FAQs – CFE Resources

While Capstone 2 provides some practice case resources and marking to help you prepare for the CFE, we believe that you need more practice and feedback to develop your case writing skills and peak for success at the CFE. We provide comprehensive study plans that include both the Densmore CFE Prep course and the Capstone 2 requirements to guide your study time, as well as numerous resources to build your technical and case writing skills before you even begin Capstone 2.

Many resources are provided to writers who enroll before they are off from work on study leave.  For May CFE writers, we post technical review materials in mid-November. For September CFE writers, we post the technical review materials in early March. 

The technical review materials include sessions to explain how to focus your technical review on CFE case writing. We also mail out Densmore’s Scenario Flowcharts Workbook, which is the basis for your technical review of commonly tested topics.  This should be used in conjunction with the Densmore Skill Drills to improve your technical knowledge and case writing skills in each technical competency area.  For experienced writers, we also provide three CFE Day 3 practice cases to keep your case writing skills sharp.

Our CFE Prep course contains over 35 hours of work related to technical review that is available before the course begins, including sessions on technical review, and our Densmore Skill Drills and Scenario Flowcharts Workbook. The CFE Prep course contains over 90 hours of sessions, webinars and practice case materials. Please note that this does not include the Capstone 2 requirements or the use of prior CFE cases as additional practice in the study plans.

To successfully complete all of the course content, we recommend writers register early for the course (mid-November for May writers and early March for September writers), to take full advantage of the technical review resources before our CFE Prep sessions are scheduled to begin. We also recommend that writers take at least four weeks off prior to CFE, especially if they are also enrolled in Capstone 2, to ensure that they have time to work through all of the required materials.

The technical review resources are available beginning in mid-November for students writing in May, and in early March for students writing in September. The full course materials are released in mid-March for students writing in May and late June for students writing in September.

These two courses are very similar as far as the material that is contained within the courses such as amount of practice cases, etc. The main difference comes down to format and timing. Students attending the online-only courses work through the CFE Prep sessions and practice cases guided by a detailed study plan provided in calendar format. These study plans cover the two months leading up to when the CFE is written. Students attending the onsite course will attend three days with an in-person CFE Prep instructor, with a mix of attending lectures and writing practice cases. Following these three days in person, onsite students will move into the online component of the course, which is guided by a study plan, similar to the online-only course.

There are a number of things that are similar between the online and onsite courses, including the content of the courses, the practice cases, and the level of support provided.  However, an onsite course allows you to ask questions and participate in-person, which may be more preferable depending on your learning style. 

The online course works best for students who are self-disciplined and committed to working through all of the online sessions and giving full effort to all of the practice cases. As such, some students find that they need the structure of an onsite course, with an instructor in front of them, to ensure that they engage in the sessions and write the practice cases as a kickoff to the remainder of the course, which is delivered online. You should also consider whether your learning environment is conducive to online learning (e.g., minimal distractions), and the benefits of flexibility and reduced travel costs.

The course is asynchronous, meaning that the material is pre-recorded, and all released at the same time in the summer. Students will access the provided study plans to guide them through the course resources, such as viewing sessions or writing practice cases. Since the sessions are pre-recorded, students have some flexibility as to when during the day they want to access the resources.  For example, some students choose to work through material in the evening if they are working during the day.  We recommend staying as close as possible to the provided study plans and completing the tasks in the order they are presented in the study plans.

Our CFE Prep course includes six Ask the CFE Expert webinars, which occur in the weeks leading up to the CFE.  We try to schedule the webinars at times when the majority of candidates across the country would be available. However, if you are unable to attend the live broadcast of the webinars, we record them and post them in the course in the days following for you to access them.

While our CFE Prep course focuses on case writing skills, technical resources and review are also built into the program to ensure you are prepared to pass the CFE.  Believe it or not, if you have gone through the modules or an accredited program at university, you already have most of the technical skills required to write the exam and our CFE Prep course helps you to efficiently refresh this knowledge and learn to apply it in a case setting.  You will learn technical in the CFE Prep course in a variety of ways:

• A Technical Review Skills session that explains our approach to technical review, including why it is important to avoid memorization and focus on how to write topics in a case setting.
• The Densmore Scenario Flowcharts Workbook provides you with key technical to apply and tips on how to write the most commonly tested topics in each of the six competency areas.
• Our Skill Drills provide you with opportunities to learn your technical with a single assessment opportunity exercise, complete with solutions and tips on how to write more effectively. These cover topics in each of the six competency areas.
• A Tax Technical Refresher session at the Core level.
• Individual depth sessions for each of the four Day 2 roles to review how to gain depth in your role requirements.
• We focus on debriefing cases, which is how you will learn both the technical to apply for future cases, and how to write those cases more effectively.

