Study plan for CA Final May 2019 Exams

Recently ICAI has announced that the CA-Final examination scheduled to be held from 2nd May, 2019 will going to be held from 27th May, 2019. This, some students think as a burdensome for them, is a golden opportunity for cracking the examination at once. I, being a past student and current member of the institute, wanted to share my experience with the students who are going to appear in the upcoming examinations.

I had never failed in any examination in my whole life until I appeared in CA Final in November, 2015, which didn't surprise me either. I knew that my preparation were not adequate to clear the exam. But then something happened, I couldn't concentrate on study at all yet I applied for all the examinations that were scheduled to be held continuously until November, 2017. But there was no preparation at all, so I didn't even bothered to download the admit card. It's not that I didn't want to study, I had prepared the study time tables at every attempt, I did went on few revision classes conducted by NIRC, I woke up at dawn, ate healthy diet, did regular exercise, went to Vipassana and learned mediation but one major thing I did not do is study. And now you know why I skipped those attempts. One thing I did with 'Arjun Drishti' focus is watching movies, I am not proud but I'd watched over 3,000 movies during those skipped attempts. I lied to my family that I was doing my best but ICAI was somehow failing me, what a hypocrite right? There were days when I could not get few hours of sound sleep for weeks, even months. I had to take few substances to get one night of sound sleep. The conclusion is that I was afraid to enter the examination hall, I knew I had not prepared so what's the worth of even entering in to the examination hall.

One reason that I could not study is that, during 3 years of my articleship I didn't attend any class and studied anything at all except doing the training. Morning went by oversleeping and evening went by wasting time in distraction such as social media, get together with friends and so on. CA is a self study, distance learning course. But we were accustomed of going to school, attending lectures and doing homework, none of which happened during those 3 years of articleship and no one was there to reprimand us, made us realize that at least few hours of daily study is necessary. Few of those who realized this got ahead, but students like me were stuck there and lost the track of study, forget how to concentrate on study and forgot that we need to study at all. Articleship escalated my confidence in practical aspects of our profession but I missed the fundamental: I need to be a CA to apply those aspects of my profession.

Then the result of CA Final examination held on November, 2017 was declared on January, 2018. Oh! I had forgotten to tell you that I did appear in November, 2017 for 2nd Group, but with surface study of 3 subjects and zero study of ISCA. Result was like this: 40+ in all 3 subjects and < 20 in ISCA. My best friend has become a doctor and I looked at my life and see I am still at the same place where we had departed our ways 6 years back. Nothing has changed in my life. No step of success at all. I used to see darkness everywhere. I had experienced rejection in my romantic life as well. Then it struck inside my mind like lightning that I could do well if I give concentration for few months. Then the staggering motivation to clear the examination in a go came inside of me. The road was not easy but I've made my mind. I kept myself away from all the distractions like internet, mobile games, videos, TV, relatives, friends etc. during those hard months.

I had 100 days left for examination even so I wasted few more weeks. Finally I wrote in my diary the study plan for next 75 days until examination day. In one line 75 days of continuous study was enough for me to clear the exam i.e. both the groups. I never saw those 75 days at once, I saw only one day at once. I took it day by day. It was really frustrating and hard to keep on concentrating. I used to think about other things like friends, love interest and sometimes even thinking about going far away from the reality. Then I used a psychological trick that I would think about all the things that comes in my mind to distract me for one hour a day, but that one hour would be allocated separately. Other 23 hours of the day shall be distraction free. I wept, wondered and became frustrated during that one hour, but I never lost sight of my goal during remaining hours. I used to do push-ups whenever I feel like thinking about things that didn't matter that instant. I cheated my mind in every way possible; I never went outside of my home, never started on the conversation that I knew would lead to long and distractive conversations even with my family members. In a way I reserved myself.

The study plan I had prepared looked somehow like this:-

Total available time: 75 days
Total papers:  8

And similar plan for next subject and so on. I tried and achieved 2 full revisions before examination. I did RTP also and prepared short notes for quick revision for few subjects that I was poor at. The first revision shall be thorough, no points or concepts shall be overlooked. And next revision is to be done less thorough and in a quick manner, as most of the concepts will automatically be recollected once you see the material. Third revision (if there is time left) will be of very key elements and concepts that you find very hard to get through. Try reading RTP on the morning of examination day, as it covers latest amendments and questions.

Subject wise tips and methodology

Please do remember ICAI's has great expectations from us and we show mediocre performance and blame ICAI for the same. ICAI expects Expert Knowledge both in terms of understanding and writing and we still are not improving ourselves and showing working level knowledge.

Place tick mark before every plan of yours daily wherever your plan may be written. I used to write all my plans in my diary and put a tick as soon as I finished a Chapter or concept as per my plan. After few days it seemed like I was playing, the more tick marks I saw in my diary the more I wanted to increase the tick marks. It causes my brain to focus on the study just for the sake of increasing tick marks. This may seems like useless to most of you, but try it once before ignoring it, you will thank me later.

Oh! I seemed to have written a lot about it, you guys need to study real things rather than this article. So this will be enough for your reference, rest is up to you. Remember what Lord Krishna said to Arjun at Kurukshetra during Mahabharata, 'I can only show you the way, you and only you can walk over it and reach the destination.' So people stop reading further and start walking the hard road, the dark road that will finally lead you to glory.

The author can also be reached at rijal255@gmail.com

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are solely based on my experience. Reader's discretion shall be maintained while reading this article.