[Anonymous]

Some of these MCQs make me want to rip my hair out. Here’s an example…

“If the objective of a test of details is to detect overstatements of sales, the auditor should trace transactions from the…”

A. accounting records to source documents
B. source documents to accounting records
(I omitted choices C and D because I knew they weren’t right.)

The correct answer is A. But why is B incorrect? It could be done in either order and the same result would be achieved. Things like this are why people fail AUD who don’t deserve to fail AUD.

Does anyone have any strategies or advice as to how to approach these kinds of “roll of the dice” questions?

[Spartans92]

Comepletness is tracing from bottom to top. Think about a house. If you want to see if the house is complete you want to go from basement and up and see if the beams etc were placed properly. Hence, you go from source document to records. This also deals with understating Liabilities.

In the question it said Overstating Revenue.. We are most concern with existence in this case. We would then VOUCH! However, vouch and trace are used interchangeably. We would go from Journal entry/Records to Source Document for existence. So A would be the correct answer.

Sometimes its hard to wrap around the logic.. its much easier if you actually deal with these documents etc in real world. Most of time I dont even know what document is what.. I admit. I always confuse on a Bill of Lading or what a warehouse receipt entails.

BEC- PASS

[Anonymous]

Frustrating as hell. I had trouble with assertion MCQs when I took auditing in school a few years ago. The questions then were pretty much the same as the ones I'm studying now.
Hopefully someday I will have a really good understanding of it but never having had an auditing job, I too am lost when it comes to some of the topics presented. If you do this stuff every day, it's second nature. If you learn about it in a textbook only and don't do it from 8 to 5 every day, answering questions about it is quite challenging. For most people.

[Spartans92]

Right on. When I studied REG I struggled understanding the difference between timing and perm. Since I have started working I deal with a lot of M-1 Work papers. On my retake not only did I study more but real world experience helped a ton!

Best of luck to you. When are you planning to retake FAR?

BEC- PASS

[Anonymous]

These exams and people's experiences with them seem to vary so greatly from one person to the next. There are the people who pass them with zero work experience, and those of us who are more hands-on. I'm supposed to take AUD on April 29th. I have debated pushing out to the end of May because I just got a new job but I've decided not to. I pushed FAR out a month last year from December 8th to January 7th, and it totally worked against me. I didn't study hardly at all during that month that I pushed it out because I was completely burned out. Oddly enough, taking FAR totally spelled out for me what I needed to do in the future to pass it. I don't know how many people that happens for. When I will I re-take it? Probably in November after I do REG.
People have told me to go back to FAR after doing AUD but I really want to get two more out of the way (or at least complete my studies of them) before going back to it. But, I am not ready to crack the FAR book open again. It's too soon.

[Yolonge]

When I was studying for audit, I tried not to memorize and try to make sense out of question instead of going through assertion.

I did not have audit experience when I was taking audit, so I tried common sense, instead of relying much on vouching, tracing, etc. etc.
For example, if they have overstatement in revenue, that probably means they have some figure on their book without proper support or documentation (fictitious). Therefore going from source document will not reveal anything, because it will be in the accounting record. However you may be able to find something on accounting record, but with no support because they are fictitious entry (Vouching, V as in downward arrow to verify completeness).

If you get a question in audit, just make a hypothetical scenario and think what will work.

Materials: Wiley book + Ninja MCQ

FAR - 83 (Jan 2016)
Study time: 6 weeks
BEC - 87 (April 2016)
Study time: 2 weeks
AUD - 92 (July 2016), (74 Feb 2016), (72 May 2016)
Study time: 4 (Feb) + 2 (May) + 3 (July) = 9 weeks total
REG - (70 April 2016)
Study time: 3 weeks

[Anonymous]

Common sense definitely helps…. Some people have more of a knack for this stuff than others, and can see right through the test questions and get them correct even though they may never have never done it in a job. The review course I'm using doesn't give any guidance about how to approach certain kinds of tricky questions like this, and the AICPA doesn't either. I don't know what to think, so I quit thinking about it.

