With 13,242 students appearing in both the groups of CA Final (Existing) Course and 7,424 students appearing in CA Final (New) Course, in total around 21,000 students were awaiting their fate on 19th June 2010, when ICAI declared an average pass percentage of 5.01% with 3.46% in existing course and 6.56% in new course. The Forum at CAclubindia showed the eagerness, the anxiety, and the excitement of the students awaiting results. It also revealed the maturity of professionals and their encouraging attitude towards students to keep calm and move ahead with whatever they had in store for themselves.

Nirmal Jain and Sanjhi Agrawal the toppers of CA Final Exam May 2010 were excited and overwhelmed with their newly achieved honour of being now called as Chartered Accountants. We had an opportunity of speaking to both and got some valuable inputs for the students.

Sanjhi Agrawal
CA Final (New Course) - 1st Rank Holder

After talking to her we actually heard it loud ‘Here we come India, the next- gen Chartered Accountants’. Many of the youth today are confused and spoilt by options in big cities, and you being from Delhi, so how did you actually understand what are you best at, we questioned Sanjhi? She replied in a very simple manner that she liked the course and once she took it up, she pursued it sincerely and whole-heartedly, not because her father was a Chartered Accountant or because her family wanted her to do this. It was a choice made by her- something she's extremely proud of today. The clarity of thoughts can be well understood from her conversation with us.

“I completed my graduation from Shriram College of Commerce in 2008, although my pursuits to become a Chartered Accountant began in 2006 (when I appeared for PE-1). For final examination, I took up coaching for only two subjects- Indirect Taxes and Accounts. Indirect Taxes was a completely new subject for me so I thought it would be easier if I had some guidance in this subject and accounts being the core subject in Chartered Accountancy course, I wanted to have a firm grip on it. It used to bother me at times that my peers were taking coaching for 4-5 subjects, whereas I had opted for just 2. But ultimately I stopped thinking about this and focused on my studies. I had the opportunity to work in various fields during my articleship period. I handled audits, taxation matters and many technical issues and this exposure helped me in a big way to clear this competitive exam.”

“Talking about ICAI providing coaching to students, in case the whole concept is organized properly, it can prove extremely beneficial to students. They’ll get the same level of instruction, more economically. Also the concept of Online Coaching would go down well with the students from smaller towns or those who are unable to enroll themselves for the coaching classes. Also at times after coaching is over, there is need to revise a topic or few concepts and in that case, students can just log on to the website and subscribe for Online Coaching of their favourite teacher. These ideas are extremely feasible and achievable and can be worked upon for the greater good of the CA students’ fraternity.”

“The new course is extremely challenging, specially audit, taxes and corporate law. Take for example, the chain of events that led to the amendment of a particular section needs to be understood and respective case laws should be known if one has to score well in these subjects. A thorough understanding is what is demanded in the new course."

“We often hear that students complain about the evaluation procedure followed in CA exams. However, allowing access of answer scripts to students (contemplated from May 2011) will only create havoc. Rather ICAI should bring in more internal measures to ensure that students are rewarded with what they deserve."

“On asking her about her preparation strategy, she replied that one should study in the manner one is comfortable with and not follow others blindly as the pattern of studying is very subjective. You should go deep into every subject, you do not need to read ten books instead read one book so thoroughly that the second reading takes you half the time.”

“Although exam results play a huge role in your career, they are not the parameter to measure your success in life. I was also prepared that in case of an adverse result, i’ll keep working and appear for the next attempt. We all need to keep up the right spirit and the right attitude. We are pursuing a professional course of the highest expertise level and we should aim at excelling not just in the technical areas but should also focus on soft skills such as communication skills, personality, way of speaking and carrying oneself as all these factors can take you a long way.”

“All you need is a positive, go-getter attitude, and passion for whatever you take up in life... Results follow”

Sanjhi we agree with you completely there’s lot which can be done in one life, and nothing lasts forever. We hope that you achieve what you long for and have a wonderful professional life ahead!!

Also read : Interview with "Nirmal Jain" CA Final (Existing Course)- 1st Rank Holder