MPAcc Interview Questions

A lot of people end up coming to our website based on the topic "MPAcc Interview Questions", so I figured it was about time to have a dedicated post to the topic.

MPAcc typically describes the interview as informal, that being said it's actually pretty formal. I'm guessing they just say that to try and take the edge off. That being said it is by no means a stressful interview, it is very similar to the interviews you would have had with the professional accounting firms. It's a combination of getting to know each other, getting more depth on your background, and determining your suitability and fit with MPAcc (as well as your motivations behind wanting to attend).

Here are few MPAcc interview sample questions:

• How would you describe your leadership style?
• What are some of the characteristics of an effective leader that you've worked with?
• Do you take an active or a passive role when working in teams?
• What are some characteristics that you consider to be important in an effective team?
• Tell me what some of your strengths are.
• What is your biggest accomplishment to date?
• If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would it be? (Didn't necessarily have to be a regret.)
• What type of classes have you already taken?
• Did you have group work in those classes? How were the groups selected? Did you have a say in who you would work with?
• Do you prefer being able to choose your own groups? Describe a situation where you encountered difficulties when working in a team. What is an example of a positive team experience that you've had?
• Have you secured employement post graduation?
• What makes you want to go to MPAcc instead of CASB?
• Have a little discussion around any work experience you have had previously (key on accounting firm experience)
• Have a little discussion around non-academic activities

MPAcc has a lot of group work, so they'll be looking for well rounded people who can bring something to the table and who are able to work well in groups and resolve any differences professionally. Any questions just leave us a comment and we'll answer them!

MPAcc vs. CASB

Note: Applicable only to Western Canada

The choice: University of Saskatchewan’s Masters of Professional Accounting Program (MPAcc) or the Chartered Accountants School of Business (CASB).

I figured I’d mention this topic due to the deadline for MPAcc being on December 15, 2010 for enrolment for a May 2012 start date. It is important to apply early if you’re even remotely interested due to the fact that you’re applying nearly 2 years in advance. For CASB students there is a lot more flexibility about when you can enrol (you can enrol at anytime in the program), and you just have to follow the module registration deadlines, but if you miss out it probably won’t be much longer before the module is offered again.

It is an important decision to make, but will probably not affect your life at all a few years down the road, so don’t worry too much about it. The reason why I don’t think it will affect your life down the road is that both paths lead you to writing the UFE and obtaining your CA. Any smart employer will see right through the MPAcc designation on your business card as a boiler plate. The only chance it could potentially help you is if you were to go for a government union job and they have to pay their professional accountants with Master’s degrees more than those with accounting designations. Additionally if you ever wanted to be involved in academic accounting the program would be beneficial to these candidates as well.

What should you consider when choosing programs? If work/school/life balance (I say balance not flexibility or work load management), is important for you than I would highly recommend the MPAcc program. When you’re working late and you’re comrades are staying up late finishing their CASB assignments you can be going to the gym, hanging out with your friends (not your work friends, they’ll be doing CASB), spending time with family, or actually getting 8 hours of sleep a night. Come summer time, you travel out to Saskatoon (which is quite nice during the summer time) and you go to school and study for close to an 8 hour day (if you’re efficient) and you can have all your evenings and weekends free (for the most part). For those who love living life, they should seriously consider the balance that the MPAcc program provides.

Do you prefer learning on your own or in a class? CASB is a distance education program that is completed under the supervision of a facilitator and has one 3-day classroom session (face-to-face) once per module. MPAcc is all classroom based, with group work, assignments, tests, and is quite similar in structure to your undergrad education.

Can you get by with no salary? One major decision factor as well could be your cash flow. Are you able to survive 4-months without pay? Is your firm going to be paying for MPAcc? It is quite a bit more expensive than CASB running $7,000 a term x 2 terms for a total of $14,000. As well as 4-months without pay, you also have 4 months without earning months towards your CA designation. Depending on your goals this could be quite important as MPAcc will set you back approximately 6.5 months as compared to CASB. Also, you work hard September through to April and just when your schedule is going to ease up and allow you to complete your learning and development activities, plan your files for the upcoming yet, etc you are out of the office. You’ll miss the lightened work weeks, golfing with the firm and client and having summer students around to carry out your wishes.

In terms of what you’ll be learning it’s probably similar, people from MPAcc pass the UFE and people from CASB pass the UFE. It is hard to compare because no one (that I know of) has taken both CASB and MPAcc, as there would be no point. Please beware of the MPAcc program claim that they have a higher pass rate, this does not mean the program is better it just means that they have more restrictive entrance criteria than CASB. MPAcc isn’t extremely difficult to get into (although it is relatively competitive), but it is certainly harder than getting into CASB which basically anyone can get in to. Allowing anyone in is a great way to make money by selling people education, even if they aren’t capable of ever passing the UFE.

So either decision is a great one, just make sure it is the right decision for you.

For further research see:

www.edwards.usask.ca/mpacc/

www.casb.com/