PassFast candidate research

What EA exam candidates find difficult, in the data.

Explore historical practice percentages across exam parts, domains and subjects. Every report explains its method, evidence limits and a practical next step.

Performance data

Performance across all three EA exam parts

Community accuracy weights every eligible learner equally. The top-performer line shows the highest-accuracy quartile within each part, not the learners with the most attempts.

Part 1Historical practice cohort
Community accuracy63.4%
Top quartile80.1%
Part 2Historical practice cohort
Community accuracy63.7%
Top quartile81.9%
Part 3Historical practice cohort
Community accuracy70.1%
Top quartile86.9%
Source: PassFast aggregate snapshot through August 13, 2026
Part-level practice performance3 rows

The top-quartile cutoff is the minimum learner accuracy within that part's reproducible top cohort. Scroll horizontally to review every column.

Part-level practice performance
PartCommunity accuracyTop accuracyTop cutoff
Part 163.4%80.1%71.8%
Part 263.7%81.9%74.8%
Part 370.1%86.9%78.7%
Shared methodology

Results are learner-weighted and fully qualified.

Data through August 13, 2026. The snapshot contains aggregate results only and excludes names, email addresses, notes, question text, session identifiers, and learner-level rows.

Public methods package v1.1.0: data dictionary and reproducibility manifest. The public package documents percentage outputs and qualitative methods without publishing retained cohort, activity-threshold, or blank-rate details. The internal snapshot v1.0.0 remains partially, not independently, reproducible.

  1. Eligible learnersActive, non-admin learners who meet the internal minimum practice-activity rule for the reported part.
  2. Top performersThe top quartile within each part, ranked by each learner's own accuracy rather than raw attempt volume.
  3. Evidence strengthSubject evidence is labeled strong, directional or limited using internal breadth and activity thresholds. Cohort counts remain private; limited results cannot support broad claims.
5 research reports

What candidates find difficult

Original evidence about difficult subjects, exam pressure, review flags, and common misconceptions.

0147%Part 1: Non-Business Bad Debts: Community accuracy

What EA Exam Candidates Miss Most

Compare subject accuracy with the top quartile to find rules that deserve focused review. Results describe the historical practice cohort and are not a forecast of official exam difficulty.

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0242.5%Part 2: Business tax preparation: Priority share

Where Your Next EA Exam Study Hour Has the Most Value

Study priority combines the exam domain's blueprint weight with its observed miss rate. The percentage is that domain's share of weighted difficulty within its part, not a probability of failing.

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0358.6%Part 1: Test bank

What Changes When EA Practice Becomes an Exam Simulation?

The comparison follows the same eligible learners in question practice and completed practice exams. Answered-item accuracy describes the response quality in each mode; the observational gap does not establish a cause.

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0864%Part 1: Unflagged

When Your Review Flag Is a Useful Warning

Compare accuracy on flagged and unflagged answered items. A flag can help organize review, but these percentages do not establish that changing a flagged answer improves the result.

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1069.1%Part 1: Understanding the Unified Credit: Dominant wrong share

The Wrong Answers EA Candidates Find Most Convincing

Dominant wrong-answer share measures how often one distractor attracts incorrect responses within qualifying subjects. The report exposes a pattern without publishing proprietary question or answer wording.

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7 research reports

How candidates practice and improve

Observed practice behavior, repeat work, simulations, pacing, study time, and notes.

0434.7%Part 1: First attempt

How Often Does a Missed Practice Question Become a Correct Answer?

The first and latest recorded results describe repeat-question recovery. The platform deliberately resurfaces difficult items, so improvement in this selected group cannot establish the effect of the course.

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0521.6%Same day: First attempt

What Repeat Timing Reveals About Later Practice Performance

First and second response accuracy is grouped by the delay between them. Starting performance differs between delay groups, so the percentages cannot identify one optimal review interval.

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0646.1%Part 1 Half: First

How Practice-Exam Scores Change Across Repeated Simulations

First and latest scores compare completed practice exams of the same length and part. Cohorts vary in evidence strength; limited groups can change substantially and must not support broad improvement promises.

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0762.4%Part 1 Half: Answered accuracy

Should You Take a 50-Question or 100-Question EA Practice Exam?

Half and full practice exams serve different study needs. Answered accuracy measures responses submitted; overall score reflects the entire assigned exam. The comparison describes practice behavior and does not establish that one length causes better preparation.

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13GuideStudy routine

How to Build an EA Practice-Exam Pacing Routine

Build a pacing routine with timed mixed practice, a planned review pass and a short post-exam review. Use your own practice experience to adjust the routine and check current PSI instructions before exam day.

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1685.9%Test bank: Duration share

How Candidates Divide Their EA Exam Study Time

Activity shares describe retained browser-event duration after invalid and unusually long events are excluded. Open tabs, inactivity and overlap may remain, so the result does not measure verified active study time.

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1762.1%Part 1: Used notes

How Note-Taking Fits Into EA Exam Practice

The percentages compare accuracy with and without recorded note activity. The cohorts are not matched and differ in study behavior, so the comparison cannot show that notes caused a change in performance.

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4 research reports

How PassFast validates its bank

Coverage, item analysis, editorial review, and transparent performance benchmarks.

0963.7%Part 1: Income and Assets: Eligible community

The Exam Domains That Most Separate Strong Practice Performance

The top quartile is defined by each learner's overall accuracy within the same part. Domain-level differences describe performance separation, not a causal advantage or an official pass rate.

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115.6%Below 40%: Question share

How We Use Candidate Data to Review Practice Questions

The distribution shows the share of well-sampled questions in each observed accuracy band. Very hard and very easy questions both need editorial context; difficulty alone does not establish question quality.

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1241.1%Part 1: Share of historical bank

What the PassFast Question Bank Covers

These percentages describe the distribution of the question bank in the August research snapshot. They are historical coverage shares, not today's product inventory or proof of complete exam readiness.

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1458.2%Confidence Below 50: Observed accuracy

How Editorial Confidence Is Checked Against Candidate Evidence

Editorial confidence describes authoring certainty while observed accuracy describes practice difficulty. Their percentages should be reviewed separately; one does not validate the other.

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2 research reports

How readiness changes

Annual candidate trends and careful validation of Passboard readiness signals.

1563.4%2023 Part 1: Accuracy

The EA Candidate Readiness Report

The historical percentages compare practice accuracy across years and exam parts. Content changes, cohort composition and question exposure can move the results. Year-to-date observations have limited evidence and cannot establish a trend.

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1860.9%Passboard Below 50: Current practice accuracy

What the Passboard Readiness Score Can and Cannot Tell You

Passboard bands are compared with current practice accuracy and historical practice-exam scores. The comparison is not time-ordered and contains no verified official SEE outcomes; it cannot establish a first-attempt pass rate.

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