One Step At A Time

Last week, I received my exam results for the two papers that I sat for last December. Results via email was supposed to be sent out at 12am UK time but there was no sign of it in my mailbox after countless refresh attempts and checking the junk mail folder. Some of my friends were already announcing their results on our Whatsapp group chat, it made me restless for the next few hours  (I eventually got the email at 4pm Malaysian time). I passed the Performance Management paper and failed the Audit paper (again!). Alhamdulilah, I can finally bid goodbye to my F5 notes !!  

If there's one thing that ACCA has taught me it would have to be perseverance. I started the programme in July 2011 and until now (I took a gap semester here and there to pursue my interest in music and to travel) I have only passed 3 papers while some of my other batch mates have graduated and worked for quite some time. I've seen some people who decide to quit halfway, tempting me to just walk away and try something different but I keep telling myself that I must finish what I started. So here I am a few years down the road, still keeping my spirits high and looking forward to the day that I will eventually graduate from ACCA together with a few other friends who are on the same boat as me. 

All I need to do right now is to put in even more effort, get back on track and stay focused. If Mum was still around, I bet she wouldn't be too happy that I'm taking so long to complete ACCA. I'll keep the promise I made to you, Mummy. For the next exam session in June, I will be repeating the Audit and Financial Reporting paper and if I pass, hopefully proceed to do the remaining 6 papers in UK insyaAllah.

Since it's the Chinese New Year season now, I'd like to wish all of you Gong Hei Fatt Choy. May the year of the Goat bring you and your family good health, prosperity and happiness. I spent 'Chor 1' catching up with relatives over vegetarian home cooked lunch, yummy kuih kapit, pineapple tarts, mandarin oranges and collecting 'hong baos' from the elders.

A video of me singing a classic Chinese New Year song 大地回春 'Da Di Hui Chun' 

Final Exams

Yesterday was the first day of exams for ACCA students worldwide. For us in Malaysia, exams started at 3pm (it follows the time in UK and is standardised throughout the world). All the future accountants sitting for the same exams in so many different countries at the same time sounds quite cool. 

I sat for paper F5 (Performance Management) at SEGi College in Subang. The questions were quite straight forward but I felt like banging my head to the wall when I couldn't remember how to calculate throughput accounting ratio (ini memang nak kena tampar! my mind went blank and the ratio turned out to be some weird number), wasn't sure about the mix and yield variance and a few things on the balanced scorecard. That was when I wished I had repeated more PYQs during revision month. The balanced scorecard question was about a low cost airline company so I was quite happy because it was an industry that I could relate to, having watched the Global Malaysia Series focusing on Airasia a few weeks ago. 

The invigilators we had in the F5 exam centre, which was a small room on the 8th floor of SEGi College Subang were the nicest ones I have ever had. They were fluent in English, well mannered, smiled to us and said 'Welcome' whenever someone said 'Thank you'. Makes one feel so good especially when we're already so nervous to sit for exams. I remember an exam experience 2 years back when the smell of cigarette lingered in the whole room as this particular invigilator came back from his smoking break. We were too busy focusing on exams to lodge a complaint. It was very inconsiderate of him to do so and I think it was against the regulations too. Thank God we never saw him at any other exam session anymore. 

30th November 2014, ACCA turns 110 ! Arthur Priddle was the first President of ACCA who helped  form ACCA's unique core values : opportunity, diversity, innovation, integrity and accountability. 

I still am not sure if I will end up being an accountant or venture into other fields but I'm a proud ACCA (repeat) student. All the best fellow ACCA students ! May we all pass these exams! 

Revision Month

May and November are my revision months, where I spend everyday doing Past Year Questions and try to get myself into the whole 'I need to pass this paper' mode. I am repeating papers F8 (Audit and Assurance) and F5 (Performance Management) this semester. Hope I can finally pass these papers and move on to the other papers. 

Impian Terindah

"Kau impian terindah,
Ingin ku jadikan ia nyata,
Dan kau ilhamkan cinta,
Di dalam hatiku,
Hanyalah dirimu"

Fell in love with this song that I rediscovered by accident while I was browsing Youtube the other day. It reminded me of the morning when I reluctantly woke up from a sweet dream. This is when I'm inspired to write songs like this one, where the listener would say "This is exactly how I feel right now!!".  I seem to have trouble completing songs that I start to write. It's the same with blogging, I suppose, you start writing a post, reach the middle of the page, stare at the screen and leave it in the draft for some time. 

The Malaysian entertainment industry has hope with talents such as Najwa Mahiaddin. I see a tiny bit of myself in her as I recently found out that she actually went to the land down under to study Electronic Engineering before pursuing her dream of becoming a singer songwriter. She recently completed her degree in Music at Berklee. I am looking forward to hearing more good music from her.

As for me,  I chose to pursue Accountancy because my parents weren't keen on the idea of me becoming a singer songwriter. They didn't think I could survive doing Music especially in Malaysia. I secretly hoped I could influence them to change their minds somewhere along the way. At the same time, I was really interested to work in the corporate world so I told myself that Accountancy isn't a bad choice, I guess.

Although I will probably be the last person in my batch to graduate from ACCA, I have no regrets for choosing to pursue my dream of becoming a singer songwriter while studying. (I have 9 more papers to go before I graduate hopefully in 2 and a half years insyaallah).