[jeff]

Welcome to the Q4 2016 CPA Exam Study Group for AUD.

If this is your first post in the study group – please post your target exam date (just the time frame to preserve your anonymity), and your past history with this exam (optional, of course).

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

[pharaoh]

@sticky Nicky – 😀 it sounds very similar to what I am doing. And Yes indeed Roger is good.

What I do, I listen to Rogers and highlight as the lecture goes what I will take as notes or focus on reading later. Actually I didn't read a lot in the book and felt pretty good about it and jumped straight to Roger's IPQ. After that I started with NINJA MCQ, I am not going section by section, I just do sets of 30 “NEW” questions and once a week I go through some of the “Missed” questions.
I am now making a list of the weak areas that I half-a$$ed or was tired when watching the lectures and will re-do them

FAR 8/2016
AUD 1/2017
REG TBD
BEC TBD

[Sticky Nicky]

pharoah…read the book too..it helps alot to reinforce…its actually quicker to read the book than watch the lectures in my opinion but i do it anyway bc he entertains me…its a good switch up every few minutes…there are questions in ninja that i knew just because i read as opposed to only videos..my plan is to go topic by topic and do all relevant mcqs with roger and ninja for that specific topic…after i have becker hw and wiley that i was lucky enough to get for free,,they are 2014 copies but they are basically the same as the new ones anyway,,then ill go back and just do random ninja and roger testlets,,,i also only do 30 mcqs at a clip…ive been doing all roger TBS's in each chapter,,,i plan to leave myself a week and a half of strictly random mcqs up until my test. i usually take notes as i read if i know its gunna be heavily tested,,,and also if roger addresses it in videos..i put in a good 8 hours daily since i only work PT at the moment

[HoosierCPA]

@sticky nicky the trending scores (in my opinion) can be a bit deceiving. So stick to the plan. Don't get overly confident and at the same time don't get too down on yourself. Sounds like you have a solid game plan going into the exam so I think you will be ok. I ended Ninja at 96% trending but found it odd that my trending continued to spike up–first time through the questions I was around 78-80% trending (right around my overall average). When I went back through my missed questions I was still scoring around 70-80% on my questions but my trending score started to make huge jumps, for reasons unknown haha. At one point I was 100% trending but knew that wasn't an accurate reflection of my knowledge for audit (I failed it the first time so knew I had serious work to do).

@pharaoh I've had bad luck predicting these exams–I've began to feel ilke its more of a crap shoot then anything else. However, here was my experience. My testlets marked questions by section went 2-8-10. So clearly the material got harder for me…were the questions actually considered more “difficult” questions or was I just unprepared in certain sections?? I don't know. I'd like to think they got harder, questions got longer, answers weren't as straight forward–tons of questions on odd topics. So MCQ testlet 2 and 3 really challenged me. As far as the sims, one I was able to pull straight from the AL and I believe I got the AL lookup problem correct (I had this exact same situation the first time around). My DRS was probably my biggest “oh shi*” moment. Not necessarily because it was the most challenging question in the world but because I didn't feel I had the time to devote to looking at all the problems and give my best effort. One of the sims was sort of strange (almost felt too easy to be true) so I probably messed something up. You literally took balances from 1 year to the next and subtracted them and put what the change was from year to year…and I'm not downplaying that lol–to add they provided a list of all the formulas which I didn't have the first time I took the exam, so even if you were unsure of how to do one you could just look it up. Can't go into much more detail then that for disclosure purposes. Then another 2 sims were over the exact same concept (which I thought was odd as well)–it's actually an extremely basic concept but they can word many of the questions to throw you a curveball and you begin to question yourself…I was thinking “man I've looked over this concept a billion times but never to this detail”.

Overall, we will see…I refuse to predict my score! lol.

FAR - 78
REG - 72,74,71...please just go away REG nobody likes you!
BEC - 82
AUD - Aug 16

[Sticky Nicky]

explain how this trashola works? Roger:

When considering internal control, an auditor should be aware of the concept of reasonable assurance, which recognizes that

Establishing and maintaining internal control is an important responsibility of management.

Adequate safeguards over access to assets and records should permit an entity to maintain proper accountability.

