"Best" Study materials

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  • #202256
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I’m curious about what study materials helped the most for each exam. I have a retake of AUD coming up and Becker just wasn’t enough for me. For REG, I used Becker lecture and NINJA MCQ to pass, but I need more help on understanding the concepts of AUD, not just hammering out MCQ (although I do have NINJA MCQ purchased). So what’s your advice? Which lectures helped you the most?

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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  • #778360
    ruggercpa2b
    Participant

    I have yet to pass Audit, however, I did raise my score from a 49 to 73. Audit is very hard at times because you are going to find the lectures somewhat boring. I currently have Roger and he is upbeat and he makes a few jokes here and there that help me remember things.

    What really made a difference from when I studied at the time I got a 49 to when I got a 73 was that I ditched the lectures. I had the Wiley textbook and Rogers Audit cram textbook. I read the Wiley book from cover to cover. It was awful. I wanted to quit many times. I took notes and I would spend time looking things up on google if I did not truly understand the concept. I would sit down and explain concepts to our poor dog to make sure I truly understood.

    I also added the Ninja MCQs and worked those till I was blue in the face. I emailed Jeff a few times for him to look at my stats and give me feedback. Lets just say he told me to raise my score on some of the areas and I was too hasty to want to take the exam. If I had listened to him and gave myself one more week of studying I could have pulled off a 75.

    Also, I rewrote my Ninja notes. It sounded crazy when people would say rewrite your notes. I finally did it and I was surprised at how much I could remember. It seemed like mindless work as I was doing it, but the more I repeated writing things down the more it stuck I printed off a list of the ratios and I would rewrite them every night before I went to bed. I remembered all the ratios come exam day.

    I finally understood what people meant when they would say they burned out from studying. I realized that I had been half assing studying for quite some time.

    This a post I added to my favorites a while back and I went back and read this post on my last retake.

    AUD – How I earned 24 additional points

    Good Luck!

    AUD - NINJA in Training
    BEC - NINJA in Training
    FAR - NINJA in Training
    REG - NINJA in Training
    AUD - 1/6/18
    FAR - TBD
    REG - TBD
    BEC - TBD

    AUD - 73, 72 retake 7/2/2016
    BEC - 8/20/2016
    REG - TBD
    FAR - TBD

    I am so ready for this nightmare to be over. Been at this way too long.

    #778361
    TheHoundThatRides
    Participant

    After passing FAR and BEC with Roger where I feel he did an outstanding job, I actually feel like AUD is the first section where watching the lectures was not a perfectly efficient use of my time. What good is it to have Roger read the reports to me and say “This is how the report is written. This is pretty important, come back and memorize this!” And I didn't really understand transaction cycles or spotting internal control deficiencies until I started practicing MCQ on it.

    You received a 68 so you have a base amount of knowledge you can draw on. What sections of AUD are you weak on exactly?

    BEC - 78 (August 2015)
    FAR - 80 (November 2015)
    AUD - 73, 67. (Ok I gotta confess I was even more lazy this time around)
    REG - August 27th, 2016

    #778362
    1dayatatime
    Participant

    I found that the best use of time is to ignore obscure topics altogether. It's far better to be comfortable with all the major topics than to spend time trying to understand and remember every minor intricacy or exception. For example, if you're using Becker, don't bother going through the appendices or the pages that were glazed over. It's more beneficial to reread key pages and truly understand the examples presented for those topics.

    AUD - Pass
    REG - Pass
    BEC - Pass
    FAR - Pass

    #778363
    Pokey
    Participant

    So I'll be studying for my 3rd attempt for AUD in July..

    1st time – Audio, MCQs only 65
    2nd time – Audio, MCQs, read Notes, Took my own notes off of MCQs 71

    This time around – I plan on rewriting my notes & write ninja notes.. I was trending on MCQs with a 78, so my goal is to trend in the high 80s before scheduling my exam in July. I might try reading a few chapters in the Wiley book that I have.

    A - 79
    F - 77
    R - 83
    B - 75

    AUD - 74 (3x), TBD
    BEC - Sept16
    FAR - TBD
    REG - TBD

    #778364
    guy10
    Participant

    I used Roger and Ninja. After i failed Audit the first time I added Ninja. I agree that for me watching the Roger videos for Audit were a waste of my time and I just read the textbook he had and memorized the acronyms.

    Something that made a substantial difference for me was scouring the web for copies of purchase orders, invoices, bill of ladings etc. This really helped me see why the internal controls were in placed and what information was shown on each document so I could understand the audit process a little more thoroughly. I don't know if thats the best use of your time depending on what areas you were weak on but it got me my highest score out of the 4 exams. Good luck.

    AUD: 71, 80 (April 2015)
    BEC: 77 (Feb 2015)
    FAR: 76 (Jan 2015)
    REG: 54, 74, 75 (Nov 2015)

    Roger CPA + NINJA 10 Point Combo, Thank you both, I'm finally done

    #778365
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    @TheHoundThatRides According to my score report, I was weaker in “Understanding the Entitiy” and in the Simulations.

    I know sims are usually “luck of the draw” and I got horrible ones (with 2 research so I was doomed lol). Best tips or test banks to improve on sims anyone?

    #778366
    Track55
    Participant

    I've never used lectures. Buy the Gleim SIMS. Do all the Ninja questions twice if you can.

    If you got two research questions then one of them was a fake one.

    AUD - 99
    BEC - 83
    FAR - 86
    REG - 92
    California - Internal Audit

    CPA since December 2016.

    (took seven tries, 1 year 10 months).

    AUD - 74, 99 !!
    REG - 74, 92
    BEC - 83
    FAR - 73, 86

    Studying for Ethics exam

    California candidate
    Business and Industry

    #778367
    Martin
    Participant

    Audit- Roger and Ninja MC

    FAR- Becker and Bisk for Gov/NFP and Ninja MC

    BEC-Roger sucks, and Ninja sucks too (questions come from I don't know where)

    REG-Working on it. Becker for Law and Taxes, Roger for Taxes only, and Ninja MC

    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

    #778368
    Martin
    Participant

    Track55, how did you go from 74 to 92 on Reg, what was your average with Ninja?

    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

    #778369
    Anonymous
    Participant

    ^^TheHoundThatRides, I'm currently listening to Roger say exactly what you said he would for AUD. Ugh! I feel like I should've just read a book, but he is doing a good job keeping me awake 🙂

    Do NOT quit! There's more in you and if you quit you'll never see it. Show you that you can do it.

    AUD Passed  78
    BEC Passed  79
    FAR Passed  77
    REG Passed 76

    I'm tired of operating in fear and mediocrity. It's time to try. It's time to do. It's time to go.

    #778370
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Rogers course is pretty terrible..I read glowing reviews over and over about him so thought great..well ive had nothing but issues outside his lectures that tend to not cover any of the questions to study over..

    on top of that they just overhauled everything and changed the the website and questions ive been studying..which could be good or bad..but its interface is still odd. so now i have to dig through two different sections to see what is what on my progress..they look identically the same..

    So far Ive been very upset with rogers and would never recommend it to anyone..outside his lectures.

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