Audit – Becker chapters 4 & 5

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #157173
    skiw97
    Participant

    Becker Question –

    I worked in internal audit for 1.5 years, then joined big 4 firm and worked there to almost manager in external audit… the lectures are not adding much value, and the majority of the questions I have experience with throughout my career.. (I’ve done all lectures and q’s for A1-A3)

    Should I even bother spending 2 days doing the B4 and B5 lecture, or just skim the material, maybe review the flash cards and go straight to the MC’s??

    PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND IF YOU DO NOT HAVE SIMILAR WORK EXPERIENCE, I noticed a lot of people on here are are still in college and study aka memorize stuff they have no clue about. I’m sorry for all of you that get 150 credit hours and pass CPA exam before you start working because it adds no value and you forget everything by the time you start. Its really too bad they put that rule in. I’ve worked with Big 10 masters students with CPA license that cant tell the difference between an asset and a liability in the real world, and have no idea how to work with the client to understand/audit simple balance sheet accounts.

    FAR 11/13 - 78, BEC 1/13 - 82, AUD 2/23 - 94, REG 5/15 - 86

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 26 total)
  • Author
    Replies
  • #217138
    strider4216
    Participant

    I'd help you out but I'm not allowed to respond :p

    #217139
    strider4216
    Participant

    oh and don't feel sorry for us recent grads who took the tests before we started working..it's nice starting with a MUCH higher salary and getting these grueling tests over with before we have to deal with work 🙂

    #217140
    AnotherFutureCPA
    Participant

    Dude get off your high horse.

    Also I doubt anyone can pass the CPA exam and not know the difference between an asset or a liability.

    I think your post is more of a bash than asking for any help.

    #217141
    skiw97
    Participant

    Well now they wont even consider anyone w/o 150 that hasnt passed or has progress on the exam.. so I cant really relate to the salary, but I came in at 52.5k in 2004, and I was making the same, if not more then people with cpa bc it was such a hot time in public. Go to school for 5 years, get 150 credit hours while most people can barely graduate in 4 years with the standard degree, lose 6 months of your life to the cpa exam, and then work in public accounting and get so burn out you have no idea what you are in for, and its all meaningless auditing, no one cares what you are doing, yet you are in an audit room till 10, 11, 12pm doing stuff that no one in their right mind gives two craps about. By the time you make senior, if you can make it that far, over 60% of your time will be spent doing admin work and misc projects to make your 18 bosses happy, and dont forget about serving the client non-stop, and dealing with your staff. I'm just saying, I feel bad that people have to go through all that school and studying and they forget it so fast because they have no idea what they are reading. So your school and cpa will not add any value to your job, especially because you will be making copies and getting lunch and dinner for your first year. Your second year, you will be doing inventory rollforward tests, looking at thousands of invoices to match dates and amounts, you wont have a clue what you are doing, what assertions you are working on, how it fits into the big picture, etc.

    FAR 11/13 - 78, BEC 1/13 - 82, AUD 2/23 - 94, REG 5/15 - 86

    #217142
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    skiw97 – I do not have the experience in auditing but I am going to give you my .02 cents anyway. I say go straight to the multiple choice questions. The Becker Lectures are not all that for some people. Personally, I like them since I hate to read. If you can do well on the multiple choice questions why bother with the lectures. The multiple choice questions can teach you the concepts you need to know to pass. I found the Becker flashcards less than useful and did not look at them after studying a few sections of Auditing and have not used them for FAR, BEC or REG. Becker is designed to tell you what you need to know and what is most likely to be tested on the exam nothing more nothing less.

    #217143
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I may have similar experience but I'm not sure so I don't know if I'm allowed to respond.

    What does working “almost to manager” mean? Maybe since you got laid off from that job – you weren't as close as you thought and don't know as much as you think.

    Maybe if you had been one of those college grads who started early and passed the exam before work (you know, those people you look down on), your firm wouldn't have considered you dead weight and behind in your professional development in comparison to your peers who have passed the CPA, and decided to cut you. Not saying it's right – just saying.

    #217144
    skiw97
    Participant

    i transferred to california from the midwest and then was laid off after 6 months because i wasnt willing to work till 2am to handle the beast client, I went home at 10 everynight and that was hard enough. PA is really cut throat right now and once you get to senior it just takes your life over. I knew my time in PA was up, and those who work those hours are idiots (in my opinion). I was the new guy in town and inherited a brand new global engagement mid busy season that was accepted with a 50% realization rate, and that was assuming we'd hit budget, which of course we didnt because issues blew up like no other, I mean everyone knows you are never going to make the budget, and you are just supposed to suck it up and work till 2am, well I was not interested in that, my average 70 hours were not good enough, so I was happy to accept the fiscal year end lay off, collect unemployment, and get paid to study for the cpa exam and have it actually mean something. I have never bragged about how much I know, especially about accounting. I'll leave that up to “dwadecpa”. I dont have a picture of you, but my mental image of you is one of my 5 foot 5 directors who used to brag about how much he knew about accounting, and how is wife knows that when she is talking to him, he is just thinking about accounting issues, then going to expense $500 dinners with his red-bull injected buddies who flew in from Atlanta do work on some pension issue, so he can add to his beer belly and walk around thinking he's cool but reallly he's just a book worm caught on the 22nd floor of a distressed company going out of business. These people think they are doctors saving lives, its mind blowing. You can have my job in PA any day pal.

