The Enrolled Agent exam
The Special Enrollment Examination (SEE) is the three-part test the IRS has a contracted vendor develop and administer. Passing all three parts, then applying for enrollment on Form 23 and clearing a suitability check, makes you an Enrolled Agent with unlimited practice rights before the IRS.
Before you schedule
The IRS changed testing vendors during 2026, and the fee, the testing window, and the on-the-day format changed with it. Confirm all of them on the IRS's own Become an Enrolled Agent page and in the current candidate bulletin rather than relying on any third-party summary, including this one.
Format
Each part is 100 multiple-choice questions in 3.5 hours; 85 are scored and 15 are experimental, and you cannot tell which is which, so answer everything. There is no penalty for guessing. Scores are scaled 40–130 with 105 passing. Parts may be taken in any order, and a passed part carries forward for a limited period. The number of scored questions, the section and break structure, and the carryover period are all set by the current candidate bulletin, so check it there.
How TaxEar maps to it
The site's three top-level sections are the exam's three parts, and every page's outline code (for example, SEE 3.3.1.c) is the code in the IRS content outline. Studying a part on TaxEar is studying the outline in order.