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I'm Klaus Gottlieb. I passed Part 1 of the Enrolled Agent (EA) exam in 2025 and Part 3 shortly after — both on the first attempt, both under Prometric — and I'm sitting Part 2 in July 2026, under the new PSI regime.
I'm writing this newsletter from inside the candidate experience, not from above it. That's the point of the thing. Most EA exam content is written by people who took the test years ago, or by marketing departments at prep companies, or by tutors whose last encounter with a real testing center was before the current vendor transition. This one isn't.
Before law school I practiced medicine, and I picked up an MS and an MBA along the way. I'm currently finishing an LLM in Taxation at Golden Gate, I teach Corporations at Monterey College of Law, and I run an estate planning practice on the Central Coast. I mention all of that for one reason: by this point I'm a serial high-stakes exam taker — medical boards, the California bar, EA Parts 1 and 3 — and I know the difference between study techniques that work and ones that just feel productive. That's the lens I bring to this newsletter. The credentials are the supporting cast. The headline is that I'm a candidate like you.
What you'll get. One post a week, 600 to 800 words, built around whatever I'm actually working through that week or whatever's changing in the profession around us. Occasional longer pieces when something deserves the space. The tagline — pass the exam and strengthen your practice — is the test I apply to every post. If it doesn't serve one of those two ends, it doesn't go out.
What you won't get. Filler. Cross-promotion. Rehashed IRS press releases. Fluff about "study mindset." If you're in active study mode, your reading time is expensive, and I owe you something that makes that time more efficient rather than less.
Subscribe if that sounds useful. If it stops being useful, unsubscribe — I'd rather have 200 readers who open every issue than 2,000 who don't.
The EA Notebook is written for educational purposes. Nothing in it is legal, tax, or financial advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with me or my firm. For advice about your situation, consult a qualified professional who knows your facts.