Bringing home the gold

Putting in a lot of time has paid off for Calgarian Kevin Johnston, who achieved the highest standing in Canada at the 2005 Uniform Evaluation (UFE). For his efforts, he takes home the Governor General’s Gold Medal and the Chartered Accountants of Canada cash prize of $5,000,

“I’m shocked,” says the 23-year-old of his win. “I don’t think anyone expects to get the highest standing. I was in Medicine Hat by myself [when I heard]; I called my fiancée and told my parents.” Even Chris Clark, Canadian senior partner and CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers, where Johnston works, called to offer his congratulations.

Johnston was not the only person in his firm to achieve outstanding results. “PricewaterhouseCoopers did very well,” he says. “[The company] got three to four awards.”

Preparation was a long time coming for Johnston. In addition to spending two summers at the University of Saskatchewan doing the master of professional accounting program, which he completed in 2005, Johnston went to the Chartered Accountants School of Business (CASB), where he was on the case analysis team. He also took courses offered by PwC “for five to 10 full days, spread out, which I think is good because it gives you time to process the information.”

His advice for being successful at the UFE? “Use a computer. I brought my laptop and I’m glad I did.”

Other gold medal honours and a $2,500 cash prize each go to Renée M. Collier and Julie Bergeron for the highest standing in Eastern Canada and Quebec, respectively. Lucy Durocher takes the gold medal and $2,500 for achieving the highest ranking in Ontario.

This year, the total number of first-time writers increased to 1,940 from 1,761 last year.

The Chartered Accountants School of Business (which consists of the institutes of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan) had the highest pass rate, at 79.3%, a slight increase over last year’s pass rate of 79%. The pass rate for first-time writers in Ontario also showed an increase, to 75.8% from 73.9 % in 2004 and 65% in 2003. Eighty-one more first-time writers gave CASB the largest increase in first-time writers, with 599 in total, compared with 518 in 2004. The total pass rate for all writers remained almost steady at 74%, compared with 74.4% last year.