3 days until the AUD exam, is it too early to panic and cry?

  • Creator
    Topic
  • April 15, 2013 at 2:23 pm #177110
    jnnthom
    Member

    I’ve been on a steady diet of pizza rolls and coffee. I quit exercising, my house is a mess, and “sleeping in” means waking up at 5:30 to study before work. Flash cards are in every room and I think I’ve got some in my car, I’ve gone through each chapter in my Becker review book twice and I’ve redone every multiple choice question Becker offers, along with doing each simulation at least twice. I took my first CPA exam in February, FAR, only to fail with a 72. Realizing I didn’t know how to study properly, I changed my game plan for AUD.

    Does anyone have any study tips for the last few days before AUD? I’m realizing unless I’m constantly keeping things fresh in my mind, I’m bound to forget them. Does anyone have any study tactics that seem more applicable to AUD than the other sections?

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Author
    Replies
  • April 15, 2013 at 2:55 pm #409167
    K_Sunshine5
    Participant

    I just took AUD yesterday and all last week I was hammering MCQs to review. I found that it really helped me keep the concepts fresh in my mind. I felt fairly confident coming out of the exam yesterday so I think that doing a lot of MCQs helped me. Hope this helps and good luck with AUD! In my experience, it was definitely easier than FAR so don't worry yourself too much!

    FAR: 65, 77!
    AUD: 72, 72, 80!
    REG: 64, 84!
    BEC: 83!
    Ethics: 98!

    Delaware CPA as of May 23, 2014 at 10:43am EST.

    "She believed she could, so she did."

    April 15, 2013 at 3:56 pm #409168
    myyear2013
    Member

    Every exam is so different for every candidate; my most difficult exam might be your easiest, so it is tough to say that AUD is easier or more difficult than another section! AUD is tricky, tricky, tricky so definitely keep drilling those MCQ's, take a few deep breaths and beast through the exam. Good luck!!

    BEC - PASSED!
    FAR - PASSED!
    AUD - PASSED!
    REG - May 2013

    April 15, 2013 at 4:35 pm #409169
    LSNYC
    Member

    Way to early to cry! You can do this!

    Make sure to read EVERY question twice, with audit one word changes everything! Also on your SIMS use the AL.

    You are prepared keep pushing, maybe eat a salad 😉 you can do this and drink more coffee!

    Good luck

    A - 61, 91!!
    B - 78!
    F - 76!!!
    R - 71, 73, 74, 69, 77!!!!

    Finally done!

    This is my 2nd attempt at the exam, I had two parts passed (failed many) and I stupidly quit, big mistake. Now I'm back and with a vengeance!

    April 15, 2013 at 5:22 pm #409170
    jsmithsae
    Member

    my exam is on thursday and the way I am preparing now is working 30 question progress tests over and over and sometime today I will finalize my “data dump sheet.”

    Dont stress, remember it is just an exam! If you truly prepared the best you can…walk in, take the exam, have a lil luck on your side and wait for the score to release.

    Just keep working the material and understand the reasons you get questions right and wrong. Quality over quantity at this point but a couple hundred a day should be achievable.

    GOOD LUCK!

    BEC-75!
    AUD-84!
    REG-78!
    FAR-83!
    Ethics-Passed!
    Experience-Got that too

    Used Becker 2013 Self-Study & NINJA 10pt Combo Lite(AUD)

    April 15, 2013 at 6:03 pm #409171
    Zaq
    Participant

    Same boat. Exam on Thursday.

    Going to be doing countless MCQ's. Once it reaches night time, I'll type up my notes based off items I got wrong or were unfamiliar with My hope is that by doing as many MCQ's as possible and reviewing an hour or two before I go to sleep that I should be fine.

    Actually took a Becker MCQ Progress Exam of 50 questions and got a 47/50. The one before that I got a 75%. And yet, I still don't trust my ability to pass.

    FAR: 50, 76!
    REG: 74... (ouch baby, very ouch), 76!
    AUD: 65, 91!?
    BEC: 80! Aaaand doneskies!

    May 2012 to August 2013. Can't believe it's over.

    April 15, 2013 at 7:10 pm #409172
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    It sounds like you are just burning through your study materials. Make sure you really understand what you are studying. When you get a multiple choice question wrong, make sure you understand why you got it wrong and why the right answer is what it is.

