[Scared-cpa]

So I am retaking FAR 1/20 and will begin studying for AUD practically immediately afterwards (probably the next week 1/24). I need to sit by the end of this window because my NTS expires. My plan is to study 1/24 to 3/8 and sit at the end of the window. Is this enough time? My grad classes start back this upcoming week so I will be in four classes while studying, as well. I will be using Wiley CPAexcel. Any tips to absorb the material and get through it all quickly and efficiently? I am really hoping to pass in case I don’t pass FAR this time. If I fail and then fail AUD, three fails in a row would be an absolute awful feeling! My biggest worry with AUD is that I have never taken an auditing class in my life. A couple days before my auditing class as an ungergrad was supposed to begin it was cancelled because the instructor got indicted for money laundering. How ironic haha.

So maybe do the ninja method with CPAexcel and then add in Ninja MCQs for the last couple weeks?

[mckan514w]

LOL okay that made me laugh about your Audit prof! In my opinion AUD is completely doable in this time frame (I did it in 15 days start to finish- it nearly killed me but I am proof it can be done)– skip the lectures and just hammer MCQs until you want to vomit them. One thing I found EXTREMELY helpful was if I had a question on the explanations provided on the MCQ then I looked it up in the Audit AL…. a lot of questions I found are taken straight from examples they give in the AL– it also came in super handy on the SIMS / research question because I was very familiar with it by the time exam day came. Also USE your AL during the SIMS on the exam!!! I had one that I was able to take directly from the AL probably would have failed otherwise. GOOD LUCK

and they ask me why I drink...

FAR- 61-next time I'll ask for lube instead of a calculator
REG-75- Never been so happy to see such a low grade
BEC- 8/11
AUD- 9/2

[Scared-cpa]

Thanks! Do you suggest I read and then do the MCQs or try the MCQs before I read? Also, I would like to implement Ninja MCQs sooner than just a few weeks before, possibly using this test bank exclusively instead of WTB, but how would I go about doing that if I haven't covered all of the material yet?

[mckan514w]

i did only Ninja– think I maybe referenced my Rogers book once and watched one video on sampling because I was confused – so I would say skip the reading take detailed notes from the MCQs hardest part for me on AUD was knowing why the wrong answers are wrong I don't think you can pass without knowing that more than any other test

and they ask me why I drink...

FAR- 61-next time I'll ask for lube instead of a calculator
REG-75- Never been so happy to see such a low grade
BEC- 8/11
AUD- 9/2

[Scared-cpa]

Okay, sounds good! I've heard AUD is the best section to take after FAR because FAR helps lay a foundation for it. Do you know if this is true or not? I'm hoping it will help me get through the material as painlessly as possible.

[Jdn9201]

Yep, 6 weeks is doable. That cracked me up about your professor, lol. I, like you was worried about AUD when preparing for it. It was honestly harder for me to study than FAR, but only because it's so concept-oriented. I'm very comfortable with computations and it bugged my brain not being able to crunch numbers. I didn't take any auditing classes at all until grad school, and that was only 1 because I chose a Tax concentration (work in tax). Anyhow, I sat for AUD 1/8/16, started studying around 12/1/15, and basically took the week off between Christmas and New Years. I was out of school at that point, but work full time. I agree with the above poster – skip reading unless you hit a rough chapter. I also had Roger, and one thing that really helped me was to consider at what point during the audit cycle/process was for each topic. Keeping the big picture in mind helped me to tie everything together in my head. For audit reports, I never memorized them exactly. I tried to keep in mind the purpose of each one or each paragraph, and that was enough to get me by apparently. 🙂

BEC - 88 8/29/15
REG - 82 11/14/15
AUD - 83 1/8/16
FAR - 80 2/29/16

[mckan514w]

FAR will definitely help you a bit especially if you concentrated on learning your Journal Entries and the way things flow in and out of accounts receivable / inventory etc… the biggest thing that helped me was literally writing out- this question is asking XYZ and I think the answer should be PDQ because of ABC. like the above poster mentioned AUD is very concept oriented and the way questions are worded are sometimes tough for, at least my brain, to figure out… and like I said above really knowing why the right answer is right and the wrong ones are wrong is key because one little word can be the difference between the right answer and the wrong answer. To me AUD was the most maddening because of that… technically you will have three answers that are in theory right but one answer is more right than others- so teaching yourself to slow down and read the question at least for me was key.

GOOD LUCK YOU CAN TOTALLY DO IT!

ps: I didn't memorize the reports either – like the above poster just kept in mind when they were used / why they were needed.

and they ask me why I drink...

