discipline has a partner
This is the part most ordering advice misses.
| Your Discipline | Sit it right after | Why |
|---|---|---|
| TCP | REG | Both are tax. REG covers individual and entity taxation at a compliance level; TCP goes deeper on entities and adds a planning layer. The largest overlap on the exam. |
| BAR | FAR | FAR is the foundation BAR’s technical half builds on. The advanced topics moved out of FAR in 2024, but the groundwork didn’t. |
| ISC | AUD | SOC engagements are audit thinking applied to systems — controls, evidence, reporting. It’s where an AUD background actually transfers. |
If you haven’t chosen a Discipline yet, that decision comes before this one. How to choose →
Three orders that work
If you’re taking TCP: REG → TCP → FAR → AUD. Puts the biggest overlap back to back while the tax material is warm, and leaves AUD — which shares least with everything else — for last.
If you’re taking BAR: FAR → BAR → AUD → REG. The classic order, and still the right one when BAR is your Discipline, because it keeps the accounting-heavy pair together.
If you’re taking ISC: FAR → AUD → ISC → REG. Front-loads the biggest section while your window is fresh, then pairs AUD and ISC.
These are starting points, not prescriptions. If one section is far more urgent for your job, sit it first and rearrange the rest around it.
Where to start
Whatever order you settle on, start studying now for the section you’re sitting first.
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Still deciding? A Game Plan Call is exactly that conversation.