I have just finished all my exams (still waiting for the last exam score to hard post), can i already or should i already take the ethics exam even thought I'm still 12 months away from getting my work experience credit ?

And what is the difference between the AICPA and the California ethics? Do i need to take both or if I'm in California then take just that one is sufficient?

Thanks to anyone that can help.

Dear Suffering Colleagues.  First of all, I am happy to share that on my SIXTH try, I finally passed my CA CPA Ethics Exam, with a 94%.  This is one of the first times that I have ever posted on a forum, but I felt so compelled to share my experiences in this forum because during my struggles, I found all of your advice and moral support to have been extremely helpful.  Consequentially, I wanted to give back to this community.  The following are some of my personal experiences:

1.  Yes, it's true, I was able to get a free set (3 times) of exam submissions after having failed in the first round.  I called in to CalCPA.  No much groveling needed.  Whew.  Thank you for that tip from another online colleague.

2.  I found that carefully glancing through the Independence section AND working on the 40+ sample questions therein proved to be invaluable!!!  The Independence section is so fact-specific that the exam authors can get really creative.  Word searches via PDF are only good for simple statutory and regulatory questions - but no good for fact patterns.  Please read entire Independence section and do the questions.  This will save you A LOT OF grief.  I know! 

3.  On my sixth try, I honed in on the specific page references that you receive via email after having previously failed the exam.  By then I was so familiar with all of the Qs (practically memorized!) that I was able to know which questions the page references were referring to.  Making those changes allowed me to go from an 84 to 94. 

4.  It is helpful, as another poster stated, to submit your answers strategically, i.e. to keep certain answers the same and to test out 3-5 questions at one time...that DOES HELP to isloate and determine whether the changed answers were right or wrong.

Good luck!  I hope this post "floats" to you like a piece of paper in a seaborne bottle.   Many thanks to all kind souls who gave me tips and let me know that I was not the only one who struggled with this exam.