Hey Friends!!
How are you doing? Thanks for all those lovely comments on "CA- THE LIFESTYLE!!!".
Well a number of you had asked for tips for cracking the exam, so I thought let us talk about "the EDGE" (this is the term I use for CA FINALS!!!) Although I am referring to it as CA FINALS but I feel whatever we discuss today will be equally helpful for CA-IPCC because preparing for an exam of CA Curriculum (whether IPCC or FINAL) is an experience unique in itself!!!
Don't worry, main koi lecture nai dene ja rahi, Its just what I felt and what I did during the preparation!
First and foremost, for acheiving any target, its important to have the right state of mind, i.e., your mind should be free from tention, I know telling a CA Student not to take tention sounds really absurd, but beleive me, until and unless your brain is in a relaxed mood, preparing for the exams becomes really tough!
EXAM and RESULT involve two people, one- the student and two- the examiner, and the roles of both these people are defined clearly.
Student's work is to prepare for the exams, not to evaluate the paper, that work is assigned to the examiner, and we as students need to accept this fact that the only thing that is there in our hands is to write the paper, as far as the result is concerned, its completely in hands of the examiner. But the biggest mistakes that most of us commit is that even before starting our preparations we start thinking about the results, kabhi lagta hai pass ho jayenge and next moment awaz aati hai NAI HUYE TO??, but dude, have you ever thought how much precious time we loose in this thought process, jabki apne hath me to kuch hai hi nai!! Infact, why to think about something you really can't help, better focus on what is there in your hand, right?
So, just remain happy and keep your mind cool!! khush rehna seekho yaar!!!
Gyan bahut hua, now lets come to the practical aspect- to crack CA exams you need two things-
First- HARDWORK (OBVIOUSLY! that is why its the toughest course of the world(main nai keh rahi, Guiness book ne bola hai!!))
Second- Planning and Time Management
All of us are very well acquainted with the immense hardwork that is involved in CA, so lets talk about Planning and time management.
By Planning/Management I do not mean Selective study, infact, CA Papers are so unpredictive that going for selective study is like committing a suicide! We have to make sure that we cover the entire course so that there should not be any such topic which is Untouched. Although some topics are more important than the others, so they should be revised more, but the easier once too should not be left out completely.
During my preparation, I had prepared a time table for myself where the entire day was divided in terms of subjects, where the practical subjects, namely. Accounts, Cost, and SFM had to be taken up daily for two hours each (6 hours in total), then, Income Tax also was to be done on a regular basis bcoz if you leave it even for a day or two, you tend to lose control on the subject (6+2 = 8 hours).
Now, out of 24hrs, 8 hrs have been planned and we are left with (24-8) 16 hrs, of which, 6 hrs are for sleep and say 2 hrs for our routine works. Thus, the time left with us is another 8 hrs (16-6-2).
Out of these 8 hrs, 1.5 hrs each for law and audit(1.5 X 2 = 3 Hrs in all). Now we have 5 hrs, and there are two subjects which we have not touched yet, MICS/ISCA and IDT. So, we give 2 hrs each to these two subjects, which makes a total of 4 hrs(2X2) and the remaining one hr is YOUR TIME, this one hr will not be a consolidated period of 60 min. but a sum up of the small gaps of 5 to 10 min that you take between subjects.
After having told you my schedule, let me confess, I was never able to follow it fully!!!! so why am I telling you about it!?
See, even if I could not stick to it fully, everyday I made my best efforts to stick completely to my time table, and trust me, I was able to follow around 90 to 95% of my time table, though not 100%. Every night I used to decide what topics I was to do the next day in each subject, and at the end of the day, following 90% of my time table meant that I had been able to study at least 90% of my target, acheiving these small targets gave me a sense of satisfaction that yes I am on the winning path, it made me happy that I was able to acheive maximum of the targets that I had made for the day, and whatever little remained unacheived(10% to 5%) was to be taken up on the next day and so forth. The happiness that I gained from these small targets kept my mind fresh and excited for the next day.
When you are happy, you are able to perform better, and so, setting small targets and deriving happiness by acheiving them is a good technique for a better preparation.
The abovementioned time table was for weekdays only, on Saturday and Sunday, I divided the day into four equal parts, and took up 4 subjects on each of these days. During the weekend, I firstly finished off with whatever was unacheived on Friday, and rest of the time was for revising what I had studied during the past 5 days( remember, along with preparation, revision is also important).
All that I have shared till now is my piece of experience, this was the way I felt good while preparing, but the fact is there is NO SINGLE preparatio strategy that might be applicable on each one of us.
Its true that CA students are different from others, but there is one more truth, all CA students are different from EACH-OTHER as well!! The only thing common amongst all of us is that we all are WINNERS!!
To be a CA you first need to have a WINNING attitude, and a winner is the one who has the guts of CHALLENGING LIMITS! People say that once you become a CA, “sky is the limit”, but I do not agree with it because for me, “EVEN SKY IS NOT THE LIMIT”
So, what exactly is my basic tip for cracking the “Hard Nut”??-
“WINNERS DON’T DO DIFFERENT THINGS, THEY DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY!!!”
This is what my teacher told me at the beginning of my preparation and its exactly what I realised when my result was out.
So friends, remain happy, stay healthy, enjou your studies and yes, give in your best because YOU deserve to enter this LIFESTYLE called CA!!!
Best Wishes,
CA Akanksha Gupta
CAclubindia
