Sunway TES at Sunway College aims to provide high quality education for ICAEW students.
TOP in the world for the second time in a single year, Tan Yi Xuan set her sights on professional accountancy Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) programme at Sunway TES after doing a deep dive into what could be next after SPM and was drawn to the wide job prospects of the profession – on top of her love for calculation.
She also cited the programme's fast track education of two-and-a-half-years before joining the workforce as a factor for her to begin her accounting journey at Sunway TES.
Crowned World Prize Winner for the ICAEW examinations – achieving the world’s highest marks twice – Tan was awarded for her excellent scores of 95 marks for Audit and Assurance in March claiming the Joint First Place and The Watts Prize, and an outstanding score of 99 marks for Tax Compliance in June this year, claiming First place and the Knox Prize, Professional Stage Order Of Merit.
In addition, the 20-year-old also secured a conditional offer at KPMG Malaysia’s audit department with just one semester left under her ICAEW programme at Sunway TES, a connection made during the college open day, which also led to an internship stint with the multinational organisation in 2020.
Loving a good challenge, she chose ICAEW knowing it is one of the most valuable qualifications to obtain and decided to secure a position with Sunway TES because of its long-standing history and collaboration with ICAEW, along with Sunway College's impressive scholarship options.
But how did she manage to achieve two awards in a single year with an almost perfect score?
Tan Yi Xuan was crowned World Prize Winner twice in the same year.
Tips from top in the world student
It is all about hard work and determination, Tan said, as the amount of work put in studying will reflect in the results.
“I spend a lot of time studying with special attention to the method of studying. Rather than focusing too much on theory, I spend a lot of time on practising test questions and managing time for examinations.
“You cannot study last minute if you want good results. Need to practise a lot until you can do each question quickly since the time constraint is short,” she said, adding that auditing the answers when practising is important to identify weaknesses and to rectify it.
Also, self-discipline is key, said the early morning riser, who spends an average of some seven hours a day studying, with the longest spanning 11 hours.
An advocate for rest, she opined that studying for two hours and resting for half an hour is ideal and exercise is important too for mental health, sharing that her go-to exercises are jump rope or HIIT workout she finds on Youtube.
Furthermore, the institution's infrastructure and adaptability are crucial. “Because of the pandemic, my classes were conducted online and Sunway TES’ easy to use e-learning platform Blackboard records every lecture session, allowing students to rewatch and understand the subject better,” she said.
Meanwhile, she found that good education begins with good lecturers, sharing, “Sunway has excellent human resources who are its lecturers. They are very helpful, responsive and showcase easy-to-understand teaching methods,” she said, adding that one of her favourite lecturers Simon Kok taught her all her taxation subjects - which happens to be her favourite - since the beginning of her education at Sunway TES.
Simon Kok has been lecturing taxation subjects for some 20 years and finds that hard work and dedication are key to being an exceptional student.
Good lecturers and education
With over 20 years of lecturing on taxation subjects at Sunway, Kok said: “As a competent teacher you need to be an effective communicator in writing and verbal communication on top of the ability to plan and organise effectively.
“In addition to imparting knowledge to students, teachers must guide and engage students, especially now when everything is online and continuously inspire them to perform well in their studies.”
He recalls Tan as an exceptional student.
“She is a very hardworking and dedicated student who is not afraid to approach lecturers when having doubts. She would show up to class physically just to ask questions whenever possible while strictly adhering to SOPs.
“She always put in the extra effort. That’s why I think she’s not just an excellent student, but an exceptional one,” he said, adding that hard work and dedication are key to being an exceptional student.
So many things have changed because of the pandemic, Kok said, including the commercial environment where ICAEW students train in and would need to develop necessary skills.
He said these skills would include analysis, interpretation, professional scepticism, communication, collaboration, adaptability, resilience and commerciality.
“There is a common misconception that accountants only work with numbers and records, but actually they deal with people either client, staff, shareholders or board of directors. That’s why it’s so important to have interpersonal skills and leadership skills.
“A career path for a chartered accountant offers a prestigious career, with lots of opportunity for progression and high earning potential who would give advice, audit accounts and provide trustworthy information about financial records.”
Kok said this could involve financial reporting, taxation, auditing, forensic accounting, corporate finance, business recovery and insolvency, or accounting systems and processes.
He noted that Sunway TES ICAEW graduates have gone on to take up a three-year contract with some of the leading professional services firms and others might join listed companies like Sunway and AmBank.
Once there, he said, they would be rotated within the organisation and would not be dealing with numbers alone, but would gain experience in different aspects of the organisation.
Full scholarship available
The ICAEW programme at Sunway TES has nurtured the highest number of ICAEW ACA certified accountants in the nation with over 1,000 ACA graduates to date.
The institution is also offering ICAEW Global Accountant Scholarship – a full scholarship to students intending to pursue the ICAEW programme upon meeting requirements. The Scholarship covers full tuition and examination fee and is awarded by merit with no interview required.
For more information, visit college.sunway.edu.my/programmes/tes or https://bit.ly/SunwayTESform for enquiries.