    FAR 11/13 - 78, BEC 1/13 - 82, AUD 2/23 - 94, REG 5/15 - 86

    #217145
    skiw97
    Participant

    deadweight = my good friend who's only message to me all week was “dude I hate my life I cant wait to quit”

    He has 3 kids at home, a great wife, and stuck around, put those hours in, and made Manager. As you can see he's loving life and is so thrilled to be caught up on his professional development.

    Everyone has their own definition of success, so congratulations on being like my friend, giving your life away, being mr corporate america, making 100's of people above you richer, having the government take all your wages, etc. You may be able to sit in an audit room for 14 hours make amazing excel workbooks that no one cares about so you are not “dead weight” but I will run circles around you in any other aspect of life. You should keep some comments to yourself, you sound like a real idiot.

    FAR 11/13 - 78, BEC 1/13 - 82, AUD 2/23 - 94, REG 5/15 - 86

    #217146
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    skiw97, I don't know what your problem is, but…

    I've noticed that you seem to be extremely angry at the public accounting profession. If you don't like it, go vent on another website. Better still, start a blog.

    #217147
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I knew that would push your buttons.

    #217148
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    This topic is getting a little out of hand and off base. Exam stress may very well be playing into peoples heads.

    To answer the original question, I would agree that lectures help teach you the material. If you feel you already know the material, than go straight to the Multiple Choice. If you have the experience you feel you have, than you could always just go straight to the exam altogether.

    But I can understand skiw97's point of few to a point on experience vs. recent grads. College and studying can only take you so far. Its the doing of the work in the field and at clients where you really learn the most. But again, one can have tons of experience in one area (aka…Audit), and then be clueless in another (aka…. tax).

    #217149
    jeff
    Keymaster

    Let's be nice to each other please…

    AUD - 79
    BEC - 80
    FAR - 76
    REG - 92
    Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS)
    NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE | Another71
    #217150
    strider4216
    Participant

    “Well now they wont even consider anyone w/o 150 that hasnt passed or has progress on the exam.. so I cant really relate to the salary, but I came in at 52.5k in 2004, and I was making the same, if not more then people with cpa bc it was such a hot time in public. Go to school for 5 years, get 150 credit hours while most people can barely graduate in 4 years with the standard degree, lose 6 months of your life to the cpa exam, and then work in public accounting and get so burn out you have no idea what you are in for, and its all meaningless auditing, no one cares what you are doing, yet you are in an audit room till 10, 11, 12pm doing stuff that no one in their right mind gives two craps about. By the time you make senior, if you can make it that far, over 60% of your time will be spent doing admin work and misc projects to make your 18 bosses happy, and dont forget about serving the client non-stop, and dealing with your staff. I'm just saying, I feel bad that people have to go through all that school and studying and they forget it so fast because they have no idea what they are reading. So your school and cpa will not add any value to your job, especially because you will be making copies and getting lunch and dinner for your first year. Your second year, you will be doing inventory rollforward tests, looking at thousands of invoices to match dates and amounts, you wont have a clue what you are doing, what assertions you are working on, how it fits into the big picture, etc.”

    Sounds like auditing isn't for you man..have you considered going into something else? A CPA doesn't mean public accounting, I'm going into consulting for hedge funds/investment banks/money managers, dealing straight up with executives and teaching everyone from I-banking analysts up to the execs themselves how to build financial models and implement them into my companies software…I wouldn't call that getting lunch or coffee for anyone.

    Also, auditing (from what I hear) can be awesome too…if you worked at a Big 4 you may think differently, but you also have to realize a LOT of people love their jobs at Big 4. When you have such a huge entity with thousands and thousands of workers, there are going to be offices and divisions that are night and day different from others…I know people who loathe big 4 and people who love it, depends on who you are and where you work.

    Personally, I went to school for 4 years, I didn't study accounting but picked up all the units my senior year (enough to take the exam) and finished in time to graduate, spent 3 months taking all 4 CPA tests right out of college before work, and feel like the exams have REALLY helped me grow. You might think it's a waste or all will be forgotten, but I'm 22 years old and feel comfortable helping anyone work out a business plan covering tax strategy, developing capital structure, legal requirements/issues, and much more because of these exams.

    The CPA exams are a beast, and anyone going through them should be proud.

    #217151
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    strider…………..great post ………….

    #217152
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    this is the funniest string of posts ive seen on here.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 26 total)
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