The top 1% in Canada: Three Master of Accounting grads earn spot on prestigious CPA Honour Roll
Three Master of Accounting (MAcc) graduates from Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business – Rachael Lidstone (MAcc/20), David Martins (MAcc/20) and James Sendel (MAcc/20) – placed in the top one per cent of CPA candidates who successfully wrote the Common Final Examination this past fall. Their tremendous achievement earned them a spot on CPA Canada’s national honour roll, marking the third consecutive Sprott MAcc graduates were named to the CPA Honour Roll.
“It feels absolutely amazing and is a huge relief to have completed this step in my professional career,” said David – currently a senior accountant in EY Ottawa’s assurance services practice. “Initially when I first found out about making the honour roll, it felt very surreal and I couldn’t believe it but I was extremely proud to have my work pay off.”
“The overwhelming support and congratulations from my peers and family has been amazing as well, and I am very thankful for it all.”
The Common Final Examination (CFE) is an intensive, three-day exam conducted by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada), and the final step of the educational requirements for becoming a CPA.
“This is huge,” said Jacques Maurice, Sprott’s Master of Accounting program director. “Think of it on these terms: the honour roll consists of the top one per cent of writers in Canada. Approximately 9,000 students wrote the CFE in the fall and one per cent represents just 90 students in total.”
“The fact that three students out of 70 MAcc CFE writers were on the honour roll is a solid indirect measure of the quality of our program.”
Their achievement adds to the growing success of Sprott MAcc graduates, three of whom made the honour roll in 2018, and two in 2019.
“The MAcc program definitely contributed to my success,” said James – a senior accountant in public audit at MNP Toronto. “The program provided consistent feedback on my performance in case writing and even had a number of cases professionally marked leading up to the exam.”
“MAcc also introduced me to an incredibly bright cohort of students that I was able to lean on for support whenever I was having trouble with concepts or staying focused.”
Rachael – who is currently working in public accounting as a senior accountant at GGFL in Ottawa – also credited her time at Sprott to her success.
“The program definitely aided in my success. Having courses specifically designed to teach us how to write cases was great, since the CFE is all case based. The majority of our exams were cases, so we had a lot of practice. The professors were outstanding and because they had experience with the CFE, their feedback was an instrumental learning tool.”
The Master of Accounting program is currently accepting applications for its full-time stream, starting in May. January 31 is the application deadline for guaranteed consideration; applications may be accepted until March 31 if space is available.