[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

[HoosierCPA]

@Annie you're on the right track. The auditor decides whether the disclosure is sufficient enough in itself, if they deem it not to be then they will add an emphasis of matter paragraph. Emphasis of matter paragraph is the auditors way of disclosing info that is properly included in the FS that the auditor believes will be beneficial to highlight for the users of the FS.

The key is full disclosure–sounds like you made sure to put that. With full disclosure (I believe) the auditor has 3 options: unmodified, unmodified w/ emphasis of matter, or disclaimer this is for severe going concern cases. I do not believe qualified opinion is an option when it comes to modifying based on going concern. Oh yeah — and if they decide not to disclose going concern then that is a GAAP issue and requires an adverse opinion..that particular question used to trip me up on becker all the time so make sure you read carefully.

Most of this you probably already knew but I figured I would try to key in on the big details.

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

[Anonymous]

@dtatham10 alrighty that makes sense. I was mainly getting confused when to add emphasis of matter paragraph and when not to. I guess it's mostly on auditor's judgement of full disclosure.

Yep you are right, if it's properly disclosed then options are either unmodified or disclaimer. If it's not disclosed properly, it becomes gaap issue in that case, qualified or adverse would be allowed as you mentioned.

Thanks for clarifying 🙂
Also, how are you planning on studying for sims? I took a practice test and did pretty bad on those.

[Moeshow]

Would anyone be able to share some insight how efficient study methods? I've taken BEC and FAR so far and passed but now gearing towards AUD but i'm progressing pretty slowly, just as I did with BEC and FAR. Does the ninja method help? My issue is, I go through the lecture videos and by the time I reach the end, I end up forgetting a majority of the material.
Doesn't the ninja method say, to only do the video MCQs and SIMs and work assigned MCQs and homework problems and after you're doing watching ALL the lecture videos then do the rest of the MCQs and SIMs. I feel this might be more efficient since I tend to forget a majority of the MCQs and SIMs by the time I reach the end of the lecture videos. Can I use the ninja method with any study material? By cutting this out maybe I won't take as long on the lecture videos. Any suggestions? Anyone have a better method?

BEC 2/26/2016 81
FAR 05/2016

Purely Roger CPA Review, for now!

[HoosierCPA]

I can't remember who asked but there was a question about which engagements provide no assurance, limited, or positive. Here is a breakdown. This is not a complete list so anyone feel free to add.

NO ASSURANCE:
-Compilation
-Agreed Upon Procedures (? Not 100% sure on this one)

LIMITED ASSURANCE (AKA NEGATIVE ASSURANCE):
-Review (SSARS Review)
-Interim Review
-Comfort Letter
-GAGAS Audit

POSITIVE ASSURANCE:
-Audit
-Single Audit
-Examination

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

[Just3Letters]

Does anybody have a good summarized break-down of common segregation of duties? I.e. Vouchers Payable Dept. vs. Treasury, etc. ?

(I'm not only asking for payables segregation, that was just an example)

Anybody got anything good?

Thanks!

FAR- 81
REG- 81
BEC- Aug 22, 2016
AUD- TBD

[JT]

Mckan, rosy, allaboard and everyone that passed;

How did you guys do on the sims and how did you guys prepare for them? I was overall stronger in mcq's (with 3 categorys being stronger, 2 being comparable, and 1 being weaker), ut i was weaker in sims.

Out of all the test I've talen so far, I've always been weaker in sims!!..

Any advice is appreciated!

I feel that i know the material well enough (hence the stronger mcq's) but for some reason always do bad on the sims.

REG-80-1X
BEC-80-1X
FAR-73-1X
FAR-75-2X
AUD-September 2016

[Anonymous]

Ohio score reports don't tell me how I did on each part if I pass – so I don't know if I did well on the SIMs or not, but I'll try to help….

Do you practice SIMs? I didn't practice a lot, but I did try to do at least for every set of 30 MCQ I did, just so I could get exposure and an idea of what I might be up against.

But I know for BEC and REG – I didn't look at SIMs at all. Ultimately I felt ok as long as I had a good grasp of the information and could apply it. For AUD specifically – have you done FAR yet? I don't think your necessarily have to do FAR before AUD, but rather then having to learn that information for AUD I found I was able to pull from my FAR studying to help me out.

[mckan514w]

@Dab- like ohio, DC does not provide you with a breakdown if you pass. To be honest AUD was such a cram job for me I didn't even look at / practice any SIMS so the day of exam was the first time I saw any of it….and I am still not the least bit sure of how I passed so I am probably the wrong person to be giving advice here.

I would say be familiar with the AL –because I was in such a rush if I had a question on any of the MCQ's I would look it up first in the Audit Standards on AICPA…. so by the time I got to the exam I was pretty well versed in AU-C which def. paid off as I had two that I was able to rely heavily on the literature for (the research which I had actually researched before on an MCQ question and another one)- so I lucked up there

As for the others it was all FAR so I agree with allaboard having sat for that one before I was able to pull a little knowledge from there, however I am not sure they were really anything I could have studied for or actually even thought to study for…

If you have time brush up / be familiar with JE's and adjusting JE's and leave yourself as much time as possible so you can work through them methodically without worrying about time.

and they ask me why I drink...

