The major obstacle a student faces during the CA Final exam turns out in the form of Paper 5 - Advanced Management Accounting / Strategic Cost Management and Decision - Making (Under new course).
I have known a lot of people who could not clear the final exam only because of the barrier this paper created on their path to their ultimate goal.
Hence I would like to discuss the ways and means to tackle the paper based on my own experience.
I would basically highlight what needs to be done once you have gone through the concepts with the help of whichever teacher you follow (I won't suggest any teacher since I am not promoting anyone hence the teacher you choose will be as per your preference)
Now since you are through the concepts and you know what the entire syllabus is all about, the next thing that you have to do is to practice.
Few of the problems which you will face in the AMA exams are listed below:
- You would find it difficult to manage time.
- You would not be able to complete the paper.
- Your speed will be affected badly.
- Reduction in speed will ultimately lead to a situation of panic.
- This in turn would result in bad presentation.
The crux of the problem is that you will find it difficult to manage time in the exam hall and the repercussion of this would be the problems that I listed thereafter.
Now majorly you have to work on how to manage time in those 3 hours and most importantly how to make effective use of the reading time of 15 minutes.
Once you are done with the concept, start practicing from the questions given in Practice Manual or the Study Material depending on the time you have in hand for preparation.
You have to practice a lot and have to dedicate major time to this subject since it's a fate deciding paper of your exam.
Note: For new syllabus candidates, practice manual has been merged with Study material, hence you should preferably do questions from practice manual / compiler available for old students.
The reason behind this is that ICAI never repeats the same question as given in any of its books though there might be an exception - Nov 2016 AMA paper was entirely from practice manual and they didn't even care to change the figures given in the Practice Manual.
So your ultimate aim is to practice plethora of questions so that you are in a position to solve any question that comes in the question paper.
Believe me you will do miserable in the questions you attempt from ICAI's material and loose self-confidence to a great extent because the level of questions given there is too high for the first timers.
You just go through the solutions given there and try to understand how the concept has been used therein and also try to follow the same presentation.
Slowly and steadily you would start doing fine and your confidence will start building.
By now you would be having a strong grip on the concept and even your presentation of answers would have improved to a great extent.
When you have done the PM twice or thrice and have gained a level of confidence, it's the time to pick up a few past exam papers and start solving them in exam like environment i.e. 15 minutes reading time and 3 hrs writing time.
Again you would do miserable in the first few papers and will face one or more of the following problems:
- You won't be able to finish the paper on time.
- You are not able to choose the correct order in which you should attempt the paper. If you do bad in the first question, you would loose confidence and spoil the entire paper.
- Wrong selection of questions to attempt.
- You would not make effective use of reading time.
As you go on solving the papers, you would learn to deal with the above listed problems and you would even be able to identify the topics in which you are lagging behind.
You just have to work on those topics and master it. By now you would have learnt the art of time management since that's the major issue with this paper in particular.
You would also learn to make effective use of reading time and the strategy you should follow to attempt the maximum questions with utmost precision as you go on solving each question paper.
You should not only run behind the thought of solving the entire 100 marks paper but also to solve each question with precision so that the one checking your answer sheet is not given any opportunity to deduct marks.
You should also follow the presentation style as given in the ICAI's material since that is the level of presentation the institute demands.
Now you are fully equipped for this paper as you have done enough practice and have learnt how to strategize the entire paper and worked in your presentation skills to ensure passing with flying colors.
Best wishes!!
CAclubindia
