[noluckcandidate]

65 on Audit in Q1 using Becker Self Study. Will retake in April – any advice on improving AUD score?

[Anonymous]

To pass AUD with a 95 I:

-took notes on each study sections from the Becker books and created my own note cards.

– took notes on each of the questions and analyzed why the right answer was

correct and why the other questions are wrong.

– supplemented the Becker questions with the Wiley Online Test Bank.

– worked the multiple choice questions three or more times including SIMS

– studied about 200 or more hours

-bought and studied the Ninja notes

-bought the Ninja audio and listened to it during my daily commute

In summary, I lot of people on this blog suggest supplementing Becker with other materials to pass the CPA exam

[jambueh]

@noluckcandidate

I'm in the same boat. I took audit in January and failed miserably with a 67. The sad thing was I thought the exam was easy and I finished with almost an hour to spare. I am going to retake the exam in April around the 13th or 14th. I only have two more shots at audit before my regulation score expires in August.

I am using Becker 2012 and I'm going to go through all the chapters again. This time I am going to spend extra time on A3 and A4; I think these were my weak areas. I am going to write down or print out the questions that I got wrong on the progress tests and make sure that I review these topics so I do not get them wrong on the exam.

Time and time again, I see people post on here that the audit exam is about memorization. And that's what I am going to do; memorize as much crap as I can. I only need eight points but I am shooting for a score between 80 and 90. I have been studying for over 14 months for the CPA exam and I cannot afford to fail audit a second time. My Becker review materials expire in 75 days.

When exam time comes, I am going to I read the question and then reread the question again to make sure that I understand the call of the question. When I finish a testlet, I am going to go back through and make sure I didn't make any silly mistakes by not reading the question correctly. And when the simulations come be sure to use the authoritative literature. There is more than enough time during the audit exam…be sure to use it!

REG 80
BEC 71, 80
FAR 76
AUD 67, 83
I'm done!!

[Anonymous]

@jambueh I would also suggest that you check your local library to see if there are Wiley books that you can checkout if you don't want to purchase the Wiley online test bank. You may need a fresh look at the material and the extra practice from a different source may help. There are some nice practice questions on cpareviewforfree.com. If you can, Wiley Online Test bank woud be a great investment.

I also want to add that Auditing is a lot of memorizing, but if you can really understand the GAAS principles, and not just memorize them, you will be abe to answer all types of questions.

All of the tips I am sharing I heard from other bloggers on this site which helped me pass.

Much success to you!

[noluckcandidate]

@beechcrest

Thank you for the advice – I just bought the Ninja Audio hopefully it helps. I did well on the Becker practice exams and was doing well on progress tests leading up to the test – I don't know what happened and I felt okay coming out of the test; I was stronger in 4/6 categories and weaker in the other 2. I think the SIMS are what killed me, but just gotta get back up and try again.

@jambueh

I see you've passed other parts of the exam – did you use the same study strategy for AUD? I've only taken the one test so I'm not sure if I'm just weak in AUD or just terrible in general and just want to know how you went about the other sections compared to this one.

Thanks

[jambueh]

@noluckcandidate

To be honest. I was told by my peers that BEC and AUD were the “easy” exams and REG and FAR were the “hard” exams. I did not put as much effort into BEC and AUD as I should have and look were it got me. My advice is to study as much as you can and make sure you understand the concepts. That way you can apply the concepts to the questions that you'll see on the exam. In my testing experience, out of the thousands of MCQs that I've done to date, only a handful of questions have appeared on the actual exam which is why @beechcrest is correct. You need to understand the concepts that are covered in your review materials.

REG 80
BEC 71, 80
FAR 76
AUD 67, 83
I'm done!!

[D]

I can imagine how you feel. I felt like I studied my butt off when I got that 61 in AUD last year! 🙁

As for improving your score… Glad you purchased the audio. I really feel like that helped me to listed during my commutes to/from work. Make sure you're really going through all the questions and knowing not only why its correct by why the others are incorrect.

One other thing that I think helped pushed me over this time was making sure I don't focus so much on practice test scores. Many people on here will say thats a waste of time because it gives you a false sense of security and I now agree. What I did leading up to this last exam was took one practice exam (one only) and evaluated my weak areas. From there I went through every single question in each of those sections until I was consistently scoring between 80-90% in those areas.

Then leading up to the exam I basically did MCQ after MCQ after MCQ in all sections… not in exam mode but in review mode so I can see the correct answer as soon as I hit “next”. That is much more efficient and you're getting instant feedback to correct your understanding if need be, rather than going through 90 MCQs, 7 Sims, then hitting “submit” and having to review incorrect questions.

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AUD - 74, 77! (1/2016)
BEC - 80! (5/2016)
REG - tbd (8/2016)
FAR - tbd

Study materials: NINJA MCQ/Audio/Notes

"I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me!"
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[Author]

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