I've sent off the socks of doom to my target - she will be dead in a week or so. I forgot to take a photo, but you can see an example of the socks here, where they killed my assassin.
So Handsome Pete is now after me. Hopefully I'll get some partially-completed socks in the mail before I die.
The sock of doom is in progress. Turning heel. No time for photos. No time to write. Must knit.
Yes, it's done. I am so relieved that the UFE is over. Tim was asking why I wasn't more excited, but with a 10 week wait for marks, it's hard to get excited. I say marks, but it's really just pass or fail, although there is an honour roll for the top 50 papers.
And although I have done well on exams in the past, so has everyone else who wrote with me. We've all done well, we've all made it this far, and yet 25% will fail the exam. Even the big firms, which are arguably the best and the brightest students, have fail rates similar to the national average each year.
So I can't be excited yet. But I will relax this weekend, with this thing no longer over my head, and I will pack up my books and papers and hide them in the crawl space until I can shred the lot. And I will go back to work on Monday, and hopefully I will be kept busy enough on audits for the next 10 weeks to keep my from worrying about November 24. And then, hopefully, I will celebrate.
Keep your fingers and toes, and whatever else you can cross, crossed for me for the next three days. Thursday at 1 it's all over.
Here's an interesting article from the Toronto Star about the UFE and what it means to me and 2,499 other CA hopefuls.
Yes, 5 days to UFE day 1. Today I wrote my last practice case - smoked it, thank you very much (but it was very directed - do this, do this, do this, and do this). A good way to finish - I was getting a bit worried last week when nothing seemed to be going right. Now I just have to get through the real thing.
Tonight I go for a drink with my UFE mentor, and tomorrow and for the next 5 days I will cram into my head every piece of accounting and tax technical knowledge I can find. Those are the places I tend to fall down. Most of the evaluation guides say things like "a reasonable attempt" or "the discussion is reasonably accurate" or "contains few technical errors" so I think I'm okay. Still the more facts I have in my head, the more reasonable my response will be, and the better chance of getting through the three levels of evaluation.
The UFE is marked on levels of competency. Your basic goal is to hit Reaching Competence or Competent (i.e. "to score") a sufficient number of times, in the right places. Not addressed or Nominal Competence - not good enough. Highly competent - no better than Competent in terms of whether you pass, so don't bother going there.
Then these competencies are evaluated on three levels.
Level 1, did the candidate identify and competently respond to enough issues. Basically a % of available marks. But of course, no one knows what the % is that's required for passing.
Level 2, did the candidate achieve depth of discussion in Assurance and Performance Measurement (basically audit and accounting). Need to be awarded Competent on a minimum number of indicators in this group. You guessed it, no one knows what that minimum number is.
Level 3, did the candidate achieve breadth. Breadth means you have to have scored at least Reaching Competent a minimum number of times for each of the other technical areas - Finance, Tax, Information Technology, and Organizational Effectiveness.
I think I can manage Level 1 - I score on most competencies, and generally get a mix of Reaching and Competent. Of course I also get my share of Not addressed and Nominals, but these are few enough that I think I'll get through Level 1.
Same with Level 3 - I score pretty evenly across the board, often enough to get through this one.
Level 2 is the one that haunts me. Getting Competent on PM was a difficult task last week. I think I managed it once on one indicator from all 10 cases I practiced. This one has me worried.
Oh, how I can't wait just to get it written and get back to a normal life for a while.
Then the 10-week wait for marks begins.