The ghost of exams past, present and yet to come

Please forgive the history. I had a spare hour! If you’re in a rush, do skip to the end. You're allowed.

About this date in 2002 I got a phone call one evening. To summarise, the IIA’s then-chief examiner, the wonderful Keith Labbett, asked if I wanted to join the exam team. Why me, I basically asked? You achieved some rather good examination results, suggested Keith. I was honoured, flattered and of course said yes! It felt like the telephone equivalent of a secret handshake. I had been initiated. It was a real bolt out of the blue.

I joined the then P5 team, working for the sadly missed Mike Butler. Mike taught me a lot about writing exam questions and I’m hugely grateful. In those days, the P5 paper was jauntily entitled “Internal Audit Practices”. It could have been worse. P3 was known as “Principles of Control”. Positively DPRK.

After a rejig of the PIIA and MIIA qualifications and examinations, P5 became the new P3, and I joined the new P5 exam team, working on the sexy “Corporate Governance and Risk Management” paper. Happy days. This paper had the reputation of being perhaps the toughest of the PIIA papers. Geoff “P.” was the lead at the time, and I took over a couple of years later when Geoff retired, becoming the moderator.

In 2007 I also took over the reins of the MIIA P7 (later M1) “Strategic Management” paper and soon after in 2009, the newly-launched, fast- track P7 Internal Audit Practice case study paper…for qualified accountants. I believe that I ended up as the only person to have ever been the moderator on three of the IIA’s examination papers. Yay.

Keith had finished as chief examiner and over the years was followed by several dear colleagues - Mike Butler (RIP), Neil Cowan (also sadly missed, RIP, and a former Institute President), Gerrit Sarens, Paul Charlton (who had been one of my audit managers several years earlier; ‘tis a small world!) and the fabulous Stephen Watson.

Over this time I also worked closely with many examiners - you know who you all are ?? - and I think the examination teams were the unsung heroes of the IIA and Chartered Institute over the years. Who else would want to mark - in some of the sittings at least - well over a hundred examination scripts at Christmas or in the summer hols?! We didn’t really do it for the money, in case you’re wondering!

And a big shout out to previous members of the HQ exam team at the IIA and Chartered Institute too - Stephen, Aga and Aneta. Much love to you all - you’ve been missed.

For the record, I am absolutely convinced that the PIIA (Diploma) and the MIIA (Advanced Diploma) were the very best internal audit qualifications. Period. And, in my opinion, these qualifications and the associated examinations only got better as time passed.

During this time, I must have written nearly 20 case studies and c120 exam questions on all these papers. I have no idea how many examination questions I marked or moderated, but it must have been several thousand.

Rightly or wrongly - and I’m sure you can guess my view ?? - the Chartered Institute adopted the global CIA and QIAL qualifications. This brought the PIIA and the MIIA examinations to an end, with the final sittings in November 2017.

Since then, and among my numerous, different roles, I have worked as an examiner and lead examiner for the Institute of Risk Management (IRM), as well as writing exam questions for the Chartered Institute’s fab L4 Apprenticeship papers and mock CIA MCQs for the Chartered Institute’s Learning Team. I also did a stint for Global, authoring case studies and questions on a paper-whose-name-shall-not-be-mentioned. Forgive me! ??

Now getting to the point…at last.

Almost 19 years to the day of getting that evening call from Keith, a call that set me on the path I have followed since, I am deeply honoured to have been invited to become the new chief examiner for the Chartered Institute as it develops and introduces its new CMIIA study route.

I follow in esteemed footsteps.

And in this role, I’ll try to do my best for those sitting the exams, for the Chartered Institute and for our profession here in the UK and Ireland.

You can read more about the all-singing, all-new CMIIA study route on the Chartered Institute's website: https://www.iia.org.uk/qualifications/chartered-internal-auditor/new-cmiia-study-route/

I strongly encourage anyone wanting to progress their career in internal audit to sign up for this. And I certainly look forward to leading the examination team.

I hope that our paths cross - in one way or another - on what I’m certain will be a more than worthy successor to the MIIA!

Bring it on.

John Chesshire CFIIA