Thanks for the response to my previous article 'The Ultimate Guide to CA Final' after the request of few people I am posting subject-wise tips for people who will be appearing for Group-1 in May-2017 exams. The main aim is to help students who are yet to start their preparation and have only one month time due to various reasons like not getting enough leave etc. For all those guys the first thing I want to convey is that the doors are not closed yet and still there is still a good chance of clearing exam provided you should follow the below things:
1. Put a minimum 12 hours of study per day from today.
2. Don't compare with how others are preparing because students who started their preparation early will be in revision stage and this fact will demotivate you.
3. Study with friends who already attended classes and who are in serious preparation to clear your doubts and to get motivation (Be precise in queries. Don't waste their time).
4. If possible study in a library or at home study in room in which no TV (boys beware this is IPL time) or Wi-Fi connection is there. Don't activate any data packs till exams.
5. Don't have a thought in mind that I'll study for next attempt. In board exams we don't have an option like next attempt and we put our maximum efforts during exams time. In CA what happens is that option to appear for next attempt spoils our current preparation. The less time we get, the more focused we become so put your 100% effort in the current attempt only without thinking about the result which is not in our hand.
Subject wise tips:
1. Financial Reporting
Shortly called by students as FR, it is the path maker or breaker for students hopes to clear exams as it is a high scoring subject and as it is the first exam writing this well is gonna boost your confidence. Another fact is most students usually get the expected marks in the exam with minor deviation.
The common mistakes done by students are:
1. Not practising and auditing the sums
2. Not preparing for different type of adjustments and not maintaining dairy of adjustments
3. Spending too much time on a single problem in exam
4. Getting demotivated if the paper is tricky
5. Not trying to attempt 100% paper
6. Leaving some chapters during preparation
7. Not getting concept clarity
If you look at the past 5 attempts institute is asking a tricky paper either in FR or SFM.
The paper can be tricky in following ways:
1. Giving a lengthy paper. In May15 attempt FR paper was so lengthy that even AIR 1 Rahul Agarwal attempted only 84 marks but as he attempted everything perfectly he got 72 mark so don't be stressed if paper was lengthy.
2. Asking a known problem with one or more new adjustments
3. Asking a question in a different pattern
Chapter-wise weightage:
- AS and IND-AS: 30 to 40 marks
- Valuation, Amalgamation, Consolidation-one 16 Marks question from each chapter(16*3)+one 8 or 5 or 4 Marks question from all 3 chapters: 48-56 Marks
- Miscellaneous: 25-35 marks
- Developments i.e. VAS, EVA, HRA: 8-12 Marks
- Financial Instruments: 8 marks
- Financial Institutions: 5-8 marks
- Share-Based payments: 5-8 marks
Chapter-wise tips:
Miscellaneous topics are high scoring and they also require less time to solve and to prepare so start your preparation with these chapters and try to attempt those questions at the beginning of exam to gain confidence and save time but beware institute is giving bouncers from these chapters in Nov-16 attempt VAS statement is given in question and it is asked to prepare profit and loss account so you have to obtain command on these chapters by trying different types of questions from various sources. You should get a minimum of 20 marks from these chapters.
Valuation, Amalgamation, Consolidation:
You should also get a minimum of 20 marks from these chapters if you attempt only two 16 marks out of these. Try to get 16 out of 16 for one problem
Valuation: It is the easiest of the lot but it need correct assumptions and the key is to get FMP so have a library of adjustments and its impact on FMP. Bouncer may be given like brand valuation which students usually ignore
Amalgamation: As you already studied amalgamation in IPCC you should get at least 8 marks from this chapter. Do all types of methods like cross holding, demerger etc as no one can guess from which method question may be asked but usually in recent attempt questions are repeatedly asked from basic amalgamation with twisted adjustments like foreign acquisition etc.
Consolidation: Most people leave it in choice..knowing this institute is asking simple questions from this chapter and twisting questions from other chapters. Yes, it requires a huge amount of time for preparation, solving but atleast study basic steps and preparation of BS which is easy and some adjustments like dividend, bonus. If you are highly relying on this chapter then attempt at the end because even though the problem looks easy solving it takes more time.
Accounting Standards and IND-AS:
There are amendments in standards like AS-2,4,13,14,21 and 29 so they may be high possibility of asking this in exam. Existing AS-6 & AS-10 are replaced with revised AS-10 so at least 1 question will be given in PPE as it is a new standard.
No one knows the exact break up of marks between AS and IND-AS as you are supposed to study both of them as per institute notification but my estimate is institute will follow the pattern of last 2 attempts i.e ask 1 question of carve-in or carve-out for 8 marks from IND-AS and the rest from AS. Anyone who skips IND-AS is definitely in risk including me but what to do we don't have time to study 100% of the syllabus.
There is a high chance of getting over 50 if you get at least one 16 marks question correct and also attempt 90 to 100 marks.
Happy Reading.
I'll post my tips for the remaining subjects on the following dates:
- SFM : 30th March
- Auditing : 3rd April
- Law : 7th April
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