Hi Priscilla,
I had a very similar experience with AUD. and I just found out I finally passed yesterday. Don't give up. Your scores are so close to passing, you just need to adjust your study strategy!
I'll give you a bit more detail about my struggles with AUD. I took BEC first and passed with relative ease. It gave me confidence and I proceeded with AUD. I was a finance major and had never taken any audit classes in college and didn't have any audit work experience. I knew I was gonna have a harder time with the AUD exam. I studied with CPAExcel and spent about 2-3 months on my first try. I didn't find the material to be particularly hard, so it didnt hit me until I saw my first score – 66. I thought maybe I didn't put in enough studying time or got a bit too comfortable since I passed my first exam without struggling or stressing. So I immediately rescheduled to take it again while the material was still fresh in my mind. I reviewed everything using the same studying material and did all of the practice questions again. I spent about a month reviewing. I felt better after my second try at AUD, but scored only two points higher at 68. This is when I really started panicing because I felt like I put in the time and effort.I also never felt like the material was too difficult and I didn't understand it. On top of that, my clock started ticking since I had already passed BEC. So I decided to move onto another section to gain some confidence. I spent about 2 months studying REG and barely passed it.
At this point, I decided to give AUD another try because I wanted to have undivided attention for FAR and leave it as my last section and give it my all. My third try at AUD was Feb 2014, my BEC credit was to expire in Aug 2014. So essentially I had to pass AUD and FAR ( the hardest and heaviest sections in my opinion) in 6 months. This was not at all how I had planned my exams out. and as you can imagine, I was really stressed out since I really did not want to retake any sections. I should mention that for my second and third try at AUD, I purchased NINJA notes and Wiley Test Bank. I read the notes multiple times and did all of the questions in the Test Bank. My third attempt at AUD, I was fairly confident I passed. but instead, I scored a 73. This was the hardest fail because I was really running out of time. Finally, I started studying for FAR in March 2014, and scheduled to take it at the end of May. the CPAExcel for FAR was way too overwhelming, I had two textbooks to read, they were both as thick as college textbooks, if not more. and 1100 MCQs to go through. Somehow, I managed to do all of this in 2 months. but I didnt feel like I had a good grasp of the material nor did I feel like I absorbed enough to do well on the exam. At this point, I switched to Becker. This was a huge change. The way Becker organized the material and explained it made SO MUCH more sense to me. I read through all 10 chapters and did about half the questions in just over 3 weeks. I really wished I had switched to Becker sooner. but lucky for me, I passed FAR on my first try as well.
Now it was June, I still had AUD to tackle. I had no confidence but knew it was my last shot before I lose credit for BEC. I used Becker this time and surprisingly did well on all of the practice questions. which made no sense to me since there was never a point in my studying process that I felt like I finally understood everything better or a light bulb went off. because I was doing the same thing, reading every chapter and doing all of the MCQs. I spent 6 weeks re-studying AUD using Becker and was SO SCARED that I would fail again.
I just found out yesterday I passed with a 97. It took me all weekend to check my score because I couldn't bare the thought of failing AUD and losing credit for BEC. but it's such a big relief to know I'm finally done.
My advise to you is to try to understand every question you answered wrong. figure out if your studying material just doesn't work for you. I know I study better when I have a big picture of how everything is connected and related to each other, then dive into each chapter and learn the details. CPAExcel has a whole bunch of bite size lectures which really confused me and I wasn't able to see the big picture. It's possible that your studying material just does not suit your learning style.
I can't imagine how hard it must be to work and study while you have young kids. but you are so close to passing, don't be discouraged. Adjust your studying strategy. or perhaps move onto other sections first. I can't tell you how stupid and discouraged I felt every time I failed. especially since I never really struggled with school before. It was both shocking and sad and discouraging. But I had commited to studying for the CPA. I had sacrificed my weekends and evenings studying, so I knew giving up wasn't an option. I really believe if I can pass after failing so many times, you can too! If you read other people's posts in this forum, you'll see that a lot of people have struggled with AUD. It really is a tricky section. Don't give up! Your efforts will pay off eventually.
I wish you the best and good luck with studying!
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