I always find it helpful to have people below you and above you.
I posted an advertisement the other day on kijiji, saying that I would tutor people for money.
Someone saw my ad, and soon after that I was tutoring a high school student in Introduction to Financial Accounting. So essentially I've been getting paid to study CFE material stuff lol.
Just today my student asked me about financial ratios. I laughed and told him, just last week I had to do the financial ratio analysis for my group project as part of Capstone 1!
So again, having someone below you can be very helpful.
I cleaned my room because of my student.
I also cleaned my bathroom, and I organized a bunch of stuff. I make sure I shave and look professional. Okay, tutoring in one's own room is not super professional lol. But it's fine. I have an optimal study environment in my room: tons of sunlight, tons of highlighters, pens, pencils, an amazing round table. It's great! I love it for studying!
And having people above you is really helpful as well.
I've read in a number of interviews that people have mentors. I have a mentor, I won't say who he is. But IMO he's lazy lol. So I think I need a better mentor. It's pretty hard to find one isn't it? Or is it? I think I might need to pay thousands of dollars for a mentor using a site like PrepFormula? Or should I look elsewhere. Maybe my mentor is good... I doubt it man... I doubt it... But... Maybe he's great! I don't wanna waste his time. He is a partner at the firm I used to work at, so I'm reluctant to ask him to mark my cases. I think PrepFormula would be great. Lemme check something...Yup, so my past membership to PrepFormula is still valid. A lot of their resources look really good. They also do case marking. I dunno, I'll see how this turns out... Okay... That sounds bad lol. I'll ensure that I do get to do practice cases, and I have them marked.
I have a group meeting with my capstone 1 group tomorrow. Going to make sure my part is on point. And uhhh.. Yeah. *Yawn* I'm tired. I'm going to keep trying to learn and memorize the enabling competencies.
My thoughts to end this post: We have a limited time to be awake everyday, make use of that time and absorb what you need to!
Sunday 29 May 2016
Thursday 26 May 2016
May 26, 2016
Mindset: I want to beee the best, there ever waaaas. lol
No, but seriously:
I WANT TO BE THE BEST THERE EVER WAS.
Wednesday 25 May 2016
May 25, 2016
I've been busy with the Capstone 1 team group project!
Still haven't chosen my elective of focus for the CFE.
One thing I figured out is that you can actually choose any elective to focus on for day 2 of the CFE!!! REGARDLESS of the electives you've chosen!
But another factor in choosing hey... it's almost like the beginning of an audit.
Here are something to keep in mind for the beginning of an audit IN OTHERWORDS - ACCEPTANCE OR CONTINUANCE with a client:
1) Do you have the resources required to take on the engagement/CFE Day 2?
Yes, I took the assurance elective, so I have all the practice cases and immersive case!
2) Do you have the competency required to take on the engagement/CFE Day 2?
That's something I need to work on, but I can put myself in a position to be at the highest competency possible within 4 months of training.
3) Are you independent of the client? This question isn't really relevant for the CFE Day 2.
4) Do you have safeguards that would mitigate threats to independence? Irrelevant to CFE Day 2.
5) Are there any regulatory/legislative requirements for the engagement/CFE Day 2? Yes, it has to focus on one of the electives: Tax, Assurance, Performance Management, or Finance.
6) Management agreement has to be signed for the engagement/CFE Day 2. This will be when I actually register
7) There shouldn't be any scope limitation and there should be sufficient accounts to audit for the engagement/CFE Day 2? In other words, do you have any limitations that would stop you from writing the CFE Day 2.
8) Is there a certain framework you have to follow for the CFE Day 2 Exam? The framework will be the CPA Competency Map that you have to satisfy!
9) Now you gotta establish communication with those charged with governance for the engagement/CFE Day 2 Exam. In this case CPA are both those charged with governance and the company I need to be interacting/auditing.
I believe that's all the factors. Pretty important factors that will help me decide on which elective to choose:
- Resources
- I have the most resources for assurance.
- Competency
- low but can improve with training.
- Choice
- Limitations
- CPA Competency Map
Well! I finally made the choice!
I signed up for assurance as my focus for Capstone 2. $1,300+HST or $1,469.
And I also signed up for the CFE! $1,500 + HST or $1,695 :'( Gone! Buh-bye!
One of the reasons I signed up for assurance was:
After some research, I came to the understanding that to Pass the CFE for day 2, you need to score mostly C's (in other word competent) on the assurance role. So I looked at last years results for the CFE (The first offering), and
here is what I found out:
An average of 52.5% of writers who chose the Assurance role were able to obtain mostly C's on the Day 2 Exam. 57.6% of writers got C or CD.
