CFAB: Is CFAB tough?

Hello everyone!!!

Recently, I have met up with a few juniors from the new intakes. When I met them, most of them will ask the same questions. "Is CFAB tough?" When I asked for the reasons, they told me that that's what they heard from their lecturer. So, today I am going to answer this question as well as to provide solutions to your problems. (These answers might apply to other courses as well =) )

Is CFAB tough? I would say it depends on a few factors:

Interest - Why are you in CFAB? 1) Are you interested in this field? 2) Are you forced by your parents? 3) Are you here just because this path provides you with a stable career? or 4) Are you here because you do not know what to study? If your choice is 1, congrats!! I do not think you will have much difficulty compare to others. Just make sure to keep your passion burning and don't let it dies out. Do what you have to do and if you think you are not improving, seek help! (Friends, lecturers and councilors are always there for you). If your choice is either 2,3 or 4, then you might have a little trouble unless you are geniuses. So, how to 'grow' interest in this field? Firstly, you have to try out these courses first. They are not actually that 'dry' if you come to know it. Sometimes, it can be interesting. Next, try to relate what you have learnt and apply it in real life. For example, you receive allowance from your parents, that's debit. However, you use the allowance they gave you to buy food, that's credit. By doing this, you can not only keep your interest coming in, you are revising as well. Lastly, if you find that you have really no interest at all no matter what you do and you have no other choices to make, have a hobby or join an activity that you really enjoy it (in my case, horse riding =)) and vent your stressful life!! It is better to choose an activity, that is somehow, acts as a reward to you. This means that if you are not doing good in that particular subject, you cannot join the activity. So, the activity acts like a motivator to you. (This works on me, I don't know others though...)

English - In my opinion, to make your CFAB life easier, your English must be above average, which is why Sun-TES requires students to have an A in English in order to enter CFAB. However, getting an A in SPM doesn't mean anything. All of my classmates get an A in English, but there are some who are really good in it, and some who do not. I find that those who excel in English do not have much problem compare to those who do. So, what should you do? Don't worry. I am one of the ones who are really bad in it. So what do I do? If it is only a word, find the meaning in the dictionary and figure out the meaning of the sentence by reading through the sentence a few times. If you still do not understand, do not hesitate to ask your friends or lecturers. (Please make an effort to understand first before you ask). Be a bit "thick skin", as the Chinese said. We are talking about your future here. You do not want your future to be ruined just because of a few sentences, right? Back to where I was... When they explain it, it is best to write the meaning or explanation somewhere on the textbook so you won't forget it. It also means respect to yourself and to your lecturers and friends as well, because it portrays your dedication to learn and that you would not forget what they have taught you. (I prefer to write it on the textbook and not notes because it is easier to refer whenever you want and the semester only last for about 3 months. You might lose your notes after 3 months...).

What do you want? - What kind of results do you want? How far do you aim? The higher you aim, the more effort you need to put in it, and the more pressure you bear. It's an equivalent exchange. This is also why some lecturers will say that some students will study 24/7 because "to be the top scorer" is what they aim for. However, this doesn't mean you have to be like them. You are you. Set an aim that you yourself can achieve, not too high and not too low. For example, "I want to do my very best in every subject so I would not regret later". With this, you can have a study life balance. Join any activities you want. Take my class for an example, my class has a musician, a singer, a few body builders, a few gamers, a few athletes and many drama and movie lovers that top the class.  While others not being able to be the best, they still can join the activities they want. It all depends on how you manage your time and your attitude in class. However, bear in mind, the results you aim for must be a decent result and not just "on the borderline" as the results will be the main criteria for you to be chosen by an employer. 

Revision - Please at least go through or look through what lecturers will be teaching the next class even though you don't understand a single thing. If you enter the class without any idea on what the lecturer is going to teach, it will be hard for both of you and the lecturer. Besides, by looking through the textbook, you can bombard lecturers with questions during the class. After the lesson, recap what the lecturer has taught. This time, I am certain that you will understand at least 50% of the lessons. Also, there are a question bank and an answer booklet that are accompanied with the textbook. Make sure to do the questions after your revision so that you will understand the syllabus better. Compare to CAT and ACCA, CFAB does not have many exercises. There are no other revision kits except for the ones you have received. Other exercises will be given by the lecturer during Revision Course.

Test and Examination - In every subject, it has a total of 4 tests, 3 of them are prepared by the lecturers and the final examination is prepared by external examiners. These tests have to be done between 1 and a half month to about 3 months depend on how Sun-TES arranges your timetable. It is especially worse when there are 2 core subjects which you have to complete in 3 months. Not to forget that there are additional papers too. This might be a bit tough as you have to read and understand a lot of things in a short period of time. However, if you do revision constantly, and with a little last minute revision it'll probably help you to get a decent result.

Education Background - This is the factor that students do not need to concern about because CFAB provides a foundation or basic to all students who came from different streams. This means that you do not need to have any accounting knowledge. Trust me, the lecturers will teach you everything starting from 0. Even so, I believe most of you have already learnt some of it in Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu. So, if you are from accounting streams, take this as an advantage to refresh your memory, and if you are from science streams, don't worry, you can catch up with your friends anytime soon. (Some of the students from science stream can even score higher than those from accounting stream, which is why what you have previously studied should be the least of your concern.)

From here, you can see that you yourself, your friends around you and the lecturers play a very important role in helping you going through CFAB. So, appreciate them. I hope by doing this, I have answered your questions and helped you solve some of your problems. Also, I want to take this chance to thanks all my classmates and lecturers who have helped me and sorry to some of my friends if I annoyed you by bombarding you with questions. =P