    I took 110 total hours to study for AUD and I would say that 80 of those hours I spent going through the lectures and MCQ's in Becker. For me, slow and steady builds comprehension.

    Going through your book and all the MCQ multiple times doesn't mean anything unless it's contributing to your comprehension of the material. Understanding a concept goes a lot further than memorizing something, or simply being exposed to it multiple times (although, sometimes that's the best that can be done)

    I'm taking FAR on Friday, and I'm pretty worried myself. . . . best of luck to you!

    April 15, 2013 at 10:57 pm #409173
    MintsRGood
    Participant

    The best thing you can do for yourself at this point to keep drilling MCQS, understand why incorrect responses are incorrect, and try to keep calm…easier said than done, I realize! 😉 On test day remember to breath and RTMFQ!!!!! Auditing is full of tricks and traps (trust me, I know from experience 😉 ) and if you are rushing through and nervous you WILL make costly mistakes.

    There will be questions and a SIM or 2 that you will have NO clue how to formulate a response for no matter how much you've prepared. Simply accept it now…when you see a bizarro MCQ or SiM take a deep breath, flag it, circle back to it at the end of the testlet, make your best effort and FORGET IT. The last thing you want is for some question to get eat at you and mess with your head for the entire test. It's not worth it!!!! You have worked hard and given yourself a great chance to pass!

    I'm testing tomorrow @ 1pm and I'm not allowing myself to cry or panic, so YOU aren't allowed to either! 😉

    Good Luck!!!!!!!!!! 🙂

    REG: 75 DONE 🙂
    AUD: 61, 71, 68, 92 DONE 🙂
    BEC: 76 DONE 🙂
    FAR: 72, 74, 79 DONE 🙂
    Licensed Michigan CPA 🙂
    -Some people dream of success...others wake up and work hard for it!!!
    -The cowards never start and the weak die along the way!
    -You better work, b***h!
    -Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.-JFK

    April 15, 2013 at 11:20 pm #409174
    Getting a CPA
    Member

    @MintsRGood – Good luck tomorrow. I hope you never have to look at AUD ever again! I am studying for it right now, and I can see how much confusion this exam can create. Kill the exam – take all 4 hours, use the AL during the SIMs, and RTMFQ!!!

    You have this…

    April 16, 2013 at 1:59 pm #409175
    jnnthom
    Member

    I keep doing practice test after practice test. I'm going to go to some different websites and try some different auditing questions just to get use to different wording. In the morning I do pretty well on the practice tests. After work yesterday, I came home and took one of Becker's final exam practice tests only to tank. I realized that after a full day of work, maybe I should avoid practice tests and just stick with reading or reviewing my flash cards. Two more days! I'm taking tomorrow off and will hopefully get in a good final review.

    When I studied for FAR I noticed that Becker was a lot harder than the real thing. Did anyone else think the same for Becker's AUD portion?

    April 16, 2013 at 3:15 pm #409176
    jsmithsae
    Member

    @jnnthom I, and probably everyone else on here, would strongly advise you to keep working MCQ's and stop reading the text this late in the game. You don't have to work an entire exam, use the progress tests and break them up into smaller sections.

    I have never worked the practice exams so I cant comment as to which one is more difficult. Just keep working the material!

    BEC-75!
    AUD-84!
    REG-78!
    FAR-83!
    Ethics-Passed!
    Experience-Got that too

    Used Becker 2013 Self-Study & NINJA 10pt Combo Lite(AUD)

    April 17, 2013 at 2:09 am #409177
    Getting a CPA
    Member

    @jnnthorn – I think all review courses make their questions (at least a good portion) harder than the actual exam.

    I thought the FAR exam questions in CPAExcel were harder than the real thing. CPAReviewForFree FAR questions I couldn't even finish reading – there were 5 lines with lots of red herrings (numbers not needed in the calculations).

    CPAReviewForFree admits making the questions harder and explains it like this: “it's like going to a baseball game and watching the hitters getting ready to bat by swinging a sledge hammer. It builds up your muscles and makes you a better hitter. Harder questions make it easier to answer questions in the future.”

    I don't watch baseball but I don't think they use sledgehammers to get ready, but rather donuts to add weight 🙂

    You get the point…

  • Author
    Replies
Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • The topic ‘3 days until the AUD exam, is it too early to panic and cry?’ is closed to new replies.