Stuck with the CTA qualification

I'm seriously stuck with the CTA, having failed the AT OMB paper three times (marks in each sitting: 35, 35, and 43)...

I used to work in CT in practice but recently made a move into industry working as Tax Manager for a plc with a focus on VAT and CT, and I find much of the OMB material very irrelevant now.

The reasons I'm stuck are twofold:

i) I passed the OMB case study paper so I'm fairly familiar with the material,
ii) I can't do the CT papers as my Awareness paper had a CT module (my first tax job was with a big 4 employer who put us on a specific ATT/CTA pathway).

My plan is to try the AT OMB paper for the 4th time in May, and then start studying for the AT CB VAT paper as it is much more relevant to my current role, and is preferred by my employer.

However, I feel like I am one fail away from having a serious breakdown having dedicated nearly all of my annual leave in the past 4 years to these exams. The time commitment has seriously impacted my relationships and mental health. The only benefit of finishing this qualification at this point would be a payrise, other than that I am happy and safe in my role as Tax Manager which is not dependent on my passing - and for these reasons, I feel that my motivation has slumped to its lowest level ever.

If I could get over the obvious sunk costs from having already covered the OMB material three times, I wonder if I should postpone and perhaps give up on the AT OMB altogehter and try the two AT VAT papers instead? I don't think this would prevent me from being eligible for CTA membership, but it would definitely be an unusual route.

Any advice whatsoever would be appreciated. Thanks

Some things to think about:

1) When do your credits all start to expire? (You haven't mentioned this.)
2) How much do you want/need to be CTA qualified? (You imply not that much.)
3) What changed between your second and third attempt? 35 to 43 is a jump. Was it the open book effect, or did you change your exam technique/approach?

I assume you're ATT qualified only at present, which may limit your future options as most other places will want CTA and/or an accountancy qualification. But, it's not a deal-breaker.

In my experience, VAT is not a popular choice for CTA because it's difficult (even worse pass marks than the other papers) and only true VAT nerds ever pass. Do you feel like a VAT specialist now? Or are you really just a CT person who does a bit of VAT? I would only seriously consider changing papers if you honestly feel you've become a VAT person and are not just someone who dabbles.

Thank you for replying.

1. I have 4 more sittings before my Awareness paper expires - 6 sittings before my case study expires (I've asked CIOT to confirm which one needs to be valid).
2. I definitely want to finish it given how hard I've had to work to get to this point. It's only the last fail that has really impacted me and made me question whether attempting the OMB paper again is the right approach. I am motivated to study, but not very motivated to study OMB (again!)
3. I improved my exam technique and timekeeping but some areas always let me down no matter how much I revise and practice them, especially partnerships and some areas of CGT.

Yes, I am currently ATT qualified and would like to continue working in tax, ideally fully CTA qualified as it will help me make my case for future pay raises and promotions.

My role is about 60% VAT and it is our biggest risk area. I feel that I would be much more interested in the content and that it would help me in the long term in this role as I don't have previous VAT experience. I saw that the Cross Border VAT exam consistently has higher pass rates than OMB (57% v 42% in the Nov 20 sitting), but the Domestic VAT exam seems more difficult (34% in the last sitting).

I probably need to make a decision early this week and still think that a new approach/more relevant content might help me stay focused and motivated, although deep down I know that if I just did exam practice every night and weekend between now and 7 May I could pass the OMB.

OK. Based on what you've said, I'd recommend sticking with OMB as one of your advisory papers. I don't think it's a case of you can't pass it, I think you've just had your confidence rocked by three fails in a row. With those marks, and with the exam being open book now, I am fairly confident it's your exam technique.

If you haven't done it already, you need to be doing mock exams and then reviewing your answers to the correct answers and doing a brutal post-mortem. Chances are, with marks like yours, you're losing points for not writing down the obvious stuff and/or you're not reading the question requirement carefully. You need to be able to debrief papers sat under timed conditions to understand where your personal blind spots are.

Do you have any support for this paper (e.g. tuition provider, study group), or are you self-studying it alone?

Did you listen to the £10 CIOT exam technique day?

I'm seriously stuck with the CTA, having failed the AT OMB paper three times (marks in each sitting: 35, 35, and 43)...

I used to work in CT in practice but recently made a move into industry working as Tax Manager for a plc with a focus on VAT and CT, and I find much of the OMB material very irrelevant now.

The reasons I'm stuck are twofold:

i) I passed the OMB case study paper so I'm fairly familiar with the material,
ii) I can't do the CT papers as my Awareness paper had a CT module (my first tax job was with a big 4 employer who put us on a specific ATT/CTA pathway).

My plan is to try the AT OMB paper for the 4th time in May, and then start studying for the AT CB VAT paper as it is much more relevant to my current role, and is preferred by my employer.

