[JSPERBER]

So here’s my dilemma, I’m faced with a shitty auditing professor this coming semester (he’s basically an easy A professor that doesn’t teach anything), and I’m afraid It’s going to jeopardize my chances of one day becoming a CPA. I would take an effective professor, but the times that these professors teach conflict with my work schedule.

Will the tradeoff of an easy A professor come to bite me in the ass in the future, or will it not matter because I’ll learn everything from the Becker review course anyways?

I currently a junior in college and have the all Becker lectures downloaded on my laptop. I know it’s early in the game (considering I have a year left until graduation) but I already started watching the lectures and practicing for the FAR section. While studying, I realized I was able to comprehend a lot of the material since the material was similar to what my professor taught (I had great financial reporting professors).

Should I breeze through this easy A course, and allocate my time and energy to watching and practicing the Audit section? I consider myself to be and average/slow learner.

[scarecrow]

I can honestly say that I didn't apply any knowledge gained in my college audit class to the cpa exam. There was a few years between the two, but if it were any different I wouldn't change my answer. Do your gpa a favor and get the A. Becker will teach you everything you need to know to pass.

317 CLUB

[s2sylvir]

Take the easy A. Campus recruiters usually have a cap for the lowest GPA they're looking to hire, so I'd take any chance that would guarantee a boost to the GPA. Also, nothing I learned in undergrad ever applied to my actual job.

BEC - PASS (79)
AUD - PASS (63, 71, 74, 74, 83)
REG - PASS (88)
FAR - PASS (58, 89)

Becker for all + FAR 10 Point Combo

[Anonymous]

Take the easy A. No matter how easy the class is, you'll still have to understand basic concepts to pull off the A. So, you'll come into Becker with the fundamentals and Becker will do the rest 🙂

[Anonymous]

Whether you succeed or not with the CPA exam will depend on you. Dont get hung up on what type of professor youll get. I had a terrible one for federal taxes in college and after studying for REG I realized that it wouldn't had matter. Likewise, I had a good one for audit but I hated the class itself. Bottom line, just be determined to pass and focus on your preparation.

PS. I would, at least add the Ninja notes to your studying materials.

[Anonymous]

Take the easy A. Unfortunately we live in a society where people are more interested in the letter grade than your actual level of knowledge….

[Kettlepot]

You still have to buy the book, right?

it's kind of on you to learn at this point.

With that being said though, Becker, and Wiley to an extent, reviews pretty much hold your hand through all of auditing, even if you've “forgotten” a lot about Auditing.

Far: 49
BEC: 79 (Expired)
AUD: 51, 67, 64
REG: 59, 64, 59, 69

[Mjganier]

I'll have to go with the other side of things on this one. I credit the main reason I was able to fly through my previous exams was because of the rigorousness of the Accounting courses I took. Even though I graduated 3 years ago, I was able to recall fully a lot of the information because I really had to study it and devote myself to in college. However, I've hit a bit of a road block with BEC because I took the easy A in all of my other business courses and learned absolutely nothing. So now I'm facing an uphill battle with the information because I'm having to really learn a good chunk of it from the very basics. I would say, do yourself a favor and take the harder professor.

FAR 8/18/2014--87
AUD 10/18/2014--78
REG 11/24/2014--76
BEC 2/28/2015--76

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"-Albert Einstein

Study Mats: Cpaexcel study text and EQ, Ninja MCQ, Ninja notes

[Anonymous]

I never took a tax class in my life but check out that shiny 75 I got on REG. In other words, if you apply yourself, you can do it.

Disclaimer: I took a full week off work before my REG exam for my final review…that helped.

[s2sylvir]

BEC maybe, but the OP is debating an undergraduate audit class. It's another story if it's graduate course.

But undergrad? Audit and tax classes won't help. Tax 1 only goes through majority individual tax, and that's about 20% of REG. Audit 1 class only gets you through the basics, which might help you on 20% of AUD.

Also, know that what you learn in school now for tax and audit may change slightly by the time you take the exams. For example, I took audit when it was still an unqualified opinion (then) vs unmodified opinion (now). For tax especially, I took classes for the years when there was no phase out, and now we have phase out, so I pretty much had to learn that thanks to Becker (no thanks to my college class).

BEC - PASS (79)
AUD - PASS (63, 71, 74, 74, 83)
REG - PASS (88)
FAR - PASS (58, 89)

Becker for all + FAR 10 Point Combo

[GuitarSalad]

I'd take the easy A and not worry about it. Grades help you open doors in recruiting, and your personality and interview skills will finish things off when looking for a job. Honestly, the best thing a great audit teacher could do is prepare you well enough that you could sit the AUD exam after passing it without having to bore yourself with a bunch of CPA exam prep lectures. Even though I didn't know it at the time, I was about a week or so of going through MCQs away from being able to pass AUD after finishing my advanced auditing class. Had I known that my grasp was that strong, I would have just taken it instead of waiting until the summer after I finished My MAcc program. I'm not an auditor currently (starting this fall), but my personal belief is that you will wind up with the training you need to be an auditor from the firm you are hired with. You won't be at that much of a disadvantage if you don't have a great audit professor.

BEC 7/12/13 - 84
AUD 8/31/13 - 86
REG 4/11/14 - 84
FAR 5/30/14 - 88

Licensed AZ CPA - 10/2014

[StephAV]

I'd take the easy A! You can learn just as much if not more from a CPA review course. Audit is not a difficult subject to learn or understand. You will figure it out. It is kind of abstract before you do it.

FAR - 7/13 - 72, 11/13- 74, 2/14- 82!!! Best score ever (for me)!!!
BEC - 1/14 - 75!!! Perfect score! First Pass! YAY!!!
AUD - 8/14 - 80!!!
REG - 5/14 - 72, 10/14 - 66, 1/15 - 78 - DONE FOREVER!!!
I did 5 of the UNA and CPAExcel classes to earn units.

[JSPERBER]

I'm also taking this tax professor who allows “open notes” for the exams. I also found out that this professor's test questions are identical to Wiley test bank questions. I can basically get an “A” by showing up to the exam with the Wiley questions already downloaded to my iPad, and I can just search for the answers. Will I be cheating myself, and will it bite me in the ass in the future?

[s2sylvir]

-_____-

BEC - PASS (79)
AUD - PASS (63, 71, 74, 74, 83)
REG - PASS (88)
FAR - PASS (58, 89)

Becker for all + FAR 10 Point Combo

[Anonymous]

About your last comment/question, all I have to say is…Really?

[make_yourself]

I would say definitely take the easy A and boost your GPA. I had zero audit knowledge prior to taking the exam and got a 92 on AUD using purely Becker. Good luck!

FAR - 81 (07/24/2012)
BEC - 92 (10/06/2012)
AUD - 92 (11/29/2012)
REG - 88 (02/28/2013)

Ethics - 90

California Licensed CPA - 12/2013

[Author]

Replies