An average of 54% of writers who chose the Finance role were able to obtain mostly C's on the Day 2 Exam. 57% of writers got C or CD.
An average of 43.1% of writers who chose the Taxation role were able to obtain mostly C's on the Day 2 Exam. 51.5% of writers got C or CD.
An average of 42.2% of writers who chose the Performance Management role were able to obtain mostly C's on the Day 2 Exam. 51.0% of writers got C or CD.
In other words, Most people who chose the assurance role passed. And most people who chose the Performance Management role failed.
Still haven't chosen my elective of focus for the CFE.
One thing I figured out is that you can actually choose any elective to focus on for day 2 of the CFE!!! REGARDLESS of the electives you've chosen!
But another factor in choosing hey... it's almost like the beginning of an audit.
Here are something to keep in mind for the beginning of an audit IN OTHERWORDS - ACCEPTANCE OR CONTINUANCE with a client:
1) Do you have the resources required to take on the engagement/CFE Day 2?
Yes, I took the assurance elective, so I have all the practice cases and immersive case!
2) Do you have the competency required to take on the engagement/CFE Day 2?
That's something I need to work on, but I can put myself in a position to be at the highest competency possible within 4 months of training.
3) Are you independent of the client? This question isn't really relevant for the CFE Day 2.
4) Do you have safeguards that would mitigate threats to independence? Irrelevant to CFE Day 2.
5) Are there any regulatory/legislative requirements for the engagement/CFE Day 2? Yes, it has to focus on one of the electives: Tax, Assurance, Performance Management, or Finance.
6) Management agreement has to be signed for the engagement/CFE Day 2. This will be when I actually register
7) There shouldn't be any scope limitation and there should be sufficient accounts to audit for the engagement/CFE Day 2? In other words, do you have any limitations that would stop you from writing the CFE Day 2.
8) Is there a certain framework you have to follow for the CFE Day 2 Exam? The framework will be the CPA Competency Map that you have to satisfy!
9) Now you gotta establish communication with those charged with governance for the engagement/CFE Day 2 Exam. In this case CPA are both those charged with governance and the company I need to be interacting/auditing.
I believe that's all the factors. Pretty important factors that will help me decide on which elective to choose:
- Resources
- I have the most resources for assurance.
- Competency
- low but can improve with training.
- Choice
- Limitations
- CPA Competency Map
Well! I finally made the choice!
I signed up for assurance as my focus for Capstone 2. $1,300+HST or $1,469.
And I also signed up for the CFE! $1,500 + HST or $1,695 :'( Gone! Buh-bye!
One of the reasons I signed up for assurance was:
After some research, I came to the understanding that to Pass the CFE for day 2, you need to score mostly C's (in other word competent) on the assurance role. So I looked at last years results for the CFE (The first offering), and
here is what I found out:
An average of 52.5% of writers who chose the Assurance role were able to obtain mostly C's on the Day 2 Exam. 57.6% of writers got C or CD.
An average of 54% of writers who chose the Finance role were able to obtain mostly C's on the Day 2 Exam. 57% of writers got C or CD.
An average of 43.1% of writers who chose the Taxation role were able to obtain mostly C's on the Day 2 Exam. 51.5% of writers got C or CD.
In other words, Most people who chose the assurance role passed. And most people who chose the Performance Management role failed.
Friday 20 May 2016
May 19, 2016
Be positive
Look at challenges as opportunities for growth
Start small & grow big
Work hard & believe in yourself
Be motivated
Failures are learning experiences
Let's create those best practices!!!
Look at challenges as opportunities for growth
Start small & grow big
Work hard & believe in yourself
Be motivated
Failures are learning experiences
Let's create those best practices!!!
Tuesday 17 May 2016
May 17, 2016
Disclaimer: This post is talking about a sample CFE that CPA has made public. ANYONE can download it, view it and make similar comments as I have. If you go to: cpacanada.ca and search "CPA evaluation: Common Final Examination case examples" you can see the cases I'm talking about. I will not be giving any case specific facts here, so there shouldn't be a problem with me giving case specific facts. If there is, a CPA rep can let me know, and I'll remove it. Moving on...
FIRST, DERIVING ANSWERS. This is a basic, yet essential skill if you're gonna work with solutions. You gotta be able to look at the original case you're doing and then find out how the solution to the case was derived.
I'm going to try and do some derivative work and then I'll explain whether the assurance role is truly easier than tax role in response to the sample CFE that CPA has provided to the public.
