[Anonymous]

Has anyone taken AUD without studying and passed? Anyone know someone who did this?

Yes I know it’s not the best idea, but I won’t get into all the details of why I’m thinking about trying. Short version is that a big fat 74 on FAR messed up my timeline.

This is my 5th year as a Big 4 auditor (idk if that changes anyone’s thoughts about this). I would also plan to have about 6 days that I could drill MCQs between my FAR retake and my AUD attempt.

Thanks.

[UCFCPA]

I was really behind when I took audit thanks to school deadlines and other personal things that got in the way of studying. It was a week out from audit when I realized I had only done (I think) 2 of the sections in the Wiley textbook. I decided to forgo even reading the book, and I focused on multiple choice questions. I did 150 MCQs in the Wiley Test Bank per day for 5 days, and it was enough to get me a 78 on audit. I think with you being an auditor already in the profession, it should definitely help. I say do a bunch of MCQs in that week between FAR and AUD and go for it. Good luck.

REG (8/7/12) 77
FAR (10/4/12) 70 Retake 5/25/13 84!!!!!!!!!
AUD (11/2/12) 78
BEC (11/30/12) 82

[Anonymous]

Thanks!

[foreseeableCPA]

I'm amazed that people can skip the reading and head straight to the multiple choice questions. I once tried that and failed miserably on chapter. It looks like you have 1 week break between FAR and AUD. If I was in your place I'd just skim the book real fast. Good luck! I got a dreaded 71 on AUD and it ruined my timeline as well. I was planning on taking my last exam in January right before I start work. Now i'll have to postpone BEC until after busy season. Its a real bummer.

CPA - Class of 2013
CIA - Class of 2016

[Anonymous]

Yea…definitely not the best case scenario. My performance manager basically just confirmed that I might as well try to wing it cause if I don't I won't be done in time for promotion discussions.

@foreseeableCPA I definitely would do some studying the week between FAR retake and AUD attempt. I'm just calling it “winging it” since we all know only having a week to study usually isn't all that helpful.

[mrwills12]

I think it will be more challenging then you think. Experience is a good base but i can let you know from experience that i still didnt know the little details they were asking on the exam. If you are going to take a flyer i would at least hammer out MCQ for about a week or so just so you can see the way the questions are being asked

FAR - 88 (Jul 2012)
AUD - 85 (Oct 2012)
BEC - 82 (Nov 2012)
REG - 92 (Jan 2013) DONE!

Using Becker Self Study 2012

[Da Bears]

I'm sure experience will be helpful! I passed and don't start work until January and learning all the reports and stuff is frustrating when you don't see the application. I would hammer MCQ because although you have experience they ask information in weird and tricky ways!

FAR- 8/14/12 91
AUD- 10/16/12 88
BEC- 11/07/12 92
REG- 01/05/13 86
NIU CPA Review

[Anonymous]

I think it would be really difficult because a lot of it is word play and semantics but you can get good at it by doing tons of MCQ

[runhomejack]

It's doable. I studied AUD for 2 weeks and that wasn't every day. Basically I did all the MCQ's in the Wiley book front to back 5-6 times in 2 weeks and. I only did the Sampling and Technology MCQ's once. I have zero audit experience but have worked in corporate for 4 years. I did not do any practice SIMs and I never read the entire text. I would just do the MCQ's, read the solutions, and if I still don't get it, read that part of the text. Don't do anything other than MCQ's for 6 days.

BEC - Pass
FAR - Pass
REG - Pass
AUD - Pass

[Anonymous]

After talking to my performance manager, I pretty much HAVE to at least try.

I did come up with a revised idea after talking to some people on my audit team.

Rather than scheduling it for a week after FAR, I scheduled it for 1/26. Even if we get busy at work, I should be able to fit in more studying that I would be if I took it a week after FAR. I just won't waste time on videos unless I need to focus on something.

Then if I don't pass it will suck, but at least I will have given it everything I could to try to still be done in time for promotion. Won't kick myself for not taking the shot at least.

[Patrick272]

I didn't finish studying for with Becker for AUD due to work problems. I think there were 5 sections and I only completed three. But I was also fresh out of grad school were half of my classes were audit/fraud related so that is probably why I passed. But in your case it sounds doable if you do a ton of MCQ's.

AUD-95
BEC-85
FAR-84
REG-76
Work Exp-Need a New Job

[Anonymous]

I just passed AUD today… to my biggest surprise!!!!!

This was my third time taking the exam and in all honesty the first time I took Audit I took two weeks off from work and studied every day and did all the questions in Beckers Chapter 1-4 and didn't do chapter 5. I figured it wasn't all that important. Turns out I failed with a 73. Disappointed and dejected I thought I'll try again and this time I only studied chapter 5 and figured I'll have the information from the first exam, turns out it was a really bad idea and infact my score dropped to a 62.

Not one to give up I figured I'll give it one last shot and if I fail I won't take the CPA exams again, but since I was already mentally defeated this time I didn't even study and just did the NINJA notes. Like literally rewrote the entire NINJA notes for AUD without doing touching Becker obviously I had no hopes of passing and today morning I saw the email from the Texas board and thought I would've failed, but I said a prayer to St. Jude and opened the email to find out that I passed with a 77. Long story short, I think going through the material once is definitely important but more important is to get the overall framework together. Going through the NINJA notes, for me, provided that overall framework that allowed me to answer AUD questions with a common sense approach rather than having to second guess myself on each question.It could be your notes too, just make sure you are able to take each chapter in Becker and think of the important things and remember it. Hope that helps!

[Anonymous]

Based on the fact you are an auditor, I completely think you can do it by just cramming through MCQs. I would add that you should buy the NINJA notes and go through those each day as well.

I am a former auditor and I can say that this will be the easiest exam for you. However, how we practice audit and how it is tested is very different, so I really recommend the NINJA notes so you are familiar with the major concepts they will be testing and focus on those.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone!

[Anonymous]

I have been auditing for 12 years and I studied for audit in 7 days only doing the MCQs once. Using Becker, after work I did 1 chapter a night, except for chapter 4 took me 2 nights for some reason. It was a necessary procedure for me to go thru the MCQs as there are many steps in the auditing process that are automated in real life or you look up what you need and all of the official terminology tested in the audit exam is not day to day jargon at my public accounting firm. I would suggest spending 2 or 3 days doing MCQs for areas that you don't see on a regular basis at your job. This is just my opinion but I do understand the need to just try and see what happens. Good Luck either way!

[Author]

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