We spend hundreds of hours each year understanding the CFE requirements and ensuring that our cases are representative of what you will see on the CFE.  You want to go into the CFE knowing you will pass, and not hoping that you have reached the requirements at Competent. Our cases and marker grids ensure that the requirements at Competent are realistic and will help you score Competent on the CFE.

That said, we also want to ensure that you see as many different topics as possible that are examinable on the CFE based on the CPA Competency Map. As such, we include topics on our practice cases that you will not see based on writing the last three or four CFEs. Often, seeing a topic you are unfamiliar with gives you the sense that the case is harder than it actually is. However, this prepares you for dealing with unfamiliar topics when you actually reach the CFE.

The Densmore marking materials are different than Capstone 2 in that our marker grids are prepared in Word, rather than Excel.  The CFE is a competency-based exam, not an exam where it takes a certain number of items checked off to pass.  The use of the Word marker grids ensures that we can explain what it takes to achieve Competent for each assessment opportunity and is not reduced to checking off a certain number of items. Our markers are trained to provide feedback and examples of how to improve your case writing skills to ensure you are confident you know what it takes to achieve Competent when you write the CFE.

We believe we have provided everything you need in our CFE Prep courses to prepare successfully for the CFE. Keep in mind that being successful means putting in your full effort and starting the course prepared. As such, we do expect that you have a base level of technical competency before the start of the course (in March for May writers and in July for September writers). We recommend enrolling early to take advantage of our technical review resources before our CFE Prep sessions are scheduled to begin to enhance those technical skills. In addition, you may need a technical resource in one or more competency areas if your technical is weak and you do not have access to the CPA Canada eBooks. We recommend our CPA Competency Map Study Notes publication.

We spend hundreds of hours each year ensuring that our course content and practice cases cover all six areas of the competency map at the appropriate examinability levels. We cover each of the six competency areas in competency coverage sessions that help writers understand how each competency area could be tested, historical testing trends, and specific writing examples to illustrate these concepts. Our practice cases are structured to mimic the actual CFE, by ensuring the right balance of coverage over each of the six competency areas.

While our course does not provide one-on-one mentoring per se, we do support writers individually in a variety of ways.  For example, we answer individual questions via our forums or email, we provide customized study plan guidance when writers have a unique study schedule or time off work situation, and we analyze writer tracking sheets when concerns arise during the study period. For unsuccessful writers, we analyze CFE results and PARs for unsuccessful writers, and meet with individuals to discuss their results and identify next steps.

No, the Scenario Flowcharts Workbook is only available as part of our full CFE Prep course.

May 2025

Toronto course

TBD

Vancouver course

TBD

September 2025

Toronto course

TBD, Toronto Metropolitan University, Ted Rogers School of Management

Edmonton course

TBD

Vancouver course

TBD

Halifax course

TBD

Calgary course

TBD

We only offer online-only courses for May writers due to fewer writers sitting for the May vs. September CFE.

View the Techncial Review session and plan to spend approximately 4-5 hours per week on technical review, using the Densmore Scenario Flowcharts Workbook to focus on commonly tested topics.  Use the Densmore Skill Drills to practice your case writing skills for these topics.  In January (for May writers) and April (for September writers), view the CFE Day 3 Approach session and then write one Densmore Day 3 practice case per month, which will help you refine your case writing skills before your study period begins.

Capstone 2 has a set structure that you must follow, but it does provide additional marking feedback. However, it is our belief as an experienced writer, by following a more balanced study plan and writing, marking, and debriefing in your own study group (we do NOT recommend that you study alone), you will increase your chances of CFE success. 

The Capstone 2 module incorporates prior year CFE cases (and solutions) that you have access to at no charge with the CFE Reports that can be downloaded from the CPA Canada website. We provide detailed marker grids for you to use for marking purposes if you are enrolled in our CFE Prep course. The expectations in our marker grids are set based on our analysis of PARs (Performance Analysis Reviews) of unsuccessful writers and are set based on our understanding of the true expectations at the CFE marking centre. 

Our experienced writer study plans will give you a more manageable path to the CFE if you do not have the Capstone 2 requirements to also follow. Our recommendation would be to not take Capstone 2 for a second time.

