A team of five TAR UMT students won Second Runner-Up placing in the Audit Final Verdict Case Study Challenge, held in conjunction with the Accounting Students Conference 2026 organised by the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Gombak, on 23 and 24 May 2026.
The winning team comprised Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) students Pon Arivan A/L Pon-Komahan, Muhammad Shafiq Bin Kushairi and Tan Wei Shan, Diploma in Accounting student Chui Meng Fai, and Bachelor of Accounting (Honours) student Kylie Tong Xin Wen. The team demonstrated strong technical knowledge, analytical thinking and teamwork throughout the competition.
The students are proud alumni of Catholic High School, SMK Kampong Jawa, Wesley Methodist School Kuala Lumpur (International), SMK Bukit Tinggi and SMK Bandar Utama Damansara (3), respectively.
Explaining the challenge, team leader Pon Arivan shared, "The main case study was about journal entries, where the questions gave wrong accounting treatments and we had to correct them through journal entries and present them to the judges."
The team attributed their success to effective collaboration and making the most of each member's strengths. According to Arivan, the team maintained a balanced combination of experience and knowledge, allowing them to confidently execute their strategy while working efficiently under pressure.
"This involved a lot of analysing, especially since the group stage itself. Our team was quite balanced in terms of experience and knowledge, so it was more of just executing our game plan by being confident, being quick and, most importantly, working together as a team," he said.
Despite the achievement, the competition was far from easy. The team had only two hours to analyse the case, prepare their solutions and submit their presentation slides.
"The biggest lesson has to be time management, as our team had quite a number of instances where we exceeded the time limit allocated for each task. Moreover, it is also important to always motivate each other and make sure that everyone enjoys a rewarding learning experience through the competition," he said.
(From left) Pon Arivan, Kylie, Muhammad Shafiq, Wei Shan and Meng Fai presenting their findings to the judges.