/*****************************************************************************
The following is all rough work (meaning I didn't derive anything! I just glanced and gave my opinion on the sample solution roles in response to the sample CFE). I still raise some good points, but again this is literally scanning very carefully and speaking my thoughts.
The review was... Interesting
The 2 sample case solution roles I reviewed were:
Tax (which had 4 pages of additional info just for tax)
&
Assurance (which had 3 pages of additional info just for assurance)
Tax Sample Solution was:
- 11 pages long
- Quality expected was: Mostly Entry level C, Core level C, and Elective level B sometimes A
The assurance response was:
- 20 pages long
- Quality expected was: Mostly Core level B and Elective level A (no entry level assurance!)
Now with that being said, you would want to pick Tax right?
Wrong. I looked at tax. And it was almost a foreign language. They expect you to know tax consequences of situations and tax planning opportunities as per the CPA competency map. I am not good at either of these things. So that means tax'll be tough for me.
I felt really strong on the tax elective, because I smashed the corporate tax case I got, and flunked the individual tax case I got, So I ended up barely passing. But for assurance, I really knew my stuff and I ended up just barely passing, which is also scary.
Then I looked at assurance, and it's very organized and structured just like assurance is supposed to be which is GREAT! That means you'll basically have the answer when you walk in! It's almost like filling in the blanks. For example: They expect you to assess materiality, assess risks for a project, develop appropriate procedures, perform a work plan. <-- these are things that are not too bad! procedures are based on risks and risks are based on assertions. It sort of narrows down from easy to hard (assertions are super simple, and vary based on whether it's an income statement or balance sheet account you're talking about). However risk areas might be a little difficult to recognize. So, I'm pretty sure I could piece together this sort of stuff if I looked at a case and run through this assurance process.
So although assurance is longer. And the quality expected is higher. For myself, familiarity and understandability were much higher with the assurance role which is pretty damn important. I'm saying this because when you're asked to do an audit in the sample CFE case, you audit operations. As opposed to tax, which analyzes compensation, also tax terminology like GAAR, deemed year ends, accounting/tax differences. Another big plus is the resources I have. I have all the assurance cases for D2L. I didn't take the Tax course, so I don't have the PC cases or IC cases. I don't have the quizzes even! I feel as though the ITA is less understandable than the CAS (Canadian Audit Standards). I mean come on have you read the ITA!? I dunno maybe I'm biased.
Lastly, I didn't really wanna touch upon this because it's really important to just PASS the damn thing, but if you do assurance, you'll have the public accounting license. Which is a great reward! Another incentive for choosing assurance. But I didn't wanna touch upon it because the focus here is difficulty and passing the CFE. Not the rewards you get after you pass it.
*****************************************************************************/
FIRST, DERIVING ANSWERS. This is a basic, yet essential skill if you're gonna work with solutions. You gotta be able to look at the original case you're doing and then find out how the solution to the case was derived.
/*****************************************************************************
The following is all rough work (meaning I didn't derive anything! I just glanced and gave my opinion on the sample solution roles in response to the sample CFE). I still raise some good points, but again this is literally scanning very carefully and speaking my thoughts.
The review was... Interesting
The 2 sample case solution roles I reviewed were:
Tax (which had 4 pages of additional info just for tax)
&
Assurance (which had 3 pages of additional info just for assurance)
Tax Sample Solution was:
- 11 pages long
- Quality expected was: Mostly Entry level C, Core level C, and Elective level B sometimes A
The assurance response was:
- 20 pages long
- Quality expected was: Mostly Core level B and Elective level A (no entry level assurance!)
Now with that being said, you would want to pick Tax right?
Wrong. I looked at tax. And it was almost a foreign language. They expect you to know tax consequences of situations and tax planning opportunities as per the CPA competency map. I am not good at either of these things. So that means tax'll be tough for me.
I felt really strong on the tax elective, because I smashed the corporate tax case I got, and flunked the individual tax case I got, So I ended up barely passing. But for assurance, I really knew my stuff and I ended up just barely passing, which is also scary.
Then I looked at assurance, and it's very organized and structured just like assurance is supposed to be which is GREAT! That means you'll basically have the answer when you walk in! It's almost like filling in the blanks. For example: They expect you to assess materiality, assess risks for a project, develop appropriate procedures, perform a work plan. <-- these are things that are not too bad! procedures are based on risks and risks are based on assertions. It sort of narrows down from easy to hard (assertions are super simple, and vary based on whether it's an income statement or balance sheet account you're talking about). However risk areas might be a little difficult to recognize. So, I'm pretty sure I could piece together this sort of stuff if I looked at a case and run through this assurance process.
