[jeff]

This is for people taking their exams in the July/August 2010 testing window.

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

[potatogun]

4 weeks should be plenty of time for AUD michelle119. Well actually I don't know if I passed yet :|…

FAR 92 - AUD 91 - REG 94 - BEC 86

[Anonymous]

I did the smart thing today. I rescheduled my AUD exam. It was orginally on the Aug 7th, but I pushed it forward to Aug 24th. My gut was telling me that if I took it on the 7th I would probably fail. This gives me the extra time to I need to feel comfortable with the material. AUD is last exam – pending my BEC results – I want to make sure that I don't F this one up. I can't have this exam drag out into another football season. LOL!!

[michelle119]

@cpa journey – Thanks for the suggestions….

Now hopefully when I get my BEC and FAR scores within the week before this test they are good and are motivators 🙂

FAR 7/2 - 88
BEC 7/30 - 87
AUD 8/27 - 80
REG 11/12 - 96

[hopeforthebest]

July 7th is the D – Day for me !! taking AUD (as a first section towards my journey) lil worried with simulations… working on Beckers but dont know how to prepare for the communication and research tabs ? please advise !!

AUD:78 (8/7) REG:79 (10/16)
BEC:81 (11/30) FAR:76 (2/28)

[Anonymous]

@hopeforthebest the communication tab is one that you should do first. This is worth the most points in the simulation. They are not grading for specific content: rather they are looking for good writing, short concise sentences, staying on topic, having a main idea and supporting sentences. 3 to 4 paragraphs is a good length. Research tab should be done last in the simulation, if you want go to the selected tabs on the left to search, and then write in the keyword and hit “search within”. Or you can go to the topical index.

Hope that helps, my test is tomorrow!!!

[potatogun]

I used the research tab a bit for AUD when I took it. That was pretty helpful and I had tons of time so I just took my time writing the best communication I could.

FAR 92 - AUD 91 - REG 94 - BEC 86

[missarizona]

@ Argentina-CPA: I am from Argentina too, where do you live? can we exchange e-mails?

😉

[SeanM]

@ CPA_WDJ… i know how you feel. last year I had to miss the Pats/Jets game at NE (Season tickets to the Pats) because I had FAR scheduled for the very next morning. It was very painful to be sitting there studying, while at the sime time wishing that I was at the game yelling unkind things at Rex Ryan.

FAR-87; AUD-89; BEC-85; BEC-84
DONE!

[NYMadMan]

SeanM,

J-E-T-S. Jets Jets Jets

ACCA (London - CPA)
CMA

BEC(4/17)-90, REG(5/28)-88, AUD (7/11)-83, FAR (8/31)- 90

[FL_CPA2010]

@ hopeforthebest – I hope you mean August 7th is the day. Be careful using the research tabs for the written comm…that's what I did and you can see how that worked out for me. It's best to know all the material by reading the book (another goof for me, I hate reading) and doing all the MCQ's several times. This will give you the knowledge to write an outline for the comm, and then you can use the research tab for info you may have missed or to make sure your facts are correct. Don't prepare for the test thinking that you can coast through the writing portion using the research tab. I also did the same thing for REG, but since I passed I really have no idea how I did each portion. But I do know that I pulled the info for the comm out of my a$$ and I aced the MCQ's.

Read all the chapters in Becker at least once and memorize VERBATIM the different audit reports.

Good luck 🙂

REG 79 (Becker); BEC 63 (Becker) 70 (Yaeger); AUD 66 (Becker; 11/30 - Becker); FAR 11/24 (Yaeger/Wiley)

[Anonymous]

I am trying to memorize the reports: standard unqualified, compilation and review.

ItalianCPA, I'm finishing up A2 too and Audit seems to go much smoother for me than FAR where the questions took way more time to get through. I don't have any experience with auditing but I can compartmentalize the information better.

[italianCPA]

CPAWannaBe,

I have always been a number person, since first grade, so FAR was ok (also I have been doing financial accounting my whole career), just an overwhelming quantity of stuff to remember. And I felt like you always had to look for the trick in the becker questions….that's why I felt weird at the exam, but who knows, really! I did a written communication very well and probably bombed the other one, so my grade will probably depend on which communication they grade.

AUD is much shorter. Also, I feel that making an educated guess in AUD is much easier than in FAR….

FAR - 7/26/10 - 95
AUD - 8/10/10 - 88
BEC - 8/31/10 - 88
REG - 10/15/10 - 95

[Anonymous]

Hey all…

I lurk quite a bit, but have only posted a time or two. I took AUD on July 17 and left the test center in better shape than when I took FAR, but not by much. AUD can have so many twists that I second guessed myself over and over (and continue to). Like many, I got so hung up on the increasing (or lack thereof) difficulty of the exam, that that only exacerbated my anxiety. As I was taking the exam, I felt as though the first testlet was the hardest (uh oh!), but once I analyzed my performance, I realized that I marked the most questions for review in testlet 2. That got me thinking about what the AICPA classifies as a “medium” versus a “hard” question, so I did a little research…I have a Bisk review book and it actually has 50 each of 2008 and 2009 AICPA-released questions that are divided by difficulty (25 of each). I was shocked to find that, when I looked those over, I could not tell a difference between the two! The “hard” MCQs *might* have focused a bit more on minutiae than the “medium”, but that's a stretch.

I hope this allays folks' fears regarding the adaptive nature of the test. Personally, I wish the AICPA would keep that piece of information to itself…I think it adds unnecessary worry to an already anxiety-ridden process. Mid-August can't come soon enough!

[GSU Josh]

AU1222, I would agree. My AUD exam on 7/16 felt like all three testlets were easy. The first one was an absolute joke, and the second and third testlets were still very easy with maybe what felt like about 5 hard questions. I'm certain they were supposed to be harder because I know I aced the first testlet. I might not feel this way if it were my first time taking it, but I already took this test and made a 74. After restudying, I think I knew the material inside and out so that's probably why all testlets felt easy. The only exam that I felt like the testlets truly got harder was the one I scored a 74 on and got a “weaker” on mc.

AUD - 74, 87; BEC - 84; FAR - 78; REG - 79
It's done, Son!

[italianCPA]

I think it goes too much into our mind.

I just took FAR 3 days ago. I was prepared.

Did not notice any particular change in difficulty in the testlets. I just remember I was nervous (my first cpa exam section ever taken) at the very beginning of the test. In the first question I added treasury stocks while calculating the weighted avg c/s outstanding. Thank god my answer wasn't available and I went over the numbers again and when I saw what I did I wanted to bang my head on the wall! That relaxed me a little bit and I just went on to finish the MCQs in a little over 90 minutes. I did not pay attention to questions' difficulty and I felt I was actually very focused. Once I remember specifically looking for the trick in the FAR question and then I thought: “Maybe it is easy because I know this, not because I'm doing bad”.

In my experience, as soon as the question pops up, I either know the answer right away, or I don't know the answer at all (hopefully, more of the former). In FAR you take longer because of calculation, but I'm noticing this in AUD. I think if somebody is fairly prepared, he/she should have PLENTY of time left after the 90 MCQs.

I also noticed it's much easier to make an educated guess in AUD as opposed to FAR.

Question for the becker users: are the HW questions in becker very easy comparing to the ones on the exam? I'm scoring in the higher 80s/lower 90s and I'm very surprised myself.

FAR - 7/26/10 - 95
AUD - 8/10/10 - 88
BEC - 8/31/10 - 88
REG - 10/15/10 - 95

[Author]

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