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一肯尼亚女孩在ACCA考试中夺魁 |
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| 一肯尼亚女孩在ACCA考试中夺魁 |
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作者：佚名 文章来源：不详 点击数： 更新时间：2006-12-21 16:57:47  |
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Nothing about the 25-year-old slim, dark and bespectacled woman with braided hair gives the impression she is an extraordinary person.
But the unassuming five-foot five-inch Angela Akoth Oketch is a world beater.
In last year’s Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) examination, she scored the highest marks worldwide (99 per cent) in Paper 2.2 (Corporate and Business Law).
In recognition of her outstanding performance, the UK-based association will formally award Akoth a certificate of merit and a cash token next month in London.
What is more gratifying about Akoth’s achievement is that she did not attend class. She studied on her own, mostly after work and not even on a daily basis.
And she is not too proud of the amazing achievement. "It feels good if a bit surprising because the paper was hard and I did not expect that kind of result.
"But I’m happy; it is an encouragement. It sort of makes you feel you can do it," she tells this writer in an interview.
Akoth, dressed in a brown skirt suit, a simple cream blouse and brown shoes to match, insists the examination paper was very hard and she only hoped to pass.
"The pass mark is 50 (per cent) and I was hoping I would get that; that is how hard it was."
When she learnt about her achievement in February through an e-mail notification, she only expected to be informed she had passed.
"I opened my mail hoping I had passed the papers I had sat and the marks were there, written quite simply and that is how I got to know I had 99 per cent."
She says she had put more hope in another paper (tax), "as I had done a bit of tax in my line of work".
Akoth, who had been exempted from Paper 2.1 (information systems) because of her IT background, ended up passing the tax paper with a 64 per cent mark.
In June last year, she passed papers 1.1 (preparing financial statements), 1.2 (financial information for management) and 1.3 (managing people).
The next thing she did was to call colleagues and friends with whom she had sat the exam.
"We hold each other up and on finding that they had also passed, we all gave a sigh of relief and that was that. We did not go into the issue of actual marks."
Akoth works in a busy office (Price WaterhouseCoopers) and often misses classes.
"I study on my own, but towards the end there is a revision course for about a month during which time the company will give you some study leave to prepare for the examination," says the young woman who sat her first ACCA exam in June 2004.
The budding systems and processes associate is not even a bookworm — she does not have to burn the midnight oil to achieve the near impossible grades.
"I do not study everyday and not because I return home at ungodly hours; it’s just not possible. And poring over my books after I get home is not for me either."
Faced with a June exam, she would relax until around April when her tempo slowly picked up.
But every time Akoth sits an ACCA exam, she is acutely aware that she is doing so together with thousands of others from all over the world.
She knows that she is at a "slight disadvantage" because a lecturer has not taken her through the course.
She is well aware that when one studies on their own, they have nothing to rate themselves against, but she still does it partly out of choice.
Born and brought up in Nairobi’s Langata estate (she has lived in the same house since she was born), Akoth is the last-born with three sisters and a brother. There is a five-year gap between her and the third born.
Her mother was a lecturer, her father a land surveyor. Two of her siblings are university lecturers and one is in business.
"They are all so different and accomplished in very different ways and I have learnt different things from each of them. Being the last-born there were always set standards that I had to match or outshine."
As a career choice, nothing was further from her mind than accounts when she joined university. She wanted to go into medicine but was admitted to an IT course. With time, she came to like the course and ended up graduating with First Class honours.
After graduation, she worked at Strathmore University before joining PWC for a career in accounting/auditing.
"I was a bit skeptical at first and I even wondered why they were taking me, when I was not the typical accountant type. But I talked to a number of people and they told me PWC liked the variation."
Today, she works with people from all kinds of backgrounds including those who have studied anthropology. "They are very open, professional and are interested in one doing the job, not what they did in school."
Currently Akoth’s focus is on systems and processes auditing. She gets to combine her IT background and accounting.
She remembers her days at Karen C Primary School, Nairobi, with gladness. "From day one, I just liked school and apart from Kiswahili, I enjoyed all subjects. I do not know if primary school is like that any more," she laughs.
She went to Kenya High School and got to meet people of different backgrounds from across the country and made many friends. "Those are friendships I cherish to date," she says.
Her parents’ and siblings’ influence is clear. She keeps making reference to the things they have taught her many times.
"My siblings have also been very influential; they are so far from the accounting profession, but they know it is important to me and important for me to pass the exams. They are always very encouraging especially in the trying times, just before the exams."
Akoth is not a typical cold calculating accounts specialist. She has "many, many friends from all walks of life" with whom she does "a lot of things" over the weekends. She also reads quite a bit (not necessarily for ACCA) and watches movies regularly.
In a few weeks’ time, when she takes a trip to London for the awards ceremony, and it will fit in well with her love of travelling.
With the award behind her, she is intent on completing all ACCA exams. Whether she slips or not, she is determined to do her best.
The ACCA is not the first award she has won. Previously, she has been awarded bronze and silver under the President’s Award Scheme. |
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