Actually there is no safe way, in the end of the day, you need to work hard. By thinking of being safe, you will never success. Just like a business, you need to take risk in every decision you make.

For education, nothing is bad, nothing will harm you. You have to choose something that suits you, and consider factors like money and so on.

ACCA is of course the fastest and cheapest way. And you can only define "hard" by yourself. Some people work hard, some people don't. Some worked hard but cant pass, some worked a little but they passed. You see, the world is like that... It is balance... So, if you think you are good enough, then take it, no harm, if you think you are weak, try alternative.

Of course that requires a lot of money. If you don't take risk, then i should say, you can be a little success, i suggest you do degree, because degree is the basic passport to earn a living now. Just to earn a living, you can get a degree. ACCA you can pursue it any later, it is just matter of time.

In england there are 3 most prestigious & recognised proffesional qualification : ICAEW, CIMA & ACCA.
ICAEW : you need degree as prerequisite, 2 ICAEW members recommendation, cannot study fulltime must study part time while working.
Show this to any employer in Malaysia (especially reputable companies) you will be hired on the spot (i am not bragging there).

CIMA : its more management accounting (mostly for manufacturing firms), it is deemed harder than ACCA since most ACCA terminologies
derived from CIMA. However most company still prefer ACCA "at the moment".

Taking degree first is never an issue if (you don't mind time & cost factor). Perhaps you can gain more knowledge & application skills compared
to those who don't experience this. Perhaps i should say this, ACCA life is very boring (if you always fail) & hard to make "permanent" friends.
ACCA separated into 2 terms : 1st term for those who can't wait until the result & continue regardless of their result in exam (1.5 month)
2nd term is when results are received, then you study for around 2.5 months + 0.5 months for revision then exam. Then another paper to go.

When you make friends at 1st term thinking they will continue realise in 2nd term that (you cannot make it bcos fail) or (they cannot make it bcos they fail). Then make new friends in 2nd term which you totally ignored at the 1st. That always happen to me although i have not fail any papers yet. But it is very different here where you choose papers based on lecturers not college.

You choose the best lecturer for each subject you took (remember you must be like a "ah soh" or housewive where you only pay for the best money you can get). Like buying shoes (you go for NIKE), buy shirts (jojo armani), watches (rolex)....etc. Most students will have to jump at different colleges per week (i have 3 different lecturer at 3 different college this sitting) One at pasar seni, one at masjid jamek, one at plaza rakyat
Housewives or future housewives no offence here ok (my mother was one too)

DOn't worry if you are good at reasoning skill (which most lecturer cannot teach that's why so many said hard to pass).
Calculation skills & exam techniques there are plenty of lecturers around with different background : mat salleh, ex-CEO, 25 yrs experience...etc.
Actually ACCA was not "that" difficult if you are harworking, do practice past year & did lecturers homework.

Actually in Malaysia, there is no difference much for ACCA or CIMA if you working in commercial firm. As long as you can get one, then the firm will accept you.

Ya, I agree CIMA more on mgmt accounting, more prefer to manufacturing firm. But in Malaysia, what we can see was some manufacturing firm also employ ACCA graduate. At the same time, a lot of non manufacturing company also employ CIMA graduate as Company Accountant, even for the post of Chief Accountant.

That's why in Malaysia, ACCA and CIMA is not much difference.

umm..
it seems tat F5-performance management is a real tough paper with the lowest passing rate among other papers in June 08 sitting =(
i plan to take f5-f8 next year (June 09 sitting) but i m still undecided coz i hav no CAT background and just go straight to acca 1st level with little book-keeping knowledge>< (i know well it won help much in acca higher level)
so i guess it won b advisable and manageable to do so right?
(also, i m not so good in English >< )
any advice?
how to pass F5?i heard that doing pyq won really help much..
thz ^^

It will help definitely.
Other than that, study harder and keep yourself updated with latest business news.

Then you're good to go...

1 more question...
which college i should choose? Sunway or TARC...
which college's lecturer better or the passing rate higher? any idea? n wat is the cost for both college...Of course i know tht Sunway is much much more exp...but can i know the actual cost?

F5 is not actually tough but rather bcos of its syllabus.
You cannot teach part way & say its enough then learn the next level at next module.
F5 & P5 is very similar in its syllabus almost 50% overlapping area.

like CAt tax is almost > 80% of F6 taxation.
For the ist timers it can be a bit difficult like (ist time attempting add maths)
Since performance measure has no clear cut area (since all overlaps) you must know the key area to focus on.
Its not like F7 where you know there's consol, ratio, cash flow, single comp a/c.
There are areas which have clear cut calculation = standard costing, ABC, maybe ratio
Some are totally theoretical = balanced scorecard, TQM, ...etc

How to study F8- Audit? I'm taking the exam in December but till now still don't really understand.. getting worry...

dun be lazy. it's best for you to find out urself.

Education Fair is ur best opportunity to find out all these.

lol...
juz wanna know from...those student from there ma...wan a true story...

