Which Elective Should You Pick On 2017 CFE?

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The average CPA Candidate in Canada will spend over 500 hours preparing for the 2017 CFE.

Thousands of future CPAs will attempt the final pre-certification stage exam for CPA PEP on September 13 - September 15, 2017.

For 6 years, PrepFormula has been helping CPA candidates pass these exams and have predicted topics that would appear on the exam through our webinars.

It's no secret that our prediction this year will be announced similarly in the weekly webinars we hold. We gave our prediction of the type of content that you'll see in the exam last year by partnering up with Jason Fleming, CPA, CA, M.Acc, a Canadian Tax Educator and Leader in CPA PEP Training and a Professor at York University.

Together we ran a 4-Hour-Tax Review, found here. We had to spoil the surprise. This year, we’re back at it, but this time, instead of watching for clues from the CFE Reports, our task is to determine which Elective would contribute to your success or failure on the 2017 CFE.

We evaluated the 2016 CFE Report found here and compared candidate performance on the 4 Different Electives:

2016 May CFE Day 2 (Elective Role Choices):

Assurance Role:
9 Assessment Opportunities

AO6: “Candidates performed below expectations on this assessment opportunity.”
AO7: “Candidates performed below expectations on this assessment opportunity.”
AO8: “Candidates performed as expected on this assessment opportunity.”
AO9: “Candidates performed adequately on this assessment opportunity.”
AO10: “Candidates performed well on this assessment opportunity.”
AO11: “Candidates performed below expectations on this assessment opportunity.”
AO12: “Candidates performed adequately on this assessment opportunity.”
AO13: “Candidates struggled on this assessment opportunity.”
AO14: “Candidates did not perform well on this assessment
opportunity.”

Finance Role:
8 Assessment Opportunities
AO6: “candidates performed well on this requirement”
AO7: “candidates performed below expectations on this assessment opportunity.”
AO8: “candidates performed as expected on this requirement.”
AO9: “candidates performed well on this assessment opportunity.”
AO10: “candidates performed below expectations on this assessment opportunity.”
AO11: “candidates performed as expected on the assessment opportunity.”
AO12: “candidates performed below expectations on this assessment opportunity”
AO13: “candidates performed below expectations”

Performance Management Role:
9 Assessment Opportunities

AO6: “Performed well on this assessment opportunity.”
AO7: “Candidates performed worse than expected”
AO8: “Candidates performed relatively well on this assessment opportunity.”
AO9: “Candidates performed reasonably well on this assessment opportunity,”
AO10: “Candidates performed well on this assessment opportunity.”
AO11: “Candidates did well on this assessment opportunity”
AO12: “Did not perform as well as expected on this assessment opportunity.”
AO13: “Candidates struggled with this assessment opportunity.”
AO14: “did fairly well on this assessment opportunity.”

Taxation Role:
8 Assessment Opportunities

AO6: “Candidates performed very well on this assessment opportunity”
AO7: “Candidates generally performed well”
AO8: “Candidates performed well on this assessment opportunity”
AO9: “Candidates performed quite well on this assessment opportunity”
AO10: “Candidates performed poorly on this assessment opportunity”
AO11: “Candidates performed poorly on this assessment opportunity”
AO12: “Candidate performance was average on this assessment opportunity”
AO13: “Candidates performed surprisingly well on this assessment opportunity”

While the official marking guides have not been released, we carefully analyzed the language in the report to determine whether in general the assessment opportunities were done well or not, using qualitative language. What Does This Mean?
 
Let’s say we make the assumption that CPA Canada uses qualitative words to explain performance on the exam across different Assessment Opportunities that correspond to specific Elective Roles.

If we assign a point value to specific words such as:
25% - Keywords like “Poorly, Below Expectations, Struggled, Did Not Perform Well”
50% - Keywords like “Average, As Expected, Adequately”
75% - Keywords like “Well, Fairly Well, Reasonably Well, Relatively Well”
90% - Keywords like “Quite Well, Very Well”

We’ll get the following results:
Assurance Role:
39% Average
Finance Role: 44% Average
Performance Management Role: 58% Average
Taxation Role: 59% Average

What Does This Mean?
Those in Assurance and Finance had to likely bell curved up, and those in PM and Tax were possibly curved down. In general qualitative terms, those taking Performance Management and Tax did the best! While the goal is to provide fairness and an equal weight to the 2017 CFE Elective Roles, the real performance will always depend on actual performance.

While of course previous results are not an indication of the future, and this method isn’t complete.

But it is at least possible that this is reasonably in line with reality?
Tomorrow when you go to pick your 2017 CFE Elective Role for CFE Day 2, try to think about how well you understand the materials compared to other candidates and decide what works best for you. This may help you achieve the successful outcome you’re seeking on the 2017 CFE and finally move on to be a practicing Canadian Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA).

Reminder: 2017 Common Final Exam (2017 CFE) enrollment starts TOMORROW, April 13, 2017 and will be open until May 31, 2017.

As always, feel free to reach out with questions at: mike.katsevman@prepformula.com

Your feedback is appreciated.

Mike Katsevman, CPA, CA, LPA

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