So although assurance is longer. And the quality expected is higher. For myself, familiarity and understandability were much higher with the assurance role which is pretty damn important. I'm saying this because when you're asked to do an audit in the sample CFE case, you audit operations. As opposed to tax, which analyzes compensation, also tax terminology like GAAR, deemed year ends, accounting/tax differences. Another big plus is the resources I have. I have all the assurance cases for D2L. I didn't take the Tax course, so I don't have the PC cases or IC cases. I don't have the quizzes even! I feel as though the ITA is less understandable than the CAS (Canadian Audit Standards). I mean come on have you read the ITA!? I dunno maybe I'm biased.
Lastly, I didn't really wanna touch upon this because it's really important to just PASS the damn thing, but if you do assurance, you'll have the public accounting license. Which is a great reward! Another incentive for choosing assurance. But I didn't wanna touch upon it because the focus here is difficulty and passing the CFE. Not the rewards you get after you pass it.
*****************************************************************************/
Monday 16 May 2016
May 16, 2016
Day 1 and 2 of Capstone 1 are finally over!
I have a pretty good group!!! They're all hella smart. Which is great.
We had a presentation to do in the morning. Which I practiced at home in front of my dad's skeleton. Shout out to Charlie the Skeleton, I know you're reading this blog... NOT.
And yeah, apparently, I was able to present fairly well! That whole how-to-present last post I did really helped me. One thing that sucked was the audience of candidates had to ask questions: and one person asked a question related to my part of the presentation. OH MAN. I was caught off guard. But I gave a legitimate answer. The only problem was my delivery of that answer. I sounded like this:
"I guess blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah so I guess that would solve the problem."
I could have followed up with "Does that answer your question?" and if not, I could ask my other group members to help out.
I was actually shocked! This was the first time I had to give a speech in a long time. One thing I kept telling me to calm my jumping heart was NORMAL, NORMAL, NORMAL, THIS IS NORMAL. As in, this is a normal situation. And then when it was my time to talk, I just talked as I had planned, and although my voice was shook at sometimes, I thought I was able to talk clearly and articulately. So it was all-in-all good.
That is not to say that I'm underestimating this capstone 1 at all because I've read all too often that people have failed Day 1 of the CFE before.
Anyways, some other things I noticed about other presenters were WOW. Some presenters were clearly on top of their game, the level of knowledge they displayed was GREAT! And the level of realism they added to their speech was great too! They would ROLEPLAY their role and then go through the presentation.
Some bad presenters were 1) really crap voice 2) English was not their first language - Not a huge problem, but obviously it will help a lot if your English is fluent 3) they didn't dress nicely
One thing I noticed is that no one walked around. A lot of people were fidgety with their hands. One guy was able to use his hands really well. For example he would talk about something like removal and then he was separate his hands. So if you're going to use your hands, then at least do something that makes sense! Another thing was BE KNOWLEDGEABLE. These knowledgeable folk were able to answer really tough questions. They had a clear idea of the scenario, and when asked the tough questions, they would provide a response that at the very least made sense to them. Which comes off as CONFIDENT. And when you're CONFIDENT, people tend to believe you. This is more of a psychological thing. Anyyyyyways.
Another thing that caught me off guard was the work I had to do before class.
Jeeeeeez. I found out literally hours before Day 1 was about to begin that we had to hand in 2 assignments before attending Day 1.
So I took a look at both, worked on the easiest one first, handed it in to dropbox, BECAUSE YOU GOTTA HAND IN SOMETHING! and then went to class. Fortunately Day 1 was related to the case I worked on, so I wasn't completely lost. And then I had time after Day 1 class was over to go home and read the entire 2nd case (35 pages long or so = yuck!) and then I looked at some other relevant material. And man, that helped A LOT! Because when my group was talking about the case, I knew exactly what was going on. Or at least majority of information. I was able to even provide input!
Bring a lunch just in case they don't feed you at the Capstone 1 location. They didn't for me! And making a lunch can be time consuming. Unless you manage your time wisely and know (from reading my blog) they're not going to feed you at the location hahaha.
One thing I noticed was this one Asian guy. He was like "I'm so tired..." Everyone's like why? He was like "I did an entire multi during lunch" a multi is some sort of exam (there's two types, I believe a multi is the longer one). So basically the competition is definitely fierce, so candidates you better be in it to win it! Because you're up against fierce competition. I already know, I'm relatively fierce. But I need to be even fiercer!!! RAWWWWR!~ haha.
