[YORKER]

I am taking my third section which is Audit and it really seems to me like this section is deceptively difficult. Other sections had more straight forward questions but this section really tries to trick you in every way possible.

[Pandarama]

I've passed AUD and now I'm working on retaking FAR. Idk what it is, but FAR feels so much more boring than AUD right now. I'm stuck in this funk where I'm not interested in studying. I'm hoping that it just feels so boring b/c I'm going through my 1st pass through on the MCQs so I'm only about half right.

BEC - 80
AUD - 64, 75 - credit lost, 90!!
REG - 73, 74, 83
FAR - 61, 72, 85

Feels good finishing on my best note. Time to watch the mailbox.

[Anonymous]

I actually found Audit to be by far the easiest. I only studied for 2 months and I studied lightly and got an 85. I just failed Reg after studying for six months it's a load of crap. I'd have a better chance of passing Audit if I had a week to study for it and it tested everything there is in the prep software than if I had a year to study Reg.

[Martin]

I also think Audit was the hardest thus far.

Through God all things can happen!

“You never fail until you stop trying.”
― Albert Einstein
When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people;as I grow older, I admire kind people.
“Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”

FAR= 72-84
Audit= 73-82
BEC= 74-75
Reg=77

[golfball7773]

It really just depends on the person. REG was much easier for me because I understand tax. Audit on the other hand sucks hardcore

FAR: 63, 55, 62
REG: 65, 77*
AUD: Fail, 64, 71
BEC: 72, 74, 81

*expired

[Anonymous]

I took AUD first under the pretense that it was hardest. When I found out many people considered it to be the easiest, I was extremely discouraged because I thought the test was impossible (the whole CPA thing seems insurmountable at first). However, 2 years of studying and doing all the Gleim materials TWICE from beginning to end, I managed an 87.

The questions are definitely the most subjective, where most questions have more than one correct answer. I argued and argued with Gleim over their questions and insisted their questions were wrong or unfair; then they'd come back and tell me the questions came from a prior exam. I had to suck it up and learn to deal with unfair questions. I did a ton of MCQs, which helped me understand the thinking behind why questions that don't make sense on the surface are posted. I learned the reasons why the answers I thought should be right weren't the best answer (Gleim is great with that; you can click on any wrong answer and it will tell you why it's wrong specifically).

Personally, I think FAR and REG are the hardest (not sure which; I'm inclined to say REG but I had the least amount of time and a tremendous amount of pressure on that one, so I can't say objectively), and BEC was relatively easy.

[Tomato]

AUD was my easiest exam, but I happened to get really lucky with the sims. Two of my sims had the answers word-for-word in the AL, and I also got the research question correct. That left me with three entire sims that I scored 100% on so I pretty much knew for certain that I had passed walking out of the test center.

FAR 77 12/9/14
AUD 89 2/24/15
BEC 81 3/10/15
REG 71 5/27/15 83 8/25/15 (it's done!!!)

[ZCPA2]

AUD seems to be the most difficult for me by far. BEC was the easiest. At least with REG and FAR, you can learn the computation and mechanical aspects of solving the problems just by putting the time in. I have about 120+ hours invested in studying AUD, and I still haven't passed…and I'm an auditor with two busy seasons under my belt.

[Skynet]

ZCPA2 – It happens to everyone. Some candidates are strong on certain sections of the exams and weak on others. You are not alone. The exams does a number on you both physically and mentally. The best thing to do is just pick up where you left off and finish the job that is AUD. The busy Audit season didn't help either but keep it up and soon enough you'll pass and get it done.

[mkrohmer]

Im only on A3 of Becker so far but I agree, AUD is ridiculously boring and I am scoring the lowest here than any other section. I don't like the conceptual nature of the questions, either you know it or you don't. With the other sections you could at least play with a number if u were unsure. Even with the conceptual questions, I also think it was a lot easier to weed out the wrong answers on BEC, FAR and REG.

