Finding the right Enrolled Agent (EA) course can feel overwhelming, with so many options out there, each claiming to be “the best.”
The truth is, there isn’t a single “best” course for everyone—each one is designed a little differently and fits certain learning styles better than others. The key is to choose a course that matches your study style and fits seamlessly into your schedule.
For instance, if you’re short on time, look for a course with bite-sized lessons that you can squeeze in whenever you have a few minutes. Or, if you learn best by watching videos, choose a program with plenty of video content. The right course won’t just help you pass the EA exam—it’ll save you time and make studying less stressful.
That’s why I’ve reviewed all the top EA courses, breaking down their strengths, features, and unique benefits to help you find the perfect match. After all, you’ve got an exam to pass—choosing your study materials should be the easy part!
Top 6 Best EA Exam Review Courses in May 2025:
- Becker EA Review Course
- Gleim EA Exam Review Course
- Surgent EA Review Course
- Fast Forward Academy Enrolled Agent Review Course
- Lambers Enrolled Agent Review Course
- WiseGuides EA Prep Course
Becker EA Review Course
I think Becker’s Enrolled Agent course is a fantastic choice if you’re serious about passing the EA Exam. It’s packed with features that make studying more efficient and even enjoyable. With personalized Adapt2U technology, tons of practice questions, and expert-led videos, Becker gives you all the tools to truly understand the material and make the most of your study time.
The Adapt2U tech is one of the best parts. As you move through the course, you learn where you’re strong and where you need more practice, then adjust your study plan to focus on what matters most for you. With 3,000+ practice questions and a super easy-to-use platform, Becker makes sure you’re building confidence with every session.
Flexibility is another big win. Becker is fully mobile-friendly, so you can study wherever you are. Need help? Their 24/7 academic support has you covered. If you go for the Prime Subscription, you get evening and weekend webcasts, CPE-credit podcasts, and a compliance tracker—perfect for balancing a busy schedule.
Gleim Enrolled Agent Course
Gleim has been providing extremely comprehensive enrolled agent study guides and review courses for decades. Furthermore, they are widely recognized as one of the best courses and most comprehensive study materials because of their thorough approach to presenting the information. It’s pretty much impossible to go through a Gleim course and not understand the topics. Yes, it is that in-depth.
Gleim has the largest collection of study materials for EA candidates: over 3,900 multiple-choice questions, more than 1,200 true and false questions, and over 450 video lectures taught by a university professor and tax professional.
If you’re worried about making your way through this gargantuan course, take note of the SmartAdapt technology that’s been integrated into every aspect of it. This is designed to save you time by identifying which areas you need to spend the most time studying while also keeping you motivated with progress trackers.
You also get access to a personal counselor who will help keep you motivated, on schedule, and understanding the information in the study text. This is a huge benefit that other courses don’t offer.
Ultimately, I think this is the best overall course and would recommend it to anyone who is serious about passing the EA exam quickly and wants great EA study materials. It even includes a full final exam review that you can use to prep yourself before your exam day. This is a great course. 🙂
Surgent EA Review Course
Surgent’s enrolled agent exam prep is a handy tool for Enrolled Agent hopefuls. Additionally, the program has a relatively low cost and lots of materials designed to cut study time and maximize learning. Furthermore, this course has awesome features like adaptive learning software, user-friendly course design, and a wealth of practice questions to test your knowledge.
The adaptive learning tech that the platform is built on learns about the user’s strengths and weaknesses as they begin to move through the study material. Next, a personalized study plan is generated to help the student overcome any weak points in their EA knowledge. This feature, combined with Surgent’s user-friendly design and hundreds of practice questions, is what contributes to this Surgent program’s phenomenal EA exam pass rate: over 80%. New financing is available for Surgent EA, starting from $44/month.
There aren’t too many negatives associated with Surgent’s EA review course. It’s a low-cost and personalized study material. For a while, the only real setback to this course was the lack of additional features for students who might need more help than their current offerings. However, Surgent’s brand-new Ultimate Pass fixed this issue by including several appealing new benefits for EA candidates.
Some of these features are small enhancements to existing ones, such as physical versions of their digital textbooks and flashcards. They’ve also added some extra video content to their already expansive library, as well as some audio lectures. But what’s most appealing about this new package is their Ultimate Customer Support and EA Exam Expert access. With these two additions, you can now receive hands-on instruction equivalent to your own private tutor.
Fast Forward Academy EA Review Course
Fast Forward Academy offers innovative enrolled agent classes, and has taken the idea of efficient learning to new heights. Essentially, they have pioneered and perfected the adaptive learning course that actively tests you to decrease your study hours. Overall, FFA produces great EA study material.
Fast Forward Academy EA review’s adaptive course uses software that tracks your answers to understand your knowledge of the subjects. Consequently, once it knows your strong areas and weak ones, it tests your weak areas to improve them. This way you aren’t going over topics that you already understand a million times.
The Fast Forward EA test bank is the second largest and includes over 3,100 multiple-choice and essay questions. This is particularly important because you don’t want to review the same questions over and over to the point that you memorize them.
Additionally, FFA’s analytics are also extremely detailed, as they are part of the adaptive course. And on the subject of adaptive learning, their newly added digital flashcards are fully customizable. This means that students are free to organize their premade decks into ones that focus exclusively on their personal study needs.