However, I feel like I am one fail away from having a serious breakdown having dedicated nearly all of my annual leave in the past 4 years to these exams. The time commitment has seriously impacted my relationships and mental health. The only benefit of finishing this qualification at this point would be a payrise, other than that I am happy and safe in my role as Tax Manager which is not dependent on my passing - and for these reasons, I feel that my motivation has slumped to its lowest level ever.

If I could get over the obvious sunk costs from having already covered the OMB material three times, I wonder if I should postpone and perhaps give up on the AT OMB altogehter and try the two AT VAT papers instead? I don't think this would prevent me from being eligible for CTA membership, but it would definitely be an unusual route.

Any advice whatsoever would be appreciated. Thanks

Hi vyen

My reply is late but I assume you are retaking in November?

These are tough exams. Don't beat yourself up. When I was a junior, ciot used to publish the pass rates for all papers together. They were around 32%. The year I did it the first time, it was 22% then they stopped publishing those and only did it for each paper individually.

How are you doing in your mocks?

When I was big 4, our vat students only did att they didn't have to do cta. But that was a long time ago before the structure of cta changed. I am in another obscure area of tax, the big 4 put us in the general route - AW, IND, OMB, OMB case study. It was awful for me since I only used about 10% of the material in my actual work. I failed about three times but at 45%. Then, like you, I was also at that breaking point and decided to ditch it. Many sunk costs. Quit big 4.Was much happier.

Now many years later I'm doing it again. Haven't told my employer. When I was 21 all the lecturers and bosses told me that passing cta was about being professionally ready. I never understood what it meant. Now I do. A lot of the stuff I don't need to study because I do it everyday or I have to know it to advise clients. It's a lot more natural and feels less like an academic exercise.My credits from old cta lapsed (AW, law, ethics, accounting) so I'm now on a much more suitable pathway than the big 4 general route.

If I was you I would totally dump OMB. You've passed the case study, which is the hardest one. AT vat will help in your career a lot more since you work in vat. Besides you just need to do advanced technical now so you can also dump all that obscure marginal knowledge about IHT and ppr relief. Advanced tech is a narrow focused syllabus thankfully.

How are you doing in your mocks? Tolleys do an amazing timed on screen mock and have a fake practice environment online. So you can compare how you would do in the real thing. There is a reason your marks are low. Is it areas of study? Exam technique? Time management? Address these ASAP.

Since your retakes involve changing finance act and changing AT papers, give yourself a break to learn the syllabus. Take a year to cover the advanced techs.

I heard kpmg pulled out their students from cta because the fail rate was too high and now all grads do aca. Is that an option for you? Aca earns you the same salary or more, more jobs, and each paper has a 70% pass mark or more.

Good luck

I'm seriously stuck with the CTA, having failed the AT OMB paper three times (marks in each sitting: 35, 35, and 43)...

I used to work in CT in practice but recently made a move into industry working as Tax Manager for a plc with a focus on VAT and CT, and I find much of the OMB material very irrelevant now.

The reasons I'm stuck are twofold:

i) I passed the OMB case study paper so I'm fairly familiar with the material,
ii) I can't do the CT papers as my Awareness paper had a CT module (my first tax job was with a big 4 employer who put us on a specific ATT/CTA pathway).

My plan is to try the AT OMB paper for the 4th time in May, and then start studying for the AT CB VAT paper as it is much more relevant to my current role, and is preferred by my employer.

However, I feel like I am one fail away from having a serious breakdown having dedicated nearly all of my annual leave in the past 4 years to these exams. The time commitment has seriously impacted my relationships and mental health. The only benefit of finishing this qualification at this point would be a payrise, other than that I am happy and safe in my role as Tax Manager which is not dependent on my passing - and for these reasons, I feel that my motivation has slumped to its lowest level ever.

If I could get over the obvious sunk costs from having already covered the OMB material three times, I wonder if I should postpone and perhaps give up on the AT OMB altogehter and try the two AT VAT papers instead? I don't think this would prevent me from being eligible for CTA membership, but it would definitely be an unusual route.

