Top Reasons WHY YOU ARE NOT FINISHING YOUR CPA IN TIME.

You started this course over 3 years back or more and several of your friends have finished CPA but you keep wondering why it is you still stuck in CPA classes? You have been consoled by others who are in your category that CPA is hard and it can’t be finished in less than 4 years.. I want to challenge you today to change your mindset and do something different to fast track your journey.

I started my CPA course in 2014, a few months after my last Bachelor Degree exams and I made this critical decision because I wanted to tap into the fruits of this qualifications as fast as possible and more so in my early accountancy career and this has come to pass. I finished my course in 2017 and the rest is history. I will also tell you that I have friends that I started with this journey and are still on level 2 and some dropped out of the course.

Any way today I want to share something with you that you may not have heard about the CPA Course. Like any life journey, it is not easy one but it is possible to get it done if at all you understand the journey you are trekking and the fruits a head of you. When soldiers go for a battle, it is a come rain or sunshine to get the enemy down and one of the critical steps before the battle is to understand who the enemy is and how they can utilize their strength to win. Below I share why it is you losing the CPA battle yet others are overcoming and earning the fruits of this journey.

1.     You haven’t set your CPA Journey plan or if you have, you are not adhering to it. ICPAU gives you over 10 years to complete the course but as an ambitious student, you should have a target on when you would like to finish the course and this should not be more than 4 years. My target was 2 -3 years and I finished in 2.5 years. I achieved this not easily but persisted through to the end. Someone finished their course in 1.5 years in the 2019 CPA graduation and their story tells a lot about the determination they had as well the actions they took to make this a reality. It is possible for you as well. Don’t take rest because you have failed as this will automatically reduce the chances of finishing your course in the desired time.

2.     You are interested in earning the qualification but not ready to put in what is required. You have failed to understand your weaknesses and have continuously done the same mistakes over and over again.. a student just asked me how come they got similar marks on second attempt of the paper and I openly told them that they don’t do anything different and so water couldn’t turn into wine anyway.. I wrote an article on how to pass a paper on second reseat and I want you to take time to understand how to crack this battle. See link below.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/how-pass-professional-paper-you-have-failed-next-samuel-ibanda-cpa/

3.     You are using outdated notes.. I have been asked by my friends to share some of my notes I used while studying CPA and I keep wondering if they understand what they are asking for? CPA Syllabus changed in 2016 and you can’t use notes that were used 2015 ago. If you are doing Business Law, Financial reporting or Taxation paper, you should be asking your self-questions like 'am I using the notes with the latest changes in legislation, standards etc..' It is your role to keep updating yourself on what is current. Get yourself CPA study text books as these have been developed to give you content that will support understand topics of a given paper and don’t forget to research on concepts that may be on the syllabus but not in the reading materials you have.

4.     You don’t understand the examiners requirements. Studying and understanding topics is not enough, you need to also understand the exam in depth. After all, passing the exam is the first goal of your CPA study. As you study each topic on the course outline, understand what your learning objectives are and review these to ensure you are inline. Look at past paper questions and get to understand on how what you have studied is actually examined. Past Paper Solutions and Examiner’s reports on the ICPAU website could be of great support as well. As a tutor, I make sure we try out a past paper question on that specific topic and I give at least two questions to try out on the same. Take the initiative at individual level if your tutor is not doing it.

5.     You are not associating yourself with the right people on your CPA Journey. There is saying that If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. The CPA journey also requires like-minded people to move with on the journey. There are those friends that will pull you to discussion groups, share with you reading materials, hold you accountable when you are not reading and motivate you to work harder… look out for such people and make sure for every paper you are studying, you at least have 3 friends doing the same paper that you can talk too. I made it fast through my CPA Journey because I had serious friends that we walked together successfully.

My ambition is to see every one finish this professional course fast and earn from it. I have dedicated time to mentor aspiring Accountants on aspects of CPA as well building a successful Accounting Career. Reach out to me through WhatsApp to +256703803255 if you need my support.

Samuel Ibanda, CPA

Finance and Tax Specialist | Career Coach | CPA Tutor @Achievers Professional Trainers.