Should you leave questions until AFTER you’re finished studying? As part of my work with accounting students on their Study Strategy, this is a topic we discuss at length, as part of our discussion around how to make study sessions more effective, and improve exam performance. I’m writing a series of articles explaining a few…
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Purpose of this chat I chatted to Mariam Motala (PGDA MAF lecturer and Programme Head) and Romaana Karodia (PGDA Tax lecturer) from Regent Business School. They’ve both been lecturing PGDA students for years, and we chatted about the struggles that we feel students face, what they should be thinking of and focussing on as they…
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What did we cover? Regent Business School invited me to be a guest speaker on one of their webinars dedicated to students who are considering doing their CTA / PGDA in 2022. We covered: Prof Stegen: Regent’s PGDA Programme for 2022 (0:00 – 11:16) Yvonne: Mindset and how it impacts your studying (11:16 – 41:50)…
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What is MyCAhub? Muhammed Ismail has started his own business, myCAhub. We chatted about a LOT of stuff, so I’ve separated our discussion into a few posts. In this post, we chat about his business, what it looks like, what it does, and how it helps SAICA CA(SA)’s We’ve had two other chats so far,…
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We want more entrepreneurial accountants! Muhammed Ismail is a recently qualified CA(SA) who has started his own business, myCAhub. We chatted about a LOT of stuff, so I’ve separated our discussion into a few posts. In this post, we chatted about entrepreneurship, and some specific challenges and opportunities related to accounting professionals, based on our…
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Who is Muhammed Ismail, what did we chat about? Muhammed Ismail is a recently qualified CA(SA) who has started his own business, myCAhub. We chatted about a LOT of stuff, so I’ve separated our discussion into a few posts. In this post, we chatted about his qualification journey, challenges that students face on this journey,…
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“I feel so stupid” I hear this from so many students. A lot more students will FEEL this, but not say anything, because it’s a horrible thing to admit. This breaks my heart for a few reasons: I see students quitting, or contemplating quitting, a study or qualification path they’ve put their heart and soul…
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Does this sound like you? You’ve attended your lectures for the day (face-to-face or online!), and you have your notes from the session, your textbooks, tutorials question bank, not to mention your massive stash of stationery. (If you’re anything like me!). Now, answer these questions: Do you still need to do revision and summaries before…
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What is a ‘wicked’ learning environment? Yes, I know a lot of my students will agree that accounting is a wicked environment, mainly based on the fact that they’re really stressed with their studies and struggle with all the theory, volume and complexity. But this is not what I’m talking about! Psychologists use the term…
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Creativity, Innovation, and uncertainty I chatted to Michael Lee, founder of The Innotivity Institute, about creativity, innovation and uncertainty. I’ve chatted a bit about the future of accounting before, and will continue to do so. It’s really important for us to understand the role that innovation and creativity will play in our future success. The…
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What is Exam Technique? I chatted to Gareth Olivier CA(SA) from Milpark – CA Connect about exam technique As lecturers, we talk a lot about the importance of exam technique when you’re studying and preparing for your exams. But WHAT is it?! I think this is an important conversation, especially for students who tend to…
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Learning starts off with you knowing nothing! I chatted to Gareth Olivier CA(SA) from Milpark – CA Connect about learning and studying. One of our discussion points was students who feel that learning is about knowing everything. I often find my students are VERY worried that they don’t know something quickly, or are struggling. They…
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How do we answer questions? When we start learning at school, we learn how learning and studying works. We develop our understanding of what it means to ‘learn’ something, and what it means to be ‘competent’ with the subject matter. In a lot of cases, here’s what we believe about the learning process: When we…
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Accounting students have strong similarities The personality traits of all students pre-disposes them to certain thought processes, beliefs, strengths and weaknesses. We often find ourselves saying that ‘students generally…’ or ‘most students…’ and a lot of lecturers indicate that students behave in similar ways. This is not intended to box all students into the same…
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You’re more emotional than you think We all need help with overcoming demotivation when we’re in a tough battle. Studying is quite an emotional rollercoaster. As accounting students, perfectionists, and most of us have fixed mindsets, we don’t like to acknowledge that emotions are a large part of our decision-making criteria. We like to believe…
