[J.L.S.]

I would like to ask for insight/feedback on the AUD review courses vs. the actual exam. I failed AUD twice after studing over 200 hours (even heavily discounted for moments of distraction and if i was stuck on a concept). I scored upper 80s and 90s on wiley cpaexcel & ninja. answered all mcq’s in ninja with 95 trending & 83 average. Wound up with actual exam scores of 62 & 68.

I’ve heard the cpa exam is like lake michigan an inch deep (alot of material, no real depth). But i felt the exam asked me to go deep diving more than once, and even asked questions about lake superior, (to continue the comparison). What am i missing? Any insights would be much appreciated.

[zoctoman]

My only advice would be to truly ask yourself if you understand why an answer is what it is. If you are correct, make yourself reason out exactly the reason why you are correct. It is possible to do the multiple choice so many times that you essentially “memorize” the answer. Auditing is a bit weird and abstract. If you learn auditing in separate pieces it is much less valuable than understanding Auditing as a whole.

For example, if you are studying vouching, ask yourself why we vouch?

We vouch for existence…..what does that mean?

That means that we test to see whether something posted in the general ledger(or other type of financial presentation) actually exists…….What does exist mean?

Exist means that we can find evidence that the transaction actually occured…….so explain what actually is happening overall?

Vouching means that we start from the record kept of a transaction(i.e. posting in a general ledger), and we look to see if the underlying transaction exists(invoice or other document) that supports our posting in the records.

Understanding the essence of what is happening is more important than memorizing “vouch from general ledger to source document”.

At this point I am an auditor and all of the abstract concepts are much easier to understand when I am actually looking at a general ledger, financial statement or invoice. But if you try to actually picture in your mind what is happening, you will better understand auditing.

These are just my thoughts and I hope they help you!

Audit(11/5/13) - 89
Reg(5/16/14) - 86
FAR(7/18/14) - 82
BEC(11/14) - 85

[zoctoman]

I forgot to mention the main purpose of vouching. We vouch because we are wary of overstatement of revenues. Just because someone says they made a million bucks doesn't mean they actually have earned that money. If we look at documentation proving the sale occured then we can feel confident that those revenues actually exist.

Audit(11/5/13) - 89
Reg(5/16/14) - 86
FAR(7/18/14) - 82
BEC(11/14) - 85

[Anonymous]

edited:

I am going to retake AUD tomorrow and hit the review stage earlier this week. I am going over Ninja Notes and Blitz now and feeling good. Also I got a 68 on my first exam. I used Ninja MCQ to pass REG and BEC and I never came close to hitting the review stage, so I'm hoping doing the extra questions will translate into a passing score.

If you hit all the questions in Ninja MCQ and your average score was 83, then you had to have missed very few. I'm interested to know how many questions it took you to complete all of the questions?

You did 200 hours for each test prep? Is this your first exam section?

[J.L.S.]

Thanks zoctoman! I will certainly take your advise and implement it. I appreciate you taking the time to provide your feedback!

6silvermoonbeams – AUD is my first attempt, so part of the reason for studying 200+ hours is likely because I've been out of the academia scene for over 10 years, and just started studying accounting a little over a year ago. So learning how to study again took some time. I'm not sure how many MCQ's I went though on NINJA, but over 2,000; I had everything reset when I learned I failed AUD again.

[Anonymous]

I was also 10+ years out of school when I started prepping for the exams. My first three scores were 74,72,71. Those sucked. I did less videos and reading the books, and dove into the MCQ much further to pass REG and BEC. I did about 1,600 mcq for each of those exams as well as my first AUD exam. This time I did 2,800 questions for my AUD retake.

I work full time in a public CPA firm, married with 2 kids. Just got done with a brutal tax season and rolled right into this retake. Don't stop studying, go back in and get AUD done. Reset your stats again in MCQ.

My first test was BEC and it took me 3 times unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

@zoctoman Great explanation! You could also use the same logic for testing completeness.

Why is completeness important? We make sure that balances, transactions, and disclosures that should have been recorded are actually recorded. Completeness tests for coverage and the understatement of liabilities and expenses. This makes sense because a client may be more inclined to not record liabilities and expenses. Therefore, auditors make sure that these accounts that should have been recorded are recorded by the client.