Then again the knowledge you already know will be of great help.
So I'm still deciding whether I want to do the Tax elective for Capstone 2 or Assurance elective.
I think I have to do assurance, because I remember filling something out that said I will be focusing on assurance for the CFE. But if I can change that at this point, I just might! One reason I'm even posing this question to myself is that I've heard having a STRATEGY really helps you pass the CFE. And what's a good strategy? Picking an easy topic. The only drawback is: if you want to do public accounting you have to choose assurance as your focus. So, it has to be worth it... I'm going to print out some sample CFE stuff for assurance and tax and see whether tax is significantly easier. OH, they will not let you have a performance management focus, or finance focus on the CFE if you didn't take it as an elective. Which should be obvious... Anyways! I chose assurance and tax. So I'm gonna choose soon! I'll let you guys know! I've printed out a sample CFE posted by CPA and now I'm going to compare the assurance and tax solutions. I'll let you know what I think.
At first glance: assurance = 30 something pages, tax = 20 something pages
Let's get to it!
I have a pretty good group!!! They're all hella smart. Which is great.
We had a presentation to do in the morning. Which I practiced at home in front of my dad's skeleton. Shout out to Charlie the Skeleton, I know you're reading this blog... NOT.
And yeah, apparently, I was able to present fairly well! That whole how-to-present last post I did really helped me. One thing that sucked was the audience of candidates had to ask questions: and one person asked a question related to my part of the presentation. OH MAN. I was caught off guard. But I gave a legitimate answer. The only problem was my delivery of that answer. I sounded like this:
"I guess blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah so I guess that would solve the problem."
I could have followed up with "Does that answer your question?" and if not, I could ask my other group members to help out.
I was actually shocked! This was the first time I had to give a speech in a long time. One thing I kept telling me to calm my jumping heart was NORMAL, NORMAL, NORMAL, THIS IS NORMAL. As in, this is a normal situation. And then when it was my time to talk, I just talked as I had planned, and although my voice was shook at sometimes, I thought I was able to talk clearly and articulately. So it was all-in-all good.
That is not to say that I'm underestimating this capstone 1 at all because I've read all too often that people have failed Day 1 of the CFE before.
Anyways, some other things I noticed about other presenters were WOW. Some presenters were clearly on top of their game, the level of knowledge they displayed was GREAT! And the level of realism they added to their speech was great too! They would ROLEPLAY their role and then go through the presentation.
Some bad presenters were 1) really crap voice 2) English was not their first language - Not a huge problem, but obviously it will help a lot if your English is fluent 3) they didn't dress nicely
One thing I noticed is that no one walked around. A lot of people were fidgety with their hands. One guy was able to use his hands really well. For example he would talk about something like removal and then he was separate his hands. So if you're going to use your hands, then at least do something that makes sense! Another thing was BE KNOWLEDGEABLE. These knowledgeable folk were able to answer really tough questions. They had a clear idea of the scenario, and when asked the tough questions, they would provide a response that at the very least made sense to them. Which comes off as CONFIDENT. And when you're CONFIDENT, people tend to believe you. This is more of a psychological thing. Anyyyyyways.
Another thing that caught me off guard was the work I had to do before class.
Jeeeeeez. I found out literally hours before Day 1 was about to begin that we had to hand in 2 assignments before attending Day 1.
So I took a look at both, worked on the easiest one first, handed it in to dropbox, BECAUSE YOU GOTTA HAND IN SOMETHING! and then went to class. Fortunately Day 1 was related to the case I worked on, so I wasn't completely lost. And then I had time after Day 1 class was over to go home and read the entire 2nd case (35 pages long or so = yuck!) and then I looked at some other relevant material. And man, that helped A LOT! Because when my group was talking about the case, I knew exactly what was going on. Or at least majority of information. I was able to even provide input!
Bring a lunch just in case they don't feed you at the Capstone 1 location. They didn't for me! And making a lunch can be time consuming. Unless you manage your time wisely and know (from reading my blog) they're not going to feed you at the location hahaha.
One thing I noticed was this one Asian guy. He was like "I'm so tired..." Everyone's like why? He was like "I did an entire multi during lunch" a multi is some sort of exam (there's two types, I believe a multi is the longer one). So basically the competition is definitely fierce, so candidates you better be in it to win it! Because you're up against fierce competition. I already know, I'm relatively fierce. But I need to be even fiercer!!! RAWWWWR!~ haha.
Then again the knowledge you already know will be of great help.
