While I can honestly say that I have studied at Cambridge University, it would be somewhat disingenuous. The truth is that I have spent a grand total of four weeks there, at various points in the past three or so years. While my employer uses their own training facilities these days, they still use Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, as a "residential" location for more intensive periods of studying. The auditors go there for their crash course in materiality and transposition errors, and tax folk such as myself go there for a parallel introduction into the 5 6 books (gotta love that ever increasing tax legislature! Thanks Gordon!) that contain just about everything we need to know for the white-knuckle ride that is a career in tax.
Last week, was just such a week of studying. I can honestly say that all of us present dug deep and embraced the true academic spirit of our surroundings and became once more the exemplary students that we once were in years gone past. And if that all sounds like an elaborate way of dressing up the fact that what we really did was sleep too little, eat rubbish, drink a lot and occasionally do some work, then shame on you for being so cynical and doubting.
OK, I admit it, we had some fun while we were there... I beat my friends at bowling, won and lost at poker, played a fair bit of Mario Kart, almost won a pub quiz, resolutely lost another and went to a truly awful nightclub. I ate too much fried food, not enough vegetables, mountains of crisps and even Pop Tarts for the first time in years. I drank coffee during the day and beer at night.
In between all of this, I did actually get quite a lot of work done, and sat 3 mock exams in readiness for the horror that awaits me in the early days of November. I will finally be sitting my final Chartered Tax Adviser exams. CTA is said to be one of the hardest professional qualifications in the country. I've heard it said that it's the second hardest, after some actuarial qualification, which is probably only so challenging due to being so spectacularly boring. CTA pass rates are about 30-40%, and that's with a pass mark of just 50%. It's also slightly unnerving that those pass rates stand in spite of the fact that all the exams are open book, so you essentially have the vast bulk of the answers right there on the desk with you, if you can only persuade them out of your set of heavily highlighted legislation and onto the blank page in front of you. An open book exam is something of a poisoned chalice when you consider that the books in question are the 5 6 behemoths with a total of over 20,000 pages. It is rather a lot to take in.
I must say, it's been quite a long time coming - I've been studying for this for three years, and it's been quite a slog, not least when combined with the depression mentioned in my previous post. I've been spending roughly a week a month in London on courses, which has been quite rubbish in terms of being away from my home and my family. On the other hand, it's going to be quite weird not going any more - I'll be in the office all the time and I won't see my friends from my course on the same regular basis, which is quite a shame. It should all be worth it in the end, in terms of career advancement and - assuming the recession doesn't ruin everything - pay rises and a decent bonus to boot.
So, 5 weeks work, 3 exams, then a couple of months waiting till the results come out. I'll keep you posted.
