Of the thousands of students worldwide who completed the CAT (Certified Accounting Technician) program in 2017, CamEd student Khlot Helene this year’s top ranking for the handwritten CAT exam, scoring 87 out of 100 points.

The young CamEd student completed a bachelor of accountancy (BA) and the CAT program at CamEd in December 2017 while doing an internship at professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she now works as an auditor.

“After four years of all-out effort, I successfully completed a BA at CamEd and the internationally-recognised CAT in 2017,” she said. “My family and I are very proud on my degree from CamEd as it is quite valuable in Cambodia, while the CAT is internationally recognised.”

The CAT is an international vocational qualification for accountancy that requires applicants to successfully complete a series of foundation exams, of which they can choose from either a computer-based or paper-based exam format.

In January, Helene received an email from the CAT committee in the UK notifying her that her 87 point score on the handwritten exam was the highest achieved this year anywhere in the world.

“That means I got the top grade for the exam, which made my family, relatives, school and myself very excited,” she said.

Helene recalled that upon starting her BA at CamEd the instructors gave her a lot of assignments each week and encouraged students to work as a team to complete them. She said the program required rigorous studying, but that was a key to her success.

“Because of those assignments my team and I learnt how to handle problems and use the correct strategies to solve them,” she said.

Helene said CamEd teachers promote this approach to problem-solving because it helps students learn to work as a team to understand and find solutions to issues, whether they affect a company or a community.

The bottom line is clear discipline, she said, adding that both the Cambodian and foreign teachers at CamEd proved very professional in educating students and sharing their wealth of experience to help prepare students for their future careers.