After I cleared, my friends would ask me how did I studied or what I studied and what not .Although I am too amateur in this profession to comment, but would like to give some wide ideas about preparing for the examinations, from my personal experiences to my fellow students. Please correct me if I am wrong
Firstly I would like to highlight the major myths about the professional courses preparation
Tuition classes
I have come across many of the students who feel that unless they spend 4-5 of their day in coaching centers they cannot excel in the exams. And mark my words, its entirely false .Coaching and tuition does certainly helps you in getting across the exams, but only helps. It is not at all a guarantee of sure shot success. I would not comment on CA or CWA classes because I do not have much knowledge about it but, for CS part I can confidently say that self study is the best source to prepare.
Personally I could not get good coaching for my preparation and so I did not take coaching for 75% of my subjects in all the three levels. Although I feared all the time that it would adversely affect my result; but ultimately it did affect, but contrarily in a favorable manner. I got the highest marks in the subjects which I had studied myself among all the other subjects. Self studies proved to be more useful than the classes I took spending my time and money.
So my stand is; If you have a strong practical base and do not face much difficulties solving numerical then certainly self study is the best. As practical subjects requires the most guidance (I am very weak in practical subjects.) And still due to lack of tuitions I attempted accounts in the executive course and financial management in the finals relying upon my self study and passed by flying colors.
Professional courses like CA and CS requires the students to be well versed with the detailed provisions of the subject studied and so the questions asked in the paper are never direct. In coaching the in depth knowledge of the subject is not given because there is no time. So although we feel our syllabus is complete but in reality it does not happen and as a result we are not able to attempt the tricky questions of the question paper. But when we read the module and the course material we get to study each and every aspect of the topic and so are more known to the questions asked in the paper in whatever form it is asked.
In practical subjects the theory part is neglected by most of the students which acts as a serious setback in the exams. Once we go through the module and now know the theory part as well it becomes easy to solve the practical part also. That means double benefit..
So, my suggestion in this regard is , take some guidance before you start a subject; if you need. But try to prepare the subject yourself by going through the study materials as all the answers are present in it itself.
Secondly ; during the examination how the questions should be attempted.. In this regard I would like to mention 2 points.
Manner of attempting the question paper:-