(Correct)The cost of an entity’s internal control should not exceed the benefits expected to be derived.

Internal control may be ineffective due to mistakes in judgment and personal carelessness.

Ninja:
When considering internal control, an auditor should be aware of the concept of reasonable assurance, which recognizes that:

Correct A.
internal control policies and procedures may be ineffective due to mistakes in judgment and personal carelessness.

B.
adequate safeguards over access to assets and records should permit an entity to maintain proper accountability.

C.
establishing and maintaining internal control is an important responsibility of management.

Incorrect D.
the cost of an entity’s internal control should not exceed the benefits expected to be derived.

[pharaoh]

@Sticky Nicky – I found this explanation in a similar question in Becker,
The concept of reasonable assurance recognizes
that the cost of an entity's internal control should not exceed the benefits
that are expected to be derived. The cost-benefit relationship is a
primary criterion that should be considered in designing internal control.

Also Ninja notes is talking about the cost benefit.
The other answer is usually an answer for the limitation of IC

FAR 8/2016
AUD 1/2017
REG TBD
BEC TBD

[Sticky Nicky]

i saw that too and also in wiley,,,funny bc I started a top earlier to get jeff to address it,,,he did,,,with AL that doesnt say anything about cost benefit,,,i agree that inherent limitations deals with answer C

[Josh]

Anyone want to try? Maybe, I'll talk myself through this one –
Which of the following auditing procedures most likely would assist an auditor in identifying related party transactions?

A Reviewing accounting records for nonrecurring transactions recognized near the balance sheet date.
B Sending second requests for unanswered positive confirmations of accounts receivable.
C Retesting ineffective internal control procedures previously reported to the audit committee.
D Inspecting communications with law firms for evidence of unreported contingent liabilities.

@”phonebook” (jk)/Gleim – After spending too much time in the news recently, I am thankful to Gleim for these printed review books to be prepared for anything. It's nice to have them even if the main place I read them for now is at physical therapy (dr.'s office, lunch break, etc.).. regardless if it's all on the exam.. I wonder how Ninja Book compares to Gleim on AUD? Hopefully, I'll have good ink if there's a “72 hour window” if I need to print some demos. I'm just thankful for SamsClub, CostCo, “real life” things like petting my dog, etc.

[Sticky Nicky]

jalls,,,i wanna say A?

[nk522]

Hi Everyone,
I am planning on taking AUD within the next 2 weeks and I am currently reviewing all my Becker material, and I am stuck on Audit 4- the transaction cycles and the necessary substantive procedures and assertions. Can someone please advise me on a way to learn and/or remember the procedures and to which assertions they relate to? Out of the whole book, this is probably the most confusing for me and I know it is also the section which is most heavily tested. If anyone can please send any tips or ways to remember the transaction cycles and the procedures and assertions, I would appreciate it!
Thanks!

[Sticky Nicky]

theres no way to remember each procedure for each assertion lol its common sense really

[Sticky Nicky]

a good way to remember the assertions is UPERCV:

Understandability/classification
Presentation/disclosure
Existence/Occurence
Rights/obligations
Completeness/cut off
Valuation/Allocation

The procedures ICORRIIA:
Inquiry
Confirmations
Observation
Reperform
Recalc
Inspect Tangibles
Inspect Documents
Analytical Procedures

everything except analytical procedures is a test of details…AP is not required but recommended as a substantive test. required for planning and review.
Tracing (source to books) will tell you completeness. Vouching (books to source) will tell you existence/occurance. Confirmations will also tell you existence and rights and obligations…it really just depends on what they are asking you…gotta know the documents and the flow of them within the cycles…after that its easy especially when you do a few thousand mcqs and TBS.

[jeff]

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

[Sticky Nicky]

C

[jr1751]

Yeah, I think the answer is C too.

Does anyone have any questions (MC or TBS) related to Adjusting Journal entries, or know of where I can get some to practice? I hear these are important in auditing as well.

BEC - PASSED

REG - Praying I Passed

AUD - TBD

FAR - TBD

[George]

Is it possible to use the AL for every Simulation on the exam ? In the past they have help me on two or three.

[Author]

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