Any advice whatsoever would be appreciated. Thanks

Hey guys, I've read a lot about att/cta pathway but never contributed into conversation before. So let me rectify it 😏. I started studying for att/cta a while ago as part of my employment contract. I did the first part of qualification relatively quickly and thought that I won't have much of a problem passing CTA either. How wrong was I 😂. I jumped into CTA as soon as I passed att exams . At first, I did everything by the book. I planned to pass OMB in the first 6 months, so I studied at least 20 hours a week, every week for half a year. I was exhausted. I was mortified with marginal fail but I ended up trying again and again as my marks were considered to be relatively high. The CTA was in my life for a good few years, lookign back I shall say a few miserable and depressing years. With that much of study commitment, I was deprived of sleep, annual leave and freedom. My relationship 💔and personal confidence were on its knees after 3 CTA failures in the row. When I saw the results from my last sit I cried for 3 days 😢. All this time spent, all sunk costs, sleepless nights, lots of coffee and chocolate was for nothing. Oh wow. Then the idea came to my head-: " what if I switch to chartered accountancy route ?". I doubted this idea a lot given how many exams are there to do! But nenverless, like they say: a walk of 1,000 miles starts with the first step. So I've made the first step! I flew through the first 9 exams 😂 I loved it! Every moment of it). I found accountancy papers so muchbmore interesting, broad and rewarding. Rewarding because, unlike with cta, with accountancy exams if you study hard and put in the effort you will pass! I passed by just studying at home during pandemic, with no tuition, but huge consistency. I then decided to move out of tax into general practice and I never looked back). General practice experience opens up so many more doors starting from lucrative industry jobs all the way to international secondments! . For a person who never quits quiting tax was the best I've done in the last 5 years 😂😊.

Hey guys, I've read a lot about att/cta pathway but never contributed into conversation before. So let me rectify it 😏. I started studying for att/cta a while ago as part of my employment contract. I did the first part of qualification relatively quickly and thought that I won't have much of a problem passing CTA either. How wrong was I 😂. I jumped into CTA as soon as I passed att exams . At first, I did everything by the book. I planned to pass OMB in the first 6 months, so I studied at least 20 hours a week, every week for half a year. I was exhausted. I was mortified with marginal fail but I ended up trying again and again as my marks were considered to be relatively high. The CTA was in my life for a good few years, lookign back I shall say a few miserable and depressing years. With that much of study commitment, I was deprived of sleep, annual leave and freedom. My relationship 💔and personal confidence were on its knees after 3 CTA failures in the row. When I saw the results from my last sit I cried for 3 days 😢. All this time spent, all sunk costs, sleepless nights, lots of coffee and chocolate was for nothing. Oh wow. Then the idea came to my head-: " what if I switch to chartered accountancy route ?". I doubted this idea a lot given how many exams are there to do! But nenverless, like they say: a walk of 1,000 miles starts with the first step. So I've made the first step! I flew through the first 9 exams 😂 I loved it! Every moment of it). I found accountancy papers so muchbmore interesting, broad and rewarding. Rewarding because, unlike with cta, with accountancy exams if you study hard and put in the effort you will pass! I passed by just studying at home during pandemic, with no tuition, but huge consistency. I then decided to move out of tax into general practice and I never looked back). General practice experience opens up so many more doors starting from lucrative industry jobs all the way to international secondments! . For a person who never quits quiting tax was the best I've done in the last 5 years 😂😊.

Hey, I would appreciate your advice. I just finished the ACA, I work in mixed tax.

I am considering to do the CTA. But found the aca very hard. It took me 3.5 yrs with several failures. It feels cta will be a step to far for me.

I am considering general practice accounts/tax. I’m not to concerned to work in big 4 ect.

But do you think salary wise this would just as lucrative to work in general practise for a few yrs then shoot for an industry role.

Thanks,

Hey, I would appreciate your advice. I just finished the ACA, I work in mixed tax.

I am considering to do the CTA. But found the aca very hard. It took me 3.5 yrs with several failures. It feels cta will be a step to far for me.

I am considering general practice accounts/tax. I’m not to concerned to work in big 4 ect.

But do you think salary wise this would just as lucrative to work in general practise for a few yrs then shoot for an industry role.

Thanks,

What size of firm would you/ do you work for and what size of clients would you be working with?

Hey moonpie
Industry, industry and industry! and General practice. I can explain why: if you work in tax the career progression to an AM or even a manager is very easy and clear, and you need to pass CTA to become one of these, clearing a good £60k salary once fully qualified. I have to admit this is amazing. I have a huge respect for those who passed CTA and got to that level. There is a BUT. Once you get to that level, you'll probably realise that the are very few career progression opportunities! It takes a lot of dedication and a decade to become an AD and even more to become a Partner. Then, 60k p/a is a great salary but won't "buy you the World" or allow lavish lifestyle. Its just a salary with a boring, repetitive and not-exciting work. However, the real problem is not that, its the fact that there are very few industry jobs who welcomes ACA/CTA qualified with sole tax experience. This is where the real difference starts... Someone who comes from Accounts or Audit backround can easily move to industry and become a group financial accountant or financial controller for a household name. This is exciting, at least from salary perspective! With bonuses and a few years into the "in house role" it will be close to 6 figure salary. Furthermore, there are options to do contracting, to work abroad or to move to finance, tax, internal audit etc. People with general practice experience always have more options on the table.

I in a mid sized firm. Would be happy to get further training in a small/mid sized firm for accounts.

if you work in tax the career progression to an AM or even a manager is very easy and clear, and you need to pass CTA to become one of these, clearing a good £60k salary once fully qualified. I have to admit this is amazing. I have a huge respect for those who passed CTA and got to that level.