Kimberly is a NINJA CPA blogger.

I typically sit for exams on Sunday. That allows all day Saturday to review notes and crank out mini sessions of NINJA MCQ in the most difficult areas.

This time around, there were no Sunday dates, so I had to take AUD on a Saturday at 12:30pm.

I got to the testing center at 11:30 am, which gave me time to review my notes in the car for 30 minutes.

I’ve been to this Prometric site more times than I care to count, so I know the routine. I felt prepared enough to nail any MCQ thrown at me and to successfully think through the ones that posed a bit of a challenge.

One of the things I've learned is to take my time and carefully read each question along with the answer choices. There were many instances at home where overlooking one critical word in the question caused me to get an MCQ wrong. I did not want to repeat that mistake during the exam.

Normally, I would say 4 hours is a lot for AUD, but on that particular day it was exactly what I needed. I got tired midway, which was surprising because I was well rested. When I finished MCQ, I had 1.5 hours remaining to complete the 7 task-based simulations.

AUD simulations are where I struggle. I don’t have as much confidence as with the multiple choice questions. I don’t think I did horribly. Time will tell.

I’m so excited I don’t have to wait long to find out the outcome. My fingers are crossed for a passing score.