[Anonymous]

1.) Memorize every single report and related document word for word. Memorization is the key to this exam.

2.) Don’t do so many questions; I think this leads to many disappointing scores. In my opinion, 95% of the practice questions I did are not a good representation of what’s to come. I felt that the actual exam questions were more straightforward. I know the material is boring, but you’ll be way better off knowing the information, as opposed to knowing answers to questions that won’t be on the test.

Instead of doing 500 mc questions during your last week of studying, buy/make notes and don’t stop reviewing. Force yourself to keep reading and reinforcing…

Just a few thoughts from someone who has no back round in acc/aud and is taking the CPA exams step by step!

Hope it helps!

[Anonymous]

No offense, but memorizing every single report seems like an extremely, extremely inefficient use of study time. It's one thing to memorize the standard report and just try to figure out the differences from there. It's another to spend all of your study time memorizing the reports. In my opinion, it's sufficient enough just to be familiar enough with what the content of each report should be. After you look at a few reports, it becomes pretty common sense what should be in the reports.

[Anonymous]

Also, what review did you use in terms of questions? I think that point of yours is extremely interesting, but the review you use is obviously the key to your point.

[Anonymous]

No offense taken, cardinalhoya! It took me about 4 hours to memorize the reports and documents, which, yes, was annoying and numbing. After that, I would review them for about 20-30 minutes a day, 3-4 days before the test. When you think about it, in the 6-7 hours of total time spent on this, I sacrificed doing about 450 MCQs. I'll take that tradeoff any day of the week.

I used the Wiley review book, and Gleim software to get accustomed to answering questions on a computer. I think doing some questions is good for evaluation, but doing too many will put you in the wrong mindset on test day. I've read some posts in the last few months where people scored 80-90% on MCQ, but felt like the actual exam was like a form of culture shock. When you see the same “kind” of questions 2k-3k times, you gradually become more receptive to the question types/format of the program you're using. On test day, that all goes out the window.

[jeff]

Disagree. Memorize which paragraph goes where – not the report itself.

MCQs are very important.

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) | Another71 | NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE

[Minimorty]

Memorizing without understanding is very rarely the right way to go. Understanding is key to passing the exams.

[Anonymous]

How many reports did you “memorize”? Clearly, if it only took you 3 to 4 hours, you didn't memorize THAT many reports, or we have a different understanding of memorization. From your first post, I just assumed that you were talking about EVERY SINGLE report which there must be at least 20, probably more.

And, speaking of your “culture shock” point, it very well may just be because they were doing well on the exam. In fact, when you start getting many questions that don't seem familiar to you when you're well prepared, it's generally a good sign. Granted, if you're not well prepared, that's another story entirely.

[Anonymous]

@ Cardinal – Comp, Review, Pro Forma, AUP, Audit (Public/Non), Engagement, Client Rep, etc… I didn't mean to come off like I memorized a volume of tax code. Sorry about that.

@ Jeff – As someone who has recently taken the exam and in fear of violating any sort of disclosure issues, I'll simply say this: Agree to disagree!! haha!

The tone of those who have used your notes say that they're a great asset in preparation of the exam. Although I haven't used them (probably will buy them for FAR!), I believe the users because retaining solid information will get you a passing grade. Simple but true.

I just think doing lots of mcq will not make the exam/life any easier… Also, it's amazing how much easier the questions are on the exam when you know information.

[mla1169]

Everybody has different learning styles and hammering MCQ isn't for everyone. I will say my best scores are the exams I did the most MCQ's for. But my learning style doesn't work for everyone.

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[Anonymous]

I'm personally against the whole concept of just doing as many MCQs as possible, over and over again. I think at that point you're probably more likely to be memorizing the questions than actually learning much more. However, I also definitely disagree with the concept that doing MCQs is not very helpful. I take the middle ground where I believe you should do all of the MCQs from your review program AT LEAST once. Then, before the test, at least review those questions which gave you problems. I think doing MCQs is the most efficient way to add points to your CPA score as you get an idea of what is likely to be tested as opposed to just absentmindedly memorizing everything in site which may or may not be on the exam.

[Kim4]

I memorized the standard audit report, and then I knew the changes for the different opinions.

I handed my 9 year old, who is fantastic with details (you said we'd leave at 9:00 and it is now 9:00:30, so what is the delay??)…I handed him a copy of the audit report, and told him that I needed to memorize it word for word, and that he could correct me every time I made a mistake. Well, he loved doing that. Every time we got in the car, he wanted to quiz me. It got to where he could even spout out the opinion paragraph, poor kid!

Anyway, I'm not going to say that was the cause of my 95, but it didn't hurt, and it was sure nice spending time with my son while I was studying.

FAR -- 90
AUD -- 95
BEC -- 82
REG -- 92

DONE!

[Anonymous]

They key to AUD:

-MQCs- work as many MCQs as possible. I would say that >50% of the questions I encountered where exactly or almost the same as the ones I had practiced

-SIMS-you need to really understand the material and know how to use the AL

[Anonymous]

I already thought this advice was poor in the first place, but after taking the exam, it pushed me to the point where I believe his advice is completely ass backwards. Doing MCQs is by and far the most helpful for the Audit test in comparison to all of the other CPA exams. There isn't that much material tested on the Audit exam which means there are only so many types of questions and ways a question can be asked. This means that you are likely to see many similar questions or even exact same questions on the exam that you've been doing for homework. So, the advice to cut out multiple choice for audit is, to put it bluntly, stupid.

Also, as far as the advice to memorize the reports, I guess it may be helpful if you have unlimited time to study, but I doubt anyone is like that. I guess there is a chance you could have A TON of questions about the phrasing of a report, but I would guess the likelihood of that is slim to none. More likely is that you'll just get a few questions where this would be relevant, and even then, if you're familiar with the reports, you should easily be able to get the right answer without knowing the reports word for word.

The purpose of this post isn't to personally attack the OP, but I feel like I need to especially emphasize how bad I really think the advice is. If people take the OPs advice, I very well think it could be very detrimental to their score [as in it could easily take many points away from their score without adding many if any points]

[Minimorty]

@cardinal – I hope you stick around for a little while after you pass.

[skintapeup]

I def. agree that Audit is just pounding MCQ's and knowing why the wrong answers are the wrong answers…This will also help in the Sims furthering your understanding of the material.

[Author]

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