CPA Australia Advanced Audit and Assurance study plan

Map the CPA Australia Advanced Audit and Assurance syllabus against your current knowledge and rate your confidence for each topic area on a 1-5 scale

Explain the objective and scope of an audit of a financial report and the ethical requirements that bind the auditor under APES 110, including the fundamental principles and the threats-and-safeguards framework

Apply the conceptual framework for independence by identifying self-interest, self-review, advocacy, familiarity and intimidation threats in three written scenarios and documenting appropriate safeguards

Distinguish the auditor's responsibilities from those of management and those charged with governance, and articulate this in a client-facing memo

Draft a personal glossary of 30 core assurance terms with your own definitions and one worked example each

Analyse the audit risk model by decomposing inherent risk, control risk and detection risk, and explain how the assessed risks of material misstatement drive the nature, timing and extent of further audit procedures

Perform a risk assessment on a supplied fact pattern by identifying five risks of material misstatement at the financial report and assertion level, and justify each with reference to the entity's circumstances

Evaluate the components of an entity's internal control under the COSO framework and determine which controls address which assertions

Design a substantive testing program that responds to an identified significant risk, specifying procedures, sample selection basis and evidence expected

Explain the audit evidence hierarchy and evaluate the reliability of different evidence types, including externally generated, internally generated and auditor-obtained evidence

Apply ASA/ISA 500 and the assertions framework to select appropriate procedures for testing classes of transactions, account balances and disclosures

Design and document audit sampling approaches, distinguishing statistical from non-statistical sampling and justifying sample sizes

Critically evaluate the use of data analytics and automated tools in gathering audit evidence, including the reliability and completeness of the underlying data

Apply the requirements for auditing accounting estimates and fair values, including evaluating management's methods, assumptions and data, and identifying indicators of management bias

Analyse related party transactions and disclosures against the applicable requirements and design procedures to identify undisclosed related parties

Evaluate going concern assessments by applying the applicable standard, including the appropriateness of management's assessment and the adequacy of disclosures

Assess the audit implications of fraud risk, including the required procedures for revenue recognition and management override of controls

Synthesise your estimate, related party, going concern and fraud conclusions into a single judgement memo

Distinguish the forms of audit opinion and determine the circumstances that require a modified opinion, an emphasis of matter paragraph or an other matter paragraph

Apply the materiality and pervasiveness criteria to decide between qualified, adverse and disclaimer opinions in at least four written scenarios

Draft complete auditor's reports, including the key audit matters section, for a listed entity and a non-listed entity

Evaluate the auditor's responsibilities for other information accompanying the audited financial report and for subsequent events up to the date of the auditor's report

Explain the auditor's obligations regarding communicating with those charged with governance and document the matters that must be communicated

Evaluate the requirements for quality management at the firm and engagement level, including engagement quality reviews and the threats posed by long association

Analyse the auditor's responsibilities in group audits, including determining component materiality and the nature of direction, supervision and review over component auditors

Assess the assurance implications of sustainability and other emerging reporting areas, focusing on the auditor's role and the boundaries of reasonable and limited assurance

Practise 60 exam-style multiple-choice questions under timed conditions and categorise every error by topic and by error type, such as knowledge gap, misread question or faulty reasoning

Practise four extended-response questions under exam time pressure and self-mark against a structured marking guide you construct yourself

Revisit your lowest-scoring topic areas from week one's confidence map and rewrite the corresponding glossary entries with corrected understanding

Explain aloud, without notes, the audit process end to end from engagement acceptance through to the auditor's report

Complete two full-length mock exams under strict exam conditions and record your score, timing and question-level breakdown for each

Drill the specific topics flagged in your error log until you can answer them accurately and explain the underlying reasoning

Consolidate your glossary, risk registers and report templates into a single one-page pre-exam summary sheet

Rehearse exam-day strategy, including time allocation per question, the order in which to attempt sections and how to handle a question you cannot answer