So I'm still deciding whether I want to do the Tax elective for Capstone 2 or Assurance elective.
I think I have to do assurance, because I remember filling something out that said I will be focusing on assurance for the CFE. But if I can change that at this point, I just might! One reason I'm even posing this question to myself is that I've heard having a STRATEGY really helps you pass the CFE. And what's a good strategy? Picking an easy topic. The only drawback is: if you want to do public accounting you have to choose assurance as your focus. So, it has to be worth it... I'm going to print out some sample CFE stuff for assurance and tax and see whether tax is significantly easier. OH, they will not let you have a performance management focus, or finance focus on the CFE if you didn't take it as an elective. Which should be obvious... Anyways! I chose assurance and tax. So I'm gonna choose soon! I'll let you guys know! I've printed out a sample CFE posted by CPA and now I'm going to compare the assurance and tax solutions. I'll let you know what I think.
At first glance: assurance = 30 something pages, tax = 20 something pages
Let's get to it!
Sunday 15 May 2016
May 15, 2016
So I started Capstone 1, and I'm working on my portion of a presentation I'm going to give.
I thought helpful to talk about how I'm tackling this presentation.
First off, I'm not a natural. I realized I'm able to give a presentation as long as I try to. But I'm not one of those people, that can (excuse my language...) bullsh!t there way through a presentation.
So here's how I've done it so far:
1) All I do is type out what I wanna say.
2) Bold all the words I'd like to memorize.
3) Practice speaking the words out loud by looking at them.
4) Practice being able to speak the words out loud without looking at them and glancing at the slides.
5) And then repeat 3 & 4 with the entire speech.
6) Time your speech with a watch and give the entire speech once memorized
7) If your speech is too long, THAT'S GREAT, just cut it down as you go through it and glance at your watch for when you hit the times (e.g. I want to go to the next slide in 1 minute, I'll look at my watch and based on the time, I'll speak less based on how far I am)
8) So yeah, I know it's not perfect. I realized I need to warm up and test myself before I can give the presentation properly, but it should be fine for the first presentation.
That's all for now! Good night!
I thought helpful to talk about how I'm tackling this presentation.
First off, I'm not a natural. I realized I'm able to give a presentation as long as I try to. But I'm not one of those people, that can (excuse my language...) bullsh!t there way through a presentation.
So here's how I've done it so far:
1) All I do is type out what I wanna say.
2) Bold all the words I'd like to memorize.
3) Practice speaking the words out loud by looking at them.
4) Practice being able to speak the words out loud without looking at them and glancing at the slides.
5) And then repeat 3 & 4 with the entire speech.
6) Time your speech with a watch and give the entire speech once memorized
7) If your speech is too long, THAT'S GREAT, just cut it down as you go through it and glance at your watch for when you hit the times (e.g. I want to go to the next slide in 1 minute, I'll look at my watch and based on the time, I'll speak less based on how far I am)
8) So yeah, I know it's not perfect. I realized I need to warm up and test myself before I can give the presentation properly, but it should be fine for the first presentation.
That's all for now! Good night!
Thursday 12 May 2016
May 12, 2016
Well! Capstone 1 is approaching, and the deadline to enrol in Capstone 2 and the CFE is near!
I've already paid for Cap 1. So that is a sunk cost.
And my to do list is:
Enroll in Capstone 2 (I think it's about $1.3 K)
Enroll in the CFE
All before May 27th.
Quite possibly enroll in CPAFormula's CFE prep program - $1.1 K
Capstone 1 reflects day 1 of the CFE.
Day 1 is based on the 5 enabling competencies:
- Professional & ethical Behaviour
- Problem solving and decision making
- Communication
- Self-Management
- Teamwork & Leadership
The Story of The Dog
I like to symbolize the first enabling competency with a dog. (because you tell a dog to behave), except this dog will have a suit on (for professionalism) and halo around his head for being ethical!
Problem solving can be symbolized by a maze, and decision making can be symbolized by arrows going through the entire course and 1 red line representing the decision making!
Communication can be symbolized by the dog talking.
Self-management can be symbolized by a the dog licking it's paw (it's 'managing' itself)
Teamwork & leadership can be symbolized by other dogs following our imaginary suited dog from heaven.
So I've got the titles memorized in my mind with this imaginary story of a dog!:
We got a dog wearing a suit and tie with miniature angel on it's shoulder - professional and ethical behaviour
zoom out and that dog is in a maze and all possible paths are outlined and he chooses one! - problem solving and decision making.
dog barks/calls his friend - communication
dog licks his paws while he's waiting for his friends - self management
dogs friends come and he leads them from the start of the maze to the end! - teamwork & leadership
Cool. Done. lol. if only.
