What Order Should You Take the CPA Exam Sections?

For most candidates, the best CPA exam order is FAR first, then AUD and REG, with your Discipline section last. That sequence front-loads the biggest section before your credit clock starts running, and it keeps the section with the slowest turnaround out of the part of your timeline where a delay actually costs you something.

That's the short answer. But the order isn't really about difficulty — it's about two scheduling rules that most people don't discover until they're already three sections deep.

The two rules that actually decide your order

Rule 1: the credit clock starts when you pass, not when you start. Under NASBA's model rule, once you pass your first section, you get a rolling 30-month window to pass the other three. Before that first pass, the clock isn't running at all. Your state board sets the actual number — most have adopted 30 months, and a few jurisdictions go as long as three years — so confirm yours with your board before you plan anything around it.

Rule 2: Core and Discipline sections are scheduled completely differently. The three Core sections (AUD, FAR, REG) run on continuous testing — you can book them essentially any week of the year, and scores come back in roughly one to two weeks. The three Discipline sections (BAR, ISC, TCP) are only administered during the first month of each quarter, and scores land about six weeks after the window closes.

Rule 2 is the one that bites people. Look at the AICPA's published 2026 and 2027 Discipline schedule:

Discipline testing window	Target score release
July 1–31, 2026	September 11, 2026
October 1–31, 2026	December 15, 2026
January 1–31, 2027	March 16, 2027
April 1–30, 2027	June 9, 2027

If you take a Discipline in October and fail, you don't find out until mid-December — and the next chance to retake is January. That's one attempt per quarter, with a six-week blackout in between. A Core section, by contrast, can be rebooked almost immediately.

Why FAR goes first

FAR — Financial Accounting and Reporting — is the widest section by content volume, and it's the one where candidates most often underestimate how long the material takes. Full-year 2025 pass rates from the AICPA put FAR at 42%, tied with BAR for the lowest of the six.

Taking it first buys you two things. You study the hardest section while you're freshest and before any deadline pressure exists. And if it takes you two attempts, those extra months cost you nothing — the 30-month window hasn't started yet.

There's a second reason: FAR is the foundation for BAR, and a decent chunk of it underpins AUD too. Learning it first means you're reinforcing it later instead of relearning it.

Why your Discipline goes last (usually)

Save the Discipline for the end and you're taking your one-attempt-per-quarter section at the point where you've already banked three passes and know exactly how much runway you have. You also get the pairing benefit: each Discipline is essentially the advanced version of a Core section.

• BAR (Business Analysis and Reporting) extends FAR — financial analysis, technical accounting, state and local government accounting.
• TCP (Tax Compliance and Planning) extends REG — advanced individual and entity tax compliance and planning.
• ISC (Information Systems and Controls) extends AUD — IT audit, SOC engagements, data management, security and privacy.

So the real optimization isn't just "Discipline last." It's take your Discipline immediately after its paired Core section, while the foundation is still loaded. If you're taking TCP, put REG right before it. If you're taking BAR, don't let a year pass between FAR and BAR.

That gives you two clean templates:

Taking BAR: FAR → AUD → REG → BAR, or FAR → BAR → AUD → REG if you can line BAR up with a quarterly window shortly after FAR.

Taking TCP: FAR → AUD → REG → TCP. The REG-then-TCP handoff at the end is the whole point.

Taking ISC: FAR → REG → AUD → ISC. ISC has the least overlap with the Core sections, so its placement is the most flexible — but it still sits best right after AUD.

Don't pick your Discipline by pass rate

Here are the full-year 2025 pass rates, per AICPA quarterly data:

Section	2025 pass rate
AUD	48%
FAR	42%
REG	63%
BAR	42%
ISC	68%
TCP	78%

TCP looks like a gift at 78%, and BAR looks brutal at 42%. Early 2026 numbers held roughly the same pattern. But the AICPA itself cautions against reading these as difficulty rankings: candidates self-select into Disciplines. The people taking TCP are disproportionately tax-track candidates who've already spent a busy season in the code. A financial-reporting person who picks TCP to chase the pass rate is not the same candidate as the ones producing that 78%.

Pick your Discipline for the job you want. Your license is identical regardless of which one you pass.

Practical adjustments to the default order

If you work in tax, don't schedule REG or TCP for February through mid-April. Push them to summer. This one constraint overrides almost every other consideration.

If you work in audit, the reverse: your slow months are usually mid-summer, so AUD and ISC fit there.

If you're taking sections while finishing school, take the one closest to the class you just finished. Recency beats sequencing.

If your credit window is closing, front-load Core sections. A Core retake can be booked in weeks; a Discipline retake can cost you a full quarter.

The mistakes that actually cost people credits

Two failure modes account for most expired credits. The first is leaving a Discipline for the final three months of a credit window — one missed quarterly window and a six-week score wait can run the clock out on a section you already passed. The second is passing an easy section first to "get momentum," which starts the 30-month clock and then spending eight months grinding FAR under a deadline that didn't need to exist.

Both are avoidable with the same fix: hardest section first, slowest-to-schedule section with room to spare.

Before you lock in a date

Whatever order you choose, calibrate with a full-length timed practice run before you book. Each section is four hours — two multiple-choice testlets and three task-based simulation testlets — scored on a 0–99 scale where 75 passes and doesn't mean "75% correct." Knowing where you actually stand is what tells you whether FAR needs six more weeks or six more days.

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Sources: AICPA — The new CPA Exam, two years in, AICPA — CPA Exam score release schedule, NASBA — CPA Exam. Confirm credit-window length with your own state board.