ICFE candidates discussed their experiences of the first ICFE exam in China
The first exam of the Cambridge ICFE （Cambridge International Certificate in Financial English, ICFE）exam took place in 20 countries and areas including mainland China and Hong Kong on May 12th 2007. The two world-renowned organisations have combined their areas of expertise to develop the Cambridge ICFE, which is designed to encourage and assess the financial English language skills and ability to interact in English required of accounting and finance professionals within the international business community. Cambridge ESOL has nominated the British Council and Beiwai Online to administrate the test in China
Huang Pu, graduate student majoring in Accounting from Beijing Technology and Business University, took the first exam of the Cambridge ICFE. All courses of 4 years have been offered in English during her study in campus which made her a solid base of English and finance. She got 7.0 in IELTS, B in Cambridge BEC Higher Level and Excellent both in CET 4 & CET 6， all of which she is pride of. It’s Huang Pu’s mother who suggested and encouraged her to take the Cambridge ICFE exam. One day Huang Pu’s mother learnt the news from Beijing Morning Post that Cambridge ICFE exam would be held in May. Even though she was busy in preparing for her thesis and hunting jobs, her mother still urged her to register for Cambridge ICFE exam.
Huang Pu believes that the following list illustrates the topic areas covered with the first Cambridge ICFE:
- Financial Reporting
- Company Financial Strategy
- Risk Assessment and Analysis
- Ethics and Professionalism
- Debt-Recovery and Credit Policy
- Accounting Software Packages
- Auditing
- Assets and Company Valuations
- Budgetary Processes
- Corporate Governance
- Cost and Management Accounting
- Bankruptcy
- Acquisitions and Mergers
- Environmental and Sustainability Issues
Huang Pu only felt frustrated in writing part during the exam. Writing includes two parts. The first part requires candidates as staff in VC to write a letter of between 120-180 words to a firm of accountants, while the 5 key points have been provided which should be addressed in the letter. As Huang pu had not practiced such writing, she felt it difficult to complete the letter within only 180 words while including 5 key points. Her letter was beyond 180 words finally. As she spent so much time on this letter, there were only 20 minutes left when she began to answer the second part of writing test.
He Guang also met the same trouble. He was an undergraduate student of College of Arts and Science from Beijing Union University. His letter also surpassed 180 words. And the second part of Writing test was a proposal. As he was not very familiar with such proposal report, he felt very frustrated and think for a long time but still can’t meet the requirement of 200 words.
Listening test was also a little trouble for He guang who was accustomed to American pronunciation while the test was English pronunciation. It spent him more time to grasp the meaning due to difficulty in listening to English pronunciation.
All candidates believed that the first Cambridge ICFE exam require them to have huge vocabulary of accounting and finance. Huang pu suggested candidates could enlarge their vocabulary through more reading on English newspapers and journals, especially in the field of accounting and finance.
In respect of Speaking test, they thought a strong knowledge background of accounting and finance was needed. And many factors, such as coordination with his exam partner, the expression of oral examiners, could also have some impact on candidates performance.
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