Chartered IIA members gain Global IIA awards

Congratulations to Jennifer Hurley and Percy Mupita, both members of the Chartered IIA, who have been awarded Global IIA awards for achieving some of the world’s highest exam results in their CIA exams in 2018.

Hurley, who was awarded a Certificate of Excellence, had no idea she had done so well when she passed her exams last year. “I did all my exams between January and April, which was pretty intense so I wouldn’t advise anyone else to do it like that,” she said. “I hadn’t realised just how wide-ranging the syllabus is.”

The only advantage to this approach was that all the materials remained fresh in her mind, she added. “I read all the materials end to end and did practice tests – and I failed some of those,” she said. “The scoring is quite opaque, so this spurred me on to read everything I could. I thought I’d be better off over-preparing and assuming I would have to answer something on everything.”

Hurley, who is internal audit quality assurance manager at the Central Bank of Ireland, would recommend sitting the exams and attaining the CIA qualification.

Mupita, who is internal audit manager at Avis Budget Group EMEA, first heard about the certificate when he received an email late on a Friday, just as he was setting off to the gym. “I completed my last CIA exam in September last year so I was really chuffed – and surprised,” he said.

He was awarded a Global IIA Certificate of Honor. “This was the icing on the cake. Getting the qualification was a big deal for me and achieving a Certificate of Honor as well was a bonus. I forwarded the email to my bosses at EMEA and global level because they really encourage the team to get qualifications.”

Mupita’s managers formally congratulated him and told the whole team about his achievement. “You never know your scores, just whether you’ve passed or failed, so I never thought of doing better than that,” he said. “I just read all the material and did my best.”

To be considered for an award all three exams must have been passed at the first attempt and the final exam passed within one year of the first. The people with the top three scores win the gold, silver and bronze awards. Those who achieved the next ten highest marks are awarded a Certificate of Excellence and the next top 50 top candidates receive Certificates of Honor.

This article was first published in April 2019.