FAR- 61-next time I'll ask for lube instead of a calculator
REG-75- Never been so happy to see such a low grade
BEC- 8/11
AUD- 9/2

[JT]

Thank you allaboard and mckan! I appreciate your replies!

Allaboard, I include my score reports on this other thread… https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-forum/topic/does-my-score-report-look-wrong/

I passed FAR already but I know I struggled with J/E. To be honest, I didn't practice sims for Reg nor my first attempt at FAR but I did a TON for my second attempt at FAR and for AUD. Regardless if I practiced sims or not, I'm realizing that I'm still getting weaker in Sims which is frustrating and confusing.

PS… so a stronger in MCQ's and weaker in sims is a 69?!?!.. I would think it would be somewhere in the 72-74 range.

REG-80-1X
BEC-80-1X
FAR-73-1X
FAR-75-2X
AUD-September 2016

[HoosierCPA]

@Dab in my opinion..no it doesn't makes sense. I bombed every category of my exam and got a 64 (I think I got a comparable in 2 or 3 categories in MCQ's and that was it). Having said that, my best advice is to not stress or try and take away too much from those. I have vented multiple times about my REG score reports. Just about every one of them come out similar to yours stronger/comparable in everything and weaker in sims. At the end of the day I failed and it doesn't matter–nothing we can do

On another note I was at a wedding the other weekend and was talking to a girl I went to school with and she told me a story about how someone failed their final attempt at an exam before one more dropped off..they got a 74 and challenged their score and were successful. I have never heard of a score being reversed!

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

[Anonymous]

hmmm the only thing I can think is – compared to FAR where your MCQ categories were either comparable or stronger, on AUD you had that one weak area on the MCQ. Maybe when it's combined with the weaker MCQ it results in a 69….?? FAR was right at 75 without any weaker categories, so I guess it kind of makes sense that if any of those areas (especially since professional responsibilities are one of the heavier weighted ones) are weaker then it pulls you down under 75. It still sucks. Let me go find my score report from when I got a 71 and see how it compares.

but I agree 100% with @dtatham10 – I know it can be easy to stare at the results and try to figure out what went wrong, but it's pointless. I feel like there are so many unknown variables that go into these score reports that it's impossible to ever reach any really good conclusion from them.

[HoosierCPA]

Well whats the weight for AUD 60% MCQ's and 40% sims?…

So you scored comparable on 3 and stronger in 2..so lets say you average 75-79 on the Comparables and 80-85 on the Strongers…

MCQ's:
77+77+77+83+83 = 397…which averages to 79% times the weight for MCQ's = 47.40

SIMS:
Sims are harder to gauge because weaker can be anywhere from a 74% to a 20%…so lets just assume you didn't do too hot on them and got a 55%..if you weight that = 22.00

TOTAL:
47.40 + 22 = 69.4%

So a 69 can make sense. Still doesn't make it any easier to swallow. Failing overall just sucks! I hate retakes with a passion!

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

[joffrey]

Does anyone have a good link to an example of the audit engagement letter? I know I need to memorize it cold but Google is shoveling me towards seemingly random sites that I don't want to rely on. I can't even find the resource on the AICPA, which is frustrating.

Additionally:

How do the lectures recently added through Ninja Plus relate to the material needed for the exam? Does it provide a solid outline but the details are dated or should I be much more hesitant when it comes to listening to the lectures? I'm going to go through through them once because I feel it will give me a good framework to pound out the MCQs, but if there is dangerous and outdated information in there I'd like to keep my eye out.

[JT]

Thanks for the replies guys. its definitely helpful/encouraging!…

So where should I go from here?

Im planning on starting from scratch and doing everything all over again. I’m considering going with wiley or rodger or something else (is any of these good for sims?). I did 6000 ninja mcq’s and was trending/averaging really high. Not sure if I was memorizing or what. I might use ninja and a second test bank for diversity. What do you guys think?

From my score report, I see I have some room for improvement with the MCQ’s. Not sure how to improve on the sims.

REG-80-1X
BEC-80-1X
FAR-73-1X
FAR-75-2X
AUD-September 2016

[Anonymous]

I used roger. Actually I think @mckan514w did, too – or no? I really like his lectures. He's definitely a goof, but some of that helped me remember steps to take or things to look for. I also found the new ninja videos to be helpful when I was reviewing and needed to hear someone explaining it.

I think the biggest thing I did differently for AUD, compared to the other tests, was I actually read the book. It helped me nail down the concepts and what I'm trying to achieve in certain engagements/processes. For all the other tests I could memorize a formula or definition, but for this one I really needed to understand why/how certain things happened and the point of doing them. This really helped me on the DRS I got…well I guess I shouldn't say that because I have no idea if my answers were right, but it helped me feel comfortable with my answers – there was no way to be ready for this one other than to “be” the auditor; understand the auditor's objective and how they go about achieving it.

[Author]

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