[itooshallpass]

Not really sure why I’m posting this, besides just to hear from people who’ve been in the same place. Anyone relate?
Coming out of FAR, I looked at my AUD book and thought, sweet only 11 chapters, this will be a breeze! Unfortunately I was wrong. I’m pretty close to the end, in chapter 7, but I’m feeling very lost. I just looked at my study plan and realized that I’m done with the chapters covering audits, and the rest relates to other services and engagements. What?! I don’t even feel like I know anything about audits yet.
In less than a week I’ll be done with one run through the material. Then I will have three weeks left to review. I know I need to go back over planning, internal controls, evidence, and reports for sure. I really need to do more MCQs. I’m just having a tough time grasping the concepts because it is so abstract and frankly boring to me.
I used Ninja in addition to Roger for FAR in my final review and thought it was helpful. Anyone have input on how ninja MCQs and Sims are for AUD? I’m interested to try it out again but need to be careful cause I’m super broke right now.

…misery loves company…

[turo9992000]

I graduated in 2011 and only took one audit class. Since then, I worked in consulting, and Tax. I've done a couple reviews and only enough audits to meet the attest requirement for my license. While studying I had no idea what was going on. I felt lost and my scores show that.

I used Becker and the way they teach it is in parts and it all kind of comes to together at the end. I studied for 4 weeks. I would wake up at 5 am 3 days a week and study for an hour and a half, and I would do 4-5 hours a night on weekdays 7 to 11 or 12. I would try to study on weekends, but I probably did about 4 hours on Sunday night.

The first 2 weeks I went through the book and took hella notes, and did about half the MCQs for each section. I would keep trying to explain to myself the concept of what I was studying and how it relates to audit. I had to visualize the audit and why I was testing controls, cash, accounts receivables, etc. I had to think about why audits are needed. I thought about why clients do reviews instead of audits. I was lost.

The 2nd 2 weeks, I did non stop MCQs. I did the other half of the Becker questions, and 538 Ninja MCQs. My score report my average trending score was 63.83%. The last 3 days before the exam I spend doing MCQs that Ninja said I was deficient in.

Test day came around, I felt lost during the exam, used the authoritative literature for the sims and I passed with an 80.

[SONA]

Hey, I am in the same boat as you. You have enough time to go back and review your material. I am using roger too. I had failed audit with very bad points(used Becker), thought I will get 80 above because questions seemed so easy (not the TBS).

After checking my result I thought I should redo lectures and and really understand what actually is audit process and how it goes step-by-step (not that I didn't try the first time with becker), and Roger did a really good job on teaching the procedure. Roger gives a concrete big picture at first and then he goes in the detail, which I like the best.

Anyway y'day I finished Audit evidence in Roger, today I am making sure by re-referring the things scares me alot is Audit Evidence (corroborating evidence UPERCV) and Internal control Operating cycles. IMO, these are the major parts where auditor finds sufficient appropriate audit evidence on which to base his/her opinion.

I also made changes to my study planner like after chapter 1,2,3, One full day I will do only MCQs and TBS. Then do chapter 4 (biggie) and the following day do Ch-4 all mcqs and the 2nd following day do 1-4 chapters mix MCQs, and so on….

Hushhh………. AUDIT looks easy and feels like oh, it so obvious auditor will do this and this, but it's not just that only, it is much much more than it seems. I don't know If I helped you by writing all this. If you have any tips you can give it to me.

[tncpa2018]

When I was studying Audit, the topics didn't click until after I finish the book and doing a lot of Ninja MCQs. I'm with you on how boring they seem to be, while reading it's like blah blah blah to me. Doing random MCQ really helped solidify the topics with me. I didn't get to practice any SIM except those in the AICPA practice.

One thing that helped me a lot is practically memorizing the simple diagram of an Audit. Like which one goes first, and when the step should be the done in relation to other step. (ie. must understand business before assessing risk), and when do a step doesn't need to be done (if Internal control is unrealiable, no need to perform test of control, go straight to test of details).

In evaluating audit evidence… I have a very imaginative mind, so while studying this topic I will imagine myself in both shoes (the auditor or the employee/firm). As the employee/firm what is there I can use to my advantage (to commit fraud or to pad up my earnings). As an auditor, what is acceptable and not acceptable. Of course the answer is always what is acceptable to the auditor.

Then in reporting… make a columnar diagram laying out the similarity and difference of each report. I did not memorized any of the reports, but I made sure I know which items are included in each report. I taped several sheets of paper together and write down all this in my own hand. Seeing this outside of a computer screen made it easier for me to remember.

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