[Zaq]

My 2nd attempt at AUD is coming up this Saturday.

I’ve been pushing out 100’s of MCQ’s everyday consistently. It’s been sickening. From both Wiley and Becker. And I think I’m reaching an apex because I’m scoring really, really high on both. Upper 80’s. Hell even 90’s.

Some of it has to do with familiarity, but even when I see new answers I feel like the constant application of the other questions makes it fairly easy to know the answer. I can definitely see why doing non-stop MCQ’s pounds some ideas into your head. When I took my AUD exam in April, I was scoring mid 70’s for Becker and mid 60’s with Wiley.

So my question is should I just keep going forward with MCQ’s until my exam this Saturday? Or perhaps I should switch to Flashcards that force me to come up with answers without a multiple choice guide? Re-write my many, many pages of notes? Read through the book once more? I recognize a lot of the repeat questions from Becker/Wiley and feel like I can come to the answer conclusion without looking at the answer choices which I think is good?

Any advice coming from people who have already taken the exam or just took the exam would be great, but any assistance would be appreciated. I just need to really make sure these next couple of days are filled with EFFECTIVE studying. (I’d much rather have aim for a Risk of Incorrect Rejection/Control Risk Assessed too High and do too much substantial testing than not enough… if you know what I mean.)

^See? I mention the word “effective” and a random string of audit thoughts just gush outta’ no where. Lol.

FAR: 50, 76!
REG: 74... (ouch baby, very ouch), 76!
AUD: 65, 91!?
BEC: 80! Aaaand doneskies!

May 2012 to August 2013. Can't believe it's over.

[ganudorm]

I was working MCQ after MCQ for REG and scored in the 90s on a regular basis and ended up failing the exam. Just a thought.

[ganudorm]

Funny sidenote –

I do have a problem with the differences between the topic you mentioned (control risk)

I don't necessarily logically understand why in tests of controls, if the risk of assessing control risk too low goes down, your sample size goes up whenever in variables sampling, it is the opposite

want to explain? will help you solidify your understanding and mine ;-p

[Anonymous]

@ganudorm – I'm not Inferno but I had the same problem with “the risk of assessing control risk too low” until I realized they are simply using too many words to describe the problem. Just think of it in terms of “the risk of assessing risk to low.” Risk — period. Take out the extra words “the control.” So, if there's a risk you're going to assess risk too low, of course you want to increase the sample size.

Does that help at all?

@Inferno – the problem I ran into with doing the MCQs over and over is that I learned which answer to pick. Figuring that out at the end of studing for AUD is what made me also get the Wiley test bank for the other sections. More MCQs (plus in a different “tone”) and I stopped allowing myself to just keeping doing the same series of MCQs repetitively and mixed it up.

[Jsmi77y]

I'm facing the same challenge as the OP, but for BEC.

Doing the practice exams I'm getting 80%+ and this was true before I failed with a 74 my last test. I use Wiley test bank. The problem for me is I don't see results or feel differently after reading the book or my notes. Reading doesn't stick for me, but I've done MCQ for all the other tests (and eventually passed all the others).

I just want to be done. I started taking more notes in Word after missing MCQ but I never feel like it's doing anything. MCQ is the only way I know. Maybe I should just get another test bank?

Maybe that's the solution for you too Inferno.

REG - 68 | 71 | 88 | 86
FAR - 72 | 74 | 79
AUD - 66 | 70 | 77
BEC - 62 | 74 | 80

Guess that means I'm a soon-to-be CPA!

[Zaq]

@Ganudorm: What DJN said. I actually answered a similar question like this about a month back, lol: https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-forum/topic/audit-sampling-2 . Assessing control risk too low is bad. You're not doing enough substantive testing; your sample size is too low, etc. Now if your RISK of doing something bad goes down… it's because your increased your sample size.

@DJN: I do feel like by switching from Wiley and then to Becker helps alternate the version of questions I'm getting. Becker tends to be a bit more wordy and ambigious where as Wiley tends to introduce a wider range of topics. So you think I should just stick with the MCQ's and just keep mixing it up?

@JSmile: Another test bank? That'd be 3! Haha. To be fair, I was only using the Wiley Test Bank for AUD in the last few days of my review the first time I attempted AUD. This time, I've been using an even amount of Wiley and Becker.

FAR: 50, 76!
REG: 74... (ouch baby, very ouch), 76!
AUD: 65, 91!?
BEC: 80! Aaaand doneskies!

May 2012 to August 2013. Can't believe it's over.

[ganudorm]

DJN – outstanding explanation… I grasp it now, appreciate it!

[Anonymous]

@ganudorm – I'm glad that helped you!

@Inferno – I found that I just got “too comfortable” with the Becker materials so I wanted to diversify both the info and the delivery. For AUD I had the Wiley book and got frustrated with the whole paper process so I didn't use much beyond the first chapter, but for BEC I used the Wiley test bank and it made me think about things differently. Also, there is some (not a *ton* but some) different info presented in each test bank (but there are also a few of the same questions; my guess is those are the ones released by the AICPA?). Overall I found use of the second test bank helpful for BEC and I will definitely be using it for REG and FAR.

[Zaq]

Well, I'm hoping that because I'm doing well with both Wiley and Becker this time around AND I didn't really use Wiley that much on my previous attempt that perhaps I'm actually in good shape.

I think I'll keep alternating MCQ's between Becker and Wiley, but I'm going to implement broad study scopes such as reading the textbook once more and flash cards just so I can train different parts of my brain.

FAR: 50, 76!
REG: 74... (ouch baby, very ouch), 76!
AUD: 65, 91!?
BEC: 80! Aaaand doneskies!

May 2012 to August 2013. Can't believe it's over.

[Zaq]

Bumping this just let everyone know.

I reread Chapters 1, 2, and 3 after work today. And I gotta' say. Wow. The constant MCQ's everyday have definitely done their job. Every single tidbit of information that I read through I was like, “I know this. Damn, I know this. Shit, I know this, too.” And I can see how items from Chapters 4, 5, and 6 apply to Chapter 1, 2, 3, (which is probably why going through it the first time was so difficult).

So in light of finding this out, I'm going to finish reading Chapters 4, 5, and 6 tomorrow and continue to do MCQ's up until my exam this Saturday. Most likely use Friday to review all the notes I've taken from reading and MCQ's as well.

FAR: 50, 76!
REG: 74... (ouch baby, very ouch), 76!
AUD: 65, 91!?
BEC: 80! Aaaand doneskies!

May 2012 to August 2013. Can't believe it's over.

[Author]

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