Long time no see!
A few things have happened since my last diary entry:
- I passed all my winter term courses! And now I can breathe a sigh of relief, because winter term is widely considered the harder of the two terms. Since I survived this, I’m looking forward to a breezier spring term.
- The Deloitte CPA Advantage study materials have arrived. It consists of a study guide and several thicc flashcard decks. I’m honestly quite intimidated looking at them.
- I’ve officially tossed my hat into the ring… that’s to say, I enrolled for the September 2022 CFE. Even though I’m still registered with CPA Ontario, I plan to fly back to Calgary in August and write the exam from there. Luckily, getting an accommodation to write in Alberta was a smooth process. Thank you CPA!
Spring Term Course Load
For spring term, we have to take one mandatory course (ACC 610 Public Accounting Practice), plus three electives. I picked the following courses (which all hilariously share the same course code, ACC 690):
- Audit Data Analytics with Edbert Oey
- Introduction to Tax Practice with Dan Rogozynski
- US Corporate Tax with Julia Klann and Dimitri Sarabalos
I debated for a veeeery long time between switching out one of my tax courses for ACC 606 Business Valuations. I enjoyed learning about valuations in AFM 373. It’s actually one of my favourite undergrad courses for that reason. However, I also heard that ACC 606 was more intense than any of the three courses I had picked due to its accreditation with the CBV designation. And although getting a head start on finishing your CBV exams is a nice perk, one of my friends gave me a different perspective:
Additionally, if I took on ACC 606, I’d only have one tax course for the term, which would leave me feeling unprepared for a full-time tax job in September. In the end I decided against ACC 606.
The decision was 10% fueled by wanting more tax focus, and 90% fueled by laziness. I want my spring term to be chill.
Deloitte CPA Advantage
I lowkey regret my decision to have the Deloitte flashcards shipped to Waterloo instead of Calgary. My reasoning was that I could start reviewing the material earlier, whereas if I had them sent to Calgary I would have to wait until August to study them. But staring at this huge pile of flashcards, motivation to study is at an all-time low. I somehow doubt I’ll go through them until MAcc is over.
Skimming through some of the flashcards, I noticed that Deloitte refers to the ASPE sections as “HB 3400” for example instead of “ASPE 3400.” So do the CFE simulation solutions and marking guides. I’d been referencing standards as “ASPE xxxx” during case writing but I’m gonna start using “HB” instead. Hey, gotta save time where you can :’)