Hello friends,
First of all I want to congratulate you on being a CA.
By reading title and reading the first line you’ll find contradiction as the topic is about passing CA exam and I am already congratulating you for being a CA.
Well, as someone truly said “Yaha to khelna vahi jit he.”
As you have chosen the curriculum and have passion in your heart to complete this course I must say you already are a CA.
Now let me introduce myself. After 12th I gave my CPT in June 08 cleared with 127 marks. I converted in IPCC and cleared that in Nov 09 with 354 marks and Final in Nov 2011 I cleared my CAa throughout with total of 423 marks.
Now let me tell you the tips that I used in READING.
1) Institute study material:
You’ll hear it over and over again that we as a students are suppose to read institute material and trust me they are true the material is very good covering all aspects and is providing in depth knowledge of each topic. So don't just take the books from institute and throw it into the top shelf of your cupboard where you never gonna go again but do read them.
2) I always believe that you read it from first day what you are going to read on last day so choose your material carefully.
For e.g. If you are thinking of reading book X and you have read it through your entire vacation and suddenly you come to know that book y is better, then it will be an awful process to read the other book at last minute.
So choose book well after asking seniors, professors and even go through it once roughly so that you come to know it matches with your pattern and then read it and no matter what other people say do not change it at later date.
3) Do not ignore past papers, practice manuals and RTPS, if you will see past papers you will come to know the pattern as well as importance of chapters and that many questions are repeatedly asked in consequent attempts(FAQ). Scanners are good help here.
4) When you are reading have a habit of jotting points down and making your own Last Minute reading sheet.
Also in practices have a habit of marking ABC or v good, good and OK so as to know which sum or theory etc to ignore at last day.
Without this you’ll lost in the sea of vast course and will have enormous difficulties in completing course at last moment.
5) Forget about important, there’s nothing like important in CA.
6) Read something of everything and everything of something i.e. when you don’t have time and you are deciding to leave some chapters don’t leave them entirely, go through them and when you are focusing on something focus so well that even hardest of question you can crack.
7) Group study is the boon for knowledge sharing. You’ll able to capture different mind sets and will be able to increase knowledge domain.
8) Never compare your efforts with anyone else’s. You are unique and so are your efforts and your results.
9) Always remember that CA exams are harder due to the hype and vast syllabus then hard paper. So never freak out and have positive attitude towards exams.
10) Micro planning:
When I seat to read I always make planning of how much I have to read and I plan every minute. I still remember that I used to have 10 Min snooze alarm all day long to remind me that in a day I have to read 150 pages in hour 15 and in 10 Min 1.5 page.
The alarm thing even worked for saving me from wasting my time in chatting or talking on phone cause as I spent more than 10 min. My cell used to ring like fire alarm siren reminding of studying.
11) Daily log:
Must maintain your daily log on hourly or 2 hour basis also make pre planning of next hour to next day which will give you clarity.
Also have a habit of keeping goal little higher than your capacity.
Let’s say you can read 100 pages a day keep goal of 120 in that way at best you’ll end up reading 110 and worst case worst scenario will be 100 pages or may be 90 which will be always better than ending up with 70 and filling guilty or
Completing as per lower target of 100 and filling proud and then wasting another 2 - 3 hours for gloating in joy.
12) Gross reading, net reading, gross reading:
Always start any chapter by gross readings i.e. just shuffle the pages without going in to much detail you’ll get over-all picture.
Net reading will be of course going into depth of chapter.
Gross reading again will come up at end of day or 6 - 7 hours later when you’ll just go through it again for revising your learning curve will be 10% i.e. 10 hour chapter will get revised in 1 hour with quality.
13) Senior’s help:
Always ask your senior’s experience as it’s truly said “those who learn from own experiences are smart, genius is the one who learns from other’s experiences”
I used to ask them every point about how they wrote in exams about how they prepared LMR. WHAT's generally asked which chapters are most important etc.
but do remember this "suno sabki karo man ki" so don't get pressurized and all nervous or depressed or don't follow anybody blindly use your own intellectual to plan your own future because you are the person who have lived with yourself every microsecond of your journey of life so nobody knows you better than you.
14) Motivation:
There are 2 types of motivations. Negative as well as positive.
Positive will be good speeches, good experience, good talks, dreaming about bright future etc.
Negative will generally be self taught motivation for e.g. comparing our self with the person who doesn’t have basic amenities and thinking that if we are given this opportunity then we must at any cost utilize it.
Here’s e.g.
Positive motivation: If I’ll study hard now I’ll pass and will got good job and make my parents happy and will get salary in lacks of rupees.
Negative motivation: If I can’t study after this I’ll have to read pile of books again, my parents will be sad, I’ll go through worst period of my time. Instead why don’t I leave this serial which I can even see after my exams.
For more such tips stay tuned.
Feedback are most welcome at prachi.d.shah@gmail.com
Hope this helped. Wishing you luck for the Exams.
Regards
CA PRACHI SHAH
CAclubindia
