To keep stress as low as possible you need to take a disciplined approach to the subject material. It is desirable that you skim the text readings before I lecture on them in class. This will give you some idea as to what I will be talking about. After the lecture you should again read the text and also the sections of the Act referred to. Then attempt the review questions and the exercises. Note that the answers are in appendices II and III, pages 1017 forward. You should be able to do an exercise simply by referring to the quoted sections of the Act; if you need to re-read the text or refer to your notes, then you have not mastered the material. Go back and re-read and understand thoroughly the appropriate sections of the text before continuing; you might also consider reading the relevant Interpretation Bulletin, Information Circular, and/or Canada Income Tax Guide.

Ideally, you will attempt the review questions and the exercises the same day as the lecture. This should take about 90 minutes, and will allow your brain to process the new knowledge overnight before you attempt the assignment problems. The assignment problems should take a further 90 minutes. However, if after 30 minutes you are getting nowhere, stop and consult a group member. There is little point in you wasting time "spinning your wheels". And, once you are working as an accountant, your employer will not be happy seeing you trying vainly to do things when a simple question to a colleague would point you in the right direction. If it looks like a problem will take longer than 90 minutes, you should consider whether you will learn anything in the extra time. If you will not, then make a list of what needs to be done and what you do not understand and take it up with your group. Presumably your group meets before each class to compare answers. If after the comparison the group still feels that the problem answer is less than satisfactory, the group should talk to me to get some direction as to how to proceed. It is essential that you attempt the assignment problems before they are reviewed in class; you will learn little by simply watching others answer them.

Each chapter in the text builds on the material in the previous chapter. You cannot learn the material in a chapter if you have not understood the material in the previous chapter. And you will not understand the material unless you use it in solving the exercises and problems.

Note that you can bring the Act, but not the text, to exams. You should begin to annotate your Act as soon as we finish chapter 1. I suggest that you follow my example by highlighting the titles of (sub)sections you are responsible for. You might also highlight, using a different colour, words that have a meaning defined elsewhere in the Act. Then highlight the related sections. For example in paragraphs 40(1)(a) and (b) you probably want to highlight "proceeds of disposition" and "adjusted cost base". At the end of these paragraphs, you should highlight sections 53 and 54 for the definitions, and the references to the related sections we consider in class, e.g. section 44 for exchanges of property.

Consider highlighting with yet another colour important words and formulas. For instance, in subsection 5(1), it's probably important to highlight the word "received" so that you remember that employment income is taxed on a cash basis, not an accrual basis. In subsection 6(1)(a), you may want to highlight the word "except" on the sixth line, so that you remember that items (i) through (v) are not taxable benefits.

Regarding the exams:
The exams in this course typically consist of one or two comprehensive cases requiring in part calculating income and income tax and in part providing advice to a client. You may not have seen this kind of exam before in accounting courses at this university. The take-home assignments are designed to familiarize you with case questions. The questions are designed as much to test your ability to analyze a situation and present a well organized answer as they are to test your knowledge of the provisions of the Tax Act.

In preparation for the exams you should:
1. Review (or redo) the take-home assignments.
2. Review (or redo) old take-home assignments and exams. Since the coverage of the exams has evolved over the last few years, you should worry less about whether you know the specific sections of the Act required to answer the question and more about whether you can produce a well organized answer that is mostly correct.
3. Read the marker's comments on the old assignments and exams and note the pass rate and grades. You will note that it is rarely necessary to get all (or even most) of the raw marks to do well on the exam. What is necessary to do well is to organize your answer in such a way that you cover the main points.
4. Redo assignments taken up in class. Particularly look for the more comprehensive questions, since they are more like exam questions, and look for areas that have appeared in several questions, since they are more likely to be examined.

In writing the exams you should:
1. Remember that it is not necessary to get all the marks to do well. The object is to demonstrate what you know, not what you do not know. Therefore answer the parts of the exam that you find easy first; if you leave these parts to the end, you may never get to them.
2. Take an organized approach to answering the question. Have a lead page for each required item in the question, and use other pages to support your answers on the lead page.
3. Do not dump. There are few, if any, marks for reciting the Act or the text book. Marks are awarded only for applying what you know to the case at hand.