Audit and Assurance Essentials: For Professional Accountancy Exams, + Website

INTRODUCTION

Accountancy qualifications matter. Good accountants help economies grow. Accountancy qualifications provide many people with important opportunities and the possibility of financial security. Doors that might otherwise have remained closed, open for qualified accountants. Auditing and assurance exams are an integral part of many accountancy qualifications and the purpose of this text is to help accountancy students pass auditing and assurance papers.

This text seeks to explain the requirements of professional standards in just enough detail to give students the confidence to apply them to the questions that come up in exams.

It is for:

• students taking auditing and assurance exams for accountancy qualifications. It covers both international and UK variants;
• undergraduate students pursuing degrees and other courses with an auditing and assurance element.

Auditing and assurance exams should not be difficult to pass but pass rates, particularly for lower level papers, are often poor, certainly by comparison with other papers. This is sometimes because students underestimate the paper which often results in inadequate preparation, but there are many students who do work hard and still fail to pass, often by one or two marks. This is a shame. It is often the result of inefficient study methods and exam techniques, both of which can be significantly improved provided students are prepared to do things differently. The first section of this text deals with these issues. ...