[Anonymous]

Hello fellow ninjas,

I failed my last section(AUD) and feeling pretty low right now. I was not expecting a score of 61… I could use your advice. Those of you who scored anywhere between 60-70 first time and passed on the second time, please tell me how you tackled the beast on the second time. Thanks,

[unnnnfaiirrrr]

I am thinking to switch from becker to ninja for audit exam. I read some posts here. Looks like questions provided by ninjia are more parallel to the real ones. I literally did every single questions in becker but still getting 72. I think I will buy ninja questions for audit.

[Ne’O]

AUD
Thought I'd passed it the first time: scored 72
2nd time, exam was insanely harder. I left exam certain I failed: scored 89

Between exam 1 and 2 I just did MCQ questions and more questions until I was sick of them.
On Exam 2, the Sims were that much harder. I felt they had little to do with AUD.

There was no way I could have prepared for two or three of those Sims. I'd seen nothing like them with Wiley or with Ninja.
All I can say is do the MCQs until you get nosebleeds from studying.

Ne'O

Newbie CPA Candidate

[Anonymous]

Neo,

Which mcqs did you use and what was the gap between the first and second test?

[hasy]

@ActionCPA

I am so sorry to hear that!! I was actually trying to find you across the forums to see your post about passing the test! I have faith in you though! Get it on your next try!!

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved - Helen Keller

-

BEC 80 (10/23/15)
FAR 72 (4/2/15); 83 (7/11/16)
REG 52 (4/28/15)
AUD (9/9/16)

Roger + NINJA MCQ + WTB

[Anonymous]

@hasy

Thank you for your kind words. I will definitely get it done in next quarter! Best luck to you with your reg!

[Ne’O]

ActionCPA,

MCQs: Wiley first, then Ninja. I didn't finish all the Ninja.
Time: Gap between exam 1 and exam 2 was a little over 65 days, but I was so sure I'd passed exam 1 in the 75 to 80pt range that I started studying for a different exam.
It meant I only re-studied for AUD for about 40 days, losing some days with no study due to work and/or to family obligations.

If you have any advice on the BEC written part, I would welcome that.
I didn't expect to have passed AUD exam 2 and was considering just shelving all this (giving up for now) after I took my first BEC exam –> scheduled in early December.
The difficulty of AUD exam 2 >> AUD exam 1 just left me stunned, walking out to my car after the exam ready to go home and make a bonfire out of my books.

Now that I actually passed AUD, that turns my world upside down and I need to triple my efforts on BEC with about 2+ weeks left.
I know most of the material and have done a few hundred MCQs casually, but not been serious about it since the day AUD exam 2 left me stunned.

Ne'O

Newbie CPA Candidate

[Anonymous]

neo,

Thank you,

As far as BEC written part is concerned… I do not have much advice for you since I did not practice it at all… But one thing you should have in your mind is that, you want to be short to the point. Make your sentence more concise and let the keywords flow through your paragraphs.

Always repeat the question in the first paragraph in your own words as well.

best.

[Ne’O]

ActionCPA,

Thank you, and best regards to you too.

Ne'O

Newbie CPA Candidate

[mitchvols]

My first audit, I got a 74, felt there was no way made over a 60. 74 was as pleasant of a surprise as it could have been, since it was obviously a failure.

Second time, I just reinforced everything, felt like I had passed based on my feeling of the first try. Made a 72, even though from my score report, I scored stronger in all but one area of mcq, while in the first time, I got one stronger, one weaker and the rest were comparable. I couldn't find the research at all and the sims were brutal that time.

Third time, I studied less than the other two, but I changed it up. I started doing my FAR lectures (which really helped me, FAR type sims were killing me). I actually ditched Ninja for this one. I had a friend give me a pdf of Becker questions. I did them all once and made notes of what I missed. I had Gleim from an MBA class I took, I used it, I ditched Gleim for Ninja from my REG MBA class as Gleim REG is unrealistically hard. I also used CPAReviewForFree.com, those questions helped a whole lot. Then the biggest thing that happened was simply I got questions I knew.

But going through and writing notes, I realized what I thought I knew wasn't what I actually knew. For instance, I knew what control risk, detection risk, and inherent risk was, but I didn't how a specific transaction or event effected those events specifically. I read my notes in the parking lot at Prometric before I went in (only about 10 pages of notebook writing, so not much), and reading my notes on that subject really helped me.

Now Ninja notes are great, but make your own for what you are not good at. Ninja notes are a general note for everybody. Everybody is different, you have to make some for stuff that you don't understand.

[Anonymous]

I just passed audit after three failures spread out over a few years. I took audit in 9/16 and failed with 70 using becker. I pretty much borrowed my friends Wiley and drilled away at the questions. Also do progress test to keep the material fresh and go back and read the audit reports. That help me pass audit

[Thomahawk88]

My advice is read 70% of the time and work problems the other 30%, this was my biggest mistake for 90% of my exam taking career, I rarely sat down and really read and tried to digest the information I just worked problems over and over again until I basically memorized all of them

Read more and use the problems to test how well your comprehending your reading

I know it's boring as F but I just took my AUD score from a 73 to an 87 in 7-8 weeks by focusing mostly on the notes

You can do it you just need to refine your study techniques, trial and error

You got this brother

FAR - 68, 78
BEC - 78
REG - 74, 77
AUD - 8/31/2016

[Anonymous]

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful advice. I shall pass this in next quarter!

[Jenschu92]

Fortunately, I didn't have to retake AUD. I think what helped me was building blank study guides and reports. It really helped me distinguish (and memorize!) certain reports and mnemonics. I literally would print out 10 pages of each study guide and try to fill in the blanks on each page by memory 10 days leading up to the exam. I didn't feel GREAT walking out of the exam… but it all paid off.

[Jj]

I failed AUD once. The first time I took detailed notes throughout the whole Becker book. Second attempt I re-skimmed the book and just hammered ninja mcq and scored 10 point higher. I seriously think the trick to these exams is not to slave over memorizing every detail in the book and just doing tons of MCQ. Becker MC are too easy though.

[Author]

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