I also have a question for those who already took AUD. The SIMS in Becker are either extremely simple or i score terrible because of a small wording change. In your experience are the sims on the test more of the drop down box type, the check a box format or one of those choose the wording in an audit report kind? Thanks in advance.

BEC - 83 (1/23/15)
FAR - 80 (4/3/15)
REG - 88 (5/14/15)
AUD - 81 (7/3/15)

[klmc]

The problem with AUD is that it always comes down to 2 questions which both seem right, so you walk out of the exam not knowing how you did. I just took it for the 2nd time and I thought it was a lot more difficult than the first time.

|FAR| - 72, 83
|AUD| - 73, 76
|REG| - 76
|BEC| - 73, 82

ALL DONE!!

[If I can, u can too!]

I think the pass rate on Audit proves it being the toughest part of the CPA exam (based on past passing rate in recent years). The amount of material isn't as much but the exam tests how well you can make a judgment between the choices. Nonetheless, the exam itself is curved so you just gotta do better than their cut off line.

Good luck everyone.

Licensed CPA since Apr 16
Order in sequence of passing
FAR-71,71,79
BEC-80
REG-72,77
AUD-56,72,72,72,80! Thank you, thank you, thank you Lord!
FAR/BEC/AUD: Becker & Yaeger lectures (Wiley & Ninja MCQs). REG: Becker lectures (Ninja MCQs).

[CPA2BinCA]

Thought I would chime after having taken all four sections at least once.

To me REG is the hardest, followed very closely by FAR.

I should add that I have a strong background in audit and understand the process well. That being said, perhaps that might be the key to passing audit. Just like the life cycle of any business transaction, there is a flow of steps that take an audit from beginning (client acceptance) to end (issue report). Understanding of the business, risk assessment, sampling, testing, substantive analysis,etc happen in between and should happen in a specific order, theoretically.

Once you are able to step back and see the process from that perspective, it might be easier to answer the question by know which part of the process the step is referring too, and the factors that are important for that specific step.

I had to write Audit twice since I lost the credit (thank you REG)…and I still went through MCQs despite of having a background. so I agree that there is a lot of volume to cover, but it is a passable.

I guess the same can be said about the bulk of FAR – if we just look at it from a Balance sheet and Income statement perspective and know that all activity has to be reflected in one of those two statements.

Its REG that I can't wrap my head around since some Tax regulations make sense but then others, with myriad exceptions and exemptions for the most mundane items (pre/post 19xx, anyone?) make it just a huge memorization exercise. I'm sure the those with tax experience can see how all the information flows together but if someone didn't experience in either, Audit might be easier to understand than REG.

AUD - Done
FAR - Done
BEC - Done
REG - TBD

[wawr47aa87]

I took audit yesterday and it made me want to stab my eyes out. MCQ didn't seem terrible for the most part. But the sims were on another planet. I ended up guessing on like 2 of them, the rest were still hard as hell. I thought the reg sims were horrible but the audit sims made reg look like cake

BEC 76 (2/15)
REG 81 (4/15)
AUD 78 (5/15)
FAR 81 (7/15)

Roger + Ninja MCQ

[justgivemea75]

Check out my scores in my sig. That accurately reflects which exams were easy/hard for me

FAR - 84
AUD - 76 (phew)
BEC - 88
REG - 77

DONE!

[Martin]

When they came out with the IQ test, they wanted to come up with an exam that will test your intelligence assuming you have lived in a deserted island all your life, and you only have basic knowledge of a language. The IQ test assumes that you have never read a book about history,math, or science. You should know basic math and have a basic command of the language in which the exam will be administered. With that being said, the only person who can really tell you which part of the cpa exam is the hardest is someone who has a bachelors in Accounting,but has not worked in Accounting for the last 10 years. Someone with Audit experience will find the Audit exam more doable, but for the other 90% Accountants who are not Auditors, the Audit exam is the hardest.

Through God all things can happen!

“You never fail until you stop trying.”
― Albert Einstein
When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people;as I grow older, I admire kind people.
“Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”

FAR= 72-84
Audit= 73-82
BEC= 74-75
Reg=77

[Author]

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