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Top 1%: Sprott graduates make the CFE honour roll

Two Sprott Master of Accounting (MAcc) graduates – Abigail Hoekstra (BCom/17, MAcc/19) and Jiawei Li (MAcc/19) – earned their place on the Common Final Examination’s honour roll, after landing in the top one per cent of the over 6000 candidates who successfully wrote the exam in September 2019.

The Common Final Examination (CFE) is a three-day exam conducted by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada), as the final step of the educational requirements for becoming a CPA.

 “I am proud to have been awarded this recognition,” Jiawei says. “But I couldn’t have done it without the dedicated and supportive professors, from the MAcc program, providing me with the guidance and resources which allowed me to achieve this accomplishment.”

Portrait of Abigail Hoekstra
Abigail Hoekstra (BCom/17, MAcc/19)

And, to Abigail it still feels surreal. “When I first heard I was so happy I couldn’t focus on anything else for the rest of the day.”

Their achievement adds to the growing and glowing reputation of Sprott’s MAcc program, which had three students make this prestigious list the year prior. Students graduating from this program are exempt from CPA’s Professional Education Program, and proceed directly to the CFE.

“Once they get into the MAcc, they get a ticket to write the common final examination,” Jacques Maurice, director of the program, says.

Both recipients, like their predecessors, credited their time in MAcc to this honour.

“The MAcc program had small classes that allowed for a lot of individualized feedback on practice cases, which is what I think made the biggest difference,” Abigail says.

“I’m not a great self-studier so if I hadn’t done the program I would have procrastinated all the study work to the month before the CFE,” she added. “The program was also great with providing very specific marking on practice cases and helping everyone continually improve each week.”

Whereas Jiawei added: “The program gave me the tools and knowledge required to set me up for success in writing the CFE.”

Portrait of Jiawei Li
Jiawei Li (MAcc/19)

“Beyond that, it has also expanded my professional circle and network to other MAcc graduates and alumni. In that sense, it continues to aid in my success even upon completion of the program and the CFE.”

When Jacques was asked what it is about MAcc that makes it so special in this regard, he said it’s the way the program is executed.

“We make them write so many cases that they almost overdose on cases but there is a method to the madness,” he says. “Because by writing so many cases they get really used to writing cases and what they report back to me when they come back is that they were really relaxed relative to their peers that came through other paths who were really nervous about the exam.”

“They’re prepared. There is a method to our program and it tends to work.”

Finally, for the next cohort of students who will be sitting down for the CFE later this year, Abigail, Jiawei and Jacques essentially had the same advice: keep your head down, work hard, don’t be nervous, stick to your plan and everything will be just fine.