[jeff]

Post by Another71.

Free Study Planner, Notes, Audio, Flashcards: https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-study-plan/

Free CPA Exam Survival Guide: https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-survival-guide/

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) | Another71 | NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE

[Anonymous]

I was trending at 85% in ninja just did a set of 20 now I'm at 83% and my exam is tomorrow!! #panicAttack

[Anonymous]

@cpa8488 – The CPA can be conquered with the right amount of caffeine and confidence. You're trending 83% after some burn out (more than likely), you're practically the master. Kick the exam's ass tomorrow, I've got confidence in you.

@the group / Jeff if he reads this – I'm looking for clarification on this question (on Ninja)…

Q#708 – Category:3B16 Obtain and Evaluate Lawyer's Letters

A lawyer's response to an auditor's inquiry concerning litigation, claims, and assessments may be limited to matters that are considered individually or collectively material to the client's financial statements. Which parties should reach an understanding on limits of materiality for this purpose?

__________

A. The board and client's management

B. The client's audit committee and the lawyer

C. The client's management and lawyer

D. The lawyer and the auditor

__________

The correct answer is D.

Explanation: Legal counsel's response may be limited to matters that are considered individually or collectively material to the financial statements, provided the entity and the auditor have reached an understanding on the meaning and limits of materiality for purposes of this letter and management has communicated such understanding to the legal counsel.

Referenced Authority – AU-C 501.A56

__________

Based on the explanation (which matches the standard) I would think the understanding on limits of materiality would be reached between the client's management and the auditor – before the client's management communicates that to the lawyer.

I know that is not an option choice and D might be the best option of the 4 but if this question were presented on the exam with a choice of “The client's management and the auditor” I would think that would be the correct answer to the presented question.

Any other opinions? Or an easy explanation as to why D is correct per the explanation / standard that I'm missing?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the input I know your right. To answer your question I think….The auditor doesn't nexessarily need to confirm every single lawsuit. Some maybe trivial and not material to the financial statements. The auditor can request that the attorney only report on matters over X dollars or matters that the attorney has spent a substantial amount of time on. This is not done with management because they are not attorneys and can't comment on materiality of lawsuits because they probably don't know.

[Anonymous]

I understand what you are saying cpa8488 but that is not what is represented in the explanation to the question, which states “…provided the entity and the auditor have reached an understanding on the meaning and limits of materiality for purposes of this letter and management has communicated such understanding to the legal counsel.” 🙁 I hate contradiction.

Also, I am enjoying Ninja MCQs for the most part so far but there is one feature that has been rather disappointing…. When working a section of questions there is no way to switch back to previous questions, such as in Becker you can switch between question 1 and 15 or 14 to 3 in anyway you want. This wouldn't be a big deal except I was really wanting to rely on the trending and average scores of the program… For example, in my last set of questions I had a problem with the loading of question #27 and ended up hitting the next button again to try and get the page to load, after doing this it took me to question 28, so then I tried to go back to question 27 – in the software there is no “previous or back” option to move backwards to a previous question – so after hitting “back” on my browser and going back to question 26 instead of 27 I hit “next” again and went to question 29…. After battling with this to try and answer the previous questions I ended up “not answering” 3 questions in my sample resulting in missed questions and tainting my average. Just a frustrating feature of the software… I will say for the price point it is a good investment and even though I have only worked a small amount of questions I feel as if I have seen a few questions presented in a new format, which is good. (/endrant)

[Anonymous]

I find the software works better earlier in the day. During the evening hours it goes a little slower just because many people are using it. Just be patient with it. I totally understand your frustration with it though. Maybe do ninja in the morning and progress tests in Becker in the evening? I'm off to take my audit exam now. I'll be venting on how hard it was in the aud exam experience thread later on this evening lol around 5ish eastern time. Feel free to tune in 🙂

[Anonymous]

Best wishes, don't forget to bring the confidence.

[cathypierce]

Just for clarification…when the research Sim says “what section”, that is all its asking for right? Not paragraph too?

[tami3492]

I keep hearing over and over again to know the differences between issuers and non-issuers. Does anybody have a list of the main differences between issuers and nonissuers? Here are a couple I have.

Issuers are covered by PCAOB and are required to perform integrated audits.

Nonissuers are covered by the GAAS standards of the AICPA.

