RECENT CTA AND ATT MEDAL WINNERS LOOK BACK ON THEIR ACHIEVEMENT WITH ALLISON PLAGER
Congratulations! You’ve passed! Those magic words are more than enough for most CTA and ATT students. After months of hard work and enduring the exams, the most rewarding news must be that you’ve succeeded. For some, there is extra good news: they have done so well that they have been given a prize.
No time to celebrate
The ATT is for many an end in itself, providing a highly respected qualification. However, it is often the first step towards becoming a CTA. This is the case for David Bareham, tax associate in Grant Thornton Employer Solutions.
He won the Collingwood medal for the highest mark in the ATT paper on business compliance. This success, he says, showed him ‘that it is possible to achieve high standards in exams if you apply yourself, use the correct study techniques and, most importantly, put the effort in’.
However, he says that he can’t get too carried away, because after winning it ‘I was pretty much straight into my CTA studies’. So although David has not really had ‘time to sit back and savour the moment’, he says that winning the medal ‘certainly gives me confidence when studying and dealing with problems in practice’.
As to the paper (business compliance) for which he won the medal, David explains that he was ‘very confident’ going into the exam as it covered ‘many areas that I get involved with during the course of doing my job, although winning a prize was a bit of a shock’.
He was more concerned about a couple of the other papers that covered areas that he was less familiar with. However, David passed all four ATT papers which was his ‘main goal from the start’.
Sadly, David had no time to celebrate because he is studying for his CTA exams in May 2010. He adds: ‘this is tough, but it will be great if I can pass it and finally say goodbye to exams’.
But life is not just one text book for David. He mentions that he recently came back from competing in the ITSF World Cup of Table Football. ‘We (Great Britain) came fifth which is our best ever result, but maybe deserved better after losing a close and controversial match to France’.
Lovely surprise
Winner of the Gilbert Burr medal for the advisory paper on taxation of owner-managed businesses in the May 2009 CTA examinations, Clare Bradbury is a tax manager at Mazars’ Manchester office.
She decided that ‘after working in audit, forensic and then corporate finance for several years’, becoming a chartered tax adviser would offer her ‘the opportunity to get back up to speed with the ever-changing tax legislation’.
She says she now works mostly in corporate tax, so ‘becoming a CTA has not only given me an improved knowledge of my specialism, but also a knowledge of other taxes which is of benefit when talking to and advising clients’.
As with all prize winners, Clare modestly says that the medal was ‘completely unexpected’ and that ‘just passing would have been enough’! But ‘it was a lovely surprise and it felt good to know that all my hard work had paid off’.
There is no doubt that the CTA exams are hard. ‘They are very time pressured’, says Clare, ‘and it is hard to cover all you would like in the allocated time. However, I think by trying to keep calm, covering the main areas and not getting too distracted by any obscure things you have never heard of that come up (there will be some!) they are achievable.’
Bearing in mind the volume of material, Clare says ‘it does all seem to come together in the end’. She recommends that ‘if possible, plan something to look forward to, such as a holiday, once the exams have finished. This helped me to stay motivated! And, when it’s finally all over, remember to thank your friends and family for putting up with you and being supportive through these stressful few months’.
Building block
Yago Lamela won the Wreford Voge medal for the advisory paper on VAT on cross-border transactions and other indirect taxes. At the time, he was working for PKF, but has since moved on and is now assistant VAT manager at Vantis Group Ltd.
He says that he ‘was obviously very happy to be a prize winner’. He was also chuffed to receive ‘quite a few congratulatory messages from people’ he has met and worked with in tax over the past few years.
Overall, he says ‘winning the prize is a great boost and proves that all those weekends studying really do pay off in the end’.
As to the rigour of the CTA exams, Yago says ‘the sheer volume of material that needs to be reviewed and the quantity of cases that need to be learnt mean that the qualification is hard and very time consuming, but it is well worth attempting and also improves your knowledge a great deal’. He urges current students not to allow ‘the quantity of material to overwhelm you’.
Yago is delighted that he has finally passed all his CTA exams and is awaiting his membership documents to become a chartered tax adviser. As to work, he says ‘I am enjoying my new role as an assistant manager at Vantis and building on the knowledge and experience that I gained in qualifying to become a CTA’.
Last, but not least, Yago is enjoying his weekends ‘with no studying’.
Top tips
I asked our three medal winners if they had any hints for those currently going through the CTA and ATT exams. Naturally, they were willing to share their experiences.
Yago suggests ‘reviewing and having a good understanding of the entire syllabus rather than focusing on particular areas. Examiners will always throw in some questions (or part questions) that are not “mainstream syllabus” and gaining marks on these questions would be advantageous’.
He also recommends that students ‘keep up to date on the current case law. By reading and understanding cases you will be applying your technical knowledge to real life scenarios that are often tested in exams’.
Finally, he says that ‘practising questions after work for one hour each day will help you make the most of time when you are too tired to study for a prolonged period’.
‘I know it sounds obvious,’ says Clare, ‘but try to start studying as early as possible and don’t leave cramming to the last minute. There is a massive amount of information to cover and so I found that a slow and steady approach to studying helped to give the information time to sink in’. She too stresses the importance of doing ‘as many questions and papers as possible, preferably to exam/timed conditions’.
David recommends that students should ‘start early on the topic that you think will give you the most trouble’. Cliché it may be, but this is definitely sound advice.
He mentions that he ‘also found that writing key points down and making up study cards helped me remember things more clearly. Getting to know the legislation is also useful as it saves time remembering certain things’.
