[hyperspeeds33]

Hello,

I am a student majoring in Accounting and am wondering how do people take notes for extremely dense factual subjects such as Auditing? I am finding it very difficult and tedious to take notes for this class and I am not sure why, perhaps because it’s not like a problem solving based class such as in my Accounting class, where doing problems over and over was sufficient and helped me retain the information.

I am reading my textbook, it’s called Principles of Auditing 18th Edition by Whittington and Pany, and I find very hard for me to retain the information and I seem to get bored easily because I don’t know how to take notes on it, without writing tons of facts, such as “Use the understanding of the client and its environment to consider inherent risks, including fraud risks, related to accounts payable. Obtain an understanding of internal control over A/P. Assess risk of Material Misstatement, and design further audit procedures. Perform further audit procedures- test of controls.”

It’s just lists and lists of concrete facts and I’m not sure how test myself on it to prepare for my exam at my school. I also feel as though, if I we’re to actually do an audit, this information would be much more receptive to my me because I would be able to apply it, however I’m not sure what this means about my learning style.

I am worried and anxious because I am going to be taking the CPA exam starting in July for FAR, and am having trouble condensing notes and its just not sticking in my memory and I’m not sure how to test myself on factual data. I would also be willing to email people a copy of my outline for one of the chapters to see what I am doing wrong. If anyone is really good at taking notes from a textbook and retaining the information well, please help me out!

[Anonymous]

Consider purchasing the ninja notes when you start studying for the exams.

https://www.another71.com/products-page/ninja-cpa-review-study-guides/

[Serena]

It depends on what your tests are like for the class. Have you had any test yet, so you know what to expect?

If they are multiple choice (which I have to assume they are), you might be surprised at how logical some of the stuff is. I took Auditing so long ago so don't remember much of the terminology now, but I do remember reading the book (and taking minimal notes) and was able to draw conclusions through logic to answer a lot of the questions. I think as long as you are doing the reading, and maybe writing down definitions of important terms, and lists like your types of inherent risks (with one or two examples) you will be ok.

Also, I remember my text book having practice multiple choice and definition matching questions at the end of each chapter. Maybe try utilizing some of those.

Is your class online format, or in person? Have you reached out to your professor for guidance on this?

AZ
AUD - 10/20/2011 - 77
BEC - 7/28/2012 - 79
FAR - 4/6/2013 - 79
REG - 4/18/2013 - 75 (3rd time's a charm!)

[Anonymous]

I have yet to take audit but I am in tax and my girlfriend has the same problem as you.

What I would do is try to do is apply what the book says to the real world. Think about what would have had to happen in order to make the auditors look at the books a certain way. Think about the people who commit fraud and what they were thinking. Basically just make it interesting and relevant. Accounting really is interesting and was only created out of a need of businesses themselves so everything that is apart of accounting came because someone made a deal or figured out the best way to do something.

Hope that helps.

Daniel

[Author]

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