FAR 7/8/14 - 88 - Becker live course
REG 10/14/14 - 82 - Becker live course, Ninja notes and audio
BEC 11/25/14 - 88 - Becker live course, Ninja audio, Wiley book for extra questions
AUD 2/3/15 - 94 - Becker self study, Ninja audio, Wiley book for extra questions

[jackaroe]

main differences between issuers and nonissuers?

Audit record can't be deleted from after 45 days from the report release date. Record retention is 7 years vs. 5 years.

[riascheme]

How pertinent is adjusting journal entries for Audit? aughh I despise this exam so much…

[Anonymous]

@riascheme You will never 100% be prepared for anything they can throw at you. I would think if you do get an adjusting journal entry it is something you can think through. I know Becker has a small appendix of a few pages regarding it, but I don't think it is something I would spend ridiculous amounts of time on. A friend of mine took Audit last week and said he was surprised to get a SIM related to adj journal entries, but said he was able to work through it normally and felt ok. I wouldn't rack your brain on it too hard.

[Windel]

Hi gang!

I took AUD Superbowl Sunday (Feb 2). I was originally scheduled for the 12:30 test but was told that I could test earlier if I wanted to so I jumped at the opportunity. I started my exam at 8:45am EST and was walking out of the test center by 10:15. Yes you read that correctly!!

I think the AICPA exam gods were being favorable on Sunday because all 3 testlets only focused on 2 sections. Thanks to NINJA MCQ’s that I felt so over prepared that even when I got to testlet 3 I was it didn’t get progressively harder at all actually quite the opposite. I don’t believe that everyone here will have the same experience on the exam but I do feel as though I took the necessary steps needed to feel comfortable going into that Prometric center.

Study Materials and Process

1. Becker MCQ’s. Do them all!! I can’t stress that enough. Work each MCQ as if you were going to be tested on why “the other 3 options are not the correct choice.” I didn’t find the BECKER videos useful and in-fact I actually found it to be a complete waste of time that I could be going through a MCQ to gain a better understanding of why the correct answer is the ONLY option.

2. Complete every simulation, re-read the chapter to see why you’re having difficulty getting 100% of that SIM correct. Then move onto the next SIM. REPEAT.

3. NINJA Blitz. At some point during the Christmas holiday, JEFF had given us a few days of free BLITZ material. I decided to watch that video presentation of him talking through a Powerpoint slide deck of each chapter. I would watch that video and write out each slide deck into a word doc for every slide in the complete BLITZ which turned out to be 35 pages of raw notes. This was partially instrumental in being able to consolidate the important points to remember

4. NINJA MCQ’s are more difficult that Beckers so I decided to break them down per sections (i.e., Audit Engagements, Reviews & Compilations, Professional Responsibilities). I worked each section in 100/Question intervals. What this does is test your knowledge on how well you know a topic and whether or not you can identify the specific reasons as to why the correct answer differs from the rest. I never watched my average or trending score, I merely focused on my weaknesses and worked to gain a better understanding by reading the Authoritative Literature related to that AUD section.

5. Hand write an Independent audit report from memory. How to accomplish this: Print or copy the standard unmodified report from your study material and used MS Word to type that entire report and focus especially on getting the EXACT WORDING in each section correct (even the intransitive verbs) for the Title, Addressee, Introduction, Managers Responsibility, Auditors Responsibility & Auditors opinion. Read each sentence aloud and then type that sentence from memory and if you get it incorrect, erase and start again.

I think that’s enough for now and if you’re wondering what my average score in NINJA it was 87%

[Anonymous]

Congrats King Coffee, sounds like you aced it! Do you think the SIMs on the exam were more comparable to Becker or Ninja? I'm testing on 2/27 but I've already made it through all of the Becker materials and bought Ninja to mix up the format. Going to start working through Ninja SIMs today and slow down on the MCQs a little.

[Windel]

Thanks ARCPA2B

I totally think the SIMS were more similar to BECKER than they were to Ninja but Ninja definitely had similar material to Beckers/CPA exam (just more detailed)

[Kate]

King Coffee congrats on killing it. I take AUD tomorrow. I am praying that the AICPA exam gods are also going to help me.

My plan for today is to take the second Becker final exam and then just drill MC questions. Anyone have other advice before I sit?

AUD (2/3/2015) Pass
REG (4/24/2015) Pass
FAR (8/3/2015) Pass
BEC (10/25/2015) Pass

[Author]

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