[shawn in VA]

Hi Everyone,

I have read hundreds of post in last 1 year, but this is the first time posting. My name is Shawn, and I am a CPA Candidate.

I have worked in public accounting for a few years (yes, put off the CPA exam, but now am determined), and I work ONLY in TAXES at my CPA firm.

I am scheduled for AUD Dec 8, 2016 for the 1st time and NEVER did an audit before in my career. Is it possible to even pass this part without ever doing an audit? I am sure people have passed without ever doing an actual audit on the job, but wanted to hear from people in my similar situation where they really don’t have hands on audit experience.

My specific questions are
1) how did you study? (lectures, read, etc…?)
2) how many hours in total did you study?
3) did you pass the first time?
4) any special tips you may have ?

I use Roger CPA for my review course. I will usually listen to ALL the lectures, skim the chapters, write some notes (not many), and do LOTS of MCQs. I did this for REG and passed.

Any valuable comments / encouragement welcomed.

Thanks

[CPA2BEE]

Hi Shawn, I'm also a tax guy and have never performed an audit in my life either (and probably never will). In response to your questions:

1) I studied much like I did any other exam – lectures, read the book, take notes, and tons upon tons of MCQs.
2) I'd say I studied in the neighborhood of 175-200 hours for Audit, but I've never been good at gauging “hours” studied.
3) I did not pass the first time, got a 71 on my first take and then 82 the second time. Keep in mind I wouldn't connect my failing score to not having real-world auditing work experience AT ALL. I'll explain in answer #4.
4) My biggest advice for AUD would be to move slowly through the exam and read every question very carefully. This was the one exam where (in hindsight) I truly believe that I knew the material well enough to pass the first time, but the problem is I didn't take the exam carefully enough. I breezed through my first AUD exam and finished with about an hour and a half left – I couldn't believe I failed. The second time I took it I read every question twice before answering, and I also made sure to justify why the other 3 answers were wrong before moving on. This approach worked for me. In my opinion, AUD is the easiest material to learn out of the 4 exams but the way they test it is the trickiest out of all the exams.

Hope this input is helpful. Good luck to you and don't psych yourself out thinking you have to be an auditor to pass, because you definitely don't!

FAR - 80
AUD - 82
BEC - 80
REG - 85

ETHICS - 90
EXPERIENCE - COMPLETE
Application for California license mailed 8/4/2016

[shawn in VA]

CPA2BEE. thanks for your reply. How much time should one leave for SIMS? Roger says about 15 mins per. Is that right? Seems like a lot of time.
Are the SIMS difficult ? Is there an area I should focus on for SIMS?

I have only passed REG so far, and the SIMS on REG were BRUTAL.

[CPA2BEE]

I'd try to leave 1.5 – 2 hours for SIMS. My first AUD exam I thought the SIMS were super easy and scored “Weaker” in them, and then on my retake I was convinced it was impossible for me to pass because the SIMS were that brutal yet to my surprise I scored “Stronger” on SIMS the second time around. There is no telling what they will throw at you, so its hard to say what areas to focus on for SIMS – just try to put yourself in a position where you can at least manage whatever topic they might throw at you.

FAR - 80
AUD - 82
BEC - 80
REG - 85

ETHICS - 90
EXPERIENCE - COMPLETE
Application for California license mailed 8/4/2016

[Track55]

I had no audit experience and got a perfect score. Treat it like the other tests. Study till your fingers bleed. I did all of Gleim then all the Ninja MCQ. As I was unemployed when I took AUD, I literally studied 7 hours a day 7 days a week, minus interviews and stuff.

Leave 2 hours for SIMS. For the multiple choice, remember there are 2 correct answers for every question, but you have to pick the one they want. That is where Ninja came in handy. You learn to see what kind of answers they are looking for.

AUD - 74, 99 !!
REG - 74, 92
BEC - 83
FAR - 73, 86

Studying for Ethics exam

California candidate
Business and Industry

[Spartans92]

Hey Shawn, First off welcome! Second, good luck with this journey. To your question I think its irrelevant whether you have done an audit before or not.. sure having the work experience may make the studying much easier but not really. I have had 4 months of internship experience in audit but studying for the section wasn't much easier. I failed even with the experience. I am now restudying for my retake and honestly looking over the material is much easier. I am now in the review phase trying to hit at least 60 MCQ per weekday and 3-4 SIMS.. due to work I have limited time and feeling tired after work. On weekends I tend to do anywhere from 100-120 MCQ and 7-10 SIMS. Therefore, everyone studies differently. But as others said really leave time with the SIMS.. and the MCQ you can really do process of elimination down to 2 and read those answers carefully and pick the best one. Usually the wording will sound better and you can identify easily.

