[ixlr82day]

I have FAR and Audit remaining. I took Audit recently and I got a 65. I am a staff tax accountant at a small firm. We get busy starting in mid Feb and run thru April…I was thinking I would take FAR in early Feb. giving me about 2 months and then try to schedule Audit in early March? I didn’t want to try to retake Audit now because I wanted to attempt FAR this window. Is this doable you think? I maybe able to get about 60 hours of studying into Audit. I was going to use ninja, becker, and becker final review. I didn’t feel ready for Audit when I took it. With such a short time frame for Audit this time I was thinking to focus on Ninja Audio, MCQ and final review. What do you think?

How far away is a 65 from a 75?

I would appreciate any advice you can give me.

[Anonymous]

You should take AUD first before FAR while AUD info is still fresh. Becker's material for AUD is very good (at least for me who took REG 6x, haha). I passed AUD 2x.
Just understand the book.

Here's what I did with AUD. I began with A6, not with A1 because I didn't like how Becker arranged the topics in AUD. When I first saw AUD materials in 2013 from having no background in Audit, I was really lost because Becker starts it off with Audit Reports, that's just NOT RIGHT! A6 is the backbone and background information of the entire AUD in the US and internationally. After finishing A6, I studied A1 next, then A2, A3, and wait, I literally ran out of time to get through A4 & A5. It's very time consuming to read and write notes, then complete/understand homework questions. My notes were composed of 89 pages from A6 and A1 to A3. Since I was running out of time, I was not able to cover A4 & A5, which are very important topics in AUD (Audit Evidence & Sampling & Communications). I played the lectures for A4 & A5 to listen while commuting to work and putting myself to sleep in the last week. I only read the main outline, highlighted portions of the book and studied the Final Review book for A4 and A5 chapters in the last 4 days or so. I wanted to make sure I understand the gist of those two chapters.

Just a side comment, Mike Brown did a decent job tackling A4 and A5. Forget about the lectures from A6 and A1-A3! Do me a favor, skip Tim Gearty's lectures (he insanely repeats highlight that highlight this, again and again, a trillion times!). Jeff's AUD audio lectures are also great to play once you reach to your final review phase.

Good luck!

[ixlr82day]

@Amor D…Thanks for the great advice…I find audit so difficult. So much to memorize and you can't really fake it. My mind feels totally blank and I think I will need to redo the book from beginning to end. My goal is to pass by the end of the year. I have time constraints because if I take audit first I won't have time for FAR in the first quarter…a good friend is getting married in Feb and I'm sure his wedding will be a week long party. That happens after my FAR exam. A month before my Audit exam that I just took we had a bachelor party in vegas…and well that probably contributed to me not remembering anything for this past aud retake. Either way I think my review will be a complete overhaul.

What parts are you studying?

[Anonymous]

We should not memorize the audit reports just the way Becker tells the candidates to memorize the format of audit reports like REPPORT-CRAME, MR FIRSALA or something. That's crazy.

All I did was to remember the key word of each sentence of the paragraphs. Let's say in a compilation report, the 1st paragraph has the word “Compiled”; 2nd paragraph has 4 sentences that mention key words such as “LAND”: limited, accordingly, no responsibility, and differences.

Here's my sample note I wrote about examination report format:

View post on imgur.com

Most of Becker's mnemonic like CRIME, DORC, CEO-APPROVED, FINE, etc are great though. I find them very helpful.

I am taking FAR next. I passed FAR in 2014 with a 78. I got stumped in taking REG and BEC alternately after having two passes under my belt. That was my downfall. I should have focused on one section at a time and should have not worried about having to lose a credit. Do not commit the same error most of the candidates just like me have done in the past. That's the reason why I took AUD only this quarter, not worrying about FAR that I have to retake as well.

[ixlr82day]

Thanks for that. It looks like you will be well prepared for your sections. Your sample note is very impressive. I need to take your commitment to heart.

[ixlr82day]

@AmorD Thanks for the help and I wish you the best on FAR! I am going to try to get my Audit exam scheduled ASAP. I was thinking 5 weeks studying for Audit and hopefully another 6 weeks for FAR…and that should take me into busy season. I will use the new Backer 1.3 for both…I guess I foresaw the retake when I ordered a replacement Audit book before I got my results. I ordered Final Review for both Audit and FAR. I need to pass already. Wish me luck!

[Author]

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