EXAMS

The examination period drew closer and panic was the constant companion from day break till sunset. Fear was heavier than a ship’s anchor on the mind and dragging the soul along with it. Corporate financial accounting was the first paper to be written and he knew for a fact that he had to watch over 60 hours of recording from the brush up sessions till the review sessions to be able to say that there was a basic understanding of what had been taught over the last couple of months. Assets, liabilities, what to credit or debit, the various financial statements, what are accruals, do you debit expenses when it increases, what about ratio analysis, earned revenue is what, is the trial balance the same as the balance sheet, trend percentage or is it trend analysis, income statement is used for what exactly… at a point he wanted to give up and sent messages to the programme managers to find out the process of deferring the program.

It had been said over and over again that the corporate financial accounting course was to enable one acquire basic skills to analyze financial data. But what was experienced seemed to be an advanced course from the ICAN professional exams; it all seemed like gibberish and out of the world concepts, how could this still be considered an acquiring of basic skills?

Even the basic knowledge of current and non – current assets and liabilities that one thought they had was thwarted like a human flicking off a sugar ant.

And there was still the management communications course to prepare for. This course had no notes or ready information to cram and regurgitate as it goes. We had visited some subjects from back in the day, how to use punctuations, when to introduce a new paragraph, when to use an adverb, how to write a name or introduce yourself and so on. He had done so many presentations, posters, slides, recordings and pitches at this point that it plagued him at night time. There was one time he had a dream where he was to lead praise and worship in front of a panel consisting of the management communication lectures / teachers / professors and the songs that were to be ministered had to be presented in power point slides.

“Oluwa, wetin dey occur bayi”, he mused often. He never could have known that this was what he had voluntarily signed up for and paid millions to do. This programme was applied to VOLUNTARILY. Nobody forced him. Life had become so hectic balancing work, a kid and voluntary suffering.

But at the end of the day, “We move.” This phrase was not one of encouragement but one to just hold on. He put his best foot forward despite the magnitude of fear trying to drown him.

The day has finally come … and gone. The first two exam papers written and anxiously awaiting the writing of the last two.

Corporate financial accounting and management communication were really not to bad.