Wish u the best of luck!

BEC- PASS

[Ginja_CPA]

I have had 0 audit experience, and received an 83 on my audit exam. This test was actually my best test so far, (waiting for my FAR score now). I read the Wiley Book, wrote the ninja notes, and did some 5000 mcq, while reading the ninja notes every night.

You can definitely pass this exam without ever even wanting to do audit, good luck!

REG: 80 (02/19/16)
AUD: 83 (04/11/16)
BEC: 78 (05/28/16)
FAR: ?

[Adam]

I agree with everyone else. Not only did I not have any Audit experience, I had never worked in a CPA firm (industry only). You must grasp the same study methods that works best for you. For me, it was reading, really grasping the concepts, and doing MCQ's until I puked, and then I did some more.

Got the highest score out of my four, which I wasn't expected and don't care about. Hey, a pass is a pass, right? I'd say easily an hour and half for the sims. That gives you 1.5 minutes for each MCQ. It's a fairly good time budget.

[LonelyRonPaul]

I have never worked a day in public accounting and have never performed an audit but pulled off an 87 on AUD which is my highest score out of the 3 sections I've taken so far. It's definitely doable but yes, it will be tough.

1. I have Roger as well and thought he did a great job with AUD. I would watch the lectures first, then read the chapter, follow along with the class questions, and then do multiple units of MCQs and TBSs until my eyes bleed.
2. I honestly didn't have a rigid schedule for myself and just kinda put in time wherever I could but I studied over the course of about 1.5 months with a full time job. Total study time/homework time I would say somewhere around 80 hrs?
3. Passed AUD the first time.
4. AUD is a LOT of theory and it's important to make sure you're doing the reading. I would take it much slower on the reading and not skim so much unless Roger says you can skip over some details in the chapters. It was probably the most frustrating section to study for out of all the studying I have done so far since there just isn't much you can do to get around reading the really dry material and you will probably get lots of questions wrong at first. Try not to get down on yourself if it's just not clicking. Take plenty of small breaks or even come back to chapters if it is just not making any sense in the present moment.

You've got this broseph! You're gonna do bigly!

FAR - 78, 5/7/16
AUD - 87, 7/16/16
BEC - 8/27/16
REG - 12/3/16

[DZagt]

Hey bro. Not only have I never done an audit before, Ive never even worked in public. Its a book test, learn the materials and you will pass.

[Anonymous]

@shawn in VA I never worked in a CPA firm. I went straight to private. I have never done an audit in my life and the course in college is nothing like the exam. That being said, I used Becker and I studied about 15-20 hours a week for 6 weeks then did about 2 weeks of review including Becker's final review software, which I highly recommend by the way. All that in mind, I felt pretty good about the exam after I left and found out earlier this month that I made got an 80 on my exam. To your point, it is completely possible to pass and preparation will serve you well. Good luck!

[ultrarunner]

I have no audit experience nor any CPA firm experience either. It is all about studying and determination. You could do this!

FAR 72,67,79 (Roger+Wiley test bank)11/15
AUD 80 (Roger)10/15
BEC 80 (Roger)4/16
REG 63,78 (Roger+Ninja MCQs)5/16

[shawn in VA]

Wow. It is very reassuring to see all these posts and people not only passing without any audit experience, but passing with their highest score out of the 4 exams.

Adam- 94 is very impressive and congrats !

In general I noticed most of the posts say READ READ READ!! I passed REG and did VERY LITTLE reading. Mostly, did lots of MCQs (around 1,500) and listened to every lecture once or twice. I took very little notes for REG. I am a tax guy so maybe I had an advantage, but still I knew nothing about business law, and spent about 150 hours studying for REG.

I guess my questions are the following…

1) can you pass AUD with just doing MCQs and listening to Lectures (Roger)?
2) I noticed people stating doing thousands of MCQs. How is this possible in like 6 weeks? This includes repeats, correct? Like your doing the same question 2-3 times ? Roger test bank is like 1,400 questions, so I don't understand how people are doing 5,000 MCQs. I am lucky to get through 50 NEW questions per day. Although I carefully read the responses and take minimal notes whether I get the question right or wrong.
3) I only have like 6 weeks to study in total, and about 3-4 hours everyday. Just trying to figure out the best way to spend my time. It seems like a lot of hours (150 hours in total), but I have been out of school for almost a decade so my study skills are a bit “rusty”.

Thanks,

[Author]

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