[emihartsell]

Okay, so this is going to be somewhat of a rant and I apologize in advance. BUT I took FAR on 8/27 and decided to schedule AUD for 9/8 (tomorrow) since the testing window closes on the 10th and my job starts in a few weeks. I took Sunday/Monday off after my exam to recover, and then started back on AUD on Tuesday. Having taken two Audit courses recently and getting an A in both, I figured it couldn’t be too hard to power through the 6 audit sections since usually audit material really clicks with me (unlike tax, so REG is gonna be a Hail Mary LOL).

The first section of Becker was ALL about audit reports and was kind of hard to follow since I hadn’t refreshed on the audit terms/topics in a while. It took me much longer than I was hoping to get through A1 since it was confusing/frustrating (and also insanely dry), and it was disheartening when A2 was even more jargon and material that was difficult to follow because none of the terms were fresh in my mind. It wasn’t impossible or anything, but it took SO much longer than I was hoping. So on Sunday I finally got to A3 knowing that come Thursday, I was inevitably going to fail. At that point, though, my test was already too soon to reschedule without paying the full price anyways. So in A3 I finally started seeing some of the stuff I remembered, and it clicked pretty well but took a full day to get through. I started on A4 Monday after getting a really good grasp on A3, and realized that Becker had literally taught Audit completely backwards.

It would have been so much easier to start off with A3-A4 (minus the cycles) and then end with the audit reports and other engagements. While I was struggling to understand what each of reports were talking about last week, I could have been learning them now with a full of understanding of what sufficient appropriate audit evidence was and could have been reinforcing those concepts in my mind while learning the new material. If someone hadn’t taken audit since college and had worked in tax or something not audit-related for a while since then, I can’t even imagine how confusing that must have been. So now I’m for sure going to fail because I haven’t even touched half of A5 or any of A6. My fault for scheduling the test so soon, but I really believe it would have been manageable had things been flipped. So so frustrating, but oh well I guess. Has anyone else had an experience similar to this?

[bhunt815]

I don't know why I struggled so much with audit. It's the only section I failed the first time…so far (I learn of my REG fate Friday). I made better scores on my first test BEC and even FAR that my retake score on audit. I actually felt like I understood the information pretty well while I was studying, but then I got to the test and it was like they presented everything in a foreign language. I passed the 2nd time (barely with a 79), but those audit tests were so damn hard for me. So, I don't think for me that Becker was the problem. I think audit is just an insane beast.

AUD - 79
BEC - 81
FAR - 84
REG - 78

Becker Self Study supplemented with Ninja MCQ's for BEC and REG.

Licensed CPA in Louisiana.

FAR 04/11/2016 - 84
AUD 05/12/2016 - 79
BEC 07/06/2016 - 81
REG 08/29/2016

[.]

So you didn't learn the jargon in your audit classes? I used CPAExcel. While it wasn't exciting, it still was an easier read than much of business law (REG).

FAR- 88- 6/16- (Ninja Avg. 74%)
REG- 89- 7/16- (Ninja Avg. 77%)
AUD- 95- 8/16- (Ninja Avg. 81%)
BEC- 82- 9/16- (Ninja Avg. 75%)
[Wiley CPAExcel + Ninja MCQ]

Finally licensed.

FAR - June 2016 - 88
REG - July 2016 - 89
AUD - Aug 2016 - review phase currently
BEC - Sep 2016 -

Wiley CPA Excel & Ninja MCQ

[emihartsell]

@circadian Well yes we learned the jargon in class, so that's fair in Becker's defense. But while I understood what the reports meant in general, it would have been much more beneficial to have an in depth/refreshed understanding of the concepts included in audit reports before going over different ports and all the related minutia. Like I would have rather spent a full week going over the engagement process, planning, evidence, sampling, and the cycles and then spending the earlier part of this week memorizing the reports and the different things to include for each different type. That would have been kind of a review almost, since I could have seen things like predecessor audit reports, written representation, etc. and thought “oh yeah, that's when you ask management if you can talk to their last auditor to inquire about things that might make you not want to accept the engagement” or “yeah written rep. letters are basically having the client put it in writing that they're aware of, agree to, and accept the terms of the audit and understand each party's responsibilities.” Instead, it was more of “oh I remember some stuff we talked about with predecessor auditors and I think it was ____ but am not sure.” Now I'm learning about stuff and having to remember “wait where did that go in the report again?”

I'm probably just really frustrated/worn out right now though. FAR fried my brain, lol. I studied like crazy for two months and thought I had everything down, but walked out feeling like Jon Snow after the SIMs (I know nothing lol). That kind of killed my motivation to study as hard, so even though I took tons of notes and stuff and watched the lectures/read the book/etc. I just halfway wasn't focused on retaining the information.

[Delawhere]

Hey I'm taking AUD tomorrow too!

Unrelated to your question, but after walking out of FAR I thought I got somewhere in the range of a 5-20 and ended up passing. Most of the people I've talked that have passed FAR say the same.

Just keep hammering those MC's for tomorrow (if you have any studying left in you). Hopefully we can knock this one out, best of luck!

BEC - TBD
AUD - TBD
REG - TBD
FAR - 76 (10/19/2015)

[emihartsell]

@Delawhere You too!!

[Author]

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