[jeff]

Welcome to the Q2 2017 CPA Exam Study Group for AUD. 🙂

[Operation_CPA]

Just took Becker's mock exam #1 and got a 79% (MCQ only). Going to review the TBS just to be efficient, my exam is tomorrow and I'm not trying to do too much work today. That being said, I think my pace is almost a little too fast. I finished the MCQ in about an hour, which in theory would leave me 3 hours for the TBS on exam day. Best of luck to all those sitting tomorrow, and have a nice memorial day weekend!

[Anonymous]

@pcunniff – I apologize if my wording was confusing. When I said “collections” I meant a representative of your company calling a customer and asking them to pay their bill. My last job used A/R and Collections interchangeably. Accounts Receivable handles billing/crediting the customers, they do not ever handle cash. Treasury (or by extension a cashier) only handles cash transactions, they do not ever credit or bill customers. Treasury (or a cashier), before depositing the checks, will make copies of the checks and send the copies to A/R who will record the payment in the customers account.

[Anonymous]

@Smith M – Have you taken a mock exam yet? It's one thing to get a question wrong and immediately find out why you got that question wrong. Obviously you'll get the next question right. The mock exams help identify weak areas.

[IwannabeaCPA2017]

Seems like I could never escape a DRS on the Exam. Once again had 2 of those.. now time to wait for the scores.. I know for sure my chance of passing is slim especially now I realize I got several mcq questions wrong too. I hate the fact I could round to 2 answer but almost always pick the wrong one LOL. Oh I forgot to say how lucky I am on all attempts I have had the pleasure to get at least 1 FAR like SIM. Probably a reason why I still have FAR to pass. SMH

Time to head on to FAR and hopefully slay the beast. Back to AUD in OCT. Best of luck to those sitting in next few days.

[pcunniff]

What does DRS mean haha?

I'm sure the FAR sim was dropped. @drumstick – i got it. The credit memos are approved by a supervisor, so this is all clear to me now. These comments are making me nervous about the sims.

Can you sit for audit in July if you took it now in May? This window is so large – i emailed my state board (Wisconsin) to ask if i can sit twice due to the year long wait….

[Anonymous]

@pcunniff DRS is document review simulations.

[Smith]

@drumstick I took Becker's practice exam yesterday and I got a 79%. I'll be doing PT and Sims these 3 days left. Thanks for your answer.

[Smith]

I always tend to confuse the Fraud Risk Factors, opportunity and rationalization. Anyone has a tip/ advice on this. How you handle it?

[pcunniff]

Opportunity is when you are in the position to “steal”. Opportunity can be thought of as improper segregation of duties. For example, say an employee has authorization and custody capabilities or better yet recording and authorization functions. That individual can record a purchase and approve the same transaction without anyones knowledge. They can “STEAL” assets in this regard because they have the opportunity to do so.

Rationalization is more on the ethical side. This individual employee may rationalize to commit fraud because of the attitude the employee has. For example, Excessive focus by management on entity's stock price because the manager firmly believes that inflating revenues or committing fraud in some way will keep that stock price high (which in turn may be correlated to his bonus/promotion and success of the company when it, in fact, is a piece of crap stock). Another example is management's failure to correct reportable conditions because though it may be reasonable under GAAS/GAAP, this manager may be biased and have the “I'm right” attitude and “you're wrong” so he/she have the “rationalization” or “attitude” not to fix this. Maybe someone can come up with a specific example for this, but I would think capitalization of assets would be big here. Perhaps it truly shouldn't be capitalized and the auditor wants you to record as an expense (start up costs) when the manager wants that balance sheet looking pretty (rationalizes to keep it capitalized when it's actually shouldn't be (should be recorded as an expense to ultimately lower net income).

FAR – Pass
REG – tested on 5/4
BEC – Pass
AUD – 5/31

[pcunniff]

Opportunity is when you are in the position to “steal” assets. Opportunity can be thought of as improper segregation of duties. For example, say an employee has authorization and custody capabilities or better yet recording and authorization functions. That individual can record a purchase and approve the same transaction without anyones knowledge. They can “STEAL” assets in this regard because they have the opportunity to do so.

Rationalization is more on the ethical side of things. This individual employee may rationalize to commit fraud because of the attitude the employee has. For example, Excessive focus by management on entity's stock price because the manager firmly believes that inflating revenues or committing fraud in some way will keep that stock price high (which in turn may be correlated to his bonus/promotion and success of the company when it, in fact, is a piece of crap stock). Another example is management's failure to correct reportable conditions because though it may be reasonable under GAAS/GAAP, this manager may be biased and have the “I'm right” attitude and “you're wrong” so he/she have the “rationalization” or “attitude” not to fix this. Maybe someone can come up with a specific example for this, but I would think capitalization of assets would be big here. Perhaps it truly shouldn't be capitalized and the auditor wants you to record as an expense (start up costs) when the manager wants that balance sheet looking pretty (rationalizes to keep it capitalized when it's actually shouldn't be (should be recorded as an expense to ultimately lower net income).

FAR – Pass
REG – tested on 5/4
BEC – Pass
AUD – 5/31

[Smith]

@pcunniff Gotcha. thanks! I'm pretty nervous since I've seen horrible posts of this exam. Good luck everyone

[Anonymous]

Hey Everyone,

My first time posting here. I am studying to take Audit in about 3 days. For those who are using Becker. I was wondering if the MCQs from Becker are representative of the actual exam? I have never made a 80% average on my first run through of MCQs while studying for the other 3 parts. But for Audit, the material just seems like common sense or straight-forward Becker MCQ wise. I have no background in Audit, my internship and job were in Tax. It would be awesome if the questions were this easy on the actual exam.

AUD-Taking 05/31/2017
FAR-Waiting on Score (August 16)
BEC- Passed (84)
Reg- Passed (79)

[pcunniff]

You will see horrible posts about any exam. Were any easy? Keep grinding

[pjd11006]

@chrisdklee How are you doing on the transaction cycle material? I'm going through that now, and the lecture and skills practice are pretty simple. However, the multiple choice are just terrible… Ranging form 60s to 70s on these questions, and just feel horrible.

Also, for those who have taken the exam, how did you do on your first time around on the multiple choice? I average 86 and 82 on chapters 1 and 2, respectively. But, fell to a 79 in chapter 3. Going through chapter 4 now, and not doing so well. Plus, I'm getting so angry with the multiple choice, given that the lecture doesn't prepare you well enough for the becker multiple choice.

Please provide some insight as to how bad these questions are for the exam!!

Oh, and by the way, I'm taking the exam this coming Wednesday, and am currently in chapter 4. Will have chapters 5 and 6 done by mid Tuesday, with a few hours of review for those topics I absolutely boomed.

FAR TBD (8/02/2016)
BEC --
AUD --
REG --

[Anonymous]

I don't know to be honest. I am doing this exam with about 9 days of pure studying. I took FAR on May 20, and someone told me Audit was doable in 2 weeks. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of everything. Who knows, I guess we will see this Wednesday. I am going through multiple progress tests and quizzes on Roger and Becker and making around a 90 average. I plan on taking a practice exam on Tuesday.

[Author]

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