FAR- 61-next time I'll ask for lube instead of a calculator
REG-75- Never been so happy to see such a low grade
BEC- 8/11
AUD- 9/2

[Scared-cpa]

Before I started the entire exam process, I did some auditing mcqs just to see what they were like and I was oddly getting a lot of them right.My brain tends to be more concept-oriented and I think that is the biggest problem I have with calculation problems. There are questions I have about the problem that in real life I could ask someone about. I just have to assume what they want in the question and that can sometimes be wrong. So I'm interested to see how AUD exams plays out. After studying for FAR since August, I'm ready to change subjects!

So let me make sure I am getting this straight. You both think I should skip reading and just do mcqs? Should I watch the videos that go along with each section? Since I have no idea of the whole auditing process, how am I to go about figuring out all of the info? Do you think the brief videos per section will be enough for me to get an idea?

[Scared-cpa]

@mckan514w Also, I wanted you to know that your scores for all sections has given me hope in passing this exam. I'm not going to lie – most of my life and success thus far has been handed to me. School has always come easy to me and I can't honestly said I've “tried hard,” let alone struggle with any of my classes (except maybe Business Statistics ugh) so coming to this exam, I thought it would be about the same. I would study a month or so per section, sit for it and pass, and that would be it. The actual experience has been the complete opposite. This test has bogged me down and made me have a bitter outlook on life. I've never struggled or had to work this hard for something before. So I can't honestly be sure if I am “trying hard” or if this is just my version of trying hard. But seeing how you excelled in others sections and are, too, struggling with FAR makes me realize maybe I'm not as awful as I thought I was. Maybe FAR is just a b****. So I wanted you to know your scores have really helped give much needed motivation 🙂

[rlarivee01]

If you're not working, just going to class and in college mode, 6 weeks seems like plenty.

I wouldn't sweat AUD. Even though I did not pass it last time out (really, my 64 wasn't even close) the material came a lot easier to me than other sections. With only around 30 hours and only MCQ, that 64 was higher than I expected to get. Imagine if I spent more than that, read, and took notes..!

IMO, go with MCQ first, then read the chapters, then go back to MCQ. Then again, I'm not in college mode, so when reading chapters, I didn't “get” a lot of it until after I was exposed to it in the MCQ.

[mckan514w]

@scared_cpa- you sound a lot like me- I seriously BREEZED through grad school- maintaining a 4.0 but not putting in near the effort that most of my classmates did. I completely underestimated this exam because of that- (cough cough look at my first FAR score 😉 ) as well as my “abilities”- I think this exam is in large part a test of perseverance as much as anything else… you really have to want that passing score and you really have to put in the effort to get it, even if it means eating, sleeping and breathing this crap. The frustrating part is when you put all of that into it and still walk away with a failing score (my second FAR sit). This has truly been a humbling experience for me but I WILL PASS, and you will too. GOOD LUCK!

and they ask me why I drink...

FAR- 61-next time I'll ask for lube instead of a calculator
REG-75- Never been so happy to see such a low grade
BEC- 8/11
AUD- 9/2

[RyonT]

I appreciate this thread. I too am planning on hitting AUD after my BEC exam. Part of my last job was field work for NP/Gov audits, so I'm hoping the material comes to me quicker than BEC (I hated all of those subjects in college).

[Scared-cpa]

@rlarivee01 I tyhink the MCQ, reading, MCQ thing may work. I will probably try it. It seems when I read something, I get a decent idea of what it is, but the MCQs really help you to understand how to go about applying that knowledge to questions and different situations. That's a learning curve I experienced with this exam.

@mckan514w I took 4 grad courses this fall semester and got a 4.0. I am starting another 4 courses this upcoming Monday. If I wasn't sitting for this exam, I could definitely take 5 courses per semester and be finished by May. My academic advisor said 4 courses was pushing it and he only saw a couple people take 5 classes, but they all ended up either dropping a course or failing one. Now that I have started grad school, I feel like that statement is ridiculous. If they're not working and literally only focusing on school, there is no reason they shouldn't be able to take 5 classes. It makes me feel good that I can maintain a 4.0 at standards most people struggle with, but at the same time, this exam brings me back down to earth that I'm NOT as intelligent as school makes me feel! Haha. I think we both experienced that “Oh s**t” moment when we realized this wasn't going to be easy like school is. You can't half ass this and still pass. So that's a wake up call. But you're soooo close to passing and I'm excited for you! I hope you're right that I will pass these exams, as well. I pray I can.

Right now I'm averaging 79% with a little over 400 questions answered wrong in Ninja MCQ so I think I will hit 85% by review stage. And now I have went back to Wiley test bank and I am doing much better on those than I did the first time around. It's a great feeling to get questions right that I struggled with the first time around. I hope this is a good sign and I'm not just setting myself up for disaster. The other night I did WTB sims and got an amortization table and fill in the blank questions about segment reporting. Oh my gosh. I would do anything (ethical and legal, as we like to say) to get sims that easy come exam day. I would honestly cry in the Prometric center if I got sims like that!

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