66 on Audit – PLEASE HELP!

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  • November 25, 2015 at 3:37 am #198543
    big K
    Member

    Hello,

    My CPA journey has been extremely long, it took me five tries to finally pass FAR and by then I had lost credit for REG and BEC. I finally passed FAR in 11/2014 and then repassed BEC (2/2015) and REG (5/2015). My wife asked that I take a break from studying for some family time, I obliged and started studying for Audit in late August / early September and took the exam on November 14th. I failed with a 66.

    I have taken Audit three times, the first two times I took it I didn’t get much time to study (maybe 30 – 40 hours); I only took the exam both times because I had already paid for it and the time was about to expire. However, this last time I used the Ninja book, Ninja Notes, and Ninja MCQ and spent close to 150 hours studying. Sadly my score improved by less than 10 points; I scored 61 and 59 the first two times (without much studying) and 66 (with studying).

    I should add that I work in a niche tax area, and have never worked in an “accounting” or “audit” role so all my learning is what derives from the study materials. Here is how I studied:

    1) Read through book once, highlighting notes

    2) Read and reread the highlighted notes and ninja notes during my commute to and from work

    3) Did over 1,500 MCQs; I was trending @ 88 and averaging @ 66

    I have two more chances to pass Audit, until I lose FAR. And considering by then it will be middle of 2016 and the change overs being discussed starting 2017 I may have to throw in the towel. I am mentally and emotionally exhausted. And quite franking telling people that I am still pursuing this certification after three years is getting embarrassing.

    Outside of writing and the rewriting of the notes / fact nuggets which I didn’t do because I thought spending time doing as many MCQs would be better spent. I had used this strategy for my passes with FAR, REG, and BEC, and it seemed to work.

    Any suggestions on what I should do?

    I guess what troubles me the most is that is that after studying significantly more, my score only went up by 5 – 7 points.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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  • November 25, 2015 at 3:44 am #744993
    Mamabear
    Member

    I don't know if this will work for you, but I can tell you what I did for AUD that raised my score 20 points. I read the Wiley AUD book from front to back and stopped when the book said to stop and work MCQ. I listened to the Ninja Audio as much as possible to the point that I could say it along with Jeff. I studied the Ninja notecards until I was getting the majority of every section correct. I rewrote the Ninja notes 2 times and I worked the MCQ constantly. The most important thing for AUD was reading the entire question and reading ALL of the answers before making my choice. Honestly during the exam I consistently got the choices down to two and then had to make an educated guess. It felt like I failed and I wanted to give up halfway through the exam, but it worked. I also looked up every SIM in the AL and found entire answers to at least one that I can remember.

    CPA Exam - Finally DONE (November 2014)
    BEC (08/10/13) 80
    AUD (08/24/13) 65 (11/13/13) 85
    FAR (04/12/14) 81
    REG (07/19/14) 69 (11/29/14) 87!!

    November 25, 2015 at 12:24 pm #744994
    monikernc
    Participant

    i read the ninja books and with each section i did the corresponding ninja mcq's in custom sessions for all new questions until i got them all 100% correct. did review question sessions of everything studied to that point as i progressed. i printed the home pages of the standards for audit, attestation and review and referred to them as i went through the material. i read the actual standard when i needed a better grasp on a concept. i scheduled a week per chapter and some took a day or two more others less but finished in about 6 weeks. then i started hitting sims until i got through them all.
    when i hit the review phase in ninja mcq i should have reset for the last two weeks and then work back to adaptive phase because i kept getting too many repeat questions.
    last two days i went section by section doing 50 question sets. it is important not to rely on memorization of the q&a's you have to learn it. always know what phase of the audit process the question is asking about – that is always the key driver to the answer.
    good luck.

    AUD - 93
    BEC - 82
    FAR - 76
    REG - 88
    How have you been?
    Ninja book and MCQs and the forum, all first try! 2016
    Licensed State of Montana April Fool’s Day 2020
    State of Colorado June 2020 - AICPA Ethics 93
    Experience was the worst part of the journey for me. You?
    If you want things to change you have to do something different.

