Celebrating Our CFE National Honour Roll Achiever
DURCO is proud to share that Alik has earned a place on the Canadian CPA CFE Honour Roll. This distinction recognizes candidates who placed within the top one percent nationally on the Common Final Examination (CFE), a three-day assessment required for the CPA designation in Canada. The exam evaluates applied knowledge and professional judgement across all major areas of accounting.
Alik completed his Master of Accounting (MAcc) at the Schulich School of Business while working at DURCO LLP, having joined the firm in September 2024. The combination of academic training and hands-on experience across multiple service lines provided a strong foundation leading into the exam.
Reflecting on the process, he highlights several factors that supported him along the way:
“There were several factors that contributed to my having received honour roll on the CFE, the main one being the diverse work experience I was able to build at DURCO. At a smaller firm, I have the opportunity to work within multiple accounting streams – accounting, tax (filings and tax planning), assurance (audits, reviews, special reports), and advisory. This not only keeps the work engaging, but also helps me build a broad base of accounting knowledge, enabling me to approach the same issue from several different angles. For instance, I was able to help clients make strategic accounting decisions in order to meet their own goals, while simultaneously ensuring that the decisions are tax efficient. The CFE was similar in that every case tested multiple competencies and required me to approach a problem from various perspectives as well.
“What also helped me was having our assurance partner Marc Colasanti act as our CFE mentor. Being an instructor at Schulich as well as a published assurance textbook author, Marc is an expert case-writer, so I was able to get highly useful feedback during our weekly case debrief sessions.”
On the practical side, Alik approached preparation with consistency. Some of the strategies that helped him included:
Spending one to two hours per week from January to April before starting the MAcc reviewing core topics like financial accounting, managerial accounting, tax, and valuations.
Keeping a running list of technical areas to revisit whenever they came up while marking practice cases during the CFE summer.
Memorizing key concepts and criteria, especially in tax, where accuracy is crucial.
Studying with a partner to talk through questions and make sure both understood the material well.
The firm congratulates Alik on this achievement and looks forward to supporting his continued development as he works toward obtaining his CPA designation.