If you are re-writing Day 1 of the CFE and are looking for the Capstone 2 Day 1 practice cases (Module Workshop, Week 3, and Week 6) for additional Day 1 practice as part of your study plan, you can purchase just the Capstone 2 materials separately (instead of re-taking the entire module). Email your provincial CPA institute and request to purchase the Capstone 2 review materials.

View the Technical Review Session and plan to spend approximately 4-5 hours per week on technical review, using the Densmore Scenario Flowcharts Workbook to focus on commonly tested topics.  Use the Densmore Skill Drills to practice your case writing skills for these topics.

If you may be interested in obtaining your Public Accounting Licence in the future, you are required to pass Level 2 in Financial Reporting and pass Level 3 in the Assurance role. If this does not apply to you, you should consider your module electives, work experience, interests, and comfort level with each elective area based on your other past educational experience to determine which role would be ideal for you.

To help you decide which role to select, download the September 2015 CFE Report from the CPA Canada website here.  Read the CFE Day 2 case (page 37-69).  When you’re reading through the role requirements, think about which role best lines up with your technical knowledge and work experience.

Your focus during technical review should be on the commonly tested topics and on how you would write each topic in a CFE case.  Pure technical review and memorization is not effective from a CFE perspective. While the CPA Canada eBooks are useful as a more detailed technical resource for topics where you are struggling, we do not recommend reviewing the CPA Canada eBooks in their entirety.  We recommend starting with the Densmore Scenario Flowcharts Workbook (available only as part of our CFE Prep course) to stay focused on the most commonly tested topics and the most relevant technical for writing the CFE. We recommend viewing our Technical Review Skills session in our CFE Prep course to get more details on how to effectively study technical for the CFE.

For first-time writers taking Capstone 2, the module schedule is rigorous. Typically, candidates write one CFE Day 1 or Day 2 case and a CFE Day 3 case each week. Therefore, we recommend students take anywhere from four weeks to the full length of Capstone 2 off prior to the CFE. This will allow them time for writing, marking, and debriefing additional cases and completing technical review.  

For experienced writers and first-time writers who are not taking Capstone 2, we recommend at least four weeks off prior to the CFE if they are re-writing days 2 and 3 of the CFE or all 3 days. If they are only re-writing day 1 of the CFE, we recommend taking one to two weeks off prior to the exam.

A high-level overview is available here. CPA Canada’s Certification Resource Centre contains the CFE exam blueprint, technical updates, and examination regulations, among other resources.

The CPA exam is likely very different from other CA exam experiences you’ve had. For this reason, it can be incredibly challenging to pass the CFE under an MOU agreement. We often see this related to a lack of focus on case writing skills as well as under-preparedness in Canadian technical topics (such as ASPE, Canadian Tax and Canadian Auditing Standards). If you’re planning to write the CFE under an MOU agreement, we encourage you to enroll in our MOU Bridge to CFE Prep course before registering in our CFE Prep course to build your technical knowledge base and help you begin to develop your case writing skills.

Even though you are exempted from the PEP Capstone 2 Module under an MOU agreement, we recommend you enroll in that module for the additional marking opportunities and CFE Day 1 resources. Be sure to check with your provincial institute for registration deadlines.

The publication includes summary technical notes for all six technical competency areas (Financial Reporting, Audit and Assurance, Strategy and Governance, Management Accounting, Finance and Taxation) that are covered in the CPA Competency Map. The publication is at a level suitable for the Core PEP modules, the Elective PEP modules, and the CFE.

The CPA Competency Map Study Notes are organized in a digestible, easy-to-understand format. If you would like to see how the book is formatted and the level of detail that is provided, download a sample excerpt of the book in your preferred language:

• English
• French

The content is the same in both the digital and print versions. However, the digital version is updated with any technical updates for the two years following purchase. If you prefer a print version, we post an annual technical update summary document. Download the update in your preferred language:

• English
• French

This resource is not included with your CFE Prep registration. However, you may choose to add it on to your CFE Prep registration or purchase separately if you are looking for technical reference material. The CPA Competency Map Study Notes publication can be purchased here.

Access to the eBook expires at the end of the second calendar year following the year in which the publication was purchased (i.e., the 2024 CPA Competency Map Study Notes eBook would expire on December 31, 2026). However, if you are still using the publication in pursuit of your CPA designation after the expiration date, you may request an extension at no charge by emailing info@densmorecpa.com.