[Yolonge]

Crazyleon – Despite having highest score overall, audit was the part that I struggled with the most (study material felt easy, test felt easy, but not passing?!). I got 74 first time taking, and with unusual score delay for audit, which I never heard other than BEC. My score came out 3 days later.. and guess what. 74. I felt like i was in the cutoff or some kind.

I think I mainly remembered two things; Vouching and Tracing.

V in Vouching is pointing downward, so it means it is going down from top.
T in tracing is the opposite, so it was going up.

You will start with source document (bottom) which will make it to the accounting record/book (top).

I remembered 2 alphabet VE (Vouching with existence for going down) so tracing was automatic going up with completeness.

Vouching: How do you know something that exists on the book actually exists? Find one record from your book (ex: sale to customer) and find support that shows the sale. If you cannot find, you will lack the existence assertion because you cannot tell if that actually existed (no support).

Tracing: How do you know something is complete? Find one source document (ex: goods receipt, ordered from supplier) and find it in the accounting record. If you have the actual receipt but not on the accounting record, that means your accounting record is not complete, because it is missing stuff in there.

I believe understanding the basic vouching/tracing will help a lot for audit exam. Remember VE/TC.

Materials: Wiley book + Ninja MCQ

FAR - 83 (Jan 2016)
Study time: 6 weeks
BEC - 87 (April 2016)
Study time: 2 weeks
AUD - 92 (July 2016), (74 Feb 2016), (72 May 2016)
Study time: 4 (Feb) + 2 (May) + 3 (July) = 9 weeks total
REG - (70 April 2016)
Study time: 3 weeks

[Anonymous]

@mhei – thank you very much for your information. Actually – I managed to figure out vouch/trace pretty well as far as the basic definitions. The questions I am having problems with are the ones that ask me to determine what the relevant procedure for an assertion is. For instance, “tracing shipping documents to the sales records”. Ok, when I think about this situation, that procedure is going to tell us two things – everything that was recorded as sales was shipped, and everything that was shipped was properly recorded as sales. But in reality, only one of these is correct! I don't understand why only one is correct. Still struggling. I don't know if any of the review courses really have a good plan of attack for these kinds of questions. Some are more clear-cut than others. :/

[Spartans92]

@leon, I too struggled that. But I think the best way is to see if you wanted to know the goods ordered were shipped you would start with documents to sales invoice. I think whatever you trying to see begins with that.

BEC- PASS

[Yolonge]

-crazyleon

“For instance, “tracing shipping documents to the sales records”. Ok, when I think about this situation, that procedure is going to tell us two things – everything that was recorded as sales was shipped, and everything that was shipped was properly recorded as sales. ”

I can see tracing shipping document to verify if it was recorded as sale, but how would you know everything was recorded as sales? To verify what we see in accounting record only tests completeness assertion.

If there was fictious sales that does not have actual shipping document, you would never know if sales is complete by tracing from shipping document because all of your document you have may be recorded in accounting record, but it does not mean the sale existed.

If there were 10 sales and you have full shipping document (say you got 9).You can test and trace all 9, which you can find in accounting record. But is your sales figure meet existence assertion? Based on your support, you simply do not know the sale existed because there is no such document..

Materials: Wiley book + Ninja MCQ

FAR - 83 (Jan 2016)
Study time: 6 weeks
BEC - 87 (April 2016)
Study time: 2 weeks
AUD - 92 (July 2016), (74 Feb 2016), (72 May 2016)
Study time: 4 (Feb) + 2 (May) + 3 (July) = 9 weeks total
REG - (70 April 2016)
Study time: 3 weeks

[Anonymous]

I'm going to have to keep struggling with this. I'll get it eventually. Some accounting topics are like this. Oh lord….I had a very rough go of some topics in Advanced Accounting when I took it long ago. Thankfully, I now understand that stuff pretty well, but it was because I really put a ton of time in to getting it into my brain.

[Spartans92]

best of luck man! Im here studying AUD still. I have a good feeling I pulled another 74 🙁 This messed up my whole plan of finishing by May sucks even more when my becker is expiring in few days.

BEC- PASS

[Anonymous]

Thanks you too @Spartans92 Isn't Becker available for renewal? But, you probably don't need it at this point since you've taken all the exams and it's just a matter of getting them passed.
I know Becker is expensive though.

[Author]

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