Unlike most of the other EA study material, Fast Forward also includes video lectures that discuss the most difficult topics covered in the course. Basically, if you learn better by watching a teacher or listening to a lecture, this is a great course for you.
Also included is a full set of printed and electronic textbooks.
Lambers EA Review Course
Lambers has offered enrolled agent exam courses for decades. They are definitely an industry leader in some respects. In other respects, they aren’t that great.
Their course is one of the most full-featured study guides and includes tons of extras and options that other companies don’t. For example, a recent redesign helmed by their subject matter expert Eva Rosenberg includes a robust study routine similar to the kind of adaptive learning technology you’d find with Surgent.
Another convenient aspect of Lambers EA Review is their reasonable pricing. Students can purchase their entire catalog for under $1,000, but they also offer smaller course packages for under $400. This is perfect for students who only need to brush up on a few specific aspects of the exam and don’t want to spend too much on their course materials.
Ultimately, the only thing really holding back this course from a higher ranking is their bog-standard content. Students interested in a traditional educational program should find the video lectures and flashcard software sufficient. However, when compared to offerings from Wiley and Surgent, there’s not much that Lambers provides to offer a better product. Still, you can do a lot worse!
Wiseguides Enrolled Agent Review Course
Wiseguides is by far the smallest company on this list. They don’t offer that many products or study resources, but their guides are extremely affordable.
This prep course includes over 2,900 multiple-choice questions and your choice of printed or digital textbooks. It also includes over 1,700 digital flashcards that you can use to practice memorizing important topics and concepts.
It also uses some pretty outdated technology. The user interface is pretty dated and not that great to use, but it is affordable. It’s less than half of the course of Gleim, Fast Forward, and Surgent.
That being said, I would recommend this as a supplemental enrolled agent study guide and not an actual exam prep course. It’s great to use for extra practice questions, but it’s not enough for a full guide.
Top Enrolled Agent Exam Prep Course Discounts from Gleim, Fast Forward Academy & Surgent EA
Trying to save some money on your Enrolled Agent prep materials and study courses? You’re in luck! Check out our large list of promo codes and discounts for our top-rated EA prep courses to help you make the most out of your education budget. We’ve got codes for products and courses from Becker EA, Surgent EA, Fast Forward Academy, and more!
$300 Off Gleim EA Premium Course
$300 Savings on Surgent EA Review Ultimate Pass
$250 Savings on Surgent EA Review Ultimate Pass
Save $160 on Becker EA Exam Review Pro
Get 10% Off Lambers EA Courses
10% Off Fast Forward Academy EA Course
Which Enrolled Agent Review Course Is The Best?
Best EA Review Courses of 2025 – Comparison Guide
| EA Review Courses | Best Feature | Discounted Price |
|---|---|---|
| Becker EA Review | Best All-in-One Study Package | $499 |
| Surgent EA Review Course | Best for Unlimited Practice Exams | $499 |
| Fast Forward Academy EA Review Course | Adaptive Learning Technology | $499 |
| Gleim EA Review Course | Best Analytics | $799 |
| Lambers EA Review Course | Flashcards | $599 |
| Wise Guides EA Review | Most Affordable | $470 |
Common FAQs about Enrolled Agents
Becker, Surgent, Fast Forward Academy, and Gleim all offer compelling benefits, depending on what is most important to your study (video content, practice questions, scheduling technology, exam simulations, etc). I like Becker the best, but every student is different, so use my comparison chart below to see how they all stack up against each other.
Unlike most other professional designations, there are no educational prerequisites for becoming an enrolled agent. Although you don’t need a college degree or diploma, you must prove your competency for tax-related matters. There are two ways to do this: you can either pass the Special Enrollment Exam (EA exam), or have a minimum of 5 years of IRS experience.
Most likely, you will spend over 100 hours preparing for the EA exam. One review course provider tells their EA candidates to budget about 50 study hours for Part 1, 40 hours for Part 3, and 85 hours for Part 2. Most candidates find that studying for 2-3 hours a night for about a month is sufficient for passing the EA exam.
To be an enrolled agent, there are testing fees, enrollment fees, and maintenance fees. For the testing fees, each part of the EA exam will cost $182 (there are 3 parts), paid when you schedule the exam. The enrollment fee is a $30 fee paid to the IRS after successfully passing the exam. Maintenance fees include licensing and continuing education costs, and generally aren’t more than $200-300 a year. If you choose to use a professional study review (which we recommend), there are also costs associated with those too. Learn more here.
An entry-level enrolled agent with up to five years of experience can typically expect to earn an average of $42,000 per year. A mid-level enrolled agent with between five and 10 years of experience can generally expect to earn an average salary of $50,000. A senior-level enrolled agent with between 10 and 20 years of experience can typically expect to earn an average salary of $55,000. Agents with more than 20 years of experience may see a pay raise up to $60,000 per year.
1. Surgent EA Review Course – Top Rated Course
2. Gleim EA Review Course
3. Becker EA Review Course
4. Fast Forward Academy EA Review Course
5. Lambers Enrolled Agent Review Course
6. WiseGuides EA Prep Review Course
How To Become an Enrolled Agent:
- You must have a Personal Tax Identification Number (PTIN)
- Study for the Special Enrollment Examination (SEE)
- Register for the Special Enrollment Exam
- Take the IRS SEE
- Apply for enrollment and pass a tax compliance check
- Update your professional information
