Selamait

We're on a mid term break right now, just only after 3 weeks of lesson. Yeah I do wrote earlier that when I enrolled into the program it was already in week 3. Anyways, now's the time to fully consider what I am going to do, like for once and for all. Last Saturday we went to the Jom Masuk U Carnival organized by MOHE at Pisa. I thought with me going there, I was able to loosen this mess inside my mind, but then it made me confuse even more. ACCA entered the frame, which is something that I havent consider before.

I asked around about this course, and a few colleges do offer this program. Well lets talk about the pro's first. Unlike the regular accounting degree, ACCA syllabus is directly related to the industrial accounting; which means they emphasize more on practicality rather than theory. In other words, it prepares you to face the accounting industry head on. The best thing is, they divided the lessons into subtopics, which make it less complicated (though that doesnt mean it's less difficult). Here are the subjects that have to be taken to complete ACCA:

FUNDAMENTALS (nine papers in total)
Knowlegde
F1 Accountant in Business	(AB)
F2 Management Accounting	(MA)
F3 Financial Accounting	(FA)

Skills
F4 Corporate and Business Law	(CL)
F5 Performance Management	(PM)
F6 Taxation	(TX)
F7 Financial Reporting	(FR)
F8 Audit and Assurance	(AA)
F9 Financial Management	(FM)

PROFESSIONAL (five papers in total)
Essentials
P1 Professional Accountant	(PA)
P2 Corporate Reporting	(CG)
P3 Business Analysis	(BA)

Options (two to be completed)
P4 Advanced Financial Management	(AFM)
P5 Advanced Performance management	(APM)
P6 Advanced Taxation	(ATX)
P7 Advanced Audit and Assurance	(AAA)

See, if you looked at the subjects above, you'd know that what basically ACCA is all about. The industry. All in all 16 papers have to be completed in order finish it all and you'll be on your way to be a certified accountant. And if you managed to complete all papers in the Fundamental level (complete 9 papers), you are entitled to pursue a degree in Applied Accounting (Bsc, if Im not mistaken) and finished it in 6 months time. And if you managed to finish all 16 papers, you're eligible to straight away pursue your MBA. ACCA level is considered slightly above a degree, and slightly below a masters. All in all, if you wanted to finish fast and wanted to carry an extra burden every semester, you can finish your ACCA in just two and a half years.

Now lets look at the cons. The downside of it is, most financial assistance bodies does not assist students who are pursuing a professional certificate. Even PTPTN does not covers ACCA. My best shot would be trying to apply for the Star Education Fund. Even if I managed to get it, it will only covers my tuition fees. Tu baru fees untuk ACCA, belum fees untuk degree in Applied Accounting and fees to apply to be a member of MIA (Malaysian Institute of Accounting). If you want to be a certified accounting and if you wanted to practise accountancy you have to get that shiny MIA member cards.

There are others pros and cons, but other than these two, it's nothing major. The girlfriend is working at Deloitte and she has given me a clearer picture of what it is like to be working in the Big Four. Google big four yourself, Im too lazy to explain further haha . So far so good, but then Deloitte hasnt been in their peak period yet. A friend of mine who have been working at PwC, (also a big four) told me during peak period, she'd had to worked till late, and only be able to have a five hours sleep (excluding makan, jumpa client, pi balik kerja etc). Usually in big four you'd see that a LOT of staff carefully planning out their resignation just before the peak period (because you cant quit during peak period) lol. Haha cant wait to see my fragile bushuk coop with peak period :-P laters