I'm recognizing quite a few names from the old BEC study thread. Welcome aboard all.
@cdwolf: You’ve passed two exams so FAR or AUD first is really six of one, half a dozen of the other. You know what you need to do so it’s just a matter of studying, preparing and more studying.
For what it’s worth, FAR is more time consuming to prepare for. It’s 10 chapters in Becker and some of the chapters are long. There is a ton of information that you need to know. There isn’t a lot of crossover with AUD but there is a little. For example, it’s not uncommon to get FAR style sims on the AUD exam (particularly journal entries). On my AUD exam, one of my sims was a FAR style one (journal entries) with an Audit twist. That’s all I’ll say about it.
AUD is, nearly, 100% conceptual. So it makes studying easier. You don’t need to spend as much time because once you have the concept locked down, you can move on with minimal review. For the MCQ, the only possible calculations that I can think of is with statistical sampling and some ratios. Statistics in Auditing sucks (in my opinion) but ratios should be second nature by now.
The last thing I’ll say is this. You need to pass FAR at some point and putting it off can cause people to build it up in their heads that FAR is this insurmountable juggernaut bent on world destruction. AUD is by no means a slam dunk but it goes by so much faster. AUD actually has the lowest passing rate but I believe that has a lot to do with people underestimating AUD and people who are English as a Second Language struggling with the wording of it.
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