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Why did I chat to SAICA about this? Everyone tells you that your CA(SA) articles / training contract is going to be tough. But what if you feel that you’re in the wrong place, that you’re not getting the experience you should be, or that things are too bad to put up with? SAICA regulations…
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Why did I chat to SAICA about RPL? I had a chat a while back with Gareth Olivier from CA Connect, “Should you start your qualification journey if you’re older”. For a lot of people, the information around how their articles / training contracts will work, is the dealbreaker for this decision. Once you’re working,…
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Why did I chat to Nicolaas? Nicolaas van Wyk is the CEO of SAIBA (South African Institute of Business Accountants). I wanted to chat to him to provide more insight for students about professional accounting qualification options in South Africa. (If you enjoyed this, want us to chat about something else, or want more of…
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Why did I chat to Mandi? Mandi Olivier CA(SA) is a Senior Executive at SAICA, involved in the pre-qualification process. Everything from university studies to the Board exams. I felt that students need to hear directly from the source what SAICA expects from them as they’re studying. (If you enjoyed this, want us to chat…
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Why did I chat to Pat? Pat is another example of the fact that we are NOT boring, grey accountants! He is in Business Development at BDO, he mentors students and so he understands the journeys of many students. We chatted about his journey, the idea of ‘boxing’ yourself, the breadth of your potential career,…
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And now for something completely different! Most of my chats have been a little more serious. Career and study advice. So, I thought we needed to lighten the mood a little! I came across a video from these gents and contacted them, they were good enough to do a chat with me (apparently because it…
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“Am I too old to start?” I get emails from students all the time asking me “Am I too old to start my CA(SA) qualification journey?”. I answer this question all the time, I wrote a short article on it before as well, and I thought I’d chat to someone else for their perspective, on…
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When you’re IN the moment, it’s tough to see past it I’m sharing some of my story because when you see people who are qualified and ‘doing stuff’ that you want to get to, it’s really easy to feel that they didn’t struggle the way you did, that you’ll never get there, because your situation,…
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Why did I chat to Cindy? Cindy Mati is the Senior People and Culture Manager at BDO. (Most people refer to this department as HR!) I chatted to Cindy on behalf of all those students who need to put CV’s together, attend interviews and are planning to start articles and want more information on what…
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Why did I chat to Milpark, CA Connect? Milpark, CA Connect offers an online, SAICA-accredited PGDA (CTA) and Bridging programme. They’re currently taking applications for their July 2020 programmes, so I chatted to them about their programme, and some advice on how any student can put themselves in the best position to pass. PGDA /…
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Why did I chat to Matt? Matthew Tilling is an Australian CPA who is somewhat of a self-confessed IFRS Geek. Matt was the Director of Education at the IFRS Foundation for a few years, so I wanted to chat to him to get some behind-the-scenes information on how IFRS Standards are written, and how the…
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Why did I chat to Vincent? Vincent Motholo CA(SA), RA is the Chairperson of SAICA for 2022 and 2021. He was a UNISA Auditing lecturer, and an audit partner at SNG-Grant Thornton. His experience as an academic and in practice is really valuable for students. I wanted him to share his qualification journey with us…
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What’s in this article and videos? Introduction I spoke to Bruce about career opportunities in the Public Sector a while back. I found that quite a few people were interested in exploring the topic of the Public Sector a little more, so I decided to chat to him again. This time, we chatted about the…
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What’s in this article and videos? The future of the Accounting Profession Will Accountants be obsolete in the near future? Is there a future for someone who wants to pursue an Accounting profession? This is a huge topic with a lot of viewpoints, concepts and ideas to discuss. As a starting point for this discussion,…
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What’s in the article and videos? An accounting career in The Public Sector The Public Sector (ie: Government) is a HUGE part of our economic environment and GDP. I thought it was time to explore career opportunities for Accounting and Auditing a little more. Loads of students look into doing their articles at the Auditor…
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