How to Pass Auditing (when you’ve never done an audit…)
Auditing scared me to death.
Ive never done an audit in my life, nor did I know the slightest thing about auditing prior to passing that section of the CPA Exam.
However, I scored a 69 on my first try without really studying.
My NTS was running out and I had to take it or lose it, so I took Auditing the same day as another exam I had studied for (I ended up failing that one too).
The fact that I scored a 69 the first time still baffles me to this day, because I didnt deserve a score that high.
I passed Auditing on my second try with a 79 through memorization. I memorized everything that I could the steps to an audit, management assertions, etc.
The questions on Auditing can be very subjective and you find yourself staring at two answers that both seem correct. You have to choose the most correct answer.
I derived my answers by frantically writing down all of my mnemonics on my scratch paper prior to beginning my exam. With that said, keep in mind that if you take too long, your exam session will lock, so you must do this quickly i.e. within 3-4 minutes and then get started.
During the exam, I referred back to my mnemonics constantly and answered the questions accordingly.
There are also a number of topics such as internal control that you can only learn by doing countless multiple choice questions.
If you work enough questions, eventually you will build a base of knowledge about auditing on subjects like internal control where mnemonics dont really work that well, and you will be able to successfully answer the questions on the exam.
