No classes today, but I had a meeting with my ACC 607 group in the afternoon to go over the group assignment. We’re so close to completing, it ahhhh… can’t wait to get it over with. I know it’s worth 25%, so we should take it seriously, but idgaf about that assignment anymore.
Standards I Read Today
- Finished doing the notes for IFRS 5 and ASPE 3475 and read the Knotia ebook chapter as well.
- Knocked out writing notes and reading the Knotia chapter for IAS 8 and ASPE 1506. Thank God that was a really short and easy chapter.
- After what felt like forever, I finished the notes for IFRS 15 and ASPE 3400 as well. They weren’t too painful, since I had already written the bulk of notes earlier, today I just went over them to make them more flashcard-friendly and to read over the Knotia chapter.
- I read the IAS 32 standard aloud and took notes on it, but didn’t get to the Knotia ebook chapters yet. There are four financial instrument chapters in the ebook, so I’m going to go over those once I finish reading IFRS 9 and ASPE 3856 first. The recording itself for IAS 32 is an hour long. Jesus Christ.
Cases I Wrote Today
None. Unless you count the ACC 607 group case.
Cases I Debriefed Today
I feel like I’ve been getting nowhere with the practice cases we’ve done so far. I sent an email to Brad (one of our ACC 650 profs) seeking advice:
I’m struggling with finding an effective reading/note-taking strategy for the standards. I spend a long time on making detailed notes on the CASs, including for the application guidance, but I blank when it comes time to apply what I’ve read to a particular case requirement. For example, for this week’s WLS case, I had no idea how to begin on designing IT controls until I saw the examples in class, but then it felt pointless to debrief because I hadn’t written anything for that issue at all. I also feel like when doing the readings, I’m unable to sift through what are the most important paragraphs and which ones are less likely to be useful for a case. I was wondering if you have any advice for reading the standards or doing the cases, or if this is something that just has to come through practice.
I got an email back from Brad with some advice and reassurance. His main tip for reading standards was to focus on the Objective section and re-read that a few times to really understand what the standard intends to achieve. It makes sense that the Objective contains the most important information, short though it may be. After all, during the CFE, it’s all about finding the best standard to address the requirement under time pressure. Being able to quickly skim the objective and decide whether to proceed further with reading the standard will be valuable.
Overall, I really appreciate how detailed he was, and he gave super practical advice (like, “I would Ctrl+F for “IT Controls” in Appendix 5 of this Standard…”).
It was also nice of him to say that he himself has difficulty remembering what he reads in standards, and that he thinks everyone struggled on the same part of the case that I did. I’m not sure how true that is, but I’m reassured by his response. Anyway, I somehow doubt that I’ll get around to trying the WLS case again tomorrow, but maybe-hopefully on Monday. And I’ll make sure to implement his tips.
Overall Feelings
My eyes are so tired I can barely keep them open. They feel really dry, too. I think it’s from the sunscreen I put on earlier today. Feels like every time I put on sunscreen, it slowly gets into my eyes over the course of the day, because my eyes don’t usually feel this bad otherwise. Awful. Ofc, it didn’t help that I spent the whole day reading boring shit.