Audit risk- prior knowledge

I don't know - do you understand Chapter 9 without understanding how risk assessment fits into the process of the audit? (See overview at the beginning of Chapter 7.) Some would say you don't need to understand the auditor's report (Chapters 5 & 6) but I think it helps to have a basic understanding of what the "end product" of the audit is - in order to understand how you get there. I think also you need to understand "what is assurance" (Chapter 1) as this is fundamental to everything about audit.