What do we use to generally test for completeness? Tracing.

What entails tracing? Tracing from the source documents forward to the financial statements. Tracing from the source documents provides support and evidence about what balances, transactions, and disclosures must be recorded.

I am taking AUD this Saturday! Wish me luck.

[Zuly]

@J.L.S. have you tried Roger for Audit? I highly recommend him because what zoctoman and dannyp07 mention above is how Roger teaches audit. Both their explanations are right on and that's what helped me pass. It's not about memorizing but more about understanding where you are in the audit process and why things are done the way they are done. I'm not an auditor but it helped that I could apply these concepts to real-life and I think that's what you'll need to get that pass. I was able to pass on my first try using the Roger Cram, NINJA MCQs and Wiley book.

FAR - (11/01/14) 71 (02/07/15) 79
AUD - (04/30/15) 86
BEC - (07/21/15) 73 (10/01/15) 75
REG - (11/30/15) 55 (05/19/16) 74

[Martin]

J.L.S., I have never worked in Audit before, and I got a C when I took it in college 14 years ago. The medicine for your illness with Audit is Roger CPA. I dont think his great for Reg, and BEC,but he is the man when it comes to Audit. Try to get it on ebay if you can, and you will thank me later. His test bank is a piece of shhh , so dont even bother with it. Take lots of notes as he is giving the lectures. Work on other test banks besides ninja's cause it seem that you have meorize the answers. One week or two weeks before the exam, go back to Ninja and try to answer at least 1000 MC questions or more. Good Luck!

Through God all things can happen!

“You never fail until you stop trying.”
― Albert Einstein
When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people;as I grow older, I admire kind people.
“Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”

FAR= 72-84
Audit= 73-82
BEC= 74-75
Reg=77

[SomedayCPA2015]

I just bought the Roger lecture for $150 plus shipping. Well worth it for a pass, in my opinion. I have the ninja 10-point combo, but the lectures are where I learn best. I used to have Becker but it expired, and the Roger lectures are way better at holding my attention than Becker. I originally planned on sitting for AUD in July but tried to squeeze it in this month and came short by 1 point. J.L.S I felt the exact same way. The amount of minute details tested were crazy to me. All this to say, I second the suggestion for Roger lecture. Good luck! You'll get it next time!

REG - Passed
BEC - Passed
AUD - Passed
FAR - Passed!!!! I have my life back.

[J.L.S.]

Thanks a million, Everyone! I truly appreciate and value your feedback and the time you spent responding to my post! I'm going to look into buying Roger Cram now.

[Ajaz0810]

@somedaycpa where did you get Rogers lecture for 150? The cram is 225 on his website. Did you have a discount??

FAR 62, 66, 78
AUD 66, 55, 74, 72
BEC 79
REG

[SomedayCPA2015]

@Ajaz0810 from the home page, go to CPA Exam Review Courses & Products, then scroll down past all of the other packages where you will then see “Offline CPA Review Course Software”

I think it was around $17 to ship. Let me know if that doesn't work, but it should!

REG - Passed
BEC - Passed
AUD - Passed
FAR - Passed!!!! I have my life back.

[Ineedsomesun]

Audit has been a problem for me too. I think I put in more time for Aud then all 3 of the other parts combined, a little exaggerated but not really. I just took audit for the 3rd time (I scored a 68 the second time like yourself) and I have no idea if I passed as I never feel good coming out of an exam. I think I'll be in the 73-79 range. I knew I had some weak areas so I'll focus on those IF I need to take it again (fingers crossed).

Did you feel comfortable with all the material before going in. For me, the problem areas were transaction cycles, what assertion was being tested by the procedure (finally started getting 3 out of 4 questions right after somewhat understanding COVERU), why it was a bad internal control, ARC (scoring in the high 60's low 70's range), and some of the auditor reports (around 75-80 percent.. I didn't feel ready but I sat for it anyway, BTW, I never feel ready. Also, really learn how to use the AL. I spent the whole day before the exam on just that. I still missed part of the research question, haha, but it helped with 2 other questions.

FAR - 78, FEB2014,
REG - 82, MAY2014
BEC - 79, JULY2014
AUD - 68, 86, MAY2015 (ALL DONE!!!)

[Author]

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