It is all abt lecturers' profile, not college.....identify where those "very practical" lecturers (usually they will be good lecturers & able to turned those heavy technical learning into a practically understand way) is, then enroll subject by subject (can ended-up u attending class here & there because ur dream team lecturer work for diff college/center...at least last time I was )

BUT, remember U URSELF is the one who decide how hard working u r in playing this "PASS THE EXAM GAME"....

hie guys, i'm new and this is my 1st post, i'm currently doing my professional level and next term will be doing my 2 optional paper, so i would like to listen advices from everyone especially those who had graduated that which 2 paper is better? bsides that, does those audit firm especially the big4 prefer students who did papers like audit and tax? glad to hear replies soon...

It doesn't matter which optional paper you take...

Choose the one you comfortable or you prefers to advanced yourself into...

That's all... Audit firms will not take adv. tax / adv. audit as priority in recruiting their staff...

Just to share with those who have been / going to study at KSA especially under Parmindar (P3)
I have attend one of his combined class again today (full timers + part timers)
What really frustrate me is the lack of space again eventhough i came 20 minutes early (imagine those that came late).
When i arrived at the doorstep all the place was evidently full.
I don't mind if there is a living people sitting on it but met with files, papers, bottles on those seat to "book" for their friends.
I notice an entire row in the middle where there is not a single soul on it but their equipments aboard.
Some even take 2 place for him / herself bcos very "congested".
Then again come the lecturer brilliant / ethical / humane order = Just take the seat for yourself whether they have been booked or not = ist come basis. I was so relieved by his comment since i have been standing idle for quite a while waiting to be seated.
I received a very "disgruntled" & unpolite look by a student who are supposing to book for his / her friend who has been late for more than an hour.

Parmindar was a brilliant & friendly lecturer (that's why so many student) unfortunately it was the centre incapability to cater to a huge mass of students. Imagine boarding rapid Kl at peak hours.
To some students out there also please don't simply book a huge slot of place for your friends, i think everyone deserves to be seated especially to those who came on time. Those who are late let them learn their respective lesson. I have seen some students forced to sit on a chair w/o a table for 6 hours. Think again.

hey guys,

what is the difference between ACCA and ICAEW?
Is ACCA qualification alone sufficient to work as auditor?

20 minutes early. some ppl reach 1.5hrs b4 da clas juz 2 book place. i alos experieced da same problem. perhaps the lecturer + mgmt should do something...although their fees is cheap, does not mean that they should care less about students. even for payment n collecting notes, students also have to wait. SIGH

I don't think they care less about the student because the staff themseves are student as well. Have you experience to sunway acca office before? The admin there not just don't care about the students, sometime they will scold the students. Fcuk
In addition, I think waiting some while to collect the notes and make payment is quite acceptable since the students number is so huge.What I can say is be patient. As compare to kasturi, in sunway, you are asked to queue up to 'buy' the notes, somemore the notes are very expensive, 5 cent per page.
In my opinion, book one or two places for your friends is ok for me but not the whole row. Reach early to book the place is a quite common norm for malaysian. Dont you go early to book the place if you know there will be many people. For example when you go to a concert and the ticket you bought is free searting one, you will sure go few hours early, don't you? Somemore, don't you feel like to sit with your friends when attend class? Anyway, we have to give the seat to those who without it and not to book the seat for you 'bags'. It is totally unaccepatable!
Sometime we have to stand on other side and think for example in management point of view, what they can do is to ask the students not to reserve too many seats. If the students still want to book the seats, they can do nothing. If they scold the student, then the other students will blame the college again be impolite to the students. Haiz.......
Somemore come few hours early to book the place and sitting there alone to wait for you friends is not an easy thing. You will be very bored! For instance, you have class on sunday 10am , you have to wake up at around 6 to 7 to go early to the college. No everyone wiling to do that especially working students. But I always find those who book the front rows are part time students


*My english is very poor, find your best to forgive me* Thank you

This post has been edited by King_sToN: Sep 7 2008, 11:42 AM

In my opinion, if you have no particular aptitude for any of the optional subjects, take tax and audit. This will be more relevant to your work experience especially when you are training as a chartered accountant. Advanced financial and performance management are meant for more senior roles which you may take on later in your career. In addition, tax is one area which is always useful because it affects almost every working person and business organisation. You won't regret learning tax in your career.

ACCA is more than enough to work as auditor. (anyhow its better than degree)
If you want a bonus advantage to work as an auditor (apply IIA, its a prof body for auditors, exam is mcq but very hard to pass)
ICAEW is the supreme prof qualification in UK.
The pass rate was way lower than ACCA some say its only 10% while the cost spirals 3 times ACCA (I think so).
ICAEW can only be obtained by (sudying while working with the boss as you patron for 3 years) This is their main requirement.
Not everyone can take ICAEW (not mentioning passing it yet).
There are currently no tuition provider for ICAEW in Malaysia yet.

This is normally reserved for those opting for key positions in comp (finance controller, CFO, CEO....etc)

This post has been edited by rvp: Sep 7 2008, 01:24 PM