The following is a document provided by CPA that explains Capstone 1 and 2 in detail:
https://www.cpacanada.ca/~/media/site/become-a-cpa/docs/evaluations/cfe-info-slides-en.pdf?la=en
I haven't yet started Capstone 1 (I start this weekend). But I hear it's an 8 week course, with little tasks, but it'll all vary according to how good your group is.
I think at this point, it'll be hard to get caught with a bad group. I mean everyone is smart enough to make it pass core 1, core 2 and both electives (which I thought were harder than core 1 and 2), so ideally I won't have to deal with dumb people and they'll do their part.
I'm just so scared. For the past 3 hours, I've been telling myself all my secrets for dissolving my general fears.
I usually exaggerate the easy stuff, and then the hard stuff I simplify.
That being said, if I'm gonna do the CFE this year, and I know I am. I do NOT want fear to hold me back so I'm going to come at it with two attitudes:
"CFE? Pffft that's 3 letters. CAPSTONE 1 and CAPSTONE 2 are 16 letters and 2 numbers combined! And 8 letters and 1 number each!"
Again, this is to dispel any fear I have.
Additionally, I was listening to a speech an hour ago and the main idea I gathered was this:
"If you take on great adversity (in other words: difficulty), then smaller adversities won't be so tough."
Implying that, if you study REALLYYYY hard for the CFE, it will be easy.
There is validity to the above statement. I remembered the assurance elective multiple choice was EASY and I studied hard and smart! I'll tell you what I did: I made a website! But I did not make it an online website. I made an offline website, meaning it was basically notes on my computer with basically zero content online.
Disclaimer: Do not make an online website full of CPA PEP info; it's not allowed by CPA. But It would definitely be okay to make a website that's inactive and offline (meaning only viewable on your computer), and the rest like building a website for your potential accounting company, that's just normal.
I would suggest, doing something creative and something you enjoy doing and incorporating that into your studying. You will actually look forward to studying, instead of dreading it. I know I did initially, but then I thought, oh, this is gonna help me! But don't have too much fun, or people will know you're not working hahaha. Also, it might slow you down, depending on your medium. I found that a website was pretty damn great! I tried writing on soccer balls (that didn't work too well). I tried writing on a white board (that also didn't work super well). I tried writing on random green bouncy balls lol that didn't work for me either. Maybe you could a start a blog! *Gasp!* Just remember no CPA case content is allowed to be publicized/distributed/etc. etc..
Capstone 1 - Day 1 of the CFE
Capstone 2 - Day 2 & 3 of the CFE
CFE
I'm prepared to walk on glass or much worse if I can pass the CFE. Have you seen examples of CFE cases? They're scary as hell. Like the assurance role sample I saw was 32 pages of answers. I (figuratively) pooped my pants. Whereas the taxation role was around 20 pages. I noticed the commonality between all the roles was a solid knowledge of IFRS aka F/R. I'll be sure to polish up on that skill.
I also enrolled with CPAformula for a full package. Gooooo them! They're offering a CFE prep course, which I might actually take, because of what I've read from other CFE writers. Apparently, having someone to mark your work and give feedback is really helpful. Yeah, that sounds great... Key word: SOUNDS great. I guess it would be useful. I think a huge reason of why I passed all my past exams, was that I looked HARD at the solutions to cases! So I do want to take their course. I just hope it's the right thing to do. It's gonna be expensive. But apparently you get that money back or something through a tax refund. So, hey maybe the cost will be irrelevant.
I read so many people failed day 1. Pffft, I hope I fail day 1, then I'll only have to write the soft skills portion as opposed to the technical skills (which we all know is essentially harder! Unless of course you're a robot! Shout outs to C-3PO and R2D2!)
I've already paid for Cap 1. So that is a sunk cost.
And my to do list is:
Enroll in Capstone 2 (I think it's about $1.3 K)
Enroll in the CFE
All before May 27th.
Quite possibly enroll in CPAFormula's CFE prep program - $1.1 K
Capstone 1 reflects day 1 of the CFE.
Day 1 is based on the 5 enabling competencies:
- Professional & ethical Behaviour
- Problem solving and decision making
- Communication
- Self-Management
- Teamwork & Leadership
The Story of The Dog
I like to symbolize the first enabling competency with a dog. (because you tell a dog to behave), except this dog will have a suit on (for professionalism) and halo around his head for being ethical!
