[kahtwoloo]

Basically I studied for the exam for two years before giving up (with no intent on passing) after failing AUD for the sixth time. My last attempt before I gave up I got a 68 and this was after using Ninja. On that attempted I was trending in the high 70s and was scoring in the low-mid 70s for each of the sections. This attempt my ninja scores were as follows

Trending
Overall: 85%
Engagement acceptance: 96%
Understanding the entity: 89%
Performing audit procedure: 84%
Evaluating audit findings: 79%
Service engagements: 78%
Professional responsibilities: 85%

I got a 68. What am I doing wrong here?

BEC-51,71,70,77
AUD-50,62,68 (retake july)
REG-55
FAR-15(didnt study)

[Anonymous]

What about the SIMS? Did you practice them? AUD SIMS in Ninja were great, actually. And what are your average scores? what did your score report say?

[kahtwoloo]

The averages are 86, 79, 70, 70, 77, and 83. 76 total. The SIMS were okay. I went through them 3 times and improved on them a lot, my sub is over (took a screen cap of my final progress report) so I can't check but I'd say about 70%. I also got a 83% on the practice test. As for the test itsself, it's the new test so the format was a lot different from what I was used to. The research question was easy but there were only a couple that I truly thought were difficult.

BEC-51,71,70,77
AUD-50,62,68 (retake july)
REG-55
FAR-15(didnt study)

[krstnam]

When you're studying using MCQ, are you remembering the answer because it's a repeat question?

That was my big issue after taking FAR the 2nd time. The 3rd time, I realized I didn't know why some of the answers were correct, I just remembered they were correct from previous studying. I ended up changing the software I was using.

Did the score report come out yet? Maybe that'll give you more insight too.

[ipadminihalf]

What did your score report say? That will indicate how you did on the broad topics and how you did in MCQ and Simulations. 68 is somewhat close, but perhaps you need to change the way you study. How have you been studying for AUD? Is it all MCQ and sims, or do you also do the reading and take notes?

REG - 2/19/16 - 77!
BEC - 4/16/16 - 79!!
AUD - 6/04/16 - 84!!!
FAR - 8/31/16

[kahtwoloo]

@krstnam Yes but if there's questions I ‘memorized' I specifically go through all the answers and sort out why the right answer is right and why the wrong answer is wrong. I'm pretty sure it's the sims that are hurting me.

@ipadminihalf I haven't gotten it yet. I have the CPAExcel study guide 2018 book so I read through that and did the questions twice. I also bought Ninja Assault (I think) package so I used the MCQ and notes. I read through the notes maybe 5 times and I'm pretty sure I cleared 3,000 MCQ. I got just past the assessment and accidentally reset the test bank so I don't know how many of those I did.

BEC-51,71,70,77
AUD-50,62,68 (retake july)
REG-55
FAR-15(didnt study)

[bjpeterson07]

So when you say you do this “Yes but if there are questions I ‘memorized' I specifically go through all the answers and sort out why the right answer is right and why the wrong answer is wrong.” Are you doing this before you submit the answer or only looking at what it says after you have answered the question and just reading it?
I found that it helps to really analyze the question before hitting submit so you are actually learning why the answer is right verse why the other answers are wrong. If you don't know the reason's why before submitting it may be beneficial to pull out your book while you are going through the questions and look it up before hitting submit. I know when I would just hit submit and “read” why the answers were right or wrong I wasn't really absorbing the material.

[CPA2BEE]

If your avg/trending scores have reach that high and still not passing, I would supplement your study materials with something new. Even if its a bank of MCQ questions or SIMS for cheap or something. When I was studying for the exams I constantly reminded myself to learn something new about the material everyday, even when I got to the point where I thought there was no more to learn. Reinforcing what you already know is super important but can also stall your progress if you're not actively learning more.

FAR - 80
AUD - 82
BEC - 80
REG - 85

ETHICS - 90
EXPERIENCE - COMPLETE
Application for California license mailed 8/4/2016

[Anonymous]

AUD is very conceptual, and it is easy to run through a ton of MCQs and think you know the answers. But the real exam is tricky in that they will have a question that seems similar to a question from your review software, but one word could change an entire answer. And it's all about choosing the “most correct” answer. I found it helped to write my notes by hand for each chapter, review what I wrote each weekend, until I had finished reviewing all the chapters. Then I would read maybe every other day during the review phase. It helped to cement the flow of the audit process. This helped me to jump ten points. Hope this helps.

[krstnam]

@kahtwoloo – I know for me, memorizing the questions has been a big issue. Even if I do the thing where I explain to myself why the other questions are incorrect, I was still getting a positive result. I took my score as what it would have been if I hadn't got those memorized questions correct.

Beyond that, the SIMS are killing me too. One of my AUD SIMS was something like the client made an error and would like a correction and it happened to be relating to a FAR topic that would have been difficult had it appeared on a FAR exam. Another SIM was something I would call more obscure too.

It seems like the school of thought is, if you can do the MCQ, the SIMS are simple, well that hasn't been the case for me. Even the last time I studied I spent a lot more time on the SIMS, my score improved quite a bit, but it still wasn't enough.

[Defo]

A SIM testing the same subject as an MCQ is almost always going to be more difficult. I think the school of thought that MCQ best prepares you for the SIMS still holds true though. Covering the entirety of possible subjects with SIMS really isn't feasible for most people. It would take too much time.

MCQ's allow you to gain a solid understanding of the entire breadth of material in a reasonable time-frame. I think practicing some SIMS is a great idea to get comfortable with some of the nuances of them, but its going to be much more effective drilling lots of MCQ to make sure you understand all the possible subjects.

With that said, I dont think you should keep banging your head against the wall trying to pass with just MCQ. I usually spend a weekend toward the end of my review making as many flash cards as I can. I feel like this has made a big difference on test day.

[Author]

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