[gibars]

Got great news that I passed FAR. I am trying to take another exam but am so mentally exhausted from the mind F**K of that test (Convinced myself I had failed and was depressed for two weeks of the thought of a retake). Trying to motivate myself to take either BEC or AUD before busy season starts to get crazy around the beginning of February. I calculate about 6-8 weeks I have before it become impossible to study after work and on weekends. I have taken both audit classes in undergrad and masters, leaning toward taking that exam. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is the material for AUD voluminous?/require a lot of memorization?

FAR - 83
REG - 88
AUD - TBD
BEC - TBD

[y_u_no_pass]

I think there is less total material on audit than BEC, but audit goes more in depth. I found BEC both more interesting, and less difficult that audit. Except COSO, but the thing is all of the audit material is as boring as COSO.

Oh yeah, and Congratulations on passing FAR!!!!!

Florida CPA!
Took final exam 2/25/15.
Sent in Application 3/12/15.
Issued License 3/20/15.
Used CPA Excel solely for all exams.

[zoctoman]

I would take audit first. My reasoning is that audit is the last test with simulations. you have been in a “simulation” mode with FAR and REG. It was such a great feeling when I started studying for BEC last that i was done with simulations! I only had to practice for like an hour for the written portion and it was by far the easiest part of the cpa exam(they say the content of your essays don't really matter but rather the form of your writing).

So….audit will be a bit more difficult to prepare for but by the time you get to your last section you can basically just pound multiple choice questions and don't have to feel “guilty” when you are procrastinating on those sims!! i would always say “today i'll knock out 10 simulations”…and then at the end of the day I would say “tomorrow I'll knock em out!”, you can knock out sims forever if you take audit next!!

Audit(11/5/13) - 89
Reg(5/16/14) - 86
FAR(7/18/14) - 82
BEC(11/14) - 85

[shf8]

I would definitely recommend taking Audit first. Since you have the time before work starts getting busy, you'll be happy to have this one out of the way. I know a lot of people struggle with Audit but (like you) I took an undergraduate Auditing course and a graduate Auditing course which helped tremendously. I also agree with @zoctoman. BEC was my last exam and I was so excited that there weren't any simulations. I studied for BEC in 4 weeks even though work was super busy so I only studied on the weekends and passed with a 75! I think taking Audit first and then BEC last will give you the best opportunity to pass these exams quicker.

AUD: 81!
BEC: 75!
FAR: 54, 74, 89!
REG: 67, 86!

[Anonymous]

BEC….Audit will be easier for you after busy season cuz you have all experience in your head!!(I am assuming you are a first or second year)

[Anonymous]

It's weird.

AUD has the lowest pass rate of all 4 pieces but I found the material to be the easiest (despite my score being lower than FAR).

BEC has the highest pass rate of all 4 but I'm finding the material to be much more difficult.

[soyanks]

BEC has tons of calculations. Hated that. So if you are tired of doing calculations (similar to FAR), and simple memorization works at the moment, AUD is the way to go

FAR - 86
REG - 85
BEC - 90
AUD - 84

[univegabw]

I think if you have 6-8 week window that AUD is the way to go so that you can knock out one of the harder ones to pass in a decent study window. BEC is good to save for a shortened study window because I think it is best done through just constant MCQs only.

Just my opinion. I've only passed BEC. I think AUD takes a lot of real in depth memorization and if you can't do that right now then go for BEC and know that it shouldn't be as hard to study for, but everyone is different.

A- 53, 55
B- Passed!
F- Not Yet Taken
R- 1/17/2015

[Texan_176]

I'm getting ready for Audit now having passed BEC. Audit seems harder because you have to make interpretations about things in the questions instead of picking black and white answers. Audit requires more study time without a doubt. BEC is not as easy as many people make it out to be. Only 15% of the materials in the review show up on the test but you have to know it all. The calculations are not too bad on BEC. The overhead variance questions are brutal because you have to back into 2 or 3 smaller calculations that are required to make the calculation they are asking for. If you can not do even one of those you are in trouble. It all just depends who you are. I'm more of a numbers person so I was not that intimidated by the calculations.

I would take BEC if you do not have time to study as much.

BEC 11/29/14 77 (Roger)
AUD 2/23/15 60 (Roger) 4/13/2015 83 (Roger & Ninja MCQ)
REG 5/30/2015 66 (Roger & Ninja MCQ(7 hours only)) 8/23/2015 78 (Roger & Ninja MCQ)
FAR 11/23/2015 60 (Roger & NINJA MCQ) 2/24/2016 74 (Roger & NINJA MCQ) 5/25/2016 83 (Roger+Roger CRAM & NINJA MCQ/NOTES)
Texas Ethics Exam 92%

Licensed TX CPA Aug 2016

[Anonymous]

I went through this decision myself, take AUD. FAR rolls into AUD more smoothly. BEC is harder IMO though.

[Author]

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