Problem solving can be symbolized by a maze, and decision making can be symbolized by arrows going through the entire course and 1 red line representing the decision making!
Communication can be symbolized by the dog talking.
Self-management can be symbolized by a the dog licking it's paw (it's 'managing' itself)
Teamwork & leadership can be symbolized by other dogs following our imaginary suited dog from heaven.
So I've got the titles memorized in my mind with this imaginary story of a dog!:
We got a dog wearing a suit and tie with miniature angel on it's shoulder - professional and ethical behaviour
zoom out and that dog is in a maze and all possible paths are outlined and he chooses one! - problem solving and decision making.
dog barks/calls his friend - communication
dog licks his paws while he's waiting for his friends - self management
dogs friends come and he leads them from the start of the maze to the end! - teamwork & leadership
Cool. Done. lol. if only.
The following is a document provided by CPA that explains Capstone 1 and 2 in detail:
https://www.cpacanada.ca/~/media/site/become-a-cpa/docs/evaluations/cfe-info-slides-en.pdf?la=en
I haven't yet started Capstone 1 (I start this weekend). But I hear it's an 8 week course, with little tasks, but it'll all vary according to how good your group is.
I think at this point, it'll be hard to get caught with a bad group. I mean everyone is smart enough to make it pass core 1, core 2 and both electives (which I thought were harder than core 1 and 2), so ideally I won't have to deal with dumb people and they'll do their part.
I'm just so scared. For the past 3 hours, I've been telling myself all my secrets for dissolving my general fears.
I usually exaggerate the easy stuff, and then the hard stuff I simplify.
That being said, if I'm gonna do the CFE this year, and I know I am. I do NOT want fear to hold me back so I'm going to come at it with two attitudes:
"CFE? Pffft that's 3 letters. CAPSTONE 1 and CAPSTONE 2 are 16 letters and 2 numbers combined! And 8 letters and 1 number each!"
Again, this is to dispel any fear I have.
Additionally, I was listening to a speech an hour ago and the main idea I gathered was this:
"If you take on great adversity (in other words: difficulty), then smaller adversities won't be so tough."
Implying that, if you study REALLYYYY hard for the CFE, it will be easy.
There is validity to the above statement. I remembered the assurance elective multiple choice was EASY and I studied hard and smart! I'll tell you what I did: I made a website! But I did not make it an online website. I made an offline website, meaning it was basically notes on my computer with basically zero content online.
Disclaimer: Do not make an online website full of CPA PEP info; it's not allowed by CPA. But It would definitely be okay to make a website that's inactive and offline (meaning only viewable on your computer), and the rest like building a website for your potential accounting company, that's just normal.
I would suggest, doing something creative and something you enjoy doing and incorporating that into your studying. You will actually look forward to studying, instead of dreading it. I know I did initially, but then I thought, oh, this is gonna help me! But don't have too much fun, or people will know you're not working hahaha. Also, it might slow you down, depending on your medium. I found that a website was pretty damn great! I tried writing on soccer balls (that didn't work too well). I tried writing on a white board (that also didn't work super well). I tried writing on random green bouncy balls lol that didn't work for me either. Maybe you could a start a blog! *Gasp!* Just remember no CPA case content is allowed to be publicized/distributed/etc. etc..
Capstone 1 - Day 1 of the CFE
Capstone 2 - Day 2 & 3 of the CFE
CFE
I'm prepared to walk on glass or much worse if I can pass the CFE. Have you seen examples of CFE cases? They're scary as hell. Like the assurance role sample I saw was 32 pages of answers. I (figuratively) pooped my pants. Whereas the taxation role was around 20 pages. I noticed the commonality between all the roles was a solid knowledge of IFRS aka F/R. I'll be sure to polish up on that skill.
I also enrolled with CPAformula for a full package. Gooooo them! They're offering a CFE prep course, which I might actually take, because of what I've read from other CFE writers. Apparently, having someone to mark your work and give feedback is really helpful. Yeah, that sounds great... Key word: SOUNDS great. I guess it would be useful. I think a huge reason of why I passed all my past exams, was that I looked HARD at the solutions to cases! So I do want to take their course. I just hope it's the right thing to do. It's gonna be expensive. But apparently you get that money back or something through a tax refund. So, hey maybe the cost will be irrelevant.
I read so many people failed day 1. Pffft, I hope I fail day 1, then I'll only have to write the soft skills portion as opposed to the technical skills (which we all know is essentially harder! Unless of course you're a robot! Shout outs to C-3PO and R2D2!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)