[Scared-cpa]

*I posted this in AUD Q1 Study Group thread but have yet to get any replies. Plus I thought someone who has already passed may be able to give me more insight*

I am scheduled to finish studying AUD material 03/03 and will sit for the exam 03/08. That leaves only FOUR days of review!!! That really freaks me out and I was hoping someone could give me guidance on what to do about this. I really don’t think I will be able to finish earlier than the 3rd so I will only have 4 days of hard core review studying. I’m going to try to go over Wiley’s Focus Notes and I will be using Wiley Test Bank for review. I don’t know how many questions I will be able to get through in that period of time but I am going to try to get as many as possible. What else should I do to give myself a fighting chance? Is this an unbeatable situation?

Also, are there any resources that are good to help with just an overall understanding of the auditing process and the biggest concepts? What are the areas I should focus on the most?

Getting so close to the exam and still having a lot left to do is making me a nervous wreck!

[jpn1892]

Hey again scared_cpa, sorry no ones responded to you yet. I wish I could give you some insight but I'm in the same boat as you. I'm taking AUD on 2/25/17. I'm working full time during the weekdays and this weekend was my last full weekend of hardcore studying (although it turns out I wasn't as productive as I should've been). But like you, I'm dedicating only four more days of studying before my exam this saturday. I plan on doing 90 mcqs per day, which equates to about an hour per night for me. I'm hoping this will keep me prepared but not too burnt out before the exam. I want to get in the groove of doing 90 questions non-stop because that's how exam day will be. Sorry I wont be able to tell you which areas to focus on since I'm wondering the same. But just try to consistently score 80-90% on the wiley test bank problems and you'll be fine. Good luck!

[Scared-cpa]

Hey @Jon, Good luck and thanks for the response. How long have you been reviewing with WTB? With FAR, I was doing about 100 MCQs a day during review so I'm hoping that number can be higher with AUD. So far in studying, I'm averaging about 30 seconds per question so I think maybe 200 MCQs will be appropriate each day for those 4 days but I don't know if that will be a good enough review. It seems doubtful and if I wasn't in the situation where it seems to be my only option, I'd think it is a stupid thing to do. But my NTS runs out so I don't really have much of a choice. I'm realllllyyyy hoping I can pull it off. Good luck again!

[jpn1892]

I started almost a month ago and managed to get through all of the problems. Wow 100 mcq a day for FAR is a lot. FAR problems are so draining. Maybe a combination of mcq and review notes? My best advice is to conserve your energy and brain power. I've always thought that cramming did more damage.

[Scared-cpa]

I was doing about 150 a day on Wiley Test Bank my first time through with FAR. But I wasn't really learning from them like I did the second time through. I'm thinking to do mcqs during the day and review Wiley's Focus Notes in the evening when I'm not home. I'm using only Wiley Test Bank this time for review because I can't justify buying Ninja for 4 or 5 days of use. I sure hope that doesn't come back to bite me. If so, I think I will just stick to what I know. I also won't put myself in such a time crunch from now on.

Just out of curiosity, how would you compare AUD to FAR in any/all aspects? I think it is easier to learn because there aren't calculations but I'm scared that I won't know it thoroughly enough to pass. Everyone says AUD is easier than FAR and REG but I don't want to give myself false hope.

[jpn1892]

Mcq during the day and focus notes sounds like a great idea. It will hopefully help sink in more information.

It won't be fair for me to compare AUD to FAR since I've been auditing for almost 2 years now. So I feel like it's a lot easier than FAR just based on my experience. The biggest difficulty with these AUD word problems is that they can be very tricky. Some ask you which ones do ‘not' apply. Or the type of problems where more than one answer may be correct but only one answer is MORE correct. I've learned that I cannot be lazy when reading the problems and answers.

[Spartans92]

Sorry to take over your thread @scared, but Jon what did you do for FAR to bump up to 81 from 69? 12 pt jump thats pretty much what I need.

@scared, I would also take at least 1 day out to work on SIMS. My AUD retake was 10 months apart and I came close because I spent a lot of time on SIMS. Though on exam day it does need a little luck but SIMS are what I learn best from.. Everyone learns differently but some topics I say are important would be Professional Responsibilities, Reports, and Transaction cycles like management assertions etc.

BEC- PASS

[jpn1892]

Hey @spartans92,

Here’s what happened with FAR. The change in scores is due to the review course I used. I started with FAR as my first exam in Jan 2016 and had only read the Roger book and listened to the lectures. I only did the supplemental problems in the textbook, which was definitely not enough (I’d approximate 400 problems). So I failed and that’s when I bought ninja Mcq for FAR again in April 2016. However, that didn’t help too much and I’m not sure why. I wanna blame it on my first busy season ever and I was trying to learn how to audit at the same time studying for the cpa exam. So then I skipped far, used my friends Wiley TB for REG and it worked! So I coughed up the $150 bucks for the FARWiley test bank and I passed! I was scoring just 61% of the problems correctly and thought I was doomed but it turns out that was just solid preparation.

[Scared-cpa]

It may be because I have never had an auditing class and don't work in auditing, but it seems that a lot of rules are redundant but some exceptions apply that make it more confusing. I have a hard time keeping everything straight because right now all the information seems muddy. Just finished the SSARSs section and it's kind of weird. Like, I understand it, but I don't know where it fits in the whole auditing procedure. Seems kind of random. Hopefully it will click for me soon.

@Spartans92 I know you didn't ask me but I had a 15 point increase in FAR by doing only Ninja MCQs. I don't know if you have tried it yet, but I used Wiley CPAexcel and Wiley test bank only for my first go around. For my retake, I did Ninja MCQs for a month and that was it. I did all new questions each time and tried to really understand the concepts. I could tell my knowledge was growing but I didn't know it had grown so much to equate a 15 point increase but by golly was I happy when I saw that 82!

[Spartans92]

Thanks.. Perhaps I would try Wiley if I fail again in April/May. My becker is expiring at the end of this month so I was trying to bang out Ninja only since that is still good for another 2 months. I think switching courses would be helpful for me too since I was scoring in the 70's and I ended up falling way too short from a 75.

@scared, yea I tried using Ninja but I was short on review days since I was behind on schedule. I ended up reviewing with Ninja for 3 days and I was in the mid 60's guess that did reflect my score. I would definitely go back to it after AUD because I passed REG and BEC solely because of NINJA. I hope 3rd time will be the charm for both AUD and FAR. Im ready for this to be over.

Thank you for your guys' response!

BEC- PASS

[Spartans92]

@scared, so for your retake you said you only did Ninja for a month.. did you also redo the CPAexcel stuff too? Or just jump straight to Ninja. Usually, on my retake I like to do all becker again and then leave 1-2 weeks for Ninja MCQ.
I just wanna know more LOL so I can tweak my study a little. I still remember quite a bit of FAR soI would like to save some time where I could. Im planning on a retake at the end of April or beg. of May which won't make big of a difference due to the score release but I just need to watch my limited time on Ninja. Trying to save some money on getting another review if I could. 🙂 Thanks again.

BEC- PASS

[Scared-cpa]

I used only Ninja MCQ for my second time. I took my first exam November 14th, found out I failed around the 22nd I think and began restudying December 14th. I would have started immediately but by the time I found out I failed, I was in the process of finals at school so I waited until afterward. So I didn't look at anything FAR related for a whole month before I started restudying. Then I used Ninja MCQ from December 14th until I sat for my retake on January 20th. In the evening when I wasn't home, I would take my Wiley Focus Notes with me and read over them and jot down anything that jumped out at me but I only did that the first two weeks.

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