    FAR 7/25/15 76!
    AUD 10/30/15 93
    BEC 2/27/16 82
    REG 5/23/16 88!
    Ninja Book and MCQ and the forum - all the way!!!
    and a little thing i like to call, time and effort!
    if you want things to change, you have to do something different

    November 25, 2015 at 3:21 pm #744995
    Lucci
    Member

    Like mamabear suggested, Wiley really help me with Auditing the second time around (like you I believe I scored a 66 or 67 initially, and on the retake I got a 90). I found a recent Wiley PDF and basically re-wrote it section by section and worked every single MCQ problem. I kind of also changed my thinking when it came to tackling the MCQs, it helped a lot more when I approached the problems by eliminating possible answers rather than looking for the correct answer.

    November 25, 2015 at 4:57 pm #744996
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I completely agree with the above posters wiley book really helps .For my retake I read the wiley book at least 2 times and did 2 times all the wiley book mcq's and please do the sims at the end of each module they are good review of the module . I had Yaeger and garry is really good and if you can buy the cram then go for it . I also did Ninja mcq's ..ninja is really good for the AUDIT .
    As you already took the aud so you know how important is the module 1( pay attention in module 1) do all the questions for this module with whatever source you have like wiley book , cpa review for free , ninja and garry will take care rest of module.
    This what I did and passed the exam with 83.
    hope it will help.

    November 25, 2015 at 5:37 pm #744997
    Claudia408
    Participant

    audit is something you need to learn in sequence and it has to be organized. if you don't pass on this 4th try, it might be worth looking into a different review course for a “fresh” look.

    BEC 65, 71, 75
    AUD 62, 70, 78
    REG 67, 66, 65, 66, 64
    FAR 68, 64, 73

    BEC - 75 (3x)
    AUD - 78 (3x)
    REG - 67, 66, Aug 1
    FAR - 54, Sept 8

    November 25, 2015 at 6:10 pm #744998
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I failed Audit twice before I passed it this month because I didn't get the concepts about how the audit risks impacting the FS. Audit's simulations has sth to do with FAR materials. After I passed Far, I re-took Audit with 41 hours study time (about 1.5 weeks study time, with working full time) and nailed simulations during the exam. You don't need to re-study FAR to prepare Audit, but you have to understand the impacts on FS. And also, in case you have not done it, during the exam, you should leverage “literature” to check your answers. I did about 2500 MCQs which prepared me well for the exam too. Best lucks. We all have been there.

    Audit-73 (April 15), 69 (July 15), 89 (Nov. 15)
    Far-73 (Aug 15), 76 (Nov. 15)
    Bec-82 (Feb. 15)
    Reg-75 (May 15)

    Ethic-96

    November 26, 2015 at 2:50 am #744999
    big K
    Member

    Thanks for the response everyone.

    I am going to incorporate your suggestions into my new study plan.

    Looks like a few of you mentioned the Wiley book, I am going to go ahead and add that to my studying arsenal.

    Thanks!

    November 26, 2015 at 3:01 am #745000
    big K
    Member

    Thanks for the response everyone.

    I am going to incorporate your suggestions into my new study plan.

    Looks like a few of you mentioned the Wiley book, I am going to go ahead and add that to my studying arsenal.

    Thanks!

    November 26, 2015 at 7:39 am #745001
    win2bet
    Participant

    Yea Audit is insanely frustrating, seems the only way to really pass is to read the whole wiley book. My strategy is too read the Wiley book via pdf in my iPad mini, using adobe so I highlight things as i read. Then would do Wiley & NINJA topic specific MCQs. Then write out the highlighted areas. Do this chapter by chapter & then just review notes at end, possibly re-write them last time. lot of work

    ,

    REG 68,87
    BEC 85
    FAR 75
    AUD 64,64, 86!

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