[Anonymous]

very sad!!! I failed AUD again. Took the exam on 5/28 this time. Last time I had 55, and took it on 12/02/2013. I am using Becker 2013 and Wiley test bank 2014. Both question practice I only got around 65 % correct. Here is my exam performance review on the exam:

Understanding the Engagement (12-16%)

Weaker

Understanding the Entity (16-20%)

Comparable

Procedures and Evidence(16-20%)

Weaker

Evaluation and Reporting(16-20%)

Weaker

Accounting and Review Services(12-16%)

Comparable

My questions are:

1: I saw there is a score review option, what is it for?

2: Isn’t a good exam taking strategy because I waited too long to retake the exam after the first time I failed? I kept studying after the first time I failed though.

3: I studied a lot on sampling and governmental auditing section, but I did not see anything questions from these two sections. I guess my studying method must wrong. any suggestions?

4: the simulation part, I saw there are a lot of questions are FAR related, is it better to study with FAR together? However, I am working for full time, studying these two together will be tough. Or study FAR first? Is there anyone pass AUD before taking FAR?

Sorry, my questions seem very silly 🙁 It is a bad morning. I do not want to give up, but do not know how to study now…..

[sep7uakron]

Buy the ninja notes. They are exceptional for aud

AUD: April 2014 - 85
REG: May 2014 - 83
BEC: July 2014 - 82
FAR: August 2014 - 83

I'M DONE!!

[Anonymous]

forgot to mention, I had Ninja Notes too, but I only read it one time. May be too many study materials that I have? which one I should really focus on?

[mla1169]

On my 3rd time taking AUD, I rewrote the ninja notes 10 pages per day, every single day. In 30 days I had rewritten them 3x. I also did 100 MCQ per day. The results were positive!

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[JamesBJames]

Do not do the score review option. As far as I know, no one has ever gotten a higher score out of it, and it costs $200+ and a lot of time to complete. People who get 74s usually ask about it and get shot down every time.

I felt like Becker was excellent for understanding AUD… and Becker + WTB seems like an amazing combo, honestly. I'm not really in any rush to recommend anything else.

Now, I'm not sure what score you got this time around. If it's in the 70s, you're close. You have a lot of work to do, but take another run through the materials with specific emphasis on your weak areas. This is probably where I would advocate NINJA materials for the extra few points.

If you're still in the 50s or low 60s, then you've still got a way to go. You need to step back and critically evaluate why you didn't do as well as you thought.

How are you studying? Are you doing all of the HW? Are you doing any of the SIMs? Do you do the Becker HW a second time? Do you write your own notes? Are you understanding everything on the second time through? How did you do your final review before the exam? How much time are you allocating to MCQs / SIMs on the actual exam? Are you reading every question carefully? Are you finishing with time to spare?

To answer your other questions, sampling and GAGAS stuff aren't big areas on the exam. I only had a few questions about them, too. Don't completely skip them on your next attempt through, but focus on the heart of the audit (A3-A4 in Becker). Review and compilation services are important too (A2 in Becker).

FAR will certainly help with AUD, but I'm not sure if I would recommend dropping everything to study it first. You don't need FAR for AUD, but it's nice.

FAR: May 1st, 2014 - 91
AUD: May 29th, 2014 - 97!
BEC: July 16th, 2014 - 91
REG: August 29th, 2014 - 88

Licensed December 2015

Feel free to add me on LinkedIn by clicking my username!

[NYCaccountant]

I feel like the Ninja questions are so hard!! trending score is 79%, but Wiley is 88%. Huge difference and i'm getting crushed in Ninja MCQ. Questions are so detailed. Buy the Ninja MCQ's, I'm guessing if you do well on those, you'll do well on the exam.

FAR - 93
REG - 87
BEC - 84!!!!
AUD - 99!!!!!! CPA exam complete.

[Anonymous]

James, I really appreciate your advices. Every word that you said are informative and helpful. I think I did not study hard enough. all the Wiley and Becker questions I only went though once. I will get back to study again. Thanks James!!!

[Anonymous]

NYCaccountant, thank you! I will go back to review all the Wiley and Becker questions first. If I still can not do well on next exam, I will go for Ninja.

[NYCaccountant]

See thats the thing. Wiley seems way easier than Ninja. That's my perception anyway. Ninja is harder than Wiley and CPAreviewforfree.

FAR - 93
REG - 87
BEC - 84!!!!
AUD - 99!!!!!! CPA exam complete.

[Kimboroni]

I think FAR is helpful for passing AUD, but I did pass AUD before FAR. It helped that I read here to brush up on basic JEs and ratios for AUD, so I did that and it definitely was useful.

I'm not clear on what your study habits are– you should be studying every day. If you studied from December to May and still didn't pass, you probably studied for too long and not intensely enough, which tends to lead to poor retention.

Set a schedule to study for 6 weeks or so, and make it intense enough so that you can get through all of the material and review for like 2 weeks. You can download Jeff's ELL program and follow that. Or what I did is study 1-2 hours every weeknight, and then as much as I could on the weekends (maybe 4-8 hours each weekend day, or something along those lines, depending on my schedule and how close to the exam I was getting). There was hardly a day that I didn't get in at least some studying. And I listened to Ninja Audio nearly every time I drove.

Also make sure to Google AICPA CSO and get the CSOs that are effective Jan 1, 2014– that tells you what the approximate percentages are so you can better emphasize the more heavily tested areas.

AUD 84 (1/9/14-Wiley books/TB + free materials)
FAR 83 (5/21/14-the above + NINJA 10 Pt Combo Lite)
REG 84 (7/9/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC/Notes)
BEC 76 (10/5/14-Wiley books/TB + NINJA Audio/FC)

Disclaimer: My ninja avatar is not meant to imply that I have any affiliation with this site other than being a forum member. That's a pic of a T-shirt that my daughter gave me for my birthday. 🙂

[Anonymous]

Thank you Kimboroni. I just printed out AICPA　CSO. It is very helpful. I am going to retake it in July. You are right. I took